White out!

Well, we thought we had headed far enough south to avoid the snow - we were wrong.

I took over driving in Tucumcari about midnight. The sky was clear, though it was definitely cold. Everything was going along fine until BAM! Just outside of Grants, New Mexico the windshield was suddenly filled with big white, wet snowflakes and I couldn't see a thing. Lori woke up when a loud expletive lept out of my mouth. She plopped down in the passenger seat to help give directions since my windshield had instantly iced up and the wiper wasn't clearing it away.

The defroster eventually heated up the windshield enough to melt the ice and I could sorta, kinda see where I was going. I managed to follow the tracks of the truck in front of me and not go off the road. Being the middle of New Mexico there were no off ramps to safely get off the highway.

Fortunately, it only lasted about 20 minutes followed about 15 minutes later by another lighter snowfall. By sunrise, the sky had cleared though the ground was covered with about 2-3 inches of snow. Not something you see very often in the Arizona desert. It had also snowed quite a bit in Flagstaff so the pine trees were full of snow. A nice winter scene - two weeks before Thanksgiving!

Now that I've had my "first time" maybe I won't yell and wake up Lori next time it happens.