Wednesday. The most tiring short day.

Zwei: It's hard to tell how much we saw during this trip.. it's amazing. I lost
completely my feeling for time and distances. It feels definitively longer
than a week. And so much more is waiting for us..great!!

Ok, just one thing is missing for my very very perfect trip experience. And
I know nobody would understand.. but.. I wished, I would be tainted. To be
honest, I thought I am already. But the pictures are telling qnother story.
My skin is fucking reflecting the sun!!! Hello? I always thought, it's just
the flash. My mistake.. Maybe I should drink carrot juice instead of Diet
Coke, haha.

...

Four: We are only 2 hours west of where we were yesterday. We drove all day to see everything cool. Petroglyphs, ice caves, lava flows & a volcano, and a little more Route 66 glory.

The day started with the Frontier restaurant in Albuquerque. This is an old Route 66 food establishment where you line up and order food, then wait for your order number to flash on the little screen. I had a breakfast burrito with hash browns, bacon, cheddar cheese, and green chile. I also ordered fresh orange juice to accompany it and WOWSA that was the best OJ I have ever consumed. The burrito was excellent and kept me full for hours. I give the place two big thumbs up for keeping the place pretty Rt 66 legit AND for serving top-notch food.

We headed out to the Petroglyphs and did three small hikes. It was really interesting to think the markings were from people who are not only dead, but who never saw a car or made a phone call, or even fired a gun. I bet life was fairly simple & cool in 1000-1300A.D. I was hiking very quietly along a few boulders while pondering life when suddenly a large rabbit bounded out from a rock and scampered across my path and down the hill a bit. I just stood with my mouth open, staring. I don't know the difference between, say, a jack-rabbit or hare or whatnot, but this fella was large and had super funny long ears & feet. As we headed out we filled up all our water containers at a nice outdoor pump we located near a small building. It must have been potable because I have yet to feel ill.

We then headed southwest to Sky City, where the Acoma tribe has lived since the dawning of time. Their main pueblo is located atop a mesa and is the oldest continuously-inhabited community in North America. I wandered through the museum and saw a film about the history of the area, but did not pay the steep fee to take the bus tour to the top of the mesa. I mean, honestly, you can see the homes from the bottom pretty well.

We then headed southwest again towards the El Malpais National Monument. This is a very large area of lava flows and remnants of about 40 volcanoes. Lava flows apparently make "tubes" underground which eventually become caves after 110,000 years....er, something like that. All I know is that we got to hike into some amazing caves. We also got to hike up the side of a young volcano crater, where it proceeded to thunderstorm heavily. We ended up hiding in a small cave where a family of four was already seeking shelter. It was weird. The lady and the two boys were nice the but guy was a jerk. Too bad. We eventually were overcome with weirdness so we hiked back down to the trading post in the rain. Once the rain died down we took another hike to an ice cave. Like, whoah. It's 31 degrees all the time and as the story goes, once the native americans discovered it way back when, it changed their peoples forever. They were finally able to store foods and so they prospered. The area is privately owned but clearly respected. PS: there were hummingbirds galore outside the trading post.

I'm not sure how long we were at each place, but it was worth it not to "get far." As we drove along the old Route 66 in the rain we were rewarded with a complete rainbow.

Zwei and I wanted one more stop at what was once a bar. We didn't know it was no longer a bar as from miles away we could see the bright pink building boasting "BAR" on it's wall. We stopped in to find double chain link fence with a petrified looking woman asking what we wanted. Yikes! She explained that "in the state of New Mexico you will be hung for drinking and driving." Then further explained "one beer, one wine, one shot- will put you over the limit so don't even THINK about it." Totally not a bar anymore.

Tonight we reside in West Gallup, NM. We would have been in east Gallup but apparently there is a big rodeo in town and all the hotels were booked up. Who knew?

My body aches from hiking in the heat and jogging down a volcano in the rain. So, I'm going to go get a shower and crawl into bed. Tonight perhaps ancient Petroglyph figures will dance in my dreams?