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MeznG. In the air, on the road, river or sea again
No need to prepare breakfast this morning as we will go and take advantage if the hospitality of our hosts and have the complimentary continental brekkie. Time for a walk, on the way we put the sheets into wash! Gotta love clean sheets!!! We chuck a few laps around the park checking out the other RV's, there are some of those $400k units we saw the other day and most of those are towing their cars along with them. It's a lifestyle not just a vacation for some of these people. Back to the laundry to put the sheets in the dryer, time for showers and breakfast. There are at least 3 people in the dining area making sure that the coffee pot is full and there's plenty of everything else. There was cereal, all kinds of things to toast, from bread to bagels to fruit bread and a cream cheese filled cake. Sweets for breakfast....really? But of course we tried it all, just because we could. The sheets are dry, we are ready to rock and roll. We need a fuel stop first up and this is where at 9am we hear what will be the quote of the day, if not the quote of the trip. The lady in the gas station - American Mid West Accent - "Did y'all drive all the way from Australia? ........Yep she was serious.!!! This gas station was nothing out of the ordinary but when Glenn starts walking around taking photos, he does rouse the suspicion of the locals. Particularly the driver of the little American Postal Service Van that is at the pump next to us. We are sure he thinks we are going to rob him and he becomes more concerned when Liz goes over to chat to him. That's right she creates the diversion with her smile and light conversation while Milton takes all the parcels out of his van and Glenn captures it all on camera. I'm riding shotgun in Harvey. What is really happening is Liz thought she might like a photo with the little delivery van. Now that he realizes he is not in danger he is more than obliging with the request in fact he insists on being in the photo. Furthermore he offers up some tourist tips, a place to get a good steak for lunch, suggests our RV rental must be costin' us plenty and says we won't see much on 66 goin' this way. We thank him for his input shut all the windows and doors and get out of there. I think he was going to be our new best friend. The plan is to visit the old town in Albuquerque this morning, but Mother Nature is shedding some tears on us again. We decide its too wet so we pull over near the park put the kettle and the coffee on and have morning tea overlooking the park instead of in it. The old town are streets lined with little shops selling a variety of Native American goods, jewelry etc. it is still raining quite heavily so we do a drive by instead of a walk. Leaving Albuquerque we hit the road again bound for Gallup. The country we are driving through is largely desert , rocky outcrops, mountains, little villages. It's interesting and ever changing. It's real cowboy and western stuff. We stop at the NW New Mexico Visitor centre to pick up some more information and come out with enough things to do for the next 6 weeks. We will have to rationalize so we head out to El Malpais to the Sandstone bluffs. This is all volcanic country with the last eruption 2 million years ago. This is such amazing country. At the overlook we chat to some people from New Jersey, they having nothing like this on the East Coast. It's majestic. We are at about 6000 ft and there are shallow rock pools with tadpoles. we are just looking at the tadpoles when a little black and yellow water snake pops his head up. Once again we put our catering hats on and throw together a gourmet lunch of toasted rolls, chicken and salad and we enjoy this with the view of the Sandstone Bluffs. Further along the road we come to the La Ventana natural arch. We park and follow the path to this enormous natural arch. The land formations are awesome. Next is The Narrows an then the South Narrows. This is a very beautiful place, one we would not have found with out the information from the ranger at the visitor centre. We make our way back out to Route 66 and head to Grants another little town that has been swallowed up by the interstate. Gallup is our destination today and we are here before 5pm. Another USA RV park tonight with the creature comforts of WiFi and nice clean facilities. Funnily enough though it sits between an airfield and the train line so we'll see how we go. Ear plugs might be required. We are treating ourselves tonight by going to the El Rancho Hotel. It's the hotel where John Wayne stayed while he was making movies in the Wild Wild West and some of the movies were actually filmed here as well. Upstairs on the landing there is photo display of actors from the good old days, mostly westerns but most of them are autographed. We stay for dinner, its ok nothing to get excited about but it was apparently a must do in Gallup. The most exciting thing is that its dark when we come out and so we get to see the neon lights of Gallup.- first time we've been out at night since leaving Chicago! It's quite cool again tonight, the RV park has filled up considerably since we arrived. At this park they offer a BBQ between 5 and 7pm and ice cream and cobbler from 7pm to 8pm. There is a lovely covered outdoor area with lights where all of this takes place. It's a great idea as we are a bit out of town. It's a shame we couldn't partake but it was nice on the other hand to have a meal out. Today was a day of pleasant surprises especially the landscapes and scenery that we have enjoyed. Goodnight Harvey xx
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