Thursday, 4 August 2005.  Elk City, OK to Albuquerque, New Mexico

Back onto I-40 about 8:30 a.m.  While a scheduled "burn" day, the trip from Elk City to Albuquerque turned out to be very pleasant.  The heat has broken and temperatures were mostly in the mid to high 80's. We dodged a few showers, but otherwise traveling was uneventful. Traveled the through the remainder of Oklahoma, then the panhandle of Texas, then into New Mexico and a time change.

It's remains surprising to us how the terrain and flora seems to change as we go from state to state — Oklahoma to Texas to New Mexico, even though the state boundaries seem to be more or less arbitrary lines on a map. As from Missouri to Oklahoma, after each border it soon looks different.

We got to Albuquerque about 5 p.m.  The drop from the New Mexico high desert east of the city into the Rio Grande River valley and the City of Albuquerque is rather dramatic — 7000 feet to 5000 feet at our motel on Central Ave. near the river.  This section of Central Ave. was part of the old Route 66.  Compared to our Econolodge of the night before, this motel was luxurious at less cost, and even had a small indoor pool.

That evening, we walked a block or so from the motel to Albuquerque's Old Town. Things had pretty much closed up, and only a few shops were still open. Supposedly this square is pretty much as it was a hundred years or so ago — but being a skeptic, I wonder. We stopped in one bar for a (weak) Margarita, then on to another café for a second and dinner. Pretty good Mexican. Very good Margarita.