The Ferret

We're on a DC-9 to Dallas

Sunday morning in Albuquerque, our last in the sunny South West before our return flight via Dallas to Detroit and then our drive home to London on the 401. It will be good to be home again.

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Kate and Reg are up early and walked to a nearby Pancake House to get some coffee. They find it's not open — a Pancake House! not open! on Sunday morning! New Mexico seems quite paradoxical in it's attitudes towards restaurant hours, alcohol service and many other things. They have drive through liquor stores where you can buy a liquor miniature and a glass of ice (for your sore ankle) without ever leaving the car, but you can't buy liquor on Sundays and you can't get breakfast on a Sunday at a Pancake House! The downtown stores all closed at 5:00, even Friday night. What is going on? Kate blames most of it on the proximity of Utah and the "Morgans" (that's what Kate and Reg like to call the Mormons/LDS). Alcohol, coffee and God don't mix.

Since there is no coffee available nearby we start driving towards the airport by way of the University of New Mexico area. Here we find a 24-hour place that is open. We park the car but before we reach the restaurant we are stopped by some street people hawking a newspaper the homeless have put out. The woman asks for some money to feed her pet ferret that she seems to keep up her sleeve — quite spooky.

The restaurant is really hopping; lots of people and activity. Reg is quite fascinated by an armed guard/policeman and a woman wearing extremely tight pants and an uplift bra who are emptying the cash from a video rental machine. I guess he's her guard; they fear the homeless might rob her. The cop is also reading a wanted poster and seems to be scanning the crowd for suspects. Luckily that kind of wanted folk are found to be wanting today.

After Reg has his breakfast and the girls have their coffee we continue driving towards the airport and find a proper coffee house along the way that advertises espresso! This coffee shop is next door to a woman's feminist bookstore. We're excited; finally an alternative to the "brown water" they call coffee in this part of the world.  Here we all order espressos to jolt us awake. It's great to have some real coffee, although Cindy finds hers too strong.

We find our way to the Alamo car return and within minutes are whisked to the airport in a shuttle bus. The driver keeps up a non-stop conversation with us (we're the only passengers) about the weather. Apparently he gets up at 4:00a.m. everyday and watches the Weather Channel so he can have these conversations and then verify the forecast. "Today in Albuquerque it's going to be sunny and warm." Check! But isn't it always?

Reg has a window seat for the flight to Dallas but there's nothing much to see. There was thick cloud cover most of the way. But there's a final note from him in the diary: "As I write this I discover we're on a DC-9 from Albuquerque to Dallas. We'll see Dallas from a DC-9 although not at night." His homage to the Flatlanders.

From Dallas it's another flight to Detroit where we pick up Cindy's car and head home to Canada. It's been quite an adventure: Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico from April 24 through to today May 3. Over 1,000 miles travelled with lots of scenic country and lots of stories to tell.

These notes, originally composed by Kate, Cindy and Reg at the time of the trip, were transcribed '21/07/08 with the help of Google voice recognition.