This morning we headed out to Magdelena, NM (sp?). Supposedly there was a place there where you could pay a fee to enter an area to find rocks. We never did it. The road was 13 miles long, rocky (4WD material) and with no cellphone service. Maybe if we had a 4WD, but we don't. We found a rockshop on the edge of town where we found a few small things anyway. So we headed to Albuquerque. We decided to take the remaining Route 66 that we missed on the way in last Thursday, and we're so glad we did! We found *the* rockshop, Southwestern Minerals located right on that route in Albuquerque, and I finally got my Rainbow Calcite! Not a cut gem (that would've been hugely expensive, no doubt!) but a nice rectangular specimen piece (they cleave in rectangular shapes). We decided on the spur of the moment not to take the interstates 40-44-55-35 back, but to take 40 to Highway 54 in Tucumcari, and head on up to Dodge City, KS tomorrow. We tried staying the night in Dalhart, Texas, but rooms were outrageously expensive for a little town with not much business. Plus one of the desk clerks creeped me out. So we decided to head up the road to Guymon, OK, which is significant because that's where Stan's sister lived for 10-15 years or so. Rooms were a little cheaper than the Super 8 in Dalhart, and definitely worth it to get away from a crusty hotel clerk, but also it gets us further down the highway and a better start on the morning. Texas definitely doesn't want us. Supposedly there's some "Dorothy's House" (Oz) in Liberal, KS, and I've been wanting to see Dodge City (Marshal Dillon! Miss Kitty! Festus!) for quite a while now, even if it is just a little hole in the wall tourist trap like Tombstone. Later, we'll head up to Lincoln, NE so we can get the best coffee in the world. Even somewhat good coffee was sorely lacking on this trip! When all this is over with, we will have driven through 10 states (counting Wisconsin)!

No time to post pictures tonight...we barely got a room and settled in in time for LOST.

Labels: LOST, Route-66-Part2, Vacation