dolari | A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most inte

Tuesday, August 4th - Day Two - Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NV

With TWO fully charged Sidekicks (to make sure I didn't kill my battery again), we left Albuquerque, NM at 9AM. There were a few things I wanted to see in Albuquerque, but with us running so late the day before, we decided to skip it and just make for Vegas. There would be LOTS to see between the two to make up for missing the Atomic Bomb Launcher. :D

During the day we could see everything we missed out on at night - rolling hills, coyote/roadrunner cartoon style mesas, beautiful buttes (no snickering from the 12 year olds, please) and golden red rocks, with huge views and vistas. There wasn't much more than that, really - the area was REALLY empty. So instead of narrating, have some pictures:

The mesas of West New Mexico, from far far away.

Snaking between the rocks.

Navajo Pueblo

Just before we hit the Continental Divide, I notced a little cloud complex forming up. It was growing, quickly, and had all the earmarks of a thunderstorm in the making. One we were about to smack RIGHT into.

We pulled over near the Continental Divide at a bar which hadn't opened yet and tightened down the tarp for the storm we were about to run through. While we were there, a Navajo called us over (in Spanish I'd thought, but he was just speaking really thickly accented English). He flashed a little beaded bauble at us, and told us we could have it if we bought him a quart of whiskey from the bar. We didn't want to, and the bar was closed. So instead, he just asked for $5, and we gave it to him. Hope he got a good stiff drink from it.

It's just a little beaded baubley kind of thing, something to hang from the rear view mirror of the pickup. But it matched the truck so perfectly, complemented the colors, that we had to have it. It's still in the truck, waiting to be strung onto the mirror. Hmmm...Erin's an artist, maybe she's got string around here....

We made it to the Continental Divide just before the storm hit, and grabbed a few pics before the sun was blotted out by the fearsome looking storm we were about to dive into.

The Continental Divide Post Office

See that "Historic US 66" sign? More on that later.

The sidekick REALLY paid off here. We got a signal at the divide, and the internet turned itself back on. We used the Radar application on it to get a weather radar from Gallup, and sure enough, there was a supercell right where we needed to be. One last check of the tarp and we hit it.

It was small, but it was loud. We went through it in probably about 15 minutes, but it was loud, and ANGRY. It didn't help that we were on a hill going down, we couldn't see much, and could barely hear each other over the rain. I love driving through storms, but being this one was just going out of it's way to be obnoxious. On the other side, we pulled over, checked the trunk, and we were fine. A few drips of water, but everything was dry.

We continued on our way, entering Gallup NM in the very early afternoon. Now, this whole trip on this part of I-40 was, once upon a time, it was US 66, the Mother Road. I was interested in it as a roadgeek. But I had a friend who was more interested in our trip because of the Americana and Kitsch that still existed from the US 66 days.

gwenners1 ha charged me with getting Kitsch Pics from my triip, with a special emphasis on Gallup. And boy we got it:

The Gallup Chamber of Commerce greets the errant Texan and Canadian.

We easily spent an hour and over 50 pictures in Gallup. We can only guess Gallup has a housing shortage making all those hotels necessary, and that citizens there have no sense of direction, which makes the arrows pointing to stuff necessary. :D

We tore out of Gallup (there's only so much traffic blocking you can do with hazard lights before they begin to realize your'e really sightseeing, not having car problems) to Arizona, where we were greeted by an great display of nature AND just some off the wall kitsch:

The Arizona Welcome Center (4719x600 JPeg, 1.7MB - sorry about the wierd parallax effects...the closer I am to a pic, the more distorted it gets when it's stutched together)

This was just an AMAZING "Welcome to Arizona" seeing this mammoth stone..."cave" hovering over us. But on closer inspection...get a look above the cave.

Looks like PumaCats suplex put Big Bear down, but here come the Lone Eagle! AND HE'S GOT A STEEL CHAIR!

They've put big animals up there in fighting poses (well, sleeping poses in the bear's case). While it's incredibly goofy, we learned on our trip...well...ALL OF ARIZONA IS LIKE THIS. Case in point - Holbrook, Arizona:

Someone has issues with women.

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

I wonder if he eats manniquins, too? :D

We entered Holbrook, looking for some more kitsch. We managed to find it, not just in the Dinosaur Park there (I have so many pictures of manniquins being eatne by dinos and "stranded" manniquins from that little stop). The frst was the Largest Map of US 66 in the World (of which there are two):

It was really the only thing we were looking for in the area...so w emade our way through town back to I-40 when suddenly...oh, my. WHAT'S THIS?

Have you slept in a wigwam lately?

