On The Road - Day 4-6

  Well gang, it's been a few days since our last episode so let's get you caught up. When you last saw us we were overnighting in Oklahoma City after a fun day crossing Missouri. Oklahoma? Not so much fun. As a matter of fact, crossing Oklahoma was about as boring as driving gets. Flat. Featureless. Nothing for miles and miles. I get sleepy just writing this.

  When we reached the Texas Panhandle things improved marginally as the folks in Amarillo seem to sort of get it. Take Ozymandias' legs, for example:

  Since this sculpture in the middle of a drainage pond was created people have been spray painting athletic socks on it. Someone cleans them off and they magically reappear. Way to go Amarillo! As we were leaving town we encountered this:

  I mean, why not build a giant cowboy with six-shooters made from smokers, surrounded by old Cadillacs? Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Anyway, an hour later we crossed the line into New Mexico.

  New Mexico's motto is "Land Of Enchantment". License plates also carry a second motto, "Chile Capital of the World". Both are true. From the time we crossed the state line we knew we would love this state. There's beautiful scenery, art everywhere and just as many weird and wacky things to see as Missouri. The food we had was good with emphasis on chiles. When you order in a restaurant they ask, "Red or Green?" and, if you like both your answer is, "Christmas!" Cool.

  Now, before I go farther, I did try to get a picture of us turning left at the "Welcome to Albuquerque" sign but it was a little sign and we were traveling at 130 km/h, so no. Sorry all you wascally wabbits.

  Our original plan had us horseback riding the morning after arriving in Albuquerque (ABQ) but it occurred to us that ABQ is the hot air ballooning capital of the world so we changed our plans, got out of bed at 4:45 am and floated up into a beautiful, clear desert sky. Nice trade.

  After touchdown and breakfast it was time to drive up to Santa Fe and check out the second oldest city in the US. We started out with a hike in the nearby mountains. Although it was a wonderful hike we cut it short as the altitude was getting to me and rain was closing in.

  That was followed by lunch in the old town square and a bit of walking where we discovered some of the quirky shit I mentioned earlier:

  Since we'd had a very early morning we headed back to our hotel and crashed, so no wild partying for us, sad to say.

  Today was another ambitious outing, leaving ABQ for the northwest corner of New Mexico to take in some 1,000 year old Puebloan architecture at the Aztec Ruins. On our way out of town we stopped by a couple of noteworthy oddities. First the UFO Spaceship House, also known as the Bug House:

  That was followed by, well, you guessed it, a Giant Red Arrow:

  Then it was time for some seriousness. Discovered 100 years ago the Aztec Ruins are an exceptional example of the local Chaco architecture and was home to over 200 people until the late 13th century. No Aztecs were involved. It's located in the town of Aztec. Really.

  We completed our little tour with a stop at the Four Corners Monument, where you can stand in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah all at once:

  On the way south from Four Corners we passed Shiprock and some other interesting rock formations, eerily sitting in the middle of the desert:

  Now, before you think, "That's disappointing, no bad shit happened to them today", we ended our day in a little shithole called Gallup, NM. This place makes Vandalia look like Paris. We've got a beautiful room in a dumpy motel that DOESN'T face the multiple sets of railway tracks (bonus). We ate marginal food in a diner on Route 66 that was established in 1947 after cruising what's supposed to pass for a downtown looking for a restaurant that wasn't closed or surrounded by groups of sketchy dopers. We did find this, though, to suggest maybe there is SOME value in this town:

  The highlight of the evening was Rocky Road and Jamoca Almond Fudge from Baskin-Robbins. Sleep? I guess you'll have to wait until the next episode to find out if we got any.

  Tomorrow we're off to Prescott Valley, AZ, to meet Emily, the lady who we'll be sitting for starting Monday. The real adventure begins then...