This morning; perfect. Clear, sunny and 38 degrees, my kind of day! I love cold clear days; they’re just the best…

Ok, sorry Texas and Texan’s. I gotta be honest with you, I was not looking forward to driving through the rest of your boring State…yeah , I know, don’t mess with Texas and all that crrrrap, but, damn…OOOOOOOklahoma was getting flat and boring, I think y’all ended up with some of the s^& they just didn’t want.

I will admit however, that I had one of the best steaks in my life last night in Amarillo at a place called the Hoffbrau Steakhouse, a pepper crusted sirloin; it was great!

Driving from Amarillo into New Mexico was about what I had expected. As I started getting closer to Albuquerque though, the scenery picked up and the mountains still had some snow. I had also come across another section of Route 66, some of the old signs are pretty cool. I stopped for some lunch in old town Alburquergue, it really is rather nice…real artsy-fartsy and one of the places on this trip that I would like to go back to and spend more time in with my honey.

I reset the Navigation and as I entered I-40 asked myself …”is this what I really want to see” and “do I really want to go all that far North and through Flagstaff?” I searched for another route and the Navigation system suggest a “shorter mileage route” but longer time and - through Phoenix. I wanted to stop and see my good friend Marc in Scottsdale anyhow ….so…I punched it in. Ok…navigation is a cool option! I got off the I-40 at the hwy 117 exit, fueled and asked the nice lady behind counter if (in her opinion) it would be worth the extra time to go west via the 117. She said “it is a prettier drive”, that’s it.

I start driving west on the 117 and the road is fantastic, there is no-one on it…I like that!

The geography starts changing pretty dramatically and all of a sudden I find myself in the El Malpais National Conservation area…..un-friggin-believable. I could have spent hours there, it was just fantastic- the lady at the gas station never said a word!! This is why I took this trip; this is the stuff I wanted to see.

After a taking a couple of thousand pictures, it was back in the car and back on the road. I drove for another 2 plus hours and never saw another car heading west….not one! 4 trucks passed me going the opposite direction. The speed limit is 55…right! This is a section of highway that is perfect for all of us track heads…it has elevation changes, corners that you can see a half-mile through, no-where for the police to hide… it is simply a prefect road and only the second time that I found myself on this trip (the first in the Smokies) going through a list of cars in my head that would work really well out here; my old Lotus, Robert’s Noble M400 (yum), Leighton’s’ Lamborghini, Mecey’s Porsche and finally Darren’s Porsche CGT…..I though about the CGT for a long time. This road, that car, the glorious symphony that comes with it at full chat……oh my.

117 ends at the 60, yup, same 60 and heads into Arizona. I crossed the Arizona line and have stopped in Springerville for the night…I already asked…no, Jerry does not live here, only looks like he does J