Friday - May 27th, 2011
Drive to Albuquerque, NM
We reached Flagstaff around 9:30PM. After waiting for 15mins for the people in front of us to check in, it was our turn at the window. As soon as I took out my reservation paper, the lady behind the window told me promptly that I got the wrong motel – apparently there were two of the same motel nearby. So, we drove for a couple more minutes to get to the other one. Checked in and unload all our stuff into the room.
Got to say, this motel was a DUMP. I must have made a mistake when making reservation, thinking that I was reserving the other motel instead of this DUMP. Don’t think the property was taken care of, don’t even know if they washed the linens, the bathroom definitely is NOT clean at all with molds on the ceiling and tub is peeled not to mention the floor is cracked. It felt cramped in the bathroom. There was still hair in the tub from previous tenants. Overall, it was just a nasty place to even stay the night. I was just glad we brought our own sheets to sleep on. It was slightly cheaper than the other properties we've stayed but the standard is just unacceptable.
Alright, moving on… We left for Albuquerque around 9:30AM after finishing breakfast and prepared some fruits and other munchies for the drive which takes about 5 hours. Also replenish our ice supply to keep our food supply fresh. One thing that sort of justified the bad room was the view. It has some really nice mountain-y view with pine trees on the hillside. As we drove we were astounded by this beautiful view of a snow capped mountain, later looked up on Google, it’s called Mount Elden, what a sight. It was a very cool sight to see the peak as the rest of the topography was flat as we drive further East. The geography starts to change really quickly from pine trees to flat little bushes on really vast flat lands. Oh yeah, at Flagstaff, elevation was almost 7,000ft.
The drive was mundane, what we do see is a lot of billboards shouting for us to stop at the next exit to shop at the local Indian stores bearing products such as moccasins, rugs, blankets, stones and petrified wood. There was one that advertised blankets for $7.77, sounded like a great deal that we couldn't resist so we stopped one that’s called Geronimo. It even has teepees on its parking lot.
As soon as we entered the shop, it felt like a trap. First of all the guy who was tending the shop was all White American guy and he has this arrogance aura on him. We looked around, there are a lot of stuff in this place and I wanted to get one of those purple crystal thingy, but for a tiny slab, it costs $12+! cutthroat, but I hang on to it while inspecting the rest of the store. After an hour or so rummaging through the store, I put the rock back and JP bought a tiny slice of rock for about the same price also.
Back on the road again, and more billboards passed by, this time another ad caught our eyes, blankets for $4.99! Arghhh... made another impulse decision and exited the freeway. This Indian store looked deserted, no other car in the parking lot... weird. There was a fast-food place in the shop. Interesting. We stopped for bathroom as well, so it was at least a valid excuse to stop. After a quick browse, this place seems to be legit -- signs posted everywhere 50% off marked prices on the pottery! Whoa, quickly relieve myself so I can inspect the vases. They do have very good prices. The vases are all almost the same as Geronimos and it looked like they may have purchased everything at wholesale price, that is why they're able to give 50% off? Who cares, now I have a hard time selecting one or perhaps two that I really like since it's half off.
I think I spent about two hours going back and forth the countless arrays of potteries, in the end I picked a Navajo vase with some carvings. I wanted two but couldn't find another one that I like and within budget and of course is free from obvious flaws... Oh, and found a bigger slab of the purple crystal for half the price! $5+ I got a bigger chunk! Take that, Geronimo. JP bought a pair of earrings and a small vase for her small potteries collection. We walked around and oops, discovered the blankets which was the initial intention of the stop, couldn't believe our eyes, it was really $4.99. So many different colors, so cheap, gosh, can't make up mind. 15mins of pulling everything out from the shelves, I ended up with a light brown/beige one to accent the dark colored couch we have at home.
Aiyoh, I was telling JP, at our shopping rate, we will never reach ABQ... we were barely halfway there. But then, we told ourselves, we're going to take it easy and enjoy ourselves and should there be a change of plan, so be it. Starving, we got back on the road, opting to stop at the next rest area. It wasn't too far away before we found one. Parked and there are no shades, but what a wonderful view of rocky hillside where we're parked. Decided to get one of the salads from the cooler, chopped up some cucumbers and tomatoes and toss all together in the bag and shake shake shake. Added some avocados too. It was yummy, even brought out some cold iced-tea. Not bad for a meal on the road. I loved the idea of just grabbing food from the backseat haha
After our meal, went again to the restroom and relieve ourselves. Discovered that we've entered Mountain Time, which is one hour earlier than Pacific Time. Woohoo, but oops it will be one hour later when we do arrive at ABQ. So back on the road again we go... there were lots of trailers pulling those 40' containers and also lots of highway patrols. Good thing is speed limit is 75mph, so just set it to cruise at that limit. Stayed on the right side of the highway and zoomed by a parked patrol car. Next thing I saw in my rearview mirror was the same patrol car with all the lights on urging me to pull over. Carefully, I signaled and pulled over to the shoulder.
