Day 4 - by Rob

Day 4

Breakfast at the Super-8-Alamogordo featuring make-it-yerself waffles in an electric contraption, and then off across the 50 miles of Tularosa basin. Mountains on each side and a few about 30 miles south and just flat plain to the north. A beautiful desert morning, went past the huge Holloman air force base, and then about half later, south off the highway for a few miles to the still fully operational White Sands Missile Range base. It was first a test site for the captured and rebuilt German V2 missiles in 1945 and has flown about every US developed and many foreign missies since. The range is about 40 miles wide and extends over a hundred north from the range base. There is a great museum with many detailed exhibits and relics from the whole history, including Trinity site on the northern end and the space shuttle landing strip, used for much training and once for a reentry landing in 1982. There were a few exhibits of late 50s technology which would have been co-incident with Jim's work visit here in 1959. 

Then a two thousand foot long straight climb up off the basin floor on highway 70, up and over San Augustin pass and a spectacular climb down into Las Cruces in the Rio Grande vally oither side. We had a lunch and a gawk at New Mexico State Uni campus and then dropped off the car and waited for the 4:30pm Greyhound on a hot & duty strip mall stop.

The bus was comfortable enough, and the fellow passengers mainly fully accredited graduates of Hard Times College. We change buses after a one hour wait at El Paso and the overnight leg was quite full.
Ellie and I had to sit separately, which was OK and consequently we mixed a bit more with out seat co-shares. I got to speak a bit to a young guy trying to find better job hopes in Houston after no luck in Modesto. I did not share my "Wall Street" job description! We were passport checked by Border Police at El Paso, and then were late night stop-&-searched on a roadblock on Interstate 10 by much more gunned up Border troops. Off the bus, form three lines with guards at front & rear. Dogs having a good old sniff about the baggage and police all over the bus interior. Once guy was led away in handcuffs and then on throught the night east on I-10. The Greyhound routes are carefully chosen to join up the hard luck parts of many American towns! Several stops at services through the night, then a 2 hour wait at dawn for a swap at a much nicer San Antonio office and finally into beautiful Austin.

Day 3 - by Eleanor

Day 3

We woke up early, and sat down for the second breakfast buffet of the trip. This was a 7/10 with stronger coffee and another chatty staff member telling us all about the history of the motel and her appreciation for British politeness. We said thankyou very much, politely, and headed back onto the road.

Driving through surreal little spanish villages and cowboy towns felt like a drive through a Western film set.
A hippy new-age regentrification of a shamble town called Madrid was cool.
Rob got pulled over for speeding by the Sherrif of Soccorro and did a world class humility performance to be awarded the Oscar (verbal warning) Then we almost missed the only 'point of interest' on the northern part of the huge Tularosa Basin. We got out for a photo opportunity at the Trinity Site - where the first atomic bomb was tested.

We de-toured to Lincoln. A small, perfectly-preserved late 1800s town. It was here that the infamous Billy the Kid was imprisoned and later escaped, not before shooting two of the most important men in Lincoln. Bullet holes, prison bars and stones to mark the mens' places of death can all be found in a short walk around Lincoln. The town was like a eery, quiet, time-warp back into the wild wild west.

Arriving to Alamogordo ahead of schedule, we found a coffee place and I caught up on trashy celebrity gossip with the help of People magazine. By sunset we had thoroughly explored Alamogordo and arrived at White Sands National Monument. We climbed to the top of a huge pure-white sand dune and admired the other-worldly view of the sun setting of the never-ending white plains.

In true dad style, we did not leave before a good look round the gift shop for a teeshirt and a few fridge magnets. From there, it was dinner at Chili's and another early night ahead of another fantastic day.

Day 2 by Eleanor

Day 2

Alberquerque was a brilliant American town. With a 'Fuddruckers' dinner next door and an advertising sign for the "BEST AIRPORT PARKING ON PLANET EARTH" next to what-can-only-be-described as some concrete.

Our first breakfast buffet (of which I am a fan girl) was 6/10, with an array of mini-sized breakfast foods and some orange apple juice. We headed off in the early morning, past the University of New Mexico 'Occupy Wall Street' camp-out, to Bandelier National Monument in Santa Fe. The drive to Santa Fe encouraged me to be over-zealous in taking photos of the mountains and beautiful wide-open landscapes of New Mexico.

At Bandelier we stretched our legs and went for a circle-trail walk round the ancient settlements. Carvings in the walls, and ladders into the once-occupied caves provided a few jokes and a really interesting stop.

Next up was Bradbury Science Museum, but not before a 'Ruby K's Bagel's' lunch. We had a look around the Bradbury Science exhibitions, and watched a film on the history of the Manhattan Project. Further exploring, into the legacy of Los Alamos, led us to a small Los Alamos history centre and a really interesting conversation with one of the locals. We saw 'Bathtub Row' where all the important scientists and managers of the project stayed.

Conversations with locals didn't end there. Once reaching the 'Silver Saddle' motel in Sante Fe, the man at the desk recommended a visit to the Plaza in town and gave us some more information about Sante Fe. In the evening, we walked round the Plaza of Native jewellery etc and had a lovely dinner on the balcony of a second-floor Southwestern restaurant.

Day 1 - by Eleanor

Day 1
Arriving at Heathrow at midday, after a final Cafe Nero pit stop before entering a land saturated in Starbucks, we boarded a plane to Washington DC. To our pleasant surprise, lunch and dinner was provided - despite our tickets pre-warning us of 'meals: none'. We landed in Washington 7 hours later and began our two hour wait in the CUSTOMS QUEUE OF HELL. The deceiving zig-zag queue line didn't work this time. Germans, Russians and several others simply pushed through, most Britains settled to complaining loudly. Eventually, we got through customs and baggage re-claim and hurried to gate D23 (ie. the other end of the entire airport) for our flight to Alberquerque NM.

The plane ride to Alberquerque NM was insane. There was a HUGE lightning storm to the left of us, and with a left-facing window seat I was able to watch the flashes of light illuminating the clouds.

We landed safely in Alberquerque - at 8pm local time and 2am head time - and made our way to La Quinta Inn. 2 massive double beds were exactly what we needed after a days travel and we tucked in for an early night.

The song remembers when

Well. It is finally time for my Don Draper get-lost-&-then-found trip to California. Backwards and forwards.

A two week road trip with the gals and then an all-teams family union for the wedding of Merrielle, Pete's younger daughter.

The iPod is loaded with old & new tunes, the bags are packed...

LHR @ 1200 today for Ellie & me: A Boeing 777 to Washington for a swap to an A320 to Albuquerque by 2000. New Mexico north to south first, then over to the Texas Hill Country & NASA Houston, then up & over to SFO next Sunday for a road cruise down the coast to Los Angeles with Chelsea. There the scattered family will all gather.

Here we go.... roll tape.