The route is Amarillo to Albuquerque, via I-40. The season is mid-autumn. Stream of consciousness.
Brown and flat flat flat. Brown. Ewww, cows! Brown and flat.
Flaaaaaaat. And brown.
Hill! Brown and lumpy. That’s not really a mountain, why do they call it a mountain? Is there ever any water under this bridge?
Mountain? Brooooooown.
Canyon. OK, this is different. But still brown. At least the rocks are red. Brown brown brown, how does anything live here? Does anyone live here? Why? Brown, brown, is that tree growing underground? No, it is in a deep ditch. Brown and lumpy. Are we there yet?
Brown and flat again? Oh, sign for a river! Pecos River ahead, OK, that’s cool. What’s that on the horizon? Mountains? No, just another flat-topped lump. Down into a valley with trees! Cool. What, that was the river? Really? That was it?
Pecos River Crossing and Town in Background Santa Rosa, NM
I have not seen cows for hours. Who lives here, anyway? Brown, brown, brown. Green lumps among the brown. Are those trees? No, bushes. Big bushes. I see a mountain! I think. No, yes, yes it is a mountain. I wonder which one? Wow it is flat and brown out here.
Are we there yet?
Miles and miles of miles of miles.
The sky never stops.
The mountain looks closer, I think. What’s that other thing sticking up? Is that a mountain too? No, just a ridge, I think.
Is someone farming billboards? I thought this was illegal.*
More? Sheesh.
Are we there yet?
OK, we are climbing, this is good. More green lumpy bushes. At least they smell nice.
What a dry place. What’s that white stuff? Salt? Who would live here? Is it named for the guy from Sherlock?
Helllooooo! Anybody home?
Edgewood? What wood?
Yeah, we are climbing into the mountains! But where are the trees? There’s supposed to be pine trees, right? And what’s a Zuzax anyway?
Huh?
That’s a big excavation over there.
How many trucks is that pickup made of, anyway?
Oooooh, now that’s a mountain! And what are those funny lumps? Which exit is it again?
*It is illegal, now. These were grandfathered.
Tomorrow: Alma Drives to Albuquerque: Short Version
Cat Rotator's Quarterly 
I thought the town got the second part of its name from the quirky journey there . . .
đŸ˜‰
It’s been a few years since I visited that part of New Mexico and then went up to Clovis, over to Fort Sumner, and turned right to get to the interstate, so the terrain wasn’t quite that monotonous. My last few excursions have been to Ruidosa which at least as antelope at one spot along the way.
I forget if it was in a cartoon or in an ancient Reader’s Digest that someone had put up a homemade sign along a particular dull, long, lonely roadway, way out in Nowhere, Middle of… that read:
MONOTONOUS
AIN’T IT?
Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Also, I was just reminded of this bit:
A friend drove from Memphis to Phoenix to take a training course. His wife took some vacation and went with him.
She was from the island nation of Grenada. She’d live there, and in Montreal, and in Memphis; an island and two urban hives, mostly. She had been here and there by airplane, but not by car.
She got mildly freaked out a few hours after they passed Oklahoma City… and they were still a *long* way from Phoenix.
Later he overheard her describing the trip to her sister in Montreal. “It’s like the sea… it just goes on and on.”
I used to make the Little Rock to Amarillo ride a couple of times a year on my Yamaha. From west Oklahoma to Amarillo, the crosswind was enough to cause visible tire wear as I tacked into the wind…
That was very entertaining.
The Zuzax, a creature of the west, is found
Along barren highways through miles of brown.
Sometimes it’s lumpy, with a top that’s quite flat,
Who in their right mind would live in a place like that!?
OK it was Dr Seuss or go all Lovecraftian…
As Amarillo to Albuquerque via I-40 parallels ye olde road, I must say: “Get your kicks on route sixty-six.” Come to think of it, it may actually sit atop the old 66 right-of-way in places. When Bob Seger’s singing about a “long and lonesome highway” it might as well be the road between those towns. Except for Tucumcari and Santa Rosa, there’s not much human out there in between.
There are a few stretches where they overlay, mostly the long swaths between towns. And through the pass, but even then 40 parallels 66 most of the way.
Driven that at least seven or eight times… All the way to California, and it’s even MORE boring further west… sigh… The only saving grace was the occasional curve to wake you up when you ran off the road…
Between Albuquerque and Flagstaff is darn boring. Though at least if you have the time, the meteor crater and the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert make interesting (and reasonably short) detours.