The second day, woke up at 5:30am, at dawn, direction Grand Canyon, just about half an hour from the motel. Man it is chilly in the morning here, you can tell it is at a high elevation, over 6000ft.

Posted a few pictures of the Canyon here.

Quite impressive indeed! The more I thing about it though, the more I belive that Zion is nicer, less massive but nicer. Anyway, I did not have too much time so I left one hour and a half later... How to visit the Grand Canyon in 90 minutes, that will be the title of my next book!

Trading posts in Arizona:

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I-40 goes just next to the historic route 66. Small cities in Arizona and New Mexico have their downtown along the route 66, like here in New Mexico:

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Very often, you also have a railrod, with veeeeeeerrrrrry long trains, longer than in California, but they only have one layer of cargo here:

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Other train pictures:photo1, photo2, photo3, photo4. (photo4 gives a god idea of the train length.)

In New Mexico, I also cross the famous "Continental Divide"

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I have done more than half of the rockies. From this point, it should be downhill to the Mississippi river...

It is becoming flatter and flatter, even you start to see clouds which tell me the great plaines are not far:

Roads also are starting to become more and more straight:

I want to TURN somewhere!!

Finaly, a few hours later, a little East of Albuquerque (New Mexico), the great plains! Bye bye the rockies.:

Cliquez pour agrandir.

Everything is flat, you can see cattle, prairie or cultivated fields. It is still pretty high, more than 4500ft... Anyways this is starting to get boring, and since it is alread 8:30pm, I stop in Amarillo, Texas for the night.
This was a good day, changed twice of timezone, 16hour on the road, about 14 hours behind the wheel!