Bye Bye New Mexico

I had not looked at the flight information and took Andrew at his word that our flight was at 4:45. We have all day to meander from Farmington to ABQ. We get the contintental breakfast and hit a Starbucks.

We travel south and then Andrew thinks we can take a back road through the mountains. It works for a while. Then, I see signs that say "Unpaved and unimproved road." All Andrew sees is "unimproved." He thinks that just means no shoulder.

No.

It means no pavement. We end up on a mud road, fishtailing back and forth, sliding to the ditch, and generally sure we are going to end up as stuff on the side of a cliff. We manage to turn around and by some miracle of God get back to asphalt. The car is a mess. There's mud INSIDE the car.

Then I check the flight. No, it's 3:45. That elimates a side trip to some parts of Bernalillo. Ah, well.

We get gas, and Andrew is convinced that if we don't wash the car he'll be in trouble. It knocks some off, but importantly, the car is again cosmetically pleasing. What's underneath and in the wheelwells is someone else's issue.

We then get a reason not to support Bill Richardson for president. The taxes on car rentals in New Mexico is ridiculous. Worse than Florida kind of ridiculous.

Bye bye New Mexico. I'll be back. Maybe with a moving van.