Dateline: Gallup, NM

 

On the outskirts of Albuquerque

With one notable exception, today was a day to cover distance, with most of it spent inside a moving vehicle as we traveled from Amarillo in Texas to Gallup, New Mexico, a city of 22,000 souls just a stone's throw from the Arizona state line (that is, if you can hurl a rock a little more than twenty miles). Of course, we did stop from time to time in order to answer nature's call, satisfy our Honda's thirst for fuel and to fuel up ourselves with lunch. Competition for customers along Interstate 40 can be fierce - Russell's Truck & Travel Center in Glenrio, NM holds out the prospect of a free car museum to entice drivers to stop and have a look. Which we did:

My daughter was shocked to learn that gas could once be purchased for only 30¢ a gallon; I was shocked that I'm old enough to remember such a time. So far the most we've paid on this trip has been around $4.60/gallon, but California is looming in the not too distant future:

Continuing with the Route 66 theme:

After being on the road since last Friday, we finally reached the desert, though it wasn't the cactus-filled arid land my wife has been expecting. While Shu-E drove throughout the morning, I tried to capture a few of the scenes from the front passenger seat:

It was when we reached Albuquerque in the early afternoon (helped by the change from the Central to Mountain time zones, which gave us an extra hour to use) that we stopped to get out and really stretch our legs. The Petroglyph National Monument is home to more than 20,000 rock etchings carved by Native Americans and Spanish settlers between 400 and 700 years ago. We paid a visit at the visitor center to determine which trail best suited our schedule:

On the advice of the friendly ranger there, we settled on Boca Negra Canyon, home to three short trails:

More than a hundred of the petroglyphs can be easily seen here. Though some are obvious (animals and people, for example), others are difficult to decipher, and the intentions behind them remain known only to the carvers:

Standing at the top of the hill, a mile (5280 feet/1609 meters) above sea level. In the distance the Sandia Mountains crest at 10,678 feet (3255 meters), while below lies the Rio Grande valley, with a history of human habitation going back 3000 years:

A stylized Christian cross carved by Spanish sheepherders:

The monument area is also home to a pair of millipede species:

Back on the road, and the scenery became ever more beautiful and spectacular. Amber and Shu-E took these photos while I drove further west, getting closer to Arizona. The American southwest can seem like a desolate and harsh region, but I can understand why some choose to live there:

Tonight we're staying in Gallop, the city with the highest violent crime rate in the state of New Mexico. For our evening repast we dined at the Oasis Mediterranean Restaurant, where my daughter and I both had the shawarma chicken:

The baklawa for dessert was the perfectly sweetened way to end the day:

 

No wrong turns at Albuquerque for us today, but what about tomorrow?