bretzelitos

We left Flagstaff around 0900 after a true american breakfast in the Ramada Motel on the I-40 eastbound.

Our first and only tourist stop was the Meteor Crater. It is easily accessible from the Interstate, just five miles away with an own exit. Some 50000 years ago, a Nickel-Iron piece of 50 meter of diameter made a hole of 3/4 mile and 1000 feet after hitting earth with 26000 mph. Pieces of molten metal and earth crust were thrown out up to a distance of seven miles. Must have been a major event for this region at that time.

Afterwards, our trip continued on I-40 East.

When passing the border to New Mexico, we changed our time for the first time.

Passing the mountain planes is incredible. You are always between 5000 and 7400 feet of altitude – and you rarely see a city, village or people living there. It is more or less empty.

The only bigger city we passed by was Albuquerque, New Mexico.

When passing the border to Texas, we changed our watches for the second time. So we lost two hours in one day – and the time difference to Europe went down from nine hours to seven.

More or less with the NM-TX-border, we left the mountains and entered the high plains. Still at 4000 feet, but with loads of cattle around now… and not a single hill somewhere.

This night we stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn in Amarillo, Texas after this amazing nine hour drive.

(More pictures, also from Las Vegas the day before to come later)