Blogs from New Mexico, United States, North America

Yet another amazing day with great roads. We slept in a bit this morning after such a long ride yesterday, and hit the road around 9:00am. We made up time as we passed into New Mexico and Mountain time, so we gained the hour we slept in. There really wasn't too much to see throughout Texas. There were more wind farms than oil pumps which was surprising, but otherwiser Route 66 is mostly a frontage road to I40. It passes through a few small towns along the way, but none of them have too much to see. The one spot we stopped for a while was Adrian, TX at the Midpoint Cafe. This is the mathematical midpoint of Route 66, where it's 1,139 miles east to Chicago, and 1,139 miles west to LA. We snapped a ... read more

I Hong Kong var det endelig tid for litt luksus. VI håpet å leie en stor leilighet midt i smørøyet (sammen med Tonny), men den glapp foran øynene våre, så det ble to deilig store hotellrom. Første kvelden brukte vi selvsagt til å finne første mulige matbutikk og gikk fullstendig bananas. SÅ deilig å endelig se igjen "internasjonale" varer. Etterhvert skjønte vi at vi var i en særs ekslusiv butikk med KUN importvarer. Og tilhørende priser. Da vi etterhvert kom tilbake til hotellrommet (studio) skjønte vi at vi kanskje hadde kjøpt litt mye for tre dager. Det tøt ut godterier, pålegg, cola zero, vann, gatorade, redbull, juice, ost, skinke, syltetøy brød, baguetter etc. Første dagen i Hong Kong ble brukt på Disneyland. For en gedigen skuffelse (i alle fall for oss voksne som vet hva det ... read more

After a quick stop at Walmart, we left Artesia and drove west on Hwy 82, through dry, scrubby and dusty land. It was like this for 40 or 50 miles before finally getting hilly. We drove through James Canyon, where the valleys became greener, to Cloudcroft at 8,600+ ft. There we got our first glimpses of the white sands in the distance. West of Cloudcroft the road wound down at a 6% downgrade for 16 miles. We stopped at a scenic overlook about halfway down to admire the views and let the brakes cool. Once down on flat land again, we drove through Alamogordo to White Sands National Monument. We saw lots of dust devils again today, but they were white due to the white sands. After driving through the dunes, it was back on the ... read more

As we travel west, the landscape is changing. It’s getting hillier and there are some mesas in the distance. We’re seeing more cactus and yucca plants and they are in bloom. There is far less traffic on the highway, too. West of Abilene it’s getting drier and the trees are shorter. Near Sweetwater we see the first of the big wind turbines on the vast wind farms. Today is certainly a good day for generating electricity as the wind has been blowing steadily all day. Poor Milo (Gena and Bob’s dog) got into sand spurs at a rest area and they had to pick probably 200 of the stickers out of his fur. Once past Hobbs, New Mexico, the oil wells are becoming more numerous. In places the skyline is cluttered with the pumps and the ... read more

29 March 17:25 MDT I had forgotten how hectic things are here. Sorry for the delay in finishing this blog; thank you for all of your interest. Now for the finale. The ride back to Jerusalem was entirely uneventful. Once back, I confirmed my airport transportation and walked to the city of David. The tour I paid for was in Hebrew, but it was my only opportunity to see it. I got a little confused and waited a while outside the archeologal park. I met two Russians, Sergei and Gregori, who were similarly lost. Eventually, I found the enterance I was supposed to be at in a nick of time. The woman at the ticket booth said "you know this tour is in Hebrew" " yes, but it is my only chance to see it" " ... read more