Dateline Albuquerque. Wednesday 13/6/12 2250 hrs

Day 5

At last...a Greyhound employee who knew what he was doing. Queued for the Albuquerque bus this morning and was processed in 13.5 seconds. All he did was write down my PNR Reference Confirmation number onto his manifest, and told me to jump onboard. Alleluia!

But let me start at the beginning. I was awoken just before dawn by a freight train several miles long slowly passing by my motel room window. So I decided to get out there and do my slightly under-powered walk before the heat of the day set in. I walked for 70 minutes and noticed what a popular time 6am is for airplane take-offs! Passed by huge Bank of America regional HQ buildings, as big as a small New Zealand city. Thought of Linda Kay. And then my thoughts turned to all that valuable gym work I did over the last 3 months and now I'm gonna be eating on the run, mainly crap, and not getting nearly enough exercise. That thought kept me going until I could feel the sun's heat, so I returned to Motel 6 and started to pack for the day.

GET ON THE BUS motto worked to a tee...and the journey today was pretty uneventful, 9 hours. Stops at Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook and Gallup. For the first time, the bus was full between Flagstaff and Albuquerque.

So I'm here for at least 2 nights, and can do some more forward planning because I'm thinking to do Grand Canyon on the way back, but that would mean not so much time spent in Canada. And maybe a flight to save time. I just don't think I can miss it now because I may never pass this way again.

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Also whilst out walking this morning I was also thinking about an article I'd read on the BBC website about obesity. They are doing a whole series of them, all about obesity. Now of course I can't find the article. But it said that some of the origins of the obesity epidemic lie in the production of much cheaper food over the last 50 years, and specifically foods which contain High-Fructose corn syrups (HFCS). And this from Wikipedia:

'HFCS was rapidly introduced to many processed foods and soft drinks in the US from about 1975 to 1985'.

It helps me to understand the effect of what I am eating, and then I am more likely to do something about it. Still 6 and a half weeks of holiday eating to go! Definitely a long walk is called for tomorrow morning.

Hope all's well in your world.