Blahg #4: It's a beautiful day on the road today...

When we woke up in Needles it was a classic blue hot desert day with a strong wind to cool off the 75+ degree temperature on our skins. Today in Albikirky it's cold! 50's overcast with a persistent, chill wind. And I feel like my sinuses are full of dirt! What a strange place New Mexico is: alternately blocks, miles, moments of dog-eared sad and wealthy new age. The drive to our next sleeping spot (Amarillo) is a short 500 miles so we bee line into Santa Fe for a nice lunch and some shmieing around. We check out the Plaza and head into the main Albuquerque art museum, surrounded by these brass plates honoring the founding fathers.

After an hour of eye-popping window shopping at Glorianna's, the BEST bead/loose gem shop I've ever been in, we have a restorative lunch at SantaCafe (10 years plus and still delish) and then head out on some two laner to reconnect with 40E.

Here's what I love about NM: It's beautiful. It's SCALE is beautiful. It's untiring wind pushing the puffy cotton clouds is beautiful. It's miles of blue skies are beautiful. It's weather - which you can always see coming - is beautiful. Even the construction in Santa Fe is beautiful:

So we light out of Santa Fe and, lulled by the expiring miles, I keep missing all these great road signs: Endee, Rodeopia, Wildorado (home of The Original Pie Place). And the best (all on one sign): Cuervo, Tucumcari, Amarillo.

We cross into Texas and it almost immediately gets lusher, more populated and agricultural. That's when it hits me: NM is so poor partly because there doesn't seem to be much agriculture (at least in the I40 corridor we just traversed - but I've not hear that Alamogordo and other parts south are big ag either - unless you count UFOs and mushroom clouds as USDA approved products).

Amarillo was the one place I decided to get cute re: our accommodations on this trip and booked the only 5 star hotel (with respect to amenities) about 20 miles south of Amarillo in a fetchingly named place called Palo Duro Canyon. Actually the hotel was not in the canyon per se but in Palo Duro the little town on the other side of the highway from the canyon. (<- See over there?) Anyway we check in - it's very nice, new, clean, etc. - and learn that UT has a campus here in Palo Duro - college towns usually mean good, cheap food so we're psyched. We head over to Fred's Wrong Way Diner for "the best burgers ever" and are greeted by our young waitron with a "can I get y'all ladies a Coke, milk, or water?" Alarm bells!!! "Uh, 'scuse me miss. Is this county dry?", I ask. She hides her overt judgement of our incredible lameness and smiles: "Welcome tot eh 1920's". And of course - it's just the county where Palo Duro is - Amarillo is not dry! So much for cuteness... We experienced another "just how big this country is" moment in Palo Duro: when we first pulled up to the side entrance of our hotel (close to our room) there was also a big black pick-up truck parked there. A man was walking a beautiful black lab outside the truck. The dog was still a big puppy. We got into our room, freshened up and then as we were exiting to eat our burgers and drink our non-alcohol we saw they were still out there and the man seemed to be trying to tie the dog up to the light pole illuminating that part of the parking area. We had heard the dog barking while we were in our room too. Over dinner we worried that the man might try to leave the dog out all night. We thought this incredibly stupid and cruel. When we returned they were still out there and now there was a woman in the truck. My friend Margaret was getting very concerned now for the dog and I was also worried about barking. We discussed various strategies and she decided to head out there and as she did she ran right into the man. They chatted briefly - she had obviously come out there to check on him/the dog - and she was relieved in that it seemed he would be bringing the dog into their room for the night. Just the idea of leaving an animal like that outside all night - a strange place where it could easily be harmed or stolen - really made me think about how different and yet similar we all are: we're the same in the challenges, problems and desires we all have. We seem to differ mostly in our methods of addressing these situations and desires. Or maybe not. Maybe we are all different in what we want, what we need. Particulars are more important I think than many people think - especially when it comes to those with decision making authority for others. And 300 million people spread out over 3,794,066 square miles is a lot of particulars.