The Wigwam Motel is a still running motel in Holbrook, AZ that is just pure pure 1950s joy, right down to the collector cars sitting in front of each wigwam. We spent about an hour here just exploring the wigwams (I wish a window was open so we could look in) and the antiques, as well as looking in the old motel office (closed, but neat looking through the windows!)

If I'd known about this place, I would have just retuned the vacation to stop HERE for a night (something that would come back to haunt me later this day). Maybe next time.

Maybe next time?

We got back on Highway 40 on our way to Flagstaff...

speaking of which:

And for those who don't get it:

Driving Down Highway 40 In My Big Old Pickup Truck

(Yeah. I took that pic on purpose. XD)

After driving for two days straight through the heat in a pickup with no working AC, the drive up to Flagstaff was a nice cool drive. The cool air of the mountains really gave us a second wind, which was good, considering that we were seriously running out of time to make the Grand Canyon. We'd spent too much time in Gallup and Holbrook. And we got lost in Williams as well, which ate TOO TOO much time. We were racing the clock.

After spending most of the drive up to Flagstaff going up up up, after crossing a pass north of Flagstaff, Emily let the the slightly hot-running truck coast. FOR EIGHT MILES. GOING 65 THE WHOLE WAY. They make those hills steep up there! :D

But with the sun now definately setting, and suddenly worrying about wether we'd actually GET to LAs Vegas on time, we punched it as hard as we could. Just before we got int the Canyon, we found another Mini-Grand Canyon at a Navajo Shop (I think it was the Little Colorado River Gorge) and pulled in. What I didn't realize at the time was that Emily thought THIS was the Grand Canyon - she would be in for a surprise in a bit. :D

The Colorado River Gorge (3690x768 JPeg, 2.2MB)

As we made our way to the Grand Canyon, Emily began to get worried about time and a storm we saw way off in the distance. We were running VERY late at this point, with sunset coming in about an hour. We pushed onto the Grand Canyon, and got there about thirty minutes before sunset. Before we got to the rim, Emily was itching to take off, because we were running so late. I was arguing that the Grand Canyon was a sight to behold, especially at sunset and that I'd be willing to let us be late to Vegas to see it. Then we hit the South Rim...

(4563x768 JPeg, 2.53 MB)

...and both of us stopped squabbling.

We were awestruck, totally awestruck. And then my fear of heights kicked in. While I really enjoyed what I saw, and just the sheer SIZE of the Canyon...my fear of heights, which got tweaked at the Little Colorado River Gorge went OFF THE SCALE here. To the point where I was beginning to feel seriously unwell. But I couldn't just leave this, swallowed my fear and kept going. And I'm glad, because I could never have caught these:

One of my favorite pictures of Emily. She's setting up the previous shot, sitting calmly next to a 300+ foot sheer drop. You'll notice I'm safely far away using a camera zoom. :D

We took off towards Williams, however, we both began worrying about how late it was. We were now totally out of light, and Vegas was still a LONG ways away. With all the stops and getting lost, we were running so so so far behind that Emily wanted to stop in Kingman instead of Vegas. I was actually kind of angry as well, because she wanted to stop driving, and hadn't considered that I enjoyed night driving. We decided to talk it over over dinner.

We'd both been driving a LONG time, and we were both cranky. I wanted to go on, Emily didn't. At first, I gave up, deciding that Vegas was out of our way, and we couldn't make it in time to head back out (I'd booked a half day for Trek in Vegas, coming IN late meant we'd just show up and head back out). I still had no problem driving at night, even with a storm out there, but we both weren't really in our right minds. we'd gotten so punchy we were talking at each other not to each other.

We compromised. We left for Kingman, with me driving while Emily slept, but we'd only be going to Kingman. I made it about halfway when the food hit me - I couldn't keep awake because of food coma. I fought it as hard as I could, but I couldn't, and pulled over somewhere in the desert. Emily got up, drove the rest of the way to Kingman while I slept. Once we were there however, I'd had an hour of sleep, and was feeling a bit more rested.

It was already 1AM. With both of us more coherent, though, we decided to press on for Vegas. I'd drive the rest of the way, and she could sleep on the way up. We also took one of our San Francisco days, and transferred it to Vegas. We would have the whole day there, instead of just the morning. We could sleep in, get to stuff at our leisure, see the sights, and take off the next morning.

She slept just to Henderson and woke up in time to see the whole ofLas Vegas appear out of nowhee after a rise in the hills. We made a beeling for our hotel - it was 3AM by this time, and koncked out, despite the casino outside making it brighter than daylight.