Also, before we go any further, I should let you all know I'm drinking a small bottle of Don Julio tequila we picked up at a liquor store a little while ago--should make this telling more interesting....
We got up this morning at 7:30a, loaded the Prius, and had a quick breakfast provided by the HoJo we were staying at (at this point, I realize I can't remember everything Jimmy put in yesterday's post, so this may be a little repetitive in some of the details, so bear with me). Anywho, breakfast consisted of bagels, donuts, and waffles which you made yourself--a nice touch. This is probably the only meal so far where we haven't taken pictures of the food. The only thing that made breakfast any more interesting than usual was the fact that there was this old guy there who seemed to be hoarding food. I mean, he had a couple of servings of at least one of everything available and he was slowly piling it all up on his table. We left after I explained to him how to use the waffle iron, so we have no idea whether he was planning on eating it all then and there or whether he was squirreling it away somewhere. If the owners of the HoJo's in Flagstaff are reading this somehow, you might want to keep your eyes out for that guy....
So, for those of you that have never been, Arizona is flat...I mean, REALLY flat...like, think of that one girl you knew back in your sophomore year of high school--you know, the skinny one, had more guy friends than girl friends, probably with shoulder-length hair, that at first glance you thought was a dude...yeah, that flat. An old high-school buddy of mine sent me a message on facebook that said: "Arizona has plenty to offer...you should have come by my neck of the woods." First of all, you're wrong--once you've seen the Grand Canyon, the rest of this state is all pretty much the same: stretches of blasted rock and scrublands occasionally peppered with some sagebrush. Second, I'm older than that guy, and even I rarely say "neck of the woods," so I'm calling you out on that one, too. Third, what "woods?!" I assume you meant "desert." Anywho, all that verdant landscape got boring pretty quick, and I hadn't gotten much sleep last night (Jimmy snores, and Steph kicks), so I fell asleep after an hour of driving.
Once I woke up for real, we were coming up on the state line between Arizona and New Mexico. Interesting fact: along the highway you see (apart from the aforementioned scrublands) billboards advertising some Native American bull-crap, "clean restrooms," and a variety of tourist traps for supposedly "amazing natural wonders." For example, the Ice Caves...Steph saw the billboard as we passed through, and none of us had any idea what the hell they were until we got to Albuquerque and saw a brochure for them. Apparently, the temperature in this cave never rises above 31 degrees Farenheight, and "natural layers of perpetual ice glisten blue-green in the reflected rays of sunlight." When we found this out, Steph was bummed and lamented the fact that "we didn't go to see the Ice Caves," but I digress....
Another interesting fact, once you cross into New Mexico, the landscape actually changes! There are some pretty sweet looking natural rock formations and almost-canyon things you drive through almost immediately after crossing into New Mexico. I tried to go back to sleep after we crossed the state line, but Jimmy made me wake up and take pictures like this:
Anywho, we finally made it to our hotel around 2pm, where we met this little Indian woman who runs the place who immediately focused her attention on Jimmy. She asked what part of India he's from, where are we all from, are we college students--and the minute she heard we were all in medical school, she asked if we knew anyone for her daughter! Steph offered Jimmy up, and Jimmy might actually be in an arranged marriage now.... At any rate, Jimmy working his Indian-ness has worked out for us so far: free internet cable (instead of the usual $5 deposit), and TWO extra towels that aren't even hotel towels--they're actual colored towels that we're pretty sure are her private ones....
From there we set out to explore Albuquerque...stopped for a brief lunch, walked around the Old Town Plaza, then set off on the trolley tour of Albuquerque. Lots of interesting stuff, for example:
This church (San Felipe de Neri) around which Albuquerque was original built.
Various chilis....
This clock marking the place where Route 66 intersected itself for a number of years. Apparently, one of the governors way back wanted Route 66 to pass through Santa Fe, not Albuquerque, so he had the road re-routed to Santa Fe before it rejoined the original Route 66 here at this spot. When he was voted out of office sometime later, in a last act of spite, he restored Route 66 to its original course just to screw with the people of Santa Fe....
Clearly one of the most interesting houses in Albuquerque (it has dinosaurs!).
Lobo, the mascot of the University of New Mexico.
A castle in the middle of Albuquerque? You bet!
After the tour, we stopped by the Rattlesnake Museum (and got certificates of bravery!). Here are some of the highlights of what we saw:
Behind the church I mentioned earlier, there's this tree, with this image of the Virgin Mary carved into it and painted. I'm not even joking when I say this next bit: when we went to see it, there was this woman standing there by herself just in awe of this! She said it was so amazing because this was "the natural wood of the tree that someone just painted." I'm serious! She actually thought this formed naturally! I offered to sell her my St. Christopher medallion as a piece of silver that "just naturally formed into the shape of the saint and the baby Jesus!"
Jimmy loves his bears....
We then went to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and walked around the Garden of Sculptures where this all happened:
What?! Don't judge me! It's art, dammit!
Then some random wandering around Central St....
Then clouds started to spring up so we headed back to the hotel where Jimmy sat me down and had me start to fill in this blog...tomorrow we're heading out early to try and make it to both Roswell and the Carlsbad Caverns (I'm dubious we'll make both), and from there head to Odessa, TX. It's raining now, and I'm off to read a bit and see if we made any reservations for anything in Odessa...I think I might end up writing the blog of our first day in New Orleans, so until then, ciao.
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