Day 2: Amarillo to Albuquerque

Today was the day of the famed New Mexico green chile. I’d been told about it previously, but had to have some myself.

The New Mexico chile is a local cultivar of the species, or subspecies otherwise represented as Anaheim peppers. The large, flavorful New Mexican variety gives the region’s cuisine much of its distinctive style, and used so extensively that it is known simply as “chile”. Green chiles are those that are picked unripe; they are fire-roasted, then peeled before further use. Unlike the ultra-mild canned supermarket green chiles, New Mexico green chiles can range from mild to hotter than jalapeños, and come in grades of spiciness at markets that cater to chile aficionados. (Wikipedia)

Leaving the hotel at 8:30 in the morning, I set out from Amarillo at a rather leisurely pace. The drive to Albuquerque was considerably more straightforward as compared to Houston-Amarillo: I simply headed west all day on I-40, ’till I finally got to the city.

Slated to last about five hours, I made sure to stop at various points to get some shots of the fields, which eventually turned into more undeveloped desert areas.

I also took the time to pull out the tripod to snap some shots of me wearing the cowboy hat, before I left Texas and crossed into New Mexico.

At some point I stopped to grab gas from a Shell station. I haven’t seen an Exxon station in quite literally hundreds of miles. Damn. When I did finally cross into New Mexico, I was greeted by higher speed limits (75 as compared to the 65-70 that I had been used to on most of the Texas routes), and an interesting warning about speeding: according to the sign, instead of sitting out in patrol cars looking to catch speed demons, ’round these parts, they use airplanes to catch speeders. Interesting!

About an hour outside of Albuquerque, I stopped to grab lunch. I was looking for something local rather than another Dairy Queen stop, and sure enough, after passing what must have been fifteen billboards advertising “Clines Corner” and all its wonderful gastronomical goodness, I pulled over. I sat down to a green chili cheesebuger, enjoying both the service and the food. There was definitely a different kind of pop to the green chile. Spent some time browsing the souvenir shop, too—the first of several souvenir shops for the day; more on that later.

Back on the road, the approach to Albuquerque saw me slowly going up in altitude, with a more drastic change in terrain happening in the last fifteen or so minutes just as I approached the city proper.

I got to the hotel at around 2:30, checked in, chilled out for about an hour and a half, and then headed back out to explore Old Town Albuquerque. I guess I should have expected the onslaught of souvenir shops going into it. But there were also a few historical landmarks to walk through and read about, and some interesting restaurants and cafés. I eventually settled on some frozen yogurt, though, ’cause I wasn’t quite so hungry as I was a bit hot.

Eventually, after about two hours of walking through town, I saddled up and headed back to the hotel, which was only a ten minutes drive away. That was about 6 o’clock. Turns out, this hotel, and the ones in Vegas and Green River all have little fitness centers. So I spent an hour or so feeding my addiction on that front, came back to the room, crashed for about two hours, selectively waking up now and again to hear murmurs from the TV, and then finally got the energy to come write this blog post and finish the photo and video uploads.

Overall, another good drive. Considerably shorter than the first leg of the trip, I was able to get in, unwind, do a little exploring, and then get back to continue to unwind. The weather has continued to cooperate thus far, providing clear skies throughout with not an inkling of rain. Tomorrow, I leave for Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. If all goes well, I’ll leave Albuquerque around 7 am, head straight for the Grand Canyon, which should take me to about 1 pm, spend a couple hours there, then drive back to Flagstaff and rest up.

In terms of solitude and disconnectedness, I’m happy to say I’ve touched my email and Facebook only a few times today, mostly necessitated by some Tufts Roundtable work I have to keep up with. Along the way I’m listening mostly to country music with a bit of classic rock mixed in. I’ve got some choice thoughts on identity and what it exactly it means for me to have one that I’ve been working on since the plane ride back from Malaysia. Haven’t decided exactly how I want to pen those out, but when I do, it’ll probably happen sometime on this trip. Maybe when I’m in Green River. For now, catch you in the next update!