I spent Sunday, the first full day back in Las Cruces, just resting. Heather's Mom, Chris is doing better, mostly, but with some ups and downs along the way, and not much stamina yet. We spent some time going through the box of mail that had accumulated since Heather was last here three months before. We actually hit the gym three times. We have a new rule, to eat out on that day we have to have been to the gym (on a non-travel day). And you know we like to go out to eat.
I was starting to work off my green chili deficit, starting with Blue Sky in Amarillo, then green chili double cheeseburgers at the McDs in Roswell, and finally the promised land, Nopalitos in LC for queso and rellenos.
On Monday I got the car an overdue oil change and a car wash because we were getting ready to hit the road again already. It had been very windy the day before and it looked like that was going to continue, mostly from the north, so we had a drive with a cross wind with gusts at least into the 20s to look forward to. We had to go once more to Nopalitos for a green chili run before leaving.
After visiting with Heather's Mom's cousin NealAnn we grabbed a snack and gassed up, ready to hit the road and make some miles. We climbed out of the valley that Cruces is in and... stopped. There were both construction signs and signs saying there was an accident ahead. Hmmm. It has to be a bad accident if you need and have time to put up signs.
Well, we saw the construction soon enough. They were working on a bridge, and our side heading west looked completely closed. They had us exit the freeway, cross over, then head west down a little two lane frontage road with no shoulders, 18 wheelers and all. Then we saw the sign "Next Interchange 14 Miles". Okay, this should be fun. About halfway down we completely stopped again for maybe 10 minutes. Finally a wide load truck comes by, followed by two huge trucks, each with a Super Stallion CH-53 Helicopter fuselage on them. I don't think they were too heavy for the bridge under construction, but maybe too wide. We finally got going again, albeit slowly, and after about twelve miles we finally saw the wreck.
They were to the south of the freeway, so I'm guessing the north wind had at least something to do with what happened. I'm guessing it was at least three semi trucks, but it was hard to say with them all mushed together, one of which had burnt almost to the ground and was still smoking. I think the people were long gone, but they had a crane on the freeway trying to separate the bigger sections of the trucks so they could remove them.
Stay the hell away from semi trucks on the road! Don't follow too close, and surely don't pass them and then just slide in front a couple of car lengths ahead. They just can't stop that fast.
After about an hour and a half to go 15 miles we were finally directed back onto the freeway. We talked about how after a delay like that people tended to rush even more, causing subsequent accidents. Sure enough, a few more miles down the highway was another semi, on its side on the median on the south side, so I'm guessing at least partially blown off the road. The driver looked okay because he was unloading the cab of his personal possessions, but his cab and the trailer and all its contents looked trashed. So don't hang out alongside semis unnecessarily, either, especially on the downwind side.
We made it without further incident to Tucson, stopping at the Costco to pick up some cheap premium to wash out the crappy NM gas. After a snack we were in the middle of rush hour, but it was Tucson and there weren't any wrecks so it really wasn't that bad, and we had recently seen worse. Since we were now later than expected we saw the sunset from the road, backlighting Picacho. The three lanes now continued until the last 20 miles or so into Phoenix. If they can get money for that last bridge over the Gila river then it will finally be three lanes all the way between Phoenix and Tucson.
We picked up some dinner and headed over to the place our oldest daughter Chelsea has with her boyfriend Travis.
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