We really like New Mexico!

A mere 297 miles today (475 kms), but that was intentional. We've already passed through two time zones since Monday, so it's good to slow down the pace now. Goodbye northern Texas⎯and we're not saying see you later either ;-)⎯and hello New Mexico! Given that we have the time, we've decided to take a more scenic route for the rest of the way (maybe it was the idea of 857 miles on the same interstate?). The weather was beautiful, blue skies and sunshine and a high late morning of 65ºF. Boy did it feel warm after the Canadian weather!


After our usual tourist centre visit, we drove through Tucumcari, which is supposedly an infamous portion of Route 66. It has certainly seen better days ... that's all I'm going to say. The tourist centre had suggested we also visit a few ghost towns, but let's just say we feel we've done that now!

After that, we went to the Santa Rosa Blue Hole, which is an 80' deep natural pool of very blue water that stays a constant 61ºF. This pool leads to multiple underwater caves, and the area is used by swimmers and scuba divers alike. While we were there the state's police force scuba divers arrived for a two-week training course to keep up their skills in search and rescue. We chatted with them, and also spent time chatting with the manager of the tourism centre. By the way, everything was free, which is a welcome change from commercial operations. We really enjoyed it, as you can see by our photos!

On to Albuquerque, where we planned to visit the Old Town area. While driving, Greg still managed to notice a restaurant with lots of cars outside and so he pulled in. We had lunch at Monroe's Mexican restaurant - what a find! I later checked and it was #28 of 1532 restaurants in Albuquerque. Good job Greg!

Some other photos I should have taken today ... perhaps one of the lady driving at 80 mph with her car fully stuffed to the roof, including the passenger seat so that she was squished into a little space for her to drive - so dangerous ... or the van, again on the interstate, which was also stuffed to the roof, but also had probably 60 items tied to the outside, including a dozen lawn chairs, bottles - you name it, it was on that van. Crazy!


Not sure where tomorrow will take us; just another adventure, I guess!