Driving New Mexico

During our drive in New Mexico, we finally got far enough East to reach the Continental Divide – an imaginary line down the USA where, to the West all rain eventually reaches the Pacific Ocean (ie: rivers flow west), while to the East, all rain eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean (maybe via the Gulf – rivers flow south and east)! Nothing special, but there is a plaque on the roadside …


Here’s some more pics from our more-than 450 miles drive, from north of Durango to Socorro (with side trips to Sandia Crest and the VLA); as you see, New Mexico is much flatter than Colorado!

 

Hooray for Sandia MINI

Yesterday GPMINI decided to light it’s Service Engine Soon indicator, though she otherwise seemed to drive perfectly fine. I didn’t really want to drive back to Florida worried, and remembered back in 2006 how great Sandia MINI in Albuquerque was – only about 250 miles away!
I emailed the Service Manager Chad, who said they were very busy but … so I visited anyway as we were sort-of passing by! Sandia MINI did all they could for me; Service Advisor Andrew personally set up GPMINI and read out the codes, confirming that the warning was an unimportant “lean fuel” indicator, likely a result of GPMINI’s unusual diet of 91 octane and 10,000ft elevation. They cleared the code and confirmed all was well. What’s more, they even washed GPMINI for me – and didn’t charge me anything.