Todd and I were originally going to drive to Wyoming over the holiday weekend to pick up my Grandma and bring her back to live with my Aunt this winter. Well, my Grandma changed her mind about coming out before my Aunt is officially retired, but considering the low gas prices Todd and I decided to do a trip anyway to Colorado so I could meet his Grandma (she's almost 96 years old) and his Aunt Gay. We drove straight through to Colorado Springs Wednesday night into Thursday. Todd drove all but 2 hours! He loves to drive which is good for me because I love road trips but don't necessarily like to be behind the wheel for long stretches :) We drove across on I-40 hitting heavy fog near Needles, CA, heavy rain in Kingman, AZ, and heavy snow near Williams. It became really hard to see through the snow storm so we stopped in a rest stop near Flagstaff and napped for a couple of hours until the sun rose. After that and after heading east of Flagstaff the snow disappeared and it was a nice drive through eastern Arizona and western NM. I had only seen a wee little bit of northwestern NM before this trip and now having seen more I am definitely intrigued to go back... It is a beautiful state! Once we hit Santa Fe, though, it began snowing again. Not as heavy, though, and the roads didn't accumulate much if anything so it wasn't too tough of a drive north to Colorado.
We stayed with Todd's Dad and Stepmom Gail in Colorado Springs and visited with his Grandma Roberta, who may have an old body but her mind is very sharp and she's still got a great sense of humor. We also went to Garden of the Gods which is a beautiful place to hike around this time of year, ate some great food prepared by Gail who really should open her own B&B, and watched lots of Christmas movies. Then on Sunday morning we woke up to about 5-6 inches of snow and thank goodness for the Jeep's 4wd! We drove south and the road condition improved for a little bit then worsened again. We stopped in Trinidad, CO to meet Todd's Aunt Gay and her husband and have lunch with them. Then we drove on down into NM where the sun came out and the snow disappeared for good then over to Gallup, NM and stayed at a Motel 6 for the night.
In the morning we drove an hour or so west to Petrified Forest National Park. Someone I know, I forget now who it was, said they went there and weren't very impressed. But I absolutely loved the place, it was beautiful seeing the vast Painted Desert, the petroglyphs, and the vast amounts of petrified trees out there. We had a lot of fun exploring the park. Then we departed by 1:00 pm or so, had lunch in Holbrook, AZ, then got back on the road for home. Going home I did more driving so Todd could sleep since he had to get up early today to go to work. We made it home about 11:00 pm or so. It was a fun road trip :)
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