Saturday August 23rd - Hitting the road for a long travel day!

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So my car (her name is Phat Patti) is loaded down with all our usual road trip stuff and my birthday present! A brand new Nikon camera and all kinds of stuff for it. I couldn't wait to take photos with it. We hit the road around 4am. Picked up Uncle Buddy who promptly went to sleep immediately as he had been at the Aerosmith concert in Dallas till 2am.

We took the northern route out through West Texas and Albuquerque. Quick stops for gas and grub - didn’t make any fun stops as we have seen this route a few times. We made very good time and got into Gallup, NM about 5pm their time. Checked into the Sleep Inn right off of 40 with a Shell station in the same general area - good thing. Check in was fast and easy - we are Choice Rewards members and generally they are our go to chain. As a matter of fact Uncle Buddy’s room was points. Rooms were nice, comfy and clean.

Next we needed to head to the local Wal-mart as Patti had a bit of a mishap - part of her windshield trim somehow came loose and was flapping in the wind. My hubby the auto tech couldn’t have all that - plus it was thumping hard on the paint. So we had the lovely experience of the Gallup Wal-Mart wow what a dump really really bad. We got what we needed for the fix up & Uncle Buddy some swim trunks as he forgot his. How on earth does a man that lives in a lake house forget swim trunks as they are normally daily attire? Once done we got the H E double hockey sticks out of there!

Time for dinner. I like eating local, authentic and hole in the wall! We were in New Mexico so Mexican was on the menu. I had two places in mind both in a not so good barrio! The first I knew was in the front of someone’s home so Patti’s gps got us close and we found a big enough house that had 5 trucks in what looked like a parking lot but no sign. Well Uncle Buddy went to go check and walked into someone’s kitchen that was clearly not an eating establishment. The guy chased him out. Great first night of the trip and I try to get him shot. On to the 2nd choice - this was a stand alone place much better. Genaros - a bit slow on service and they seemed a bit leery of non-locals but they warmed up quickly. Food was different from Texas Mexican food we are used to but very good. No tasty beverages though.

After stuffing our faces we headed back to the hotel intending on fixing Patti and a quick swim as the indoor pool looked very inviting. Car got fixed but too tired to swim.

Next up the real fun stuff begins!

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