Quickly, I grabbed my purse and wind the window down on my side. He appeared on the passenger side, and said in a hurry and stern voice for me to wind up my window. I said to him that I thought he was going to come to my side. He then asked for my driver's licence. And then started to ask me a series of questions -- if I knew where he was when I passed him earlier. I said he was parked on the side. He didn't like my answer and he asked that a couple more times and I said he was parked on the side of the freeway. JP changed my answer and said he was parked on the shoulder. He said, NO, and he seemed furious, we did not know where HE was, if he was in front of his car, or at the side or back, because we couldn't see him. He asked us if we saw the trailers move to the left lane when there are emergency vehicles parked on the shoulder. In fact, we did saw one and we were wondering why the urgency to change lane. So, finally, we sorta figure out what message he was trying to convey, I apologized a few times and that I did not know. Good thing my licence and the licence plate do say that I'm from CA, so he let us off and ask us to drive safe.
Truthfully, he could have rearrange his thoughts and take a DEEP breathe so he could explain to us better. His mind was going more than 100mph and we couldn't see which direction he was going. We thought he meant his car, but he meant him physically. Because if he would have stopped somebody and that person decided to push him onto the freeway, traffic going at least 75mph would have squash him like watermelon. So, that was the message he was trying to convey: either move to the left side of the road, OR if you cannot move because there are other vehicles, then slow down... gosh. Now we know. I guess if I was in his shoes, I may be furious too, to know that I could have gotten killed... but he wasn't. Argh.
We finally entered civilization around 7PM, found the motel rather quickly and checked in right away. The procedure this time was a little different than the two nights before. This motel looked really nice and renovated with lots of modern utilities such as flat screen TVs! The only thing they asked us to do differently was to have us both sign the back of our registration card that we will cause no trouble -- the other two motels did not require signatures on that. Odd I thought and curious, I asked the guy behind desk if we were in a bad neighborhood. He quickly brushed that thought and say that there have been some incidents where the long-term residents smuggled some of those flat screen TVs so management was just trying to take step of precaution. Still odd I thought, but we felt secure though.
Got the room keys and found our room right next to the small fenced pool. There were kids splashing in the pool, but there were a couple adults -- the guy was covered in tattoos... Same procedure, unloaded all our stuff and we really really like this property 100times better than the one we stayed at Flagstaff. The floor was hardwood and the linens looked new and clean and the rooms are decorated with modern fixtures. Flat screen TV hung on the wall, NICE! No complaints at all, kicked off shoes and jumped on bed to stretch out after a long drive.
It was so comfortable that we didn't want to leave the room. But, we said that we were going try some New Mexican cuisine once we get here, so we pushed ourselves to get out. By the time we're done refreshing ourselves, it was close to 9PM, so we entered Old Town ABQ on the GPS and it got us there in about 15mins, we ended up at the plaza and it looked nice from the street lights. Excited, we walked around the plaza and saw a church and other shops/restaurants that have closed or closing. We were able to explore one store before they announced to us in front of our faces that they are closing, so we left and just literally window shop hehe, was able to snap some pictures of those at the window... JP says lots of the figurines especially those of animals looked like the ones from her hometown in Oaxaca.
Then soon realized, it was already 10PM and checked Yelp app on my phone that most of the restaurants are closed early especially on weekdays. Aiyayay... so we decided to drive around in the dark to see if we can find anything New Mexican restaurant that is still open, stumbled upon the museum that looked really nice from whatever street light we have nearby. Then, we traced our way back to the motel but kept our eyes open to see perhaps with our luck we could have a nice meal before retiring for the day.
