Day Five–The Truth is Out There

Today is mostly about driving and getting the car serviced.  I woke up a little after six, but let Aryn sleep, though she was up at 7:00.  We were on the road by 8:00, heading for Roswell and then on to Albuquerque which has the first Toyota dealer since the car hit 5000-miles in west Texas.

Not a lot to see on this drive … just flat land and scrub brush, broken by the occasional plateau.  We did see about three antelope beside the road at various points, though (no pictures of them).

The truth about Roswell is that I was underwhelmed.  We didn’t stop, just drove through, so didn’t see the freaky stuff which is, I assume, outside of the main town on the roads closer to the military bases.  Roswell itself, which is bigger than I expected from how its depicted on TV and in movies, had a lot of alien signage, but not what I expected. 

This sign was in a rest stop bathroom … which begs the question: What, exactly, did I just wash my hands with?

There really wasn’t time to stop in Roswell, as the goal for today was to get to Albuquerque, get the oil changed, and get Aryn to swing dancing tonight.  As it was, we had just enough time.  Arrived in town and checked into the hotel around 1:00.  I got an appointment for an oil change at 3:30, arrived a little early, then back to the hotel to pick up Aryn and drive to dinner (6:15), and finally back to nearby the hotel for her dancing at 7:30.

While I was at the car dealer, Aryn searched the web for someplace to eat dinner and came up with Café Jean Pierre for crepes. 

	I had a beef bourguignon crepe and a New Mexico Syrah, and Aryn had spinach Florentine, then we split a crepes Suzette.  We were able to have a nice dinner without me worrying about the cost, because we’ve done very well on the food budget for this trip.
	Both of us loved our entrees.  The beef bourguignon was savory and tender – melting in my mouth. When the dessert hit the table, I was ready for it and had already taken two bites before I remembered to take a picture.

Even when Aryn wasn’t mooching off her future in-laws traveling with her friend or staying with his folks, we’ve been eating cheaply. 

I used Priceline again for the hotel in Albuquerque, along with information from other bidders gained from BiddingForTravel.com. 

Albuquerque has a lot of Priceline hotel zones, five of which have no 3-star or better hotels.  Since I didn’t have a particular preference where we stayed, I selected several zones that do have 3-star hotels and started the bidding at $30 – this is pretty low, since the successful bids posted on BiddingForTravel.com were mostly in the $40-50 range, but with so many zones to rebid with, it was worth a shot.  Then I used the zones that don’t have 3-stars to be able to rebid.  We wound up with another Courtyard at the airport for $47 a night.