Some days are just like that. Things go wrong. Dehydration and altitude make you feel crappy. Yesterday was a bummer for both of the foregoing. We didn’t think twice about spending all day at 7,000 feet – it’s not that high, not like mountain climbing. But, we foolishly were not drinking enough water, and by the end of the day we both were feeling lousy and snippy. Then we tried to check emails at last night’s stop, the Enchanted Trail RV Park (the name belies reality, big time) on the westernmost outskirts of ABQ. The Vaio through a fit, froze, wouldn’t even turn off, and I finally pulled the plug. Tried to restart and it wouldn’t boot. Black screen of death. Then a small window popped up saying something like “security module failed to initialize.” Yikes. When working with Windows, the last thing you want to hear is a security problem just after you logged onto a strange wifi network. Anyway, nothing I did would get the thing to fire up. A foul mood got even blacker. Loni retreated to the other end of the rig. I put it away and began planning a trip to some computer shop to put things right. Then, we thought we’d go out and drown our respective pains in margueritas. I remembered a place from my FTC visits here 35 years ago that I knew was still in business – El Pinto. It was over 20 miles from the RV park, but we’d make it fine on the scoot. Wrong. All day long the radio was warning about strong winds on the way. They were right. We stepped outside and nearly lost the door. The trees were bending WAY over. Scratch that idea. Loni zapped some enchiladas she had frozen from a previous meal, we cracked two beers, and made the best of it. We also drank a lot of water. I went outside to check that everything was secure and saw . . . the CRACK. As we were trundling along behind some oaf today, he threw up a rock that we heard hit like a shot, but saw nothing. Turns out it had hit at the very bottom of the windshield, hidden from sight below the dash cover. Now, it had spread into a scythe shaped crack about eight inches long. Great. Just great.
Today dawned and we both felt a lot better, took a walk around the area, had breakfast, put everything away, and hit the road. Maybe the crack won’t spread. Right.
We bombed through downtown ABQ with no problem, as it was just after rush hour. ABQ is at about 5,200 feet or so, and again we climbed, back up to over 7,000, all the while glugging water faster than the rig was gorging on fuel. The scenery was ok, but not spectacular:
Just as we were exiting New Mexico, there are huge rock formations that are pretty neat:
They were the site of a host of fascinating attractions:
But we restrained ourselves from hanging a uey.
We found the Stimulus funds found their way to N.M., as much-needed roadwork was underway everywhere:
New Mexico wasn’t going to let us go without some more spectacular scenery:
Alas, it was not to last. I’ve never seen so much flatness:
At last we came to the real reason for this trip: a pilgrimage to the site of my beatification:
Darn. If only I could photoshop a halo:
Finally, New Mexico bid us adios, and the official Texas welcoming party made us feel right at home:
We’re in Amarillo, ensconced at the “Fort Amarillo RV Resort,” which has the cleanest and most modern bathroom facilities we have ever encountered in all our road travels. They’re even nicer that the Hyatt we stayed in a couple of weeks ago! And, as you can see, sleeping it off seems to have cured the cranky computer. The crack, however, grows larger. Film at eleven.
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