Hotel 76

Welcome visitors to the Hotel 76! I lived here for a few hours. I found it to be quite nice. I mean check out that bad ass wall art! Of course who am I kidding? It's a budget hotel. However for a space traveler like myself, a perfect accommodation. Mine was a non smoking room, but the comforter had cigar burns in it. Oh BTW, no dresser drawer, and do you know what that means? the Gideons had no place to hide a bible.
I slept very well that night and I think something broke in my head as I had changed timezones.

Before I slept I talked to my girlfriend on the phone. I haven't seen her since the Sunday after finals (May 13th). It's been hard but I'm looking forward to seeing her in July when I go north to Seattle.

Chapter 1, Verse 2: Old Town - A Place for Old Things!

As I approached Albuquerque, I crossed a storm plain. After a brief shower, I entered a valley.

While the picture doesn't do it justice, the valley was really beautiful. I could still hear subtle thunder behind me as I came closer and closer to metropolitan Albuquerque. I love how in the Southwest everything is adobe or at least adobe styled. Even the overpasses here are painted in a pale salmon adobe color and accented with a turquoise stripe or Navajo pattern.
Once I pulled into Albuquerque, I immediately made haste to Old Town. I wanted to see the street merchants and browse through the jewelery. However, since it was late, I knew I would be challenged to find any still out. While the streets were sparsely populated, I still was pleasantly emerged in my surroundings. Old town is beautiful. There were so many area to explore and things to look at.
This old Catholic covenant was amazing. If you inspect the photo closer, you can see the preacher/father wearing his robes. You will notice that his robes have the Navajo influence. I think this is very cool. The garden was really nice too.
As said before, not many street artists were still out when I came by. However I did find a nice lady willing to let me photograph her jewelry. As I looked around at beautiful Old Town, I kind of sadness set in. I was overcome by the thoughts of the Native Americans of this continent and how a rich culture has now almost been reduced to nothing. All that is left is a few proud who must use the art of there culture to make money. I'm sure that the color combinations are pretty, I know I like the visual texture of the stones, the silver work is amazing, but I feel embarrassingly uneducated about the Navajo culture and felt like just another tourist looking at shinny pretty things.
That evening I got some Mexican food in Old Town. I ordered a "Christmas Chimichanga" which had both red and green chili on top. I sat there and listened to the Flaminco guitarist play and roam the room.

In that moment, I felt free. I let myself slow down. I had no thoughts of Rolla, my life or of my future. In that moment, I was just myself, and I was happy.

Chapter 1, Verse 2: Wind Robots, God Robots, & Aviators

In the morning, I woke Lane to tell him I was leaving. He told me through his door to drive safe. It seemed like rational advice so I took it. Before leaving I played with the house cat, "Data," for a minute, then brushed my teeth.
Once on the road I found that western Oklahoma was really interesting! As you can tell by the crystal clear photo above, I was in high spirits. However, despite being my normal charming self, something was missing, and there were many miles before I'd be at my final destination for the day: Albuquerque, NM. Hey! Check it out! Earth propellers! Evaluating all empirical evidence available, I have two hypothesis as to their purpose.
1) These propellers spin and cause the world to spin! Fantastical!
2) Wind from thermal currents spins the propellers and generates energy! Clean Energy! All the energy we could ever want to power our oil wells and refineries!
Either way, I was pleased.

Once across the Texas, something seemed different. I couldn't quite place my finger on it, but in the vast expance that is Texas, I felt like I was safe, or saved... safed. Maybe it was because I was near the Western Hemisphere's largest cross! Being that I saw no giant Jesus on the iron cross, I came to the most rational conclusion: The Jesus robot was out on patrol patrol (if you don't get that joke, you need to see UCB).
Honestly though, A cross that size can save a lot of people. Like two busses full of sleeping children. Sadly, big as it may be, the giant robot cross was still insufficiant at saving a savage like me. Something was still missing, I thought is was salvation, but as I neared Amarillo I found what was missing.
Aviator sunglasses! Or as my esteemed friend Stir would say: "BAPS." Bad Ass Pilot Shades. Once acquired, my road stats certainly improved. More to come as I approach NM.

The Return of the Internets

Hey space travelers! I'm in Phoenix, and I've got many stories to tell from the road for the last two days but since I'm fresh off the road, give me a few hours to update. BTW, while on the road I came up with some new ideas for the sidebar, so keep your eyes peeled for new stuff! Oh yeah, one more thing. Since I brought up the sidebar, I'm interested in expanding my top5 lists into top 10 lists, so if you have any input, leave a bumper sticker!