June 26, 2013

I used to watch for storms. Now I am watching the tempersture. The southwest is experiencing record high temps that are expected to go even higher. None of us like this, the air is so hot the AC just pumps warm air.

Up and on the road hoping to beat the heat. In the early morning hours we saw two hyena’s near the roadside scavenging for trash. I thought they were just dogs so I didn’t get a pic but they definitely had the longer front legs and slanted back.

The road is still mountainous as we move East through the southern Rockies into New Mexico.

Big rock bluffs followed us on both sides.

The boys played toys

Oscar found a new spot in the sun.

Small houses dotted the hillside. The abodes are mostly meager with vegetarian sparse.

In central New Mexico we stopped in Albuquerque. I had called ahead to a muffler place to see if they could fix our ever growing loud muffler under the drivers seat. This am the carbon monoxide detector went off so we had to open all the windows. Got to get our tank sounding beast fixed.

Within an hour Jim’s Muffler had us fixed and sounding better than ever. I wouldn’t say we are purring like a kitten but it’s better than howling at the moon.

We went to the Albuquerque Museum of Natural History and Science.

They had a traveling exhibit there that featured actual artifacts recovered from the Titanic. Our admission to the museum was free under our STAC membership but this exhibit was extra so just Legoboy, Sister Bear, and I toured it.

They gave us boarding passes as actual passengers and after you toured the exhibit you looked on the memorial wall to see if your person survived or perished. This was a very special exhibit. I recommend anyone check it out if it comes to your area. Sorry, no pics as photography was not allowed.

We checked on Oscar to see how he was doing in the AC with the generator and then skipped next door to let the kids get some more energy out at Explora, a hands in Science Center. This museum was great; I highly recommend it to anyone traveling through with kids that need to “touch stuff”.

It was HOT! The generator was still running and Oscar was fine but it was still HOT! As we sat in Flyer, trying to figure out what to do next as it was too hot to drive Flyer, the generator clucked to a stop and the AC wound down. Bummer. Hope that starts tomorrow when it cools down some.

The woman in the museum had said this area is very liberal about dogs in eateries so I called around and found a few that would allow Oscar. Everyone voted and we ended up heading to Texas Roadhouse. Even though we have this at home we knew the food was predictable and we could kill a few hours there while we waited for the sun to dip and take some of its heat with it.

Oscar was so good, he just lay on the bench the whole time. We had to prompt him to get this picture.

Levi was excited to tell them tomorrow was his birthday so he could ride the saddle. For those that are fb friends you know Sparky did that for his birthday a few months back.

We stayed at the restaurant until the sun was low then headed East towards Texas. We will stay near the border tonight and tomorrow we will do a 5 state jaunt for Legoboy’s 9th birthday.

Carboy took a night turn in the front.

I drove late into the night across the Eastern border of the Rockies. As we have traveled we have moved though sections called “safety corridor”. It is a section designated by X number of miles as a safety zone in which fines are doubled for speeding (thank goodness Sparky’s not driving) and lights are mandatory, even for daytime driving. It’s so bizarre. At the end of the corridor it says “end of safety corridor”. Does this mean we can be a reckless as we want now? Just weird.

Tonight the moon was huge in the sky in front of us, like yesterday, but tonight it was orange. Still no luck with a good pic.