Saturday 12/04/2008 - New Mexico

Mileage - ~350 miles (via Las Vegas NM, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Gallop)

Hello, still in New Mexico after a tough 350 mile drive (felt harder because we drank a bit last night and didn't sleep much). On the recommendation of the owner of the Blue Swallow Motel, we left Route 66 and headed for Las Vegas NM (not THE Las Vegas yet). The road was incredible, zero traffic, wild antelope walking around on the road and stunning views. We stopped at the Concha dam which was nice before heading back toward Las Vegas. The sun was out but it started to get cold and eventually everything became snow covered. This we didn't expect in the desert but the drive and views were spectacular.

Eventually we got to Las Vegas which was a quiet little town within reach of ski resorts in the Rockies. We then hit the main highway past Sante Fe (again great views with excellent little Mexican-styles houses), before getting to Albuquerque city centre. We had some amazing ice-creams sitting out in the sun and had a good walk around. Great university city, nice people and lots of good looking people too. The setting is superb with red mountains surrounding the town.

We drove past a number of Indian Reservations, many of which have roadside Casino's on them. We drove right through one reservation on a gravel road. Amazingly they don't live in tee-pees but in trailer-parks (like many other Americans)! It's illegal to film Indians in the reservations, but there wasn't really that much to film there.

We've now arrived in the El Rancho Hotel in Gallop which is a busy little place, quite remote from everywhere. Lots of native Indians around including the manager of our hotel.

Long day. We've seen so much today that our brains are bursting with images.

Highlights - People riding Harleys without crash-helmets, driving through swarms of swallows, snow, views (like Eagles album covers), mountain road, Albuquerque, Sammy C's sports bar, both of us getting asked for ID in the bar (we are 37)!!!

Lowlights - Getting a bit tired (realising that we've been getting up early and driving solidly for the last week), dodgy hotel toilet, train track running next to our hotel, Jaffa making me walk miles to find a bar, our car is beginning to smell

Tomorrow - Petrified Forest, Winslow (Arizona), Holbrook, Flagstaff and the gateway to the Grand Canyon.

Cheers

Andy and Jaffa.

Friday 11/04/2008 - Texas (Panhandle) and New Mexico

Mileage - ~300 miles (via Amarillo and Tucumcari)

Left the motel this morning and popped into the National Route 66 museum which was quite interesting. Lots of nice old cars and bikes on display. The sat nav went mad around Sayre City when we found the road was blocked and we tried to go around the fallen branches.

We ignored the sat nav and headed west which worked well. We mainly drove down a newer bit of Route 66 with a really old bit running alongside it. It was amazing to see how quickly nature grows back through concrete, but we did drive down some of the old bits of road.

We eventually crossed the state line into Texas which was quite spectacular although suprisingly cold (46 farenheight and not celcius). We stopped in Amarillo for a burrito which was ok. Lots of Mexicans in this part of the world, the faces, the accents and the food are changing. We then came across Cadillac Ranch (Google it) which was interesting - lots of people legally spraying slogans on some old Cadillacs buried into the ground.

We crossed the Panhandle of Texas quite quickly and now we're in Tucumcari, New Mexico for the night. We've checked into the Blue Swallow motel which I've seen on TV (can't remember the name of the programme, but one of the guys in it was in celebrity big brother). The motel is very retro with lots of old features and old cars parked-up. We've even got our own garage. The owner looks like Gimili from Lord of the Rings. $66 a night which is quite apt.


Highlights - Pow-wow-wow bar, Texas and New Mexico landscape, Route 66 museum in Elk City, seeing a Texas Ranger wearing a cowboy hat, people wearing cowboy hats in general, Cadillac Ranch, Blue Swallow motel, loud V8 cars, direct but polite people.

Lowlight - Jaffa wiping his face on a skid-marked hand towel (again), some hick throwing a stone at us because we missed the proper road and probably went down his private road, finding 'Beavers' fully nude gentleman's club only to discover that it was closed, weather (cold and wet), 75mph speed limit in New Mexico but too much water on the road to go more than 60 without aquaplaning all the time.

Tomorrow - Santa Rosa, Albuquerque and beyond, aiming for another 300 miles or so.

Andy and Jaffa.

Ps tomorrow we are on detox, we have just seen 2 people so fat that they needed zimmer-frames to walk out of the restaurant after eating 4 courses with bread rolls.

PPS ordered a bottle of wine with dinner today, you guessed it, they don't sell 75cl bottles here, we got a double-size bottle! They were scared to serve it to us until we said that we'd have 2 anyway.

PPPS saw a commercial on TV where an old guy trades-in his Chevvy Malibu (same as ours) for a Harley and takes a young lady away to a motel room - it was an ad for Viagra! Brilliant!

PPPPS Couldn't send this message until today (Saturday) as I had no telephone signal.