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Ready to ride again!
We're in Albuquerque, NM now and have been for a couple of days. We made such excellent time across Oklahoma and Texas that we were able to stop and take a break for three nights.
Texas: Holy *crap* is Amarillo a dirty place. We spent three times what we've spend on any hotel this trip in order to get a place that we were sure was insect-free. And what we wound up with was a place over top of a bar. Luckily it wasn't all country, so we didn't mind too much. It was also (surprisingly) the best breakfast I'd had on the trip. They did hash-browns on a griddle, and had lots of ketchup (do I have to spell it catsup now?), tabasco, and pepper to go on it. Weirdly, they also had pre-mixed peanut butter and honey. Otherwise, the truck stop we stopped at had cockroaches on the floor, the bottled-water bottles were dirty on the outside, and the place smelled like an airport tarmac.
We left early and headed out to Albuquerque. Aside from the fact that whoever laid out the roads was certainly drunk at the time (We drove around in circles three times trying to get to a hotel we could see, but not find a way to legally drive to before giving up and going to a different hotel) this place is really pretty. I came here for my last meeting as a Regional Organising Consultant for Young Adult and Campus Ministry and got a chance to see a bit of the place and really wanted to show it to Angie. Instead we decided we'd had enough of driving and traveling. This hotel has laundry facilities and the town has a Whole Foods Market, so we stocked up on microwaveable foods, washed our clothes, watched TV and I finally finished Harry Potter during a nice long bath.
The next day (Yesterday), we headed out to the Puebo Cultural Centre to see the art pieces and learn a little about their successful resistance against the spanish resulting in actual land grants to the 19 local groups. We also got to see how different groups have influenced them over the years, with ancestry tracing something like 12,000 years back. From there we managed to find the old town and got to see the type of architecture that I wanted to show Angie. The little pink houses don't *just* exist in DisneyLand. ;) We went to a restaurant that looked really familiar - I think we ate there when I was here last. We had some wonderful New Mexico food and I introduced Angie to what the local sopapillas are like. Here's they're large puffy things, whereas the sopapillas in Texas and back home look like soft tortilla chips.
I've started uploading some pictures to Flickr, but it turns out that I hadn't done so since before Juniper's wedding and have over 400 pictures to send. Between hotel wireless being slow and f-spot being a fragile piece of crap I managed to upload something over 100 pictures of Leif to the family-only archives before giving up. I'll probably post the Opus pictures up on Facebook rather than flickr so that it's easier for other Opusers to find them
The next target is Flagstaff, AZ for Thursday night. We're meeting Karina and her husband for a day of wandering around the Grand Canyon, so we'll see if there's some interesting things between here and there. I suspect there will be. =)
*hugs*, all! Less than a week until I start my new job! I'm excited!
Texas: Holy *crap* is Amarillo a dirty place. We spent three times what we've spend on any hotel this trip in order to get a place that we were sure was insect-free. And what we wound up with was a place over top of a bar. Luckily it wasn't all country, so we didn't mind too much. It was also (surprisingly) the best breakfast I'd had on the trip. They did hash-browns on a griddle, and had lots of ketchup (do I have to spell it catsup now?), tabasco, and pepper to go on it. Weirdly, they also had pre-mixed peanut butter and honey. Otherwise, the truck stop we stopped at had cockroaches on the floor, the bottled-water bottles were dirty on the outside, and the place smelled like an airport tarmac.
We left early and headed out to Albuquerque. Aside from the fact that whoever laid out the roads was certainly drunk at the time (We drove around in circles three times trying to get to a hotel we could see, but not find a way to legally drive to before giving up and going to a different hotel) this place is really pretty. I came here for my last meeting as a Regional Organising Consultant for Young Adult and Campus Ministry and got a chance to see a bit of the place and really wanted to show it to Angie. Instead we decided we'd had enough of driving and traveling. This hotel has laundry facilities and the town has a Whole Foods Market, so we stocked up on microwaveable foods, washed our clothes, watched TV and I finally finished Harry Potter during a nice long bath.
The next day (Yesterday), we headed out to the Puebo Cultural Centre to see the art pieces and learn a little about their successful resistance against the spanish resulting in actual land grants to the 19 local groups. We also got to see how different groups have influenced them over the years, with ancestry tracing something like 12,000 years back. From there we managed to find the old town and got to see the type of architecture that I wanted to show Angie. The little pink houses don't *just* exist in DisneyLand. ;) We went to a restaurant that looked really familiar - I think we ate there when I was here last. We had some wonderful New Mexico food and I introduced Angie to what the local sopapillas are like. Here's they're large puffy things, whereas the sopapillas in Texas and back home look like soft tortilla chips.
I've started uploading some pictures to Flickr, but it turns out that I hadn't done so since before Juniper's wedding and have over 400 pictures to send. Between hotel wireless being slow and f-spot being a fragile piece of crap I managed to upload something over 100 pictures of Leif to the family-only archives before giving up. I'll probably post the Opus pictures up on Facebook rather than flickr so that it's easier for other Opusers to find them
The next target is Flagstaff, AZ for Thursday night. We're meeting Karina and her husband for a day of wandering around the Grand Canyon, so we'll see if there's some interesting things between here and there. I suspect there will be. =)
*hugs*, all! Less than a week until I start my new job! I'm excited!
no subject
You're making me want to take a road trip!! *adds road trip to Things to do list*
hooray for exiting new life things! Hugs to your whole family!
Kelly
Don't Miss Canyon de Chelly
(Anonymous) 2007-08-29 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)Have a great trip!
- MontanaMax
no subject
Now, this next part is vitally important. Something I learned as a kid. From Warner Brothers cartoons. Whatever you do, do not take a wrong turn at Albuquerque!
(Sorry, I'm a dork, I know. But really, how many times do you get a set-up for something like that...)
As for the Grand Canyon, in my opinion, they said it best on West Wing. "One of the few things in life that truly does not disappoint."
Safe travels.