Since it had been raining and our windshield wipers were not working well, John insisted we detour and get new ones. We drove through some of the worst areas of Albuquerque in finding the store with wipers. John tried to change the driver's side, he worked quite awhile, but the new ones wouldn't go on the bar, so we wound up with the old ones anyway. Finally getting back on the freeway, we intended to go south to Hatch and then southwest to Deming. However, at Socorro we saw highway signs for the Very Large Array of radio astronomy antennas and John said he would like to see them. It turned out the VLA was in the high plains west of Magdelena on Highway 60, John was hesitant to drive out of our way, but I convinced him it would be worth the trip, we were so close, and who knows when we would be this way again. On the map, John found a way to take back roads from the VLA through the mountains and southward, that would be more scenic and still get us to Interstate 8 today.

The VLA was very interesting, we took the walking tour as well as spending a lot of time in the visitor's center; there was much information about the history of the VLA and improvements. We intended to buy a souvenir on our way out, but when we returned to the visitor center from our walking tour, they had closed for lunch, which was not posted. We didn't want to hang around for another 30 minutes, so we left. We drove the few miles to Datil, the next stop on Highway 60, we had lunch at an interesting bar/restaurant, apparently the only business at the crossroads except for the post office! After lunch we headed southwest on Highway 12. It was an interesting drive, we crossed the Continental divide once again and passed through places with names like Horse Springs, Aragon, Apache Creek and Reserve. Most of these places had nothing but a few houses. We did find cheap (sic) gas in Alma, so filled the tank. Just past there we turned on Highway 180 south to Arizona.

This highway was most scenic, winding through the mountains and valleys of Western NM. We stopped at Leopold Vista overlook and took pictures. It has a view of the Gila National Forest, the first designated wilderness, which he was instrumental in creating. Just past there we turned onto Highway 78, which would take us into AZ. There wasn't much the first few miles, a place called Mule Creek, without mules.

After that we climbed again and drove through some spectacular gorges, we did stop and John took a picture, but he missed the official Overlook. The views were wonderful from here into the valley. In the far distance to the NW we could see a huge mining operation, it must have been copper that was mined, but we weren't certain. The map lists a place called "Plantsite" and the Morenci Mine near Copper Mountain. We drove along the mesa for several miles, snaking our way to the bottom and into the valley where Guthrie is located. We switched to Highway 191, which took us to Safford, then south to Interstate 8, our road home.

We stopped for the night in the town of Benson, short of our goal, which was Tucson. The day had been long, and heading west the sun was in our eyes and it was still 40 miles to Tucson. We had a nice motel room in a Best Western and walked to the Country Restaurant for supper, what a disappointment! It was not a good meal!

We left Benson and traveled uneventfully to DeAnza with a stop at HiLine South Hot Springs off I8 at the Van der Linden exit where John took a dip, I didn't - the pools was slippery and the water was like a sprinkler over your head!