Day 16, Wednesday  10/05/2011

You may have noticed that I skipped yesterday, mostly because I had nothing nice to say.  Our destination was Amarillo, TX, for one night and we managed to get through it.  We arrived in a gale force wind, found our campsite, and set up the camper - while the wind was whipping all around us.  Went inside and you wouldn't believe the sound of that wind buffeting the camper. I was sure we wouldn't be able to get a minute's sleep.  So we decided to brave the wind again and went out to dinner (that always makes us feel better).  We went to the Big Texan Steak Ranch, which you may have seen featured on one of the "places you've gotta eat" TV shows.  They serve a 72oz (yes, 72) steak, and if you can eat it in one hour, along with the two sides dishes, it's free - and it ought to be! Anyway, lots of people have done it, but no, Mike didn't even try.  He swears he didn't schedule the stop in Amarillo just so that he could go there to eat, but we'll never really know, will we?
Anyway, by the time we got home, the wind had died down, so we were able to get a good night's sleep.  But I have to tell you, I couldn't care less about traveling through this town again.  Desolate, run down, dirt everywhere. (I just had to attach the picture).  I told Mike, with the wind blowing like that, all we needed was some tumbleweed to blow through, and I'd swear we were in a western movie.

Fortunately, today was much better.  We arrived in Albuquerque, NM, this afternoon, and it's a much nicer area.  It will take some getting used to, all this red earth, but we were expecting it, and the mountains that frame the city are really spectacular.  I'm going to try to get some good pictures tomorrow.  Somehow we lucked out and the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is this week.  Couldn't have come here at a better time.  They'll be launching 600+ balloons, so I expect it will be something to see. Can't wait!  Till tomorrow.....  (By the way, we've crossed a couple of time zones - we're in mountain time - so we are now 2 hours behind you.  When it's 9pm there, it's 7pm for us here.  Just though you might like to know.)