Before you ask: No, we have not stood on the corner yet.  We are saving that for tomorrow.

You may have noticed we missed a posting.  There was nothing to post yesterday as we did not move from Albuquerque.  We had a sick day.  We are bound to have a day or two of those in a four week period.  Maybe the timing was good as the weather was extremely hot yesterday in New Mexico and we probably would not have gotten very far anyway.

We were feeling better this morning so we headed out nice and early.  The weather was beautiful!  Overcast and a chilly 18 degrees Celsius!  Just like home!

We crossed the Rio Grande first thing this morning.  We were expecting something “grande” but it was “poco” instead.  I guess for a very dry, desert-like area, it was pretty big.  We certainly did not cross any rivers bigger than the Rio Grande today.  Most of them were muddy creeks.

The landscape of New Mexico continued to impress us all morning and we took some more photos along the I-40 at various rest stops.  Our last stop in New Mexico to day was a Texaco in Gallup (as a sidebar, we did not see any Texacos in Texas but there seems to be a lot in New Mexico and Arizona – struck us as rather odd).  Gallup was definitely the most active and vibrant of the Route 66 towns we had been in so far.  There were three motorcyclists at the same gas station as us that had come almost as far as us.  They were from Maryland and on their way to California as well.

After Gallup, we “galloped” back on to the I-40 and made good time all the way to Arizona and the Petrified Forest National Park.  We had just intended to take a quick photo of some petrified trees and then move on, but, once we were on the parkway, we were blown away by the scenery.  Everywhere we looked we wanted to take a picture.  I think it has something to do with the fact that it is nothing like what we have in Canada.  Our photos will probably not do the Petrified Forest National Park justice, but hopefully you can get an idea of the amazing landscapes we saw today.

During our time in the Petrified Forest, the sun came out and the temperature soared up to 30 degrees Celsius.  While we were in the gift shop, our sheepskin seat covers decided they had had enough of the “weather down south” and made a break for it.  They didn’t get far. 

After leaving the Petrified Forest, we headed to the nearest town – Holbrook, Arizona – for a late lunch and lots of fluids.  We stopped at Joe and Aggie’s Café located on Historic Route 66.   We had some excellent Mexican food and received some Arizona sight-seeing tips from Joe and Aggie.  With our bellies full and our fluid levels topped up, we were able to make that last stretch to Winslow to yet another Holiday Inn Express.  The hotel is under renovation but the room is clean and air-conditioned – so we are happy.