Day 2:
Despite all of our bags, loading the car was not as bad as I imagined. It goes without saying, but it helps to have a set location for every bag so you can put everything back where it is needs to go without having to struggle with “will it fit”.
The enemy to leaving on time also appears to be showering in the morning. I usually shower at night, but we both showered in the morning, and it killed about an hour of time—it’s always more than you expect it to be. So if getting out early is an issue, shower at night!
We hit the road at about 11am and the drive from Amarillo to Albuquerque is extremely easy. I-40 is primarily two lanes with a lot of 18-wheelers on it, so it was just a matter of going 75-80 mph and passing a lot of big trucks. The worst part was close to Albuquerque, when going down a mountainous region; there were a lot of idiots who were trying to go 90mph. Was annoyingly dangerous going down a mountain with people weaving traffic like its rush hour in Houston. We came close to the famous Route 66, but didn’t actually drive on it (that’ll be an adventure for another day).
We also discovered that no matter what you try, when you drive past big commercial beef farms (that was a quite the herd of cows), you cannot escape the smell of cow manure. That wonderful aroma lasted with us for a few minutes. MoooOOoooOooo.
One thing I noticed while driving through all of the different scenery is how it can tug at your imagination. When driving through New Mexico and seeing the wide open plains and mesas I wanted to be a cowboy from the history books riding my horse off in a random direction. I wanted to climb to the top of a mesa and just look out at the land under me. Imaginative scenery led me to want to explore more, and I think we will have that chance tomorrow.
We got to the hotel; we loaded up the cart (I’ll try to get a picture of how ridiculously packed that cart is tomorrow) and went inside to the biggest fail on the planet. Turns out the cart is one inch too long to fit in the elevator. Just one inch of the front of cart sticking out past the poles is preventing the elevator door form closing. So you have to climb in, and lift up the front of the cart to turn it so it will fit. Rather frustrating. Were I management, I’d just saw off the front of the cart (I mean, there’s like two inches of unusable cart space in the front) and reglue the rubber bumper on it.
Then there’s poor planning part two: when a fresh roll of toilet paper is on the roll, its radius is about 3 millimeters too long and will press against the wall. So you have to struggle to roll the toilet paper to be able to get a 4-6 unit long piece without it ripping early due to the friction against the wall when it rotates. Did nobody actually try these things before decisions were made? DETAILS PEOPLE, DETAILS.
Since the journey was so short we did manage to go see Pixar’s Inside Out movie in the afternoon. I enjoyed it; I thought the movie was incredibly clever and is a highly unconventional story. It was just a refreshing movie to watch. However, I’m surprised it was for children, as it has some very dark/complex themes and there’s a lot of subtle humor and psychological references that I don’t think they will pick up on (and critical commentary on what people turn into without that Joy character in their heads). Certainly worth the time, can spawn a lot of great conversations and will stimulate some level of introspection.
Tomorrow will be a big day of tourist-y stuff, ending with pulling the luggage cart into a hotel at the Grand Canyon. Let’s hope it doesn’t roll off the cliff.