...and we're stuck

     The temperature only dropped from Arizona on.  We chose the southern route across the United States to avoid the Colorado snowy winters, but we were regretting our decision almost instantly when we crossed into New Mexico.
    

We had one more beautiful sunset before the bad weather hit.

    

     We stopped at a truck stop for a couple hours of rest, and awoke to a 40 degree temperature drop. (whoa.)We were just outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico when the freezing fog hit. It began to build up on our windshield quicker than our wipers would clear it off, so we had to pull over to the side of I-40 every 15 minutes to scrape the windshield. We stopped at a gas station and bought some de-icer for the windshield, which was rated to -20 degrees. We thought surely that would be good enough. (We didn't account for the wind chill.)  Less than ten minutes later, the windshield was completely frozen again. We continued this slow trek onward toward Amarillo.

 

The day got continually worse from then on. After slipping and sliding all over the road, seeing 15+ wrecks (I stopped counting...) and tons of 18-wheelers off the road, we began to rethink our plans. Camping was already out of the question, and now just making it home seemed far more important than an awesome adventure across the states.

 

The drive was so desolate.

 

One thing I really wanted to see on this trip was Cadillac Ranch, a place just outside of Amarillo on Route 66 where there are 10 old Cadillacs buried upright in a farmer's field. I've seen so many awesome photos of it; it's so colorful. They encourage you to spray paint the cars and leave your own artistic mark. My photos of the place were less than impressive. The wind was wild, and the temperature so, so cold. I got a couple shots from the turn off.

Some photos I did like from Cadillac Ranch were some macro shots of some ice covered grass.

     When we finally made it to Amarillo, we found a hotel. (Baymont Inn and Suites.) We crashed there the next two days. Kenna loved the hotel; there was a popcorn machine and cookies by the front desk 24/7! Who wouldn't like it?!

     The next time you read this blog, I'll be in Kentucky. Our plan is to make it to Kentucky as quickly as we can, taking a more northern route than originally planned. Instead of going through Arkansas, we will take Oklahoma to Missouri, Indiana and down into Kentucky. We can't wait to be in the Bluegrass state!