{"id":3012,"date":"2008-04-18T10:46:32","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T15:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2008\/04\/18\/road-trip-phoenix-arizona-to-gallup-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:08:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:08:36","slug":"road-trip-phoenix-arizona-to-gallup-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/18\/road-trip-phoenix-arizona-to-gallup-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"ROAD TRIP: Phoenix, Arizona to Gallup, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3145\/2400677459_e1fa00d496.jpg\" height=\"274\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Last week I made <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/09\/help-pick-the-route-of-my-road-trip\/\">my vacation plans public<\/a> by asking Spacing Toronto readers to help decide my road trip route from Phoenix to Toronto (and to point out public space things I should check out along the way). I received a lot of great advice, much of which can be found in the <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/09\/help-pick-the-route-of-my-road-trip\/#comments\">comments section<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Readers chose <a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3145\/2400677459_362259715c_o.jpg\">route three<\/a> &#8212; which was my preferred route to begin with &#8212; by a whopping 53%. The route takes me  east to Albuquerque NM, north to Denver CO, and then east again through the American Midwest and eventually back into Ontario either through Sarnia or Detroit\/Windsor.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not a car enthusiast by any means, but I know I have a sweet ride: a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.automobilemag.com\/reviews\/sedans\/0302_mercedes_benz_c320\/index.html\">Mercedes C320<\/a> that is fully kitted-out. While there are nice touches like driver seat memory settings, a sun roof, and automatic daytime\/nighttime adjustments in my rearview and side mirrors, it&#8217;s the simple cruise control feature that I love. I&#8217;ve had my foot on the gas pedal for about 5% of the trip which allows me to sit comfortably and adjust whenever necessary without it affecting how I drive. It also keeps me from speeding &#8212; I went through five traps on the the first day without incident.<\/p>\n<p>But what I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;re interested in reading about is not my comfort level, but what I&#8217;ve seen so far on the trip. The following are some of my observations:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/38\/109661204_481ea9ffe0.jpg\" height=\"333\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&bull; Phoenix knows how to make bridges look attractive. Most of them are made with cement that is derived from red clay that can be found in the surrounding desert. When the sun hits the surface there is a nice glow that is absent from any form of infrastructure found in Toronto. [ <em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/80651083@N00\/109661204\/\">Thad Roan<\/a><\/em> ]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2125\/2338841119_ca197220ac.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&bull; While I was heading east out of out Arizona, I swore I was witnessing smog. There were no large  cities around, so I found this really strange. It took me a minute or two to realize that the &#8220;smog&#8221; was in fact the effects of a dust storm a few miles ahead of me. A little later, I passed through a small town that was experiencing a dust storm as well, or so I thought. I was tricked: a nearby coal plant was spewing the greatest amount of crap out of a smoke stack that I&#8217;d ever seen in my life. The desert is already playing tricks with me and I haven&#8217;t even taken peyote. [ <em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/bloomgal\/\">Sharon Bloom<\/a><\/em> ]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/209\/510283072_40fc69e8f2.jpg\" height=\"333\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&bull; Motorcycle drivers in Arizona are crazy. I saw about 10 to 15 of them in a few hours of driving and none of them were wearing a helmet and all were speeding excessively. I know the USA is the &#8220;land of the free&#8221; and a number of folks do not like any form of incursion on their individual rights, but not having a law that forces people to wear a helmet is ridiculous. [ <em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/joelmold\/510283072\/\">Joel Mold<\/a> <\/em>]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/134\/394176323_0036fa5741.jpg\" height=\"325\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&bull; The speed limit is 75 miles per hour on all of the interstate highways I&#8217;ve used.  Converted, that&#8217;s about 120 kilometres an hour for us metric-loving Canadians. This, to me, is a reasonable speed since most highway drivers go this fast to begin with. Might as well make the limit that high in Ontario and have a very stingy enforcement policy that allows for little wiggle room. [ <em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/dboo\/\">Steve Deboo<\/a><\/em> ]<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3209\/2336239709_a12f53d092.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&bull; Arizona and New Mexico allow cyclists to ride on the major highways outside of cities. This is crazy, but makes some sort of sense since most regional highways in the States and Canada are not direct and have little to no shoulder space for riders. [ <em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/npgreenway\/\">NP Greenway<\/a><\/em> ]<\/p>\n<p>&bull; The tap water in Gallup, New Mexico was the most horrible I have ever tasted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tomorrow:<\/strong> &#8220;Albuquerque: no puking or perversion, please&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>BACKGROUND ON MY TRIP:<\/strong><br \/>\nMy trip is a &#8220;driveaway&#8221; for a vacationing snowbird &#8212; I&#8217;m driving his car back home in exchange for paying my plane fare and gas expenses (read my <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/09\/help-pick-the-route-of-my-road-trip\/\">first post<\/a> for more info on what a driveaway is). It was arranged by my friend David Smaller and his little organization called <a href=\"http:\/\/hittheroad.ca\/\">Hit The Road<\/a>. You can join the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=2855879236\">Facebook group<\/a> to receive notices of upcoming driveaway opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I made my vacation plans public by asking Spacing Toronto readers to help decide my road trip route from Phoenix to Toronto (and to point out public space things I should check out along the way). I received a lot of great advice, much of which can be found in the comments section.<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/18\/road-trip-phoenix-arizona-to-gallup-new-mexico\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;ROAD TRIP: Phoenix, Arizona to Gallup, New Mexico&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759],"tags":[2814,3248,457,8726,1068,8721,854,427,4657,8727,8725,8723,8728,5544,636,21,3240,60,8719,8724,8722,8720,19,506,853],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-american-midwest","tag-arizona","tag-canada","tag-car-enthusiast","tag-cement","tag-david-smaller","tag-detroit","tag-driver","tag-facebook","tag-gas-expenses","tag-gas-pedal","tag-joel-mold","tag-mercedes-c320","tag-new-mexico","tag-ontario","tag-other-cities","tag-phoenix","tag-road-trip","tag-sarnia","tag-sharon-bloom","tag-steve-deboo","tag-thad-roan","tag-toronto","tag-united-states","tag-windsor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ROAD TRIP: Phoenix, Arizona to Gallup, New Mexico - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/18\/road-trip-phoenix-arizona-to-gallup-new-mexico\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ROAD TRIP: Phoenix, Arizona to Gallup, New Mexico - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week I made my vacation plans public by asking Spacing Toronto readers to help decide my road trip route from Phoenix to Toronto (and to point out public space things I should check out along the way). 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