North to South, South to North

We successfully transversed the Untied States from South to North after we left the trailer park in Southern New Mexico, and exited the United States via North Dakota. We mostly just drove straight without many stops, but we do have a few pieces of advice for intrepid travellers who might follow in our footsteps:

 a) Just because someplace is the busiest restaurant in a small town, doesn't mean that the food will be particularly good. We couldn't resist stopping in "Truth or Consequences", New Mexico for lunch (otherwise known as "T or C" on roadsigns where they need to conserve space). We pulled up to the busiest Mexican restaurant in town, got one of the last tables....and had a meal that I certainly wouldn't recommend travelling to New Mexico to enjoy. We'd had a similar experience in a Route 66 diner on our way down to Mexico too.

 b) New Mexio would certainly be an interesting place to spend some time. It has the single longest list of places we *didn't* visit that I might have liked to. The Trinity site at the White Sands Missile Range (admittedly only open 2 days a year), the Very Large Array (radio telescope), Los Alamos. Even Roswell!

 c) Petroglyphs are better viewed on a dry day. It was raining the morning we visited the Petroglyph National Monument near Albuquerque, and these petroglyphs were made by rock percussion....flaking off the front surface of the rock. Not so visible when the rock is wet. But on the bright side, it meant that the bunnies and a roadrunner weren't frightened away by previous visitors before our arrival, and viewing the petroglyphs became kind of a treasure hunt.

 d) Those vaguely remembered pictures and drawings from my childhood of Pueblo Indians in cliff dwellings? Those are the Puye cliff dwellings North of Santa Fe. It's actually an archeological site, under the stewardship of the local Indian band. Well worth a visit!

 e) Denver has a high tech park, apparently occupied by modest tech companies. We exited the highway there looking for lunch. But none of the office buildings were emblazoned with company names. Mostly shared buildings with smaller companies? Modesty? Secrecy? Strict sign by-laws?

 f) If you've just spent several hours driving by fields of cows, beef is a good menu choice. This worked in Chihuahua City, Mexico and it worked in Lexington Nebraska.

 g) Despite the proliferation of chain restaurants along the interstates, the classic truck stop restaurant is still hanging in there. Ricks in Lexington Nebraska could be out of a book, including waitresses who are more interested in visiting with friends among the customers instead of random strangers, and perhaps the best prime rib I've ever eaten...perfectly medium rare, tender as anything, tasty, and only $9 when purchased as part of a Prime Rib sandwich (like a steak sandwich, but with prime rib. Num!)

 h) Lincoln Nebraska is pleasantly surprising. It has a gentrified old warehouse district with little shops and trendy restaurants (like Brix and Stones, my new favorite punning restaurant name), and a skookum museum of quilting.

 i) "I hate to wake up sober in Nebraska"a song by a group called Free Hot Lunch is innaccurate. There are hills (at least rolling ones), trees, and many curves in the road between Omaha and Lexington. If they think that's a boring straight piece of road, they should try heading north to the Dakotas.

 j) Actually the Dakotas aren't so boring to drive through either. It's where we first encountered consistent snow cover, and it generally reminded me of home. Lots of copses of trees, farmyards, birds, and big sky to watch as you drive along.  Not to mention that at sunset, you can see the shadow of the wheels of your car!