Travels with Alex, part 2

I don't think I like New Mexico. I know that's a terrible thing to say, but coming from Arizona which has so much -- Grand Canyon, saguaro cacti, petrified forest, painted desert, Meteor Crater -- New Mexico is just...boring. That, and I got a speeding ticket just outside of Albuquerque.

I did have one nice moment in New Mexico when I went in search of Window Rock -- oh, wait a second, that was still Arizona. Well anyway, I wanted to see this rock so I was following the signs for miles out in the middle of nowhere before I finally gave up, and turned around to go back to the freeway. As soon as I turned around, I saw this spectacular rock formation that had been behind me the entire time. So I grabbed my camera, and it mooed.

It turned out a cow happened to moo at the exact time I grabbed my camera. A few moments later, that cow came crashing through the underbrush, and was only about 10 feet away. But then I heard some other cows, and pretty soon there was an entire herd right by my car. In the middle of nowhere. And they were eyeing me suspiciously. I took a couple of pictures and then sped off before any bulls thought Pontiacinante was a potential threat. (I hope you Steinbeck fans are appreciating these literary allusions, because nobody else is.)

I would have loved to take some pictures of my iguana at the Dinosaur Museum, also in Arizona, but I really wanted to make some distance today after yesterday's paltry 600 miles.

I made 642 miles.

Besides the ticket and the cows, the only other adventure I had was when my cap blew off on the I-40. (Downside of a convertible.) I circled around to get it, which in the middle of the desert meant going 10 miles to the next exit, 15 miles back to the last exit, and then 5 miles back to my cap. As I wasted half an hour on a $12 cap, I had this mental picture of arriving in Pennsylvania with tread marks across my cap and Dawn saying, "Did somebody run over your hat?" to which I would reply, "No, someone ran over my head but the cap saved me."

I have a lot of time to think of things like that. Unfortunately, nobody ran over my cap.

So I don't know where all the time went, although I did lose two hours in time zones going from Arizona to Texas. Still, 12 hours of driving and only 642 miles is pathetic. At this rate, I won't get to Pennsylvania until Sunday night.

Tonight I am in Shamrock, Texas, and the inn offers free Internet access but they don't have wireless, and I don't have a wire, so I will have to publish this tomorrow. I am a little worried about the rest of the trip because I am now "off the map." You'd think, planning a cross-country drive I would have brought more than the AAA Map of the Western States, but you'd be overestimating me. I do have directions, of course, but no maps. Of course, when directions are "Take I-40 east for 1,208 miles, I-44 for 480 miles, then I-70 for 570 miles" you'd hope I wouldn't need a map. Besides, if I knew all the cool things I was driving by, I'd never get to Pennsylvania.

Oh, and one last thing that is actually related to our restoration project that this journal is supposed to be about: a photographer from the Lancaster Intelligencer came out to get some 'before' photos before the grand opening. When they called, I almost asked where they were sixteen months ago, but I held my tongue. And besides, right now they're doing all the finish work, which is the visible portion anyway. Pictures of the walls sixteen months ago don't look much different than pictures of the walls today, except for the paint.