4/16/08 – Gallup, NM

Whew, we finally made it to Flagstaff. Last night we stayed in Gallup, NM and it is the first place I just couldn’t wait to get out of. It’s not just that there was nothing there; it actually had the weirdest feel to it. It was very windy, with dust blowing everywhere. FireCat’s van started flashing warning lights about the brakes as we neared the area. My body reacted the whole time we were there with sneezing, stuffy nose, headache. I’ve never had allergies but it sure felt like I was allergic to Gallup.

The motel we checked into had these old, worn steps and just felt kind of seedy. I noticed as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep that my thoughts were negative and I felt creepy. I’ve never had this feeling before but I realized that the place itself—the air, the earth—seemed to be affecting me. We went to a wonderful little coffee shop this morning, but the frittata was way overdone and FireCat and I both lost money in the market today. This was just the strangest thing, but I was glad to gallop outta Dodge—I mean get outta Gallup—this afternoon, and it’s the only place we’ve visited so far that I think I’ll try to “dodge” in the future.

Now we’re sitting in the Beaver Creek Brewery and I’m having a glass of California cab while FireCat samples the local beers, so life feels like it’s getting back to normal. ;)

There’s a trivia game in this pub—it’s kinda cool. They ask a question with 5 multiple choice answers. It’s time based and they flash scores on the screen from all the people in the bar who are playing. FireCat is doing really well on the music questions, but not so much on the soap operas. ;)

There are also trivia cards on the bar and the two women next to me are asking each other questions from those. I guess this place is designed to try to make people smarter. A nice concept for a bar.

And…FireCat is the new lead scorer in the electronic big screen trivia game! OK, I played the game but I only came in 4th place. Fun though!