Luck was indeed on our side. It was no fancy restaurant, it was actually a fast-food joint called Filiberto's unheard of this place but glad that it's open 24hours. Great, we thought, parked the car and off we go. Of course when you're in NM, you want to try their chiles. Right away from the menu, I got green chiles with pork and hibiscus drink that they call "Jamaica" pronounced as hamaika. These are not new to the Mexicans, only fairly new to me lah. JP got pork tacos and Jamaica for drink as well. And there was another item that was on the menu that jumped at me -- Chile Rellenos, so we agreed to share that one as it comes in 2. We waited for a while and we noticed the drive-thru customers came, got their orders and more came and got their orders and left and our order is still not up yet... JP was hungry so she got up and went and ask them in Spanish whether they've already started working on our orders. Since we opted to dine in, they were going to prepare our food "fresh"... oooh, OK lah, wait a few more minutes.
Tada... food:
Apologize for the mediocre food pictures, taken with the phone, too lazy to get camera out hehe but not bad quality both pictures and food. We enjoyed it very much especially my green chiles and rice. YUM!!! Surprisingly very tasty food for a fast food joint and also wasn't loaded with salt either. Also discovered that this Filiberto's location is the only one in NM, they have the bulk of their franchise in AZ and three locations in CA. Interesting, will definitely go to try the ones in CA.
After our late dinner, we drove ourselves back to the motel. On the way, we realized we were atop a hill that oversees the city lights. Stopped and attempted to take a decent picture of the city lights but successfully failed at that attempt -- no tripod, shook too much, I guess. Oh well, next time.
Back on the road again, and more billboards passed by, this time another ad caught our eyes, blankets for $4.99! Arghhh... made another impulse decision and exited the freeway. This Indian store looked deserted, no other car in the parking lot... weird. There was a fast-food place in the shop. Interesting. We stopped for bathroom as well, so it was at least a valid excuse to stop. After a quick browse, this place seems to be legit -- signs posted everywhere 50% off marked prices on the pottery! Whoa, quickly relieve myself so I can inspect the vases. They do have very good prices. The vases are all almost the same as Geronimos and it looked like they may have purchased everything at wholesale price, that is why they're able to give 50% off? Who cares, now I have a hard time selecting one or perhaps two that I really like since it's half off.
I think I spent about two hours going back and forth the countless arrays of potteries, in the end I picked a Navajo vase with some carvings. I wanted two but couldn't find another one that I like and within budget and of course is free from obvious flaws... Oh, and found a bigger slab of the purple crystal for half the price! $5+ I got a bigger chunk! Take that, Geronimo. JP bought a pair of earrings and a small vase for her small potteries collection. We walked around and oops, discovered the blankets which was the initial intention of the stop, couldn't believe our eyes, it was really $4.99. So many different colors, so cheap, gosh, can't make up mind. 15mins of pulling everything out from the shelves, I ended up with a light brown/beige one to accent the dark colored couch we have at home.
Aiyoh, I was telling JP, at our shopping rate, we will never reach ABQ... we were barely halfway there. But then, we told ourselves, we're going to take it easy and enjoy ourselves and should there be a change of plan, so be it. Starving, we got back on the road, opting to stop at the next rest area. It wasn't too far away before we found one. Parked and there are no shades, but what a wonderful view of rocky hillside where we're parked. Decided to get one of the salads from the cooler, chopped up some cucumbers and tomatoes and toss all together in the bag and shake shake shake. Added some avocados too. It was yummy, even brought out some cold iced-tea. Not bad for a meal on the road. I loved the idea of just grabbing food from the backseat haha
After our meal, went again to the restroom and relieve ourselves. Discovered that we've entered Mountain Time, which is one hour earlier than Pacific Time. Woohoo, but oops it will be one hour later when we do arrive at ABQ. So back on the road again we go... there were lots of trailers pulling those 40' containers and also lots of highway patrols. Good thing is speed limit is 75mph, so just set it to cruise at that limit. Stayed on the right side of the highway and zoomed by a parked patrol car. Next thing I saw in my rearview mirror was the same patrol car with all the lights on urging me to pull over. Carefully, I signaled and pulled over to the shoulder.
Quickly, I grabbed my purse and wind the window down on my side. He appeared on the passenger side, and said in a hurry and stern voice for me to wind up my window. I said to him that I thought he was going to come to my side. He then asked for my driver's licence. And then started to ask me a series of questions -- if I knew where he was when I passed him earlier. I said he was parked on the side. He didn't like my answer and he asked that a couple more times and I said he was parked on the side of the freeway. JP changed my answer and said he was parked on the shoulder. He said, NO, and he seemed furious, we did not know where HE was, if he was in front of his car, or at the side or back, because we couldn't see him. He asked us if we saw the trailers move to the left lane when there are emergency vehicles parked on the shoulder. In fact, we did saw one and we were wondering why the urgency to change lane. So, finally, we sorta figure out what message he was trying to convey, I apologized a few times and that I did not know. Good thing my licence and the licence plate do say that I'm from CA, so he let us off and ask us to drive safe.
