10/17/07 (Wednesday): We're in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the "Land of Enchantment." Check out this map.

We saw such amazing scenery--neither of us has ever been in this part of the world before, and we thoroughly enjoyed our ride. We left Oklahoma on I-40. Oklahoma is pretty flat. The dirt and rocks are red and it's very flat and dry. There are some ranches, but almost no towns. It's pretty desolate.








Almost as soon as we crossed the border into the Panhandle of Texas, the landscape changed. It was still mostly flat, but mesas would crop up, surrounded by grassy flatlands.













These pics were taken from the moving truck, so they're not the clearest, but I thought you'd like to see them anyhow. This area was truly desolate. There were no towns, no gas stations, and no rest areas for 100 miles. After driving long past the point where we were starving and in dire need of a bathroom, we finally stopped at a tiny gas station/bar/grocery store/local hangout in a town with a population of about 15. We ate lunch and used the bathroom in the camper. This was the view out the window.


As we got closer to the New Mexico border, we started seeing some REALLY BIG mountains in the distance. I've been worried since we left about going over the mountains in California, so it caught me by surprise when I realized that one way or the other, I was going to be going to the other side of these mountains! There were some really steep grades, but we made it just fine. Sometimes we slowed to as low as 50 mph, but lots of big tractor trailers were doing the same, so I didn't feel too bad. By the way, those cows were on a ranch that was several hundred thousand acres--and they were the only creatures we saw! We went for miles without seeing any structures.

I had to take this shot from the moving truck, too. It's apparently a local attraction. Several vehicles were pulled over on the shoulder to look at it. It's a line of cars standing on end in the desert. Go figure.











We finally pulled into the Albuquerque KOA right around dinner time. Our campsite has a great view of the Sandia Mountains. The sun comes up right over the peaks. When you see them close up, they're quite barren and covered with large, unstable looking boulders. There's a tram up to the top of them (10,000 feet), but it was very windy today, so we didn't want to ride it.







Albuquerque is a gorgeous city. It sits in a valley at the foot of the Sandia Range. There are good views in every direction. The city is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, and it seems like they've done some sprucing up for the occasion. All the overpasses are beautiful--terra cotta colored, with mosaics or paintings along the sides and sculptures. It's very clean, and the Spanish influence is everywhere. Almost all the buildings, homes as well as commercial, are adobe, with rounded corners and desert gardens. It's difficult to tell the new buildings from the old, because they're all in the old Spanish style.

Today we drove into the historic part of Albuquerque and explored. First we went to the Pueblo Cultural Center. There was a great movie about making pottery and the history of the Pueblo people. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed. There were some beautiful artifacts and modern pottery, paintings and sculptures. Coincidentally, one of the conference rooms was being used for a Coca-Cola meeting--that's what the bottle signs were for. We had a light lunch in the cafe. The fry bread was excellent!

Then we went into historic Old Town. Most of the old buildings have been turned into tourist shops. Wiley went to the museum while I walked around and explored the town. This is San Felipe de Neri Church. It was built in 1793, and has been in constant use since then.










After our tour of Old Town, we headed a little further west to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Rio Grande--the very same river that flows from Colorado through New Mexico and Texas and eventually into Mexico. We found a nice nature park with a trail down to the river. It's very shallow and muddy.





We drove home through some of the pretty neighborhoods and finished the day with a soak in the campground's hot tub.

We've got a spare bed in the RV--anyone want to join us?!