Albuquerque is hard to spell, and hard for Mr. GPS to say.....

The morning began in Gallup, NM with a Venti iced coffee from the Safeway Starbucks, and a green chile burger from Blake's Lottaburger. Gina and I split it since it was just supposed to be a snack! We knew we'd be having late lunch/early dinner with the family.
Gallup was full of Indians. Everywhere we went was so silent, so quiet, and I felt so out of place!!! There are Indian markets everywhere, both on the side of the road, in shopping plazas and included in all the gas stations! All the merchandise was so neat! Some was kitchy, tacky, and funny; some was gorgeous. I keep looking at all the moccasins, I really want some as my New Mexico souvenir.

I got to meet so many members of Gina's family today! Gina spent the summers in NM as a kiddo, so there was many aunties and cousins excited to see her. We all went to a yummy Mexican restaurant, and more & more familia kept coming in a pulling up a chair! There was babies to hold, and enchiladas to eat.., I was in heaven!
Afterwards, we all caravanned back to Grandma's house and chatted in the front yard while the little kids enjoyed the nice weather. We are all going to meet up again tomorrow. It's so awesome that we aren't on a strict time schedule... This impromptu family reunion is super fun!

I'm going to sleep now, but there is tons more to tell about...

A kiss for luck, and we're on our way!

We stopped for the night in Kingman, AZ. Another motel 6, of course. This one gave us dog treats and poopy bags for the dogs. JB's restaurant did the trick of filling our tummies, then we went back to the motel and watched "Marley and Me." depressaloid movie! It is so funny to see the baby dogs tucked into their own bed; they are going to be so spoiled by the time we get there!
We all slept so good, woke up late, and left the dogs in the room watching "Tom and Jerry," while we went to Calico's, a restaurant that was in the motel parking lot.
It was amazing, so delicious! All the food on the menu looked delicious, but the novelty was definitely the "build your own sandwich" bar! We got that (of course), and it also came with soup/salad bar! Resouceful creatures that we are, we made big sandwiches, and put them into my purse for later.
Now we are driving along listening to Guns n Roses loud! Yahoo! Tonight, we will be stopping in Gallup, NM. This part of the USA is very Native American, with reservations representing several different tribes.

And we are off!

Moving day has come and gone and now we are in the car on the edge of California and Arizona. Saturday was a frenzy of last-minute house packing, and Sunday was spent moving everything out of my storage locker. It was really embarrassing, since I'm a consummate packrat! Gina kept asking "what's in THIS box?" and always the reply was "Vintage clothes!"

Every box is filled with long lost treasures that I've missed so dearly. One box contained a floor length white rabbit coat, a 60's leopard fur turban, a 1930's violet organdy tea dress and a million other old friends!

Of course our moving truck was over the estimated weight; we had more than was anticipated. I am really looking forward to decorating our new home with all these awesome things!

Let me tell you where we are now: it is so hot and so bare here (100 degrees at this moment)and so dry and bare, just little scrubby bushes and trees that look like even they are surprised to be alive. In the car, however, the ac is working so well! There are awesome cars to be seen once in a while, both abandoned sadly in desolate vacant lots, and their pristine brethren smug on trailers speeding along.( I want them all)

We are black and blue from moving. Gina had an awful splinter in her finger... Out of my great-grandmothers ironing board-ouch! I ran over my foot with the dolly and totally screamed and cried on the curb. Owey. We are healing, though.

Last night we stayed at the Motel 6; we will be staying there as they accept pets with no fees. We slept in one bed and the puppies slept in the other. Chopper is nice and chill, back-up is INTENSE. He was up all night patrolling for creepeys, what would he do? Lick them to death?

We have been driving for 5 hours in noplace land. Thanks to our pals who gave us CDs and treats, we need entertainment!