27 A.D.
Q. Why do all of the people on Greyhound with babies come
and sit right by us?
A. There is no answer, I just needed to get that out of my
We made our connection in Amarillo without a hitch, though I
could not get the infamous song out of my head (the young couple we chatted to
in the queue had never heard of it – guess Tony Christie was never that
successful round this neck of the woods). As we made our approach to
Albuquerque, the sun slowly rose on the horizon and I noticed the terrain had
changed to the rocky, mountainous variety, not a million miles from that of
Andalucia (more like about 5,000 miles, actually). When we’d arrived in Texas
it felt like we’d already crossed the border, but now having reached New Mexico
it really felt like we were in...errr...old Mexico. I wouldn’t have been
surprised if the signs were in Spanish first and English second.
As usual we arrived hours before check-in, but a scouting
mission discovered a very convenient diner right next to the hotel with free
wi-fi. What we hadn’t spotted was a place called “Hot Yoga” across the road and
were very surprised to find ourselves chomping away at our breakfast specials
to the sight of ladies stretching vigorously in their leotards just a short distance
away. Hey, come on, we’re not lecherous or anything, but after an all-nighter
on the bus you sometimes need more than just a hot coffee to help you start
your day!
We are staying two nights at The Stardust Inn, an establishment that labels
itself on its flyers as, “The land of enchantment”. Puh! It’s the type of place
we’re fast getting used to – roadside motels with basic facilities and no frills
at a pretty good price, but I haven’t come close to being enchanted so far! All
of these cheap and not-so-cheerful places are lined along what was the historic
route 66 – that great old road of legend that ran across deepest Americana from
Chicago to Los Angeles, now superseded by the modern highway system. It would
be kinda cool to go along it on a big, fat Harley Davidson, rather than in my
faded blue Puma sneakers. But that’s tomorrow’s activity.
It’s not as hot in New Mexico as it has been elsewhere, but
we waited until late afternoon to nip out for supplies. The Family Dollar store
was a 15 minute walk away (partly east on route 66 – well rock `n` roll!) and I
bought some low grade aftershave to replace that which I broke in N`awlins. We
then stopped at the regular supermarket to get sandwich supplies, alcoholic
supplies, etc., but just as we were
leaving, the heavens opened and we found ourselves staring at torrential rain yet again. After
trying to wait it out for 20 minutes, our rumbling stomachs forced us out into
the storm. We didn’t get too badly wet, but one chap aquaplaned his pick-up
truck into a lamp post (video camera was too out of reach to capture the scene).
We decided to stay in and take it easy that night – hey, we
can’t go crazy every evening! And we had plenty more plotting and planning for
the coming stops to keep us entertained – we’re not reduced to playing Guess That Smell just yet. Things took a
slight turn for the worse when we realised that we’d bought a pack of Steel
Reserve beer...each can being 8.1% strength...that’s the equivalent to
special brew back home, and we’d bought 12 cans of the stuff! Plus we only
had two days in which to drink it all! What to do, Grayboys, what to do...
I was awoken early by the maid demanding I give
her the towels which we’d only used for one shower each and which were bone dry. She
didn’t speak any English so I took the opportunity to ask her for an extra
toilet roll in broken Spanish (there hadn’t been any tummy trouble the night
before, just that the room hadn’t been re-stocked when we moved in
and you always want a spare just in case). The Steel Reserve had done its best
to wound me, but I felt reasonably okay. Tim, on the other hand, was not so
good – don’t get me wrong, he can handle his ale, but for the first half an
hour of the day all I could get out of him was the odd groan. The so-called
continental breakfast turned out to be the tiniest yet and not what you’d
expect from The Land of Enchantment, but at least we were able to load up on
cereal...and more cereal...and nothing else.
Slightly later than usual, we headed downtown to enjoy the sounds,
the sights, and the smells of Albuquerque, New Mexico. However, apart from having
the glory of route 66 running through it, I wasn’t sure if there was anything
else worth doing in this town. The guidebook said that most travellers rush
through it and head for Santa Fe. Also, it’s never a good sign when the book
does not feature a downtown map of what is the largest metropolis in the whole
state – I was having to use handwritten directions copied down from
Google Maps!
One thing we were able to do downtown was cash in our
travellers cheques – loadsamoney! We went to the Bank of America, which is
affiliated with Barclays. It was the type of bank where the staff knew
everybody’s names (except for ours, of course). Downtown held few other
attractions, besides the odd street monument, so we headed on through to Old
Town, a small area which dates back to 1706 when Albuquerque was officially
founded. Old Town was okay to browse around for a bit, mostly full of souvenir
shops and places to eat, but we already had sandwiches to munch on. The clerk
in one of the shops said that the best thing we should do was go up into the mountains
that looked down on the city from the east side, but unfortunately this would
prove incredibly difficult without a car.
And that, essentially, was that – time to head back along
route 66 to The Stardust Inn and gather around the netbook again. Last night
(before the Steel Reserve kicked in) we’d been able to come up with a proposed
route for the remainder of our time in the US of A, so now all we had to do was
cross the T’s and dot the lower case J’s. However, there were still several
cans of Steel Reserve that had to be drunk, and the last thing we wanted to do
was oversleep and miss our check out time...or worse, our bus to...LAS
VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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