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Lou says...
We had hoped to leave shortly after the 1st of the year but a family situation and my being under the weather delayed our departure until January 9th.
By that time there was a major winter storm brewing in the Northwest and headed our way. The storm was very unpredictable and the weather experts kept saying they had to wait and see how it developed....but it was definitely going to be a whopper of a storm.
I normally like to travel around 250 miles a day but because of the impending storm decided to make Springfield, MO out first stop, a 500 mile trek. My sister lives about 45 minutes south of Springfield and we had an enjoyable dinner with them that evening.
After Springfield the plans were to visit a bird sanctuary
(Bosque Del Apache) about 75 miles South of Albuquerque where thousands of geese, thousands of cranes and many other birds winter. I planned to stop there to take photos.
Because of the impending storm we decided to make a decision at Tulsa whether to continue on to Dallas to keep ahead of the storm or head west on I40 if looked like the storm would hold off long enough for a 1 day stop at the sanctuary.
The trip from Springfield to Tulsa was very windy, a direct head wind gusting to 50 mph. These winds were a precursor to the storm. Upon arriving at Tulsa and listening to NOAA weather there was no debate on which route to take. It was on to Dallas....Ice storms were predicted between Tulsa and Albuquerque the next day! I estimated that upon arrival in Dallas we would be about 24 hours ahead of the storm.
