Mexico Bound

  Our take off date for Mexico this year was Monday, Feb. 5th!  Were we ready?  YES!  Were the roads clear?  Mostly yes and once we got past Co. Springs it was smooth sailing!  I always have mixed feelings about leaving - I LOVE Mexico but I LOVE Colorado and our home even more - and it's hard to leave the kids and grandkids, but knowing I can facetime them and call whenever I want to makes it OK to leave!

It felt like we had just been on the road south - probably because we just HAD when we went to Eagles Nest, NM a week and 1/2 ago!!  It's always a LONG first day but we love staying in Winslow, AZ - our hotel is great and we've found a wonderful place to eat dinner - Relic Brewing Company!  Their burgers are 1/2 pound so we always split one and it's served with a huge pile of hand cut fries so we're always full and happy when we leave!  And a few steps away are the statues and place that is known for the Eagles song, Take It Easy - it's always fun to sing that song in your head, "Well I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ, and such a fine sight to see - it's a girl my Lord in a flatbed ford, slowin' down to take a look at me"

I always have Glenn take my picture with Glenn Frey!!

Instead of continuing west, we drove south to Payson to have breakfast with our former neighbors and friends, Jim and Kathy!  It was a gorgeous drive and I felt like I was back in Colorado with all the pine trees and some snow!

We met them at a diner and enjoyed breakfast and talking a mile a minute to catch up on their news and telling them ours!  After lingering over coffee, we really had to get going but first drove up to where they're having a new house built - awesome views!  Since I forgot to take a picture of them in the diner, I leaned over and took one out the car window - caught BOTH of them with their eyes closed and of course didn't peek at the picture before we drove off - oh well!!

Jim texted us later and said it was a good thing we went south instead of west as that big snowstorm DID come in and they shut down the interstate going west.

Phoenix is ALWAYS busy when we go through but we use the bypass around it to lessen the traffic which helps!  Made it to Yuma in great time in the POURING RAIN!!  It was coming down SO HARD we could hardly see our exit to get off!

We actually parked to the side of the hotel as it was pouring so hard and waited a little bit till it let up - then I went in to get our room and they didn't have our reservation - WHAT?  I do most of my booking through Booking.com and have never had a problem with it - but the guy was nice and basically said I had to call THEM to get it straightened out - we finally found a number to call and the gal was very nice (although hard to understand) and my booking was there and paid for!  Apparently there was some glitch with the emails they had sent the hotel - after 45 minutes, I FINALLY got our room!

Glenn napped a little bit before we walked over to Cracker Barrel and ate dinner - it's so nice to NOT have to get back in the car and drive to find a place to eat, especially in the city at night!

And then it was up and headed to the border!