Day 17
I cooked up the coffee, turkey sausage, oatmeal, and apples for breakfast while Shar broke down camp. My ankles are covered with new mosquito bites from the previous nights attack. Nothing I had left to dry was even close, and the grass and car was so wet that you would have thought it rained during the night. We got done eating, packed, and showered before heading back to I-44 heading west. I took the first shift of driving and put the hammer down, hitting 300 miles and getting us out of Oklahoma before letting Shar drive for awhile. We did do a couple drive by photo ops, but there wasn’t any major points of interests, so it was a good day to just drive. During Shar’s 200 additional miles we stopped for a hunk of lemon meringue pie at the halfway point of Route 66. Shar had already found a great place to camp, Ute Lake Campground, and we stocked up at the freeway gas station mart with some snacks and beverages, and rolled into the campground around 6:00pm. 
Its a nice place out in the desert next to a reservoir, and we had only one neighbor within sight. Getting camp set up with lots of time to relax was a nice change of pace, and we let the bedding air out a bit on a nearby stone wall. We tried walking to the water, but the trail vanished into swampy water and we started worrying about our arch enemy: the mosquito. Shar beat me badly in cribbage again, I pouted for a few minutes, then was able to beat her two games in a row. Having restored my manliness, we enjoyed some beef sausage, crackers, and jerky. We had bought some sharp cheddar cheese, but even in its sealed plastic wrapping it had become an inedible consistency.
The mosquitos did begin to arrive, so we packed up what we needed to back into the car and headed to bed. 7:00am would come, but we were used to waking up early, mostly from the early morning sunshine flooding into the tent.
Miles Driven: 499
Roads Travelled: I-40
Temperature at 10:00am: 85
Day 18
We chatted with one of the host, Robert, while we got the camp broken down. The last of our second box of instant oatmeal was breakfast, and we were back on the road. New Mexico floated by the windows of Alfie, and we did a pit stop in Albuquerque and spent a couple of hours exploring the Petroglyph National Monument.
I had hopes of some rustic camping, but the interstate attracts to much civilization, so after a couple of attempts we pushed towards Winslow, AZ, and a possible free campground near there.
McHood, about 15 minutes away from Winslow, turned out to be a nice campground and indeed free. We got there about 25 minutes before dark, and were just setting up when Larry, the host, rode his four wheeler down to say hi and tell us the campground rules. We sat at the picnic table after our dinner of cornbread stuffing covered with chili, and watched the lightning on the horizon. A few raindrops were already hitting us as I fastened the rain guard into place on top of the tent. We listened to the rain get steady, though not heavy, and let it lull us to sleep.
Miles Driven: 465
Roads Travelled: I-40
Temperature at 10:00am: 84
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