Amarillo, New Mexico, Arizona, Cali

We made it to San Diego! We arrived at Eric's house late last night, after a 12 hour drive from Socorro, New Mexico. I fixed the link for the pictures so it works now.

After we left Oklahoma, we changed our plans a bit. We decided to skip Santa Fe and the Grand Canyon for now, and hit them both on the way back to Mass. We stopped in Amarillo, Texas for lunch, and ate the best burgers we've ever had at this hole-in-the-wall place in the middle of nowhere. I know it seems like all we do is eat, but the only times we really got out of the car were to eat, so that's why. And also we had some amazing food that we want to tell you all about. After Texas, we decided to camp out in New Mexico at a state park. When we arrived at Santa Rosa State park, just off the highway, it was completely empty and the "lake" was more like a large dirty puddle in the middle of the desert. We decided to try a different park, about three hours southwest of that one....but when we got there the gate was already closed and we couldn't get in. We then spent about 2 hours driving around back county roads in the middle of nowhere in the desert, and ended up (thanks to the GPS) at a pretty gross motel in Socorro, New Mexico. 

The next day was much better. We woke up and decided to just drive to San Diego, so we typed it into the GPS and got on the road. We took a scenic highway called Route 60 that goes through New Mexico and Arizona. It took us through canyons and mesas, up to 4,000 ft in elevation and back down to sea level a bunch of times. There were many scenic views and we got a few pictures. In New Mexico, it took us through a town called Pie Town, where the only places in the town were two pie shops. We went to the one called Pie-O-Neer, where the owner/baker/server named Kathy made us feel at home. It was the best apple pie we've ever eaten. She told us she was passing through here one time and it was a town called Pie Town with no good pie place, so she settled down there and opened a pie shop. We thought that was pretty cool. 

We kept driving, through small towns with no street lights and four buildings in the entire town. Sometimes there would be no civilization for 30 miles in any direction. We drove through one area with only a state detention center in it, and a sign saying "State Detention Center: Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers." We couldn't believe that people lived out there, in the middle of the desert, with not even a grocery store or gas station for 30 or 40 miles sometimes. 

We didn't get to stop very much in Arizona, but we hope to hit up Flagstaff and Sedona on the way back. We did enjoy the scenery there, and stopped in a great little town called Globe, Arizona. We drove to San Diego and were pretty close to the Mexican Border. We were stopped twice by Border Patrol stations, where they asked if we were American citizens and if we had any illegal aliens in the trunk. They even had a dog with them. When we got to Eric's place, Eric said he had a surprise for us. His grandmother, who lives on the beach not too far from here, is going out of town for a week and wanted us to house sit for her. So, we get to live on the beach for a week which is really awesome. Thanks Eric! We will probably stay at Eric's for the weekend and then go there. We are looking forward to taking a break from traveling and relaxing for a while down here. It really is beautiful here, and the weather is excellent. Well, time to get going. Thanks for reading and stay in touch!