My dad just left me alone so I could write this. "Write something creative!", he shouts at me. I shout back, "But today was an incredibly boring day!" "You met your father!", he replies. "Yeah," I say, "but I met you 20 some years ago. That's nothing new."

Strange conversation. Anyhow, today was pretty uneventful. I woke up at 11:30, roughly 2 1/2 hours later than I had planned. I guess I needed the sleep. Anyhow, the phone woke me up. I lazily rolled over and answered with a deep, scratchy "Hello?"

"It's 11:36, sir. Are you planning on staying another day? Check out time was at 11 o'clock."

That was the exact moment when I completely woke up. I hopped in the shower, got dressed, stuffed all my crap into the car, returned the key to the front desk, and headed out onto the road by 12:05.

While driving 65 down a long, empty yet scenic stretch of road, I used one hand to flip to page 85 of my AAA Road Atlas. There I was. Route 70, heading west. And.. hmm.. this is how far I have to go. And.. hmm.. this is what time it is. Um... I guess I'm skipping the Roswell crash site. It happened 50 years ago, anyhow. Old news.

I eventually pass through the tiny town of Capitan, home to the original Smokey the Bear. Found during a forest fire in the 1950's in Lincoln National Forest, Smokey has become one of the most famous animals on earth as a fire prevention spokes.. uh.. animal. He was eventually flown to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and mail from children around the world got so heavy, that Smokey was assigned his own zip code.

After a nice, quick lunch at the Smokey Bear Restaurant & Motel, and a peek into the Smokey Bear Museum, I head back on the road. I've still got a long way to go.

Okay... fast forward about three hours... I'm about 15 miles from Albuquerque. The scenery has gotten progressively prettier the further along I drive. An incredibly blue sky, the beaming sun casting shadows on the valley below, those wonderful southwestern clouds... another perfect weather day. That reminds me... I noticed on the drive here how the humidity seems to have vanished entirely. It's turned into dry heat now, which I think I like better than that filmy layer of uncomfortable sweat I experienced in New Orleans. Blech. I can do without that.

It's truly a strange feeling being out here for several weeks, driving over 2000 miles away from home, parking my car in front of some stranger's house and seeing my dad. Well.. I should rephrase. Not a totally complete stranger. She's an aunt on my dad's side, who, from what I understand, my dad last saw roughly forty-some-odd years ago. He used to live out here too, doing work in the nuclear industry while in the Air Force. You know those nuclear tests they did out in the desert here? He was there. Maybe that explains my unusual.. uh.. nevermind.

We had a wonderful Mexican dinner at El Pinto, right off 4th Street. I don't think I've ever seen a restaurant as crowded, or a parking lot as enormous for just a restaurant. The food was pretty good. Nice atmosphere, too. I stuffed myself on a salad with beans, rice, chile, eggs, green peppers, spices, yada yada yada. Good stuff.

Tomorrow... a tour of the inside of Intel (You mean.. "Intel Inside"? :::groan:::), and then we hit the road for Sante Fe.

See you on the road...

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