June 18, 2009: New Mexico Trip Day 2
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Fred came down to my house late Tuesday evening, and by about nine-thirty on Wednesday we were ready to head out on our day-long drive to Albuquerque. The trip is close to 650 miles, so it will take us ten hours or so, counting gas and convenience stops.

We have to get across the northern part of the Metroplex to pick up US 287 to Wichita Falls. While there are a number of ways to accomplish this, the most direct way is to simply head northwest from my house on Lemmon Avenue, pick up Northwest Highway heading west and then merge onto Texas 114 out past the DFW airport.

Once we pass the airport, Texas 114 continues on across through Grapevine and Trophy Club, through the extreme northern part of Fort Worth, underneath I-35W and then on to an interchange with US 287.

Then we simply head northwest on US 287 which takes us through some small towns and then into Wichita Falls. At Wichita Falls we begin a very familiar stretch- one that we have driven probably 20 times, as it is the only logical way to get from either my house or Fred's to anyplace northwest of Texas. This includes New Mexico, Colorado and points northwest. Only if you are actually heading north of Denver would you go a different way (like we did when we went to Glacier NP a couple of years ago.

This stretch of highway is mostly four-lane divided highway, but every fifteen or twenty miles the road narrows down and goes through one of the smaller towns between Wichita Falls and Amarillo. Even so, you can make pretty good time.

At Amarillo, you can pick up I-40 West, and the rest of the drive to Albuquerque is on that highway. It is a 250-mile stretch that is pretty flat and boring as it passes through high desert ranchland for mile after mile. Fred took some pictures as we drove along, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below you can get an appreciation for how flat and featureless the land is in this part of Texas:

Only when you get closer to Albuquerque does the terrain change much as the mountains of northeastern New Mexico come into view. Below are thumbnail images for some of the pictures that Fred took from the car as the terrain began to change. Click on them to view the pictures:

When we crossed into New Mexico we gained an hour, and we came over the pass and down into the Albuquerque area just about eight o'clock in the evening.

We'd made a motel reservation the night before from home- at the Super 8 Motel East. The hotel was easy to find since we knew the exit to take.

We circled around off Exit 166 and found the hotel with no problem. We got checked in and into our room, and then I broke out the blender and the margarita fixings that we'd brought and we had a frozen margarita before heading out to dinner.

Fred and I like to avoid chains when we travel, trying to sample more local places. Fred had found references to a restaurant called The Frontier which had a good reputation as a popular local place. It was located over near the campus of the University of New Mexico, about four or five miles from the hotel.

We drove over there after our drinks and found it with no problem. It was interesting that we found Central Avenue, the street on which the Frontier was located, was actually the old US 66 highway. You could actually tell that some of the businesses and buildings along this street were from a much older era.

The Frontier was indeed an eclectic local place with a varied menu. One orders from a counter and then waits for his number to appear on the screens throughout the large multi-room restaurant. Our dinners were good, although I wasn't wild about the chopped steak dinner that I got- way overdone. But it was a decent meal and a good cap to a long day of driving.

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	June 18, 2009: New Mexico Trip Day 2
	Return to the Index for Our New Mexico Trip