Today was a reminder how easy it is to focus on our own situation and to be FAR too believing of "the common wisdom". A big part of the reason that I set out on this adventure in this direction was the cold temps in MN all winter and into spring. Even though I'm often a skeptic, I'm ALWAYS a human! The media regularly said "oh, the midwest and east is a LOCAL weather phenomenon, the South West is having an extremely warm winter and spring". Yea, right!
So I believed them. The AVERAGE high for April 2 in Pagosa Springs is 50 degrees, the average high for Flagstaff AZ is 52. I'm sitting in the Days Inn at Flagstaff right now because the temp is currently 32 degrees, and when I hit the area at 3ish it was 35 and snowing so heavy I had to limp in and stop.
East of Durango, this AM my temp read 37 degrees ... 1 degree lower than when I left Rochester. YES, I understand altitude, but the SW is having above average warmth this winter and spring. Remember?
Everyone, definitely me, has an agenda, a very limited focus, and even in the best of circumstances, is EXTREMELY fallible! ALWAYS! Especially large organizations like Government and Media!
It is MY fault, my own grievous fault -- I ought to have gone SOUTH and forgot west!
Other than snow to start and snow to end (the start was not as heavy and not sticking), COLD ... mostly 45-50 degrees, with my new record for the trip being 35 degrees and heavy snow at Flagstaff, I did get in 425 miles including some nice rock formations along NM 491.
The elusive Monument Valley remains a quarry for another day and my guess is that the return trip will be SOUTH rather than through Idaho.
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