The final leg of the drive: Albuquerque to Phoenix

July 1, 2010, the day we are to arrive at our new home. After saying good bye to our friends in Albuquerque we were on our way to Phoenix. It was a day of excitement and relief to finally get out of the car!

We don't have many pictures from this final leg of the journey, the battery on the camera was very low and we knew we would want a few key shots. We really began to see a change in landscape as the plains changed to mountain and desert.


We crossed into Arizona:

Not too long after entering AZ it was time to exit I-40. We basically could have gone one of two ways to get to Phoenix, down the mountain or through Flagstaff. Our friend the GPS told us go down the mountain! I (Michelle) was driving and lets just say the GPS and I have suffered some major fall-out in our friendship after that experience! Quite possibly the scariest thing ever. It doesn't help that there was also a rather large construction project happening. But we made it out alive and as we reached the valley we knew we were "home." We just happened to arrive on what was one of the hottest days of the entire summer. Really, the heat wasn't too bad.

We knew it would be a few days before our moving truck arrived so we had some basics with us in the van, a box of kitchen equipment, sleeping bags, TV, computer. Thanks again to the generosity of strangers, who are now friends, we were able to borrow an air mattress so we weren't sleeping on the floor. We went out to dinner, then to Walmart (oh Meijer how I miss you dearly) and got a few groceries and things that we knew we would need (garabge can, cleaning supplies, etc). We were a bit surprised when we left Walmart around 8pm or so and it was DARK outside. It was the middle of summer and we were not expecting that, but then I remembered that AZ doesn't participate in daylight savings time so it made sense that it was dark that early.

And so there you have it, our drive from Michigan to Phoenix!