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01-15-2024, 06:44 PM
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Location: Lost Wages, NV
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Texas road trip Part 4: The return leg
This is Part 4 of a series of posts I will make about our Christmas road trip to the northern edge of the DFW metroplex.
So the return leg was to be different in a couple of ways. First, no driving straight through, we would break our journey at Albuquerque. Second, our route out of North Texas would not be a simple reversal of the inbound track. As anybody living there will tell you, the whole Highway 380 corridor from Decatur to east of McKinney is a madhouse in daylight hours. I was reliably informed that many in Collin County are fed up with the development. Guess it's not enough people to change the local council enough to slow down the devastation. Denton County is suffering the same. As a result there is a mega amount of construction between McKinney and Denton on Highway 380, so Plan B was to travel up the 75 to Sherman to pick up Highway 82 heading west. This takes you to Henrietta to pick up the 287 heading to Amarillo and I-40, then onto Albuquerque.
This plan went well. There's some nice country West of Sherman, except it is plumb in the middle of the North Texas section of tornado alley.  Nope, not doing that. Highway 82 was largely very quiet. We took in the small town vibe at the DQ in Saint Jo during a bathroom break/coffee refill. Picking up the 287, we found that this highway was nearly as boring in daylight as it had been in the fog and rain at night. Still, the traffic was light and moving right along, so at least it was painless. Next stop was in Amarillo for diesel and on our way out of the city we stopped by the Cadillac Ranch near sunset. See pictures. I don't know if the Chelsea in the last picture is a girl or the Premier League football club from London. 
My wife took over driving duties from here to Clines Corner, with a bathroom break at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. BTW, the signage at Clines Corner is flat out awful. When you get there at night, there is no clue as to where you go at the top of the ramp, or a sign on the road you turn onto that indicates the entrance to the rest area. Hopeless.  I took over for the run into Albuquerque for reasons that will be explained elsewhere. We found our exit perfectly and arrived at a Holiday Inn Express with an Applebee's across the car park at about 2045. A good night's sleep followed.
***CLICK ON PICTURES FOR FULLSIZE***
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01-15-2024, 06:49 PM
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Albuquerque to Vegas
Next day we got up and went down to have our included breakfast. Bedlam. There was a large group of people from an unspecified country who were traveling together in a bunch of minivans. multiple families by the look of it. Not normally a problem, except the culture of whatever country they came from does not involve the men wearing deodorant. My wife was not alone in having to cover her nose when certain individuals went by. Oddly, I could small nothing, something I have yet to reveal to her. That is odd as my sense of smell is generally pretty good. I blame the altitude at Albuquerque. 
Came out of the hotel to find it very cold. This caused me to grit my teeth as I had got an auxiliary battery error when starting in the cold while in Texas. Surprise, surprise, no error, despite having been sat outside in freezing conditions. Don't knock it, as they say.  Cruised out of Albuquerque and set sail West. A quick bathroom break at Gallup right by the freeway was followed by an uneventful ride into AZ.
So, what do you do on a nice sunny desert day? You stop on the corner in Winslow, of course!  See pictures. My wife took over from here to Kingman where we stopped for diesel and lottery tickets. The ride up US-93 back to Vegas was uneventful, although it was noticeable that the northbound lanes were in better shape than the southbound. We had a following wind and I saw some stellar mileage numbers, certainly better than during some other runs.
***CLICK ON PICTURES FOR FULLSIZE***
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Last edited by LVSteve; 01-15-2024 at 07:43 PM.
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01-15-2024, 07:09 PM
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Might be too late, but after you leave Ash Fork on I-40, take the old Route 66 at the Crookton Rd, exit 139. That will take you into Williams. Continue on 66 to Kingman. Adds a little time but it’s a better road than 40…. No trucks, potholes, and interesting scenery. We always go that way when we leave Kingman going Eastbound.
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01-15-2024, 07:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee in Quartzsite
Might be too late, but after you leave Ash Fork on I-40, take the old Route 66 at the Crookton Rd, exit 139. That will take you into Williams. Continue on 66 to Kingman. Adds a little time but it’s a better road than 40…. No trucks, potholes, and interesting scenery. We always go that way when we leave Kingman going Eastbound.
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We actually returned New Year's weekend. However, I will remember your suggestion next time we head out that way. Thanks!
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