Albuquerque

As I left the hotel this morning the sun was rising over Dallas in my rear view mirror and I was facing a wall of headlights from the cars driving into the city.  I was very thankful to be heading in the opposite direction of rush hour traffic.  Today was my big driving day; 11 hours according to Google maps, although I think it ended up being a little less.  Since it was just a day full of driving, I don't have too many fun stories to tell although the scenery was quite beautiful.  I don't think there are a lot of places where you just see the horizon, uninterrupted everywhere you look.  Normally there are buildings or mountains in the way, but not in Texas.

At one point though, I did see some enormous, futuristic structure rising up out of the horizon as I drove closer to it.  I thought perhaps it was some sort of newly built dam or an airport, but nope, it was the Texas Motor Speedway.  I stopped for lunch in Amarillo at a cute little bakery cafe that I'd found through Urbanspoon.  I had a pretty good prosciutto and mozzarella panini with fig jam, except that they put iceberg lettuce inside.  Hmmm, I guess I should've expected something like that in Texas.

I was worried that I wouldn't be arriving in Albuquerque until much later in the evening, but happily I got here while the sun was still up.  I had booked my hotel in downtown, so after researching a few restaurants I set out to explore.  I'm sure (well, mostly sure) that nice parts of Albuquerque exist, but downtown is NOT one of them.  I come from the ghetto of Richmond and I've stayed in the downtown areas of all the other cities, but I obviously made a big mistake with this place.  The hotel itself is nice enough, but the surround area is overrun with homeless people and other vagrants.  I could barely walk a block without some asking me for something. 

Eventually I found what (according to the internet) was supposed to be one of the nicer restaurants in the area.  Even before I walked in, I was confused.  There were workmen and construction looking equipment all around the outside.  Were they even open?  Then when I walked in... lights, camera, action!!  There were cameras and lighting and a director and make-up people and all sorts of craziness.  I think the restaurant was actually still open for business, but it freaked me out so I left.  After a quick Google search I found out they were filming a movie called Ten Year.  Since the first restaurant didn't work out, the only other suitable looking option I could find was a Thai place.  It was, meh...  Although I'm feeling tired, I guess it's still early so maybe I'll head down to the hotel restaurant for some dessert and a nightcap.