February 16, 2005 - Drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We packed up and hit the road by 9 o'clock, driving steadily east on I-40 for the entire morning. The desert landscape did not appear as barren as when we last drove this stretch during Wanderung 3. Sagebrush became the main plant, which was the same as I recalled from our previous trip, but it was more intermingled with grasses than I remembered. So either I didn't remember the ecology correctly from our previous trip or the recent spate of rains in the southwest had caused an efflorescence of vegetation, particularly grasses or sedges.

The geology along this part of the route was particularly striking. From the Arizona-New Mexico border east we had beautiful cliff formations for many miles. Many of these formations were a vivid reddish hue, which looked to me like sandstone, and some were also beige sand-colored, which might have been limestone or sandstone. Some of the formations really did remind us of cathedrals or other graceful structures, and at one point we saw an absolutely huge, curved wall that looked just like a part of a wall of an ancient castle.

In fact, the resemblance to a man-made stone wall was so strong that Monika and I puzzled over it for several seconds as we drove by before finally deciding that it had to be natural. I would have really liked to have taken time and walked up to and around some of the more intricately carved formations, and I was curious that no one seemed to offer any kind of tours into that back country. I, for one, would have been sorely tempted by offers of that kind, much more so than the "Kachina Dolls, Indian Jewelry, Hand Made Rugs, Indian Pottery for sale" offers that we saw at most exits.

We traversed the Continental Divide at 7200 feet Mean Sea Level altitude, but again on this route the grade was so gradual we could not have discerned where it was without the aid of our map. Of course, the exit sign that said, "Continental Divide" was also a good clue. Similarly, an exit that was labeled, "Refinery Road" did in fact have a road leading over to a big oil refinery on the north side of the interstate. You have to give the New Mexico Department of Transportation credit for truth in signage.

We also passed the lava fields that we had noticed on Wanderung 3, and I was only sorry that we were slowly but surely running out of time and could not stop and visit. One park to the south featured an old volcano plus an ice cave, and I did want to see that. But we pushed on through a string of Indian Reservations to reach Albuquerque a little after 2 o'clock that afternoon. We rented a site in an old mobile home park we had found in our camping book, set up the trailer, and called my brother to check in.

Since they were at home and receiving visitors, we drove over to spend the rest of the afternoon with Terry and his family, and the dogs, and the cats. Pepper and Sweet Pea, Phyllis's dogs, were extremely excited to see us, but they calmed down after a while. The cats took us in stride, as cats typically do, but didn't mind us stroking them so that was nice. Most of our time, of course, was spent yakking away about any topics that came to mind. I had time to talk with Nathan about his bike, a nice Nishiki, and with Joel about the classes he was taking at the local university.

We broke off talking for dinner and for a couple of trips to the nearest drugstore where I had some prescriptions refilled and we bought some Prilosec for Phyllis to try. That gave us a chance to ride in Terry's new car, a 1998 Volkswagen Jetta, to see how it drove. We started turning into pumpkins around 8 p.m. and returned to the trailer before we got too tired; being tired always makes driving in the dark in a strange city rather stressful, I've found. Back at the trailer we put in a little time on our computer chores before finally turning in for the night.