Truthfully, he could have rearrange his thoughts and take a DEEP breathe so he could explain to us better. His mind was going more than 100mph and we couldn't see which direction he was going. We thought he meant his car, but he meant him physically. Because if he would have stopped somebody and that person decided to push him onto the freeway, traffic going at least 75mph would have squash him like watermelon. So, that was the message he was trying to convey: either move to the left side of the road, OR if you cannot move because there are other vehicles, then slow down... gosh. Now we know. I guess if I was in his shoes, I may be furious too, to know that I could have gotten killed... but he wasn't. Argh.
We finally entered civilization around 7PM, found the motel rather quickly and checked in right away. The procedure this time was a little different than the two nights before. This motel looked really nice and renovated with lots of modern utilities such as flat screen TVs! The only thing they asked us to do differently was to have us both sign the back of our registration card that we will cause no trouble -- the other two motels did not require signatures on that. Odd I thought and curious, I asked the guy behind desk if we were in a bad neighborhood. He quickly brushed that thought and say that there have been some incidents where the long-term residents smuggled some of those flat screen TVs so management was just trying to take step of precaution. Still odd I thought, but we felt secure though.
Got the room keys and found our room right next to the small fenced pool. There were kids splashing in the pool, but there were a couple adults -- the guy was covered in tattoos... Same procedure, unloaded all our stuff and we really really like this property 100times better than the one we stayed at Flagstaff. The floor was hardwood and the linens looked new and clean and the rooms are decorated with modern fixtures. Flat screen TV hung on the wall, NICE! No complaints at all, kicked off shoes and jumped on bed to stretch out after a long drive.
It was so comfortable that we didn't want to leave the room. But, we said that we were going try some New Mexican cuisine once we get here, so we pushed ourselves to get out. By the time we're done refreshing ourselves, it was close to 9PM, so we entered Old Town ABQ on the GPS and it got us there in about 15mins, we ended up at the plaza and it looked nice from the street lights. Excited, we walked around the plaza and saw a church and other shops/restaurants that have closed or closing. We were able to explore one store before they announced to us in front of our faces that they are closing, so we left and just literally window shop hehe, was able to snap some pictures of those at the window... JP says lots of the figurines especially those of animals looked like the ones from her hometown in Oaxaca.
Luck was indeed on our side. It was no fancy restaurant, it was actually a fast-food joint called Filiberto's unheard of this place but glad that it's open 24hours. Great, we thought, parked the car and off we go. Of course when you're in NM, you want to try their chiles. Right away from the menu, I got green chiles with pork and hibiscus drink that they call "Jamaica" pronounced as hamaika. These are not new to the Mexicans, only fairly new to me lah. JP got pork tacos and Jamaica for drink as well. And there was another item that was on the menu that jumped at me -- Chile Rellenos, so we agreed to share that one as it comes in 2. We waited for a while and we noticed the drive-thru customers came, got their orders and more came and got their orders and left and our order is still not up yet... JP was hungry so she got up and went and ask them in Spanish whether they've already started working on our orders. Since we opted to dine in, they were going to prepare our food "fresh"... oooh, OK lah, wait a few more minutes.
Tada... food:
After our late dinner, we drove ourselves back to the motel. On the way, we realized we were atop a hill that oversees the city lights. Stopped and attempted to take a decent picture of the city lights but successfully failed at that attempt -- no tripod, shook too much, I guess. Oh well, next time.
2 comments:
What's up with the blankets craze? Kakakaka. Felt? or something softer?
Lucky thing got off with the police... It's nobody's fault I suppose, just be thankful nobody was hurt. Nice post :)
Not craze lah, hard to pass up right for $7.77 but then found another store for $4.99, even harder to pass up! Now kinda regret only bought one hehe It's woven don't know what type of material but not so stiff and not so soft lah looks like this one
Yeah that guy... saja want to pull people over... we saw a lot of other people who didn't slow down or move to the left oso, mostly truckers who did that. Just my luck!
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