Days 5 and 6: On Route 66

A prime suspect in the sleeping bag incident

We tried to get an early start since we'd be spending about 16 hours on the road, but we had a bit of a hang up when we started packing. I had set up my sleeping bag the previous night, but ended up just sleeping on the couch. Apparently during the night one of the cats decided to relieve itself on the sleeping bag, so we had to spend some time trying to clean it up. It didn't work very well so we just tossed it in a trash bag and went on the road and hoped that it wouldn't stink up the car.

The first part of the ride was broken up a bit when we got pulled over about an hour outside Houston for going 7 mph over the speed limit, which seemed pretty harsh. Thankfully we got a warning, and needless to say we kept it under the speed limit for the rest of the trip.

Along the road we stopped at Buc-ee's since it came with Josue's endorsement, and it turned out to be pretty cool. It's really just a really large and nice convenience store at a gas station, but it was interesting to check out, and it's a Texas staple.

The famous Buc-ee's

Next we made a quick stop in San Antonio to see the Alamo. We didn't have much time to stay, but the place was fairly small, so we made a round, took some pictures and said bye to the Alamo in about 20 minutes so we  could get to Albuquerque before midnight. It was definitely worth the stop, though. It was really cool just to walk around in a building that holds such an interesting place in history.

The Alamo

After the Alamo it was a straight shot to Albuquerque with only a couple stops for gas and dinner at Denny's. Going through western Texas was an experience. Some parts were flat and empty like I originally pictured it, but there were also some very scenic hills and plateaus that made the drive interesting. No matter where we were, though, the landscape was brutally empty to the point where you almost felt like waving to anyone you passed just because there was that connection of being in such a lonely place at the same time.

Sunset in New Mexico

New Mexico was more of the same, but we got to watch the sun set as we drove through into our first night ride of the trip. There was even more nothing in New Mexico until we hit the mountains right before Albuquerque. As we crested a hill, the landscape opened up before us with thousands of lights in the valley below. It would have been cool to drive through during the day and actually see the mountains, but the night view was well worth seeing.

Our Albuquerque host, Candace

The place we stayed was on the newly named Central Avenue, but was originally the historic Route 66. We came in pretty late, and our host, Candace, had already gone to bed, but we got to hang out with her roommate Xavier who showed us around downtown a little bit, and introduced us to some local New Mexico beers before we came back to the apartment and got some long overdue sleep.

Our other Albuquerque host, Xavier

The next day we woke up and met a couple of other Couchsurfers from Belgium-- Koen and Ben-- who were also staying with our host. We also finally got to meet Candace and had a good chat with her Koen and Ben before she had to leave for a music festival and left us in the hands of Xavier again. Ben, Geries, Xavier and I went to get some breakfast not longer after at a place called Frontier which had a killer breakfast burrito. Next, Xavier took us for an great ride around Albuquerque and right up to the side of the mountains that overlook the city.

Ben, Koen, me, and the dogs

New friends at the base of the mountains overlooking Albuquerque

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the apartment with Geries, Ben, and Koen. I got a little reading done, and we had a chance to rest before setting out on our trip to the Grand Canyon.