More New Mexico. The scenery was incredible. One of the most beautiful places on the planet, Roadtrip USA calls it. Who am I to argue?

First plan was to have a look at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. I wasted a lot of time finding it due to less than perfect direction signs. Then the museum had no parking. After an unsuccessful search through the neigborhood for a public parking place, I just gave up on the whole idea. Eventually I have to be back in Tallahassee.

I deviated from the perfect Route 66 once again by going down NM 14 from Santa Fe. This worked out pretty well. The road started out slow but picked up tremendously in scenery farther down south.

I took the detour to Sandia Crest from NM 14. This detour is really fun, if you ignore the ridiculous speed limits. But the car really felt like molasses going up those very steep slopes with no supercharger and at a thin 10,000 ft air pressure. Fortunately, I got a lot more speed through the turns going down.

Sandia Crest offered a great view of the surrounding countryside. The important part is not that it is 11,000 ft above sea level, but that it is a mile above its surroundings. That makes for great views.

Coming out of Sandia Crest, "Tinkertown" was also great. If a mechanical Uncle Sam wanting to shake your hand, (to judge your character from the shake,) does not make a stop imperative, I do not know what will. But there are countless other incredible finds at this site.

In Albuquerque, I definitely found that the car overheats when going at low speeds with the AC on. I need more water in my coolant, I will add distilled water to the max when I can find it. For now it is AC off and windows down at low speed or idle. Starting difficulties persist too. Often I need to "shake" the car to get it started.

And I still need to encounter the hot parts of the trip... My information indicates I may encounter another 25 degrees (120 degrees ambient) above what I am seeing now. Am I going to be forced to decide whether I should turn the engine off to cool it down, with the risk of not being able to restart it, or keep it running and possibly lose the engine? Nah!

All the same, I probably should have performed better preparations for this trip, like having the dealer flush the cooling system and fill it with a lower percentage of anti-freeze. But one has only so much time.

Next was a drive down an unnamed road to Acoma Pueblo for what Roadtrip USA calls "unforgettable views, especially of the Enchanted Mesa." A few miles before I reached it, there was a sign "Closed June 29". I proceeded anyway, hoping to loop around the other entry branch back to US 66 and also maybe at least get a glimpse of the thing from afar. But there was a police blockade, and I had to turn back the way I came, a very slow road, without seeing a thing.

Then I took the detour over NM 53 for a look at El Malpais and Inscription Rock. The scenery was gorgeous, but I did not see the pitch-black, glassy sharp, lava flows of El Malpais. I guess you probably have to go to a specific locaton to view them, but I was eager to reach Inscription Rock before they closed at 7, so I skipped stopping at the visitor center. This was a mistake because when I reached Inscription Rock, it turned out that while the visitor center closes indeed at 7 pm, access to the rock is prohibited at 6 pm. I was there at exactly 6, (atomic time), but their clocks were three minutes fast, so I had to leave. No stretching a point here.

Which brings me to the observation that while the scenery is incredibly beautiful here, the people are not very friendly. The most obvious manifestation to me is how many people will speed up when you try to pass them. I watched how a "truck" (i.e. a Ford F series or so) that had been blocking another "truck" before me by going well below the speed limit in the no-passing zones, got all the speed out of it when the other truck tried to pass where it was possible. Dangerous for everybody of course. The passing truck finally made it safe past the creep with no accidents. As did I; courtesy of a five-speed. I have seen this speeding up to prevent passing a number of times over here, but this truck was the most imbecilic of the lot. I guess people subconsiously rebel against too much perfection.

Ended up in the Motel 8 in Gallup, with a nice Route 66 strip. Arizona, especially the Grand Canyon, is next,

the surroun

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