Pushed on to Albuquerque- 800 miles in a day. Once again the land and soil changes drastically to a more red landscape and I get my first glimpse of a real life mesa.
Albuquerque was really just a place to grab some shut-eye (sound like a real cowgirl don't I?) but lucky for us, we happened upon a really fun place to eat that made Albuquerque stop a memorable visit.

The Owl Cafe. The Owl Cafe started as a small bar in the back of a grocery store started by Frank Chavez we he returned from WWII in 1945. The bar soon became the hangout for a group of "prospectors" new to the area. These guys had a very interesting day job. They were the atomic scientists that activated the famous Trinity Site explosion (first test of the bomb used to end the Great War.
Eventually the bar became a grill and, over the years, a cafe that is loved by this community. It still has that old school flavor with juke boxes at each both and along the counter. The bar (counter) is original and from Conrad Hilton's (of Hilton hotels and Paris Hilton fame) first boarding house

Dinner at the Owl starts with a serving of saltine crackers and a little dish of pinto beans with green chilie sauce. Don't know if this is a regional thing or not. With every dinner you choose a side of either red or green chile sauce. Since I had no clue as to which I'd like our waitress brought both red and green and called it "Christmas on the side".

One of the things that is icing on the travel cake comes in the form of the people you meet along the way. Our server was a sweet, diminutive, young lady of Mexican or American Indian descent (or maybe both). Picture in your mind's eye a tiny little lady with long straight black hair and cafe au lait skin. When she spoke she had the voice of a young Julia Childs. She was very obviously in her third trimester and when asked, she proudly told us this would be her second baby. A little later she quietly opened her order pad and showed us the picture she carried of her precious 5 year old daughter. She talked of those oh so typical concerns every mother has about the coming of another baby and her desire to see her daughter easily accept and adjust to the new addition. It's nice to know that some things never change- mothers are mothers the world over.
If you are out Albuquerque way be sure to take in breakfast, lunch or dinner at The Owl.