NEW MEXICO VACATION

DAY ONE:

Brenda and I got on the road at 6:40 a.m. this morning and we drove and drove and drove!! We managed to cover three states and land in the fourth. All in all we clocked 864 miles and ended up in Shamrock, Texas.

People are usually surprised to hear that we pass through Texas on the way to New Mexico but we cut through only that top little part of the state that sticks up into Oklahoma.

The day was pretty uneventful – the weather was fine once we got about 100 miles out of Nashville. No more rain and most of it was sunshine. There was one kind of scary event in Oklahoma when we ran into what we thought at first was a dust storm. But the farther we went we realized it was smoke from wild fires off to the north of us. The wind was pretty strong and visibility was poor for a while (see photo below).

We came through all of that and finally stopped in Shamrock. We thought it appropriate that we stay in the Irish Inn in time to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Tomorrow we head for Santa Fe and should reach there about 12:00 or 1:00 (in time for a good New Mexican meal). We gain an hour when we cross into the state so that helps.