downhill

I spent last night in Albuquerque and tonight its Amarillo, Texas, a ride downhill. Beside the difference in altitude, the food isn't so good either. If you ever visit Albuquerque, make sure you have dinner at the Church St Café, its in Old Town and worth the drive. Today was a full boxing day, 15 finds and I found out a little about my preplanning too.  I started printing boxes to be found on this trip in March and thought I had done  a pretty thorough job. Ive had a few surprises. Some of the boxes have gone missing and some more got planted. I had about a 70% coverage, meaning about 70% were actually printed and I found them, the rest went missing or I printed the clue in the hotel last night.  Im pleased with the $35 printer I bought for the trip too. Today I saw the first plowed field since I left California. It was just across the Texas border. And I let Venus into the truck today sans harness. If you've been reading along, you know she escaped in Los Banos the first day. The replacement harness seems tight over her neck and she squawks when I take it off, so today we drove without a harness. She never bolted for the door and seemed pretty content; lots of singing when I played the radio. Speaking of radios, I sure appreciate Sirius XM satellite radio; no jump to jesus, no farm reports and no espanol, just good old Bloomberg.
Hwy 40 is loaded with relics of the route 66, decaying hotels, gas stations in shambles, café signs leaning against walls. It made me realize how much commerce was generated along this highway with folks wanting to reach California. I spent some time on the old rte 66 and I could hear the pavement talking about the millions of people who passed there. I even planted a letterbox at a dismantled indian gift store at the continental divide. I found a few boxes at a Mountain Lion zoo near Flagstaff as well. I think in many places along this road, nothing at all has changed in the last hundred thousand years too.