New Mexico to Colorado

Hello blog followers-
Had hoped to post every day but our location in New Mexico last night was so remote that we could not pick up any signal..tried to post through the iPhone to no avail. So...here's the first posting since pulling out on Monday am. Highlights and lowlights? Let's start with the "lowlights"..

• Just as we pulled onto the highway (Route 19!) the closet opened up and dumped all our clothes everywhere. Lesson learned- everything must be secured and double secured, and be careful when opening up any cabinet or closet.
• Tonight we are at Garden of the Gods Campground in Colorado Springs, CO. We are here because Paul had a nostalgic memory of the G of the G from his childhood, visiting his brother at the Air Force Academy. Memory is a dangerous thing. This place has neither gardens nor Gods, but many, many people squeezed into an overgrown parking lot- men in wife beaters, ladies with bad tats, etc. That is ALL I am allowed to say- Paul insists on being positive (remember this, Rachel and Pete?) The best part- we are leaving tomorrow at 7 am.

"Highlights"?

• Northern New Mexico is beautiful. Rolling hills of pinon, green, beautiful little churches with tin roofs. Last night's digs, the Manzano Mts State Park, was lovely and quiet, with gorgeous hiking trails all around- juniper and ponderosa pine. Nice dinner of chicken chili, a lovely Spanish red, and we were happy.

OK, Paul's turn to post. One more thing- had my first long turn at the wheel today- about 5 hours through NM and into Colorado- I only gave up when we started to get into some scary mountain climbs. I'll let Paul comment on my driving abilities.
P-man here. She did great through some very challenging driving-- think of Storrow Drive with a 5% grade. Northern New Mexico is a very interesting piece of geography. It is the high desert, (7200 feet for a lot of it) quite green, but the stream beds are still dry. There are roughly 114 million little green bushes all over it, a scrub pine of some kind. My little Virgin Mobile Broadband card did very well, creating for the other fools the impression that I was in the office! When we got near the Colorado line though, no signal of any kind other than Verizon wireless-- put that in your "which broadband to buy" review. Dogs settle down at my feet as we drive at 68 mph and I pretend to be working. This is a lot of fun, and one can easily imagine what the McMurtry characters were seeing every day. Adios amigos, meatloaf needs scorching.