Holiday Inn Express Santa Rosa

A good night prepared me for a longer drive today (about 390 miles/625km). Fortunately, the winds that continued most of the morning died down in New Mexico. The beautiful New Mexico flat top rock formations are always a delight. New smooth roads also gave us a relief from yesterday's roads that my dad used to call "planches à laver ...

... across at the Texas Steak house was great for dinner.<br><br>It has been quite amazing watching the landscape change from intense desert in Death Valley to the Mojave Desert of Nevada to the sagebrush and not much else across northern Arizona and New Mexico to now entering Texas to greenery and acres of cotton growing; plus plenty of Freision dairy herds in this area too, intense farming the way they were herded into pens and hay fed.<br><br ...

... still there?? Forgot to clarify the full reason for the co-pilots petulance, total mileage for the day, just short of 410 miles about 640 k's So thats where we are, in a Super Eight motel, missed the next downpour by about 15 minutes and very comfortable. Wandered across the road for a steak & chips and now settled in for the night. Hoping to get near Abilene Texas tomorrow and Austin on Thursday.

We are on our way to Santa Rosa, NM for our next stop. Santa Rosa is located on historic Route 66. This will be the first time I have officially traveled along this route and I'm kind of excited about it.<br><br>I am hoping that the excitement of our Route 66 visit will overshadow the excitement of getting pulled over by the Texas State Police just over the border from Oklahoma in the Texas panhandle. I was one of many victims we ...

... interesting. I don't know what on earth made stanley marsh decide to bury those cars but it was cool. The sad part was that people have been leaving their empty spray cans all over the place. Then it was onto the mid point cafe in Adrian which was also closed. Then it was into Tucumcari new mexico which looked like it was a ghost town. The one store that I know should have at least still been in business was closed ...

Leaving SR after a good night's sleep and breakfast. Hope to be in Amarillo later today. The room art coordinates with the rm colors and if you like dull, dead leaf skeletons, you are in for a treat. The Western on the other hand is across from the Tower Service Station and U-Drop Inn Cafe, a gem of Art Deco styling which has been turned into a museum. Its neon lighting at night takes you back to an era you never really knew, but wish you did!

We woke early, but Neil's first words were "We're not going back to Albuquerque", so we closed our eyes again. About 30 minutes later he said, "Come on, get up, we're going to Albuquerque". Thank goodness it wasn't a life or death decision. <br><br>So a little later than planned, but still early we were on the road again......you guessed it, towards Albuquerque! <br><br>After a couple of stops for breakfast and fuel we arrived at Discount Auto Parts ...

... and called at a gas station to get tea, coffee and pastries as due to our unplanned extra night at the last site, we had no milk for breakfast. There was a public phone there too and as we owed a few family members a call, we decided to make use of it. By the time we finished making our calls it was 10.45 and already 96°F. Just up the road we stopped at Wal-Mart to stock up with groceries and beer. However, as ...

Hi again everyone. Missing us much? XD Not really is my guess, but hey I've been stuck with these people for almost 3 weeks... I have my reasons NOT to miss them if they go away. x3!! ANYWHO, today was pretty much the same its been; driving. And more driving. AND OMGGG driving. But today was different in one perceptive at least; Dad actually let my Mom drive part of the way through Texas, even though he didn't like it. But ...