In the morning we check the internet again to see if we can find a nicer place to stay in Flagstaff for another week or so and end up calling a lady who has a furnished granny flat for rent. She invites us to come over to have a look and offers us to stay on a weekly basis until she finds somebody longterm or we decide to move on. The place is in a very nice neighborhood and the lady is very friendly. Eventually we still decide to move on though toward Albuquerque, NM.

Leaving Flagstaff on HWY 40 East we see thick black clouds and thunderstorms building up in the South, and then later also in the North. In Holbrook we have a quick ice creme and then turn left towards the South entry of the Petrified Forest National Park. Luckily the park is North of us. As we drive through the park the thunderstorm is chasing us, sometimes we catch some drops and then we escape again. The wind is very heavy, it is hard to stand still and almost impossible to hold the camera still to take pictures. About half way through the park we drive through a dust storm. The little sand and dust corns are stinging on our bare skin and we have sand everywhere afterwards. Last but not least we arrive at the viewpoint overlooking the Painted Desert, we seem to have escaped the storms and the sky is clearing up a bit towards North.

Just as we drive away from the last parking area, we have – guess what – the tire pressure indicator coming up, again! It’s already 4pm as we head to the next gas station to check the pressure on the tires. Indeed, it’s the right back tire again but this time, at least the air seems to sneak out slowly. That gives us time to drive back to Holbrook (about 30 minutes away) to the next tire place to get it checked.

The tire is fixed within less than 20 minutes. We check-in at Motel 6 (we later remember that we staid here already in 2009) and then have tasty beef fajitas at Jalapen Poppers just down the road.