New Mexico is much nicer than the old one...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008: 6:19 pm mountain time

Nothing extraordinarily exciting happened for the rest of the day yesterday, but here's what else we noted:

• We started day one at zero feet above sea level. We slept that night at 7000 feet above sea level.
• We started day one on the beach, moved into a desert (complete with cacti), and ended on a mountain (complete with pine trees).
• We saw some elk.
• There was a town called 'Dry Beaver.' No lies.

That night we checked in to a hotel, ate at an Olive Garden, had a few drinks and played games until we finally hit the sack.

This morning, we got started on the road at about 9. These are the highlights of the day:

• We visited a (famous?) meteor crater claimed to be over 50,000 years old. The floor of the crater was big enough for 20 games of football to be played simultaneously, and it was as deep as the Washington Monument. It was very cool to look at. When I say that, I mean that it was both fascinating, and very cold, as we were still in the mountains.
• The group lamented the fact that 'Foamhenge' was too far away.
• We saw multiple trains that were at least 80 to 90 cars long, and some that stretched farther than we could see. The first few were not moving, so we felt bad for the trains we saw later that would have to stop and wait for those.
• We went to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park, and many jokes were made about how 'hard' the wood was.
• We saw multiple instances of veritable tumbleweed.
• We encountered a lot of plaster dinosaur statues around the road, one of which had two heads, and a toothbrush. Don't be confused; we don't understand either.
• Driving through Native American reservations, we saw many teepees, moccasin stores, and casinos.
• We watched some prairie dogs play amongst the tumbleweed while eating Taco Bell: an interesting combination indeed.

We just checked in to our hotel tonight, and we're now just relaxing for a bit before exploring all that Santa Rosa, New Mexico has to offer.

Until next time!