Last Day on the Road - Apache Junction, Arizona

 We had a good night's sleep and Yuma only went out once.  We ate the remaining chicken for dinner and that was enough for us.

We were up and away before 9 o'clock hoping for a nice easy day.  It was sunny but quite cool when we got on I-40.  All went well for the first 30 miles and then it didn't.

I suddenly saw the truck ahead of me put its brakes on just as a car was passing me.  We both braked, but my Jeep is so light the rear end immediately tried to come around.  We had hit black ice.  I tried to straighten out but then the fishtailing began, and I knew I was in trouble.  

Made a quick decision to go off the road on the right and down the slope of the embankment at an angle.  At this point, all I could do was hold onto the wheel and go for a snowy ride down the embankment.

Luckily, there was nothing in the way and we were stopped by the mud just before hitting a barb wire fence.  Side swiped some kind of fern bush but didn't hit it dead on.

 We sat for a few moments, and I tried to calm Yuma down along with myself and then I got out to see the damage.  Luckily, there wasn't a scratch on the Jeep.  

Then I was thinking of the long wait till someone pulled us out.  We are in the middle of nowhere on the high plains about 20 miles from the Continental Divide at 6000 feet.  

Because of all that was going on I did not think to take pictures, plus I didn't have my phone on me.  It had fallen on the floorboard, and I didn't think to look for it till much later.

After a pause, I decided to put in 4 wheel drive and see if I could get out of the mud.  Worked perfectly, and soon, I was trudging back up the hill to everyone's' amazement crawling on the road above.

When I got in line, I could see the disaster in front of me.  There were cars and trucks in the ditch everywhere.  An ambulance was pulling up to one of the many trucks and cars that had wrecked.  There was cargo strewn everywhere and cop cars everywhere.

Most of the wrecks were on the east bound lane.  Our lane had slowed down to sight see.  Thus, causing wrecks behind them, including me. As I slowly drove along, I could see the backup traffic going for many miles.  I am sure they were unhappy.  

Our lane moved past the damage and there was no backup at all.  I almost feel bad at how lucky we were.

Made it to Gallup, New Mexico, about 30 miles down I-40 and then we headed in a southward direction.  The remainder of the day went fine.   

We arrived at Apache Junction around 3:30 not long after we had planned.  The Jeep has been emptied and after my blog I'm going to take a well-deserved rest.  

I noticed Dolly had called and I didn't hear the ring.  She had gotten a notice on her phone from out 360 App that there had been an accident and the phone had taken a sudden hard jolt.  Luckily, she saw that I was back on the road soon after and she didn't worry quite so much.

I'm too tired to download pictures.  Thanks for stopping by.