Mexico (Kind of)

So Scottish Steve got you caught up through Texas. And a good job he did.

We woke up in Van Horn, oh, every hour on the hour until the sun was up and we could viably get on the road. A combination of mobile phone alarms, mental dogs, crickets and robot birds meant sleep wasn't great. It was far cooler than it was in Arkansas though, so that's something.

The first target of the day (i've lost track of what day it is... I think waking up in Van Horn was day 12, let's call it day 12 anyway.) was El Paso. El Paso looked terrible. We drove through it planning on stopping somewhere for breakfast tacos. Nowhere took our fancy. We did, however, see Mexico.



We're pretty much assuming that that was Mexico. Suz Sat Nav and the map implied that we were driving along the border. None of us were even remotely impressed by Mexico. Or El Paso for that matter, it looked like Mexico but with... y'know, American stuff.



That's more Mexico. Over there by the horizon. As you can tell, we didn't really get any decent photos from El Paso/Mexico. But whatever.

Despite our general disdain for Mexico, we were set on breakfast tacos, so breakfast tacos we had to have. Sadly, we couldn't be bothered to look too far off the beaten track, so Taco Cabana is was.



The can in the Taco Cabana was pretty funny because of this sign.



Apparently if I think I might be pregnant, I shouldn't drink. I double checked, I was definitely in the men's restroom. Can Mexican men get pregnant? I don't know. I hope so.

Anyway. Taco Cabana breakfast was absolutely terrible.





That is Steve eating his chorizo and egg breakfast burrito. Yuck.

I was pretty repulsed by everything on the menu, so much so that the cheese and bean taco almost sounded appetizing. But there was a mystery word, something called 'barbacoa' on offer, so I enquired as to what it was. She didn't seem that sure, and eventually settled on "... cow meat?"

Good enough for me.



Mistake.

Highly unsatisfying. Nice decor though.



Neil and I were not content. We needed more breakfast, and more Mexican. Well thank goodness that there was a Taco Bell across the road. Between us all we got through a soft chicken taco with hot sauce, a cheesy double beef burrito (only a dollar and apparently very good!), cinnamon twists, and some more Baha Blast. A much better breakfast.





Time to get back on the road. Sadly, within minutes we were in New Mexico. Now I know a lot of cool things are based in New Mexico. Los Alamos, the new Space Port, um... Roswell! But for the most part, meh. The whole drive up to Albuquerque looked like this.



A few hundred miles later, this was Albuquerque.



Again, nothing that special. The usual police presence at the usual Motel 6, the usual fast food chains, supermarkets etc. etc. But we eventually found the main drag, which used to be on Route 66. This was cool, lots of neon and quirky looking shops. We were hoping to catch an Isotopes minor league game, but they were on the road. Typical.

For dinner, we ate at Pizza Hut, to sample their new Big Eat menu, which Neil had been excited about since February apparently. We've persuaded Neil that he has to eventually blog about the Pizza Hut experience, because it was way too funny. I'm not gonna give too much away, but here's a photo, and so you know, this is Neil starting his meal, about 1hr 40 mins after we ordered.



For dessert we had our first Sonic. The cherry limeade coolers which are being pushed heavy on the tv right now were ok, a little dissapointing.

Mainly a travel day, but we had some fun.

This morning we headed west to Gallup, then north to Utah, where we drove Route 163 through Monument Valley. Highlight of the trip so far, but way too many photos, so i'll need some time to cover it in the blog properly. It'll be a good one though.

So goodnight from Page, AZ. Tomorrow, we go to the Canyon. We've made sandwiches and we're ready to go.