Hola de Nuevo Mexico...muchachos!

Buenos dias, buenas noches (whatever time it is in your zone) :)

WOW...what a change in landscape (see for yourselves). Whereas one Israeli Texan told us : "We don't believe in trees, we believe in grass...

...New Mexicans seem to believe in wild nature.

From the flat plains to hills, rocks, tumbleweeds, more tarantulas, all kinds of bugs (yeah, we had a quite a few stuck to the radiator of the car at the end of one day's driving in NM) and rattle snakes.

As said before, we left Amarillo and its Cadillac Ranch and in New Mexico the sun started shining. We had lunch at the lovely Midpoint Cafe, which, as the name might suggest it, is exactly half way (1139) from Chicago to LA. It was there that our lovely waitresss, after the standard "where y'all from?" revealed to us that earlier that day, Annie and Edy from Duelem, Luxembourg were there. We decided to take their addresse and write them a card :).

We arrived early in Tucumcari and the Blue Swallow Motel. Bill, the owner, surprised us when he proudly anounced that he knew Luxembourg since many Luxembourgers had already stayed at his classic and famous motel. He had a little crush on Christine, which led him to offer her a pink Cadillac...almost as good as Elvis, but this was just a pin. Oh well, but still very nice. :)

We decided to take a walk to the local 'walking park'. Christine was convinced this would be a nice thing to do, to get a little walk and some fresh air in the shade in order to get some exercice and burn away the "Schwabbeli" (made in the USA :)). Yet, the walk TO the park already was a bit of a challenge, since we were looked at very strangely by the locals in their cars. THEM FOLKS DON'T SEEM TO WALK! :) When we arrived at the park, there were a couple of heavier built women power walking on a concrete path...surprise: walking park ONLY means place where you can walk. :) We have to start thinking American.

The Motel was nice...neon, old style, very friendly owners (who warned us not to venture into downtown Albuquerque at night, since there are supposedly all the gangs hanging around, shooting at each other, at the police and especially, at TOURISTS :))...nice cars.


Since old Route 66 doesn't exist anymore for the greater part between Tucumcari and Albuquerque, we had to drive on Interstate 40 (yuuuuuuuuk, our enemy) :). This had as a consequence that we arrived very early and thus wanted to spend some time relaxing near the pool. But...we ended up spending 8 hours in the emergency room at the Presbyterian Hospital in downtown Albuquerque...What an experience. As the hours went by, we felt more and more like in a slaughter house...nice. And so, against Bill's advice, we left downtown at midnight. Exciting day.

The day after, we went to Petroglyph National Monument to walk under the burning sun and look at old Native American engravments. Pat didn't approve of walking under the burning sun, and didn't leave out any opportunity to remind Christine of this...(he gets grumpy when he gets too hot :)).

The day encore after (Christine's pigeon English :)) we drove over unpaved roads all the way to Gallup. It was great to feel the gravel under the wheels of our so-not-made-for-offroad-Focus. Moohaha. We can tell you, a thunderstorm in the desert is very impressive. You can see it approach when it is still miles away and the rain pouring out from the clouds make the whole thing look like a giant purple jellyfish...(ya, man, everyting is gonna be alright, right Bob) (What do they mean? Are they on drugs? Who's Bob now? :)).

Slept next to Ronald Reagan, in Lorraine Day,... we're talking about rooms of course (who's that gal anyway?). This was at the famous El Rancho Hotel in Gallup. Home to movie stars in a long gone period. Many of them were filming their Westerns in the area around the town and spent their nights and money at the Hotel, its bar and excellent Tex-Mex restaurant. Yummy!

After leaving Gallup, only a few more miles were left on Route 66 in New Mexico before we headed into...