In Kingdoms of the Cool

Day 4...

So Day 4 was the the day we awoke from our first slumber in the Caliber. Having stopped just outside Tucumcari, NM, we slept at a rest stop there and woke up early to get a fast start. Aside from the excellent name, Tucumcari was a rather lifeless town surrounded by gorgeous scenery. After leaving there, we headed westward towards Albuquerque, NM.

Downtown Albuquerque was a cool place that was more populated than St. Louis or OK City, but it still lacked the hustle and bustle of a major city during lunch hour. We walked into a public library to ask someone for advice on where to get some good Mexican food for lunch and the librarian pointed us in the direction of the Galleria, an underground mall nearby. Inside, we found La Esquina and plopped down to eat. We shared a lunch special that had a blue corn enchilada and a taco and on our empty little stomachs it. was. DELICIOUS.

After the lunch and our subsequent walk around downtown Albuquerque to walk off the food coma, we headed out to make one more stop in New Mexico at the Rio Grande Nature Center. This was a wonderfully peaceful and relaxing stroll through some of the native plant and animal species. With hardly anyone there and a clear sky above us, the walk through the Nature Center gave us yet another respot from the daily driving routine. Not only did we see Roadrunners, but we also caught shots of Hummingbirds in flight and were able to snap some superbly posed portraits on a nearby bridge.

With the serenity of nature filling us to the brim, we continued onward to the New Mexico/Arizona border. The scenery in New Mexico was the best of any place thusfar on the trip and we took hundreds of photos to prove it. However, when we started seeing billboards for Arizona that said they had the most breathtaking scenery in the region, I had to see it for myself to believe it. Better than New Mexico? I don't know. I remember Arizona from when I was a kid and couldn't remember being awed by the surroundings like I was in NM. But, I was ready nonetheless. Unfortunately, it was getting late and Vick and I were running on fumes (much like our car) so we stoped at a rest stop just past the NM/AZ border. I had to work off a little extra energy before getting to sleep, so I tried to snap a photo of the canopy of stars and then we settled into bed (or should I say driver's seat) before beginning the second to last leg of our trip.

I'M OFF!

Now Playing: Explosions in the Sky - "Time Stops"

posted by MikeStan @ 11:40 AM