I must have upset the god of travelling because things aren't going right for me. So I got to the bus station in Oklahoma City for my 8:15pm bus but it filled up before I got to the front of the queue, which is the first time that's happened to me. Luckily they already had a second bus on the way so at 8:45pm it turned up. Naturally it wasn't until 9:15pm that we got going, so an hour late already. My bag should have gone on the 3pm because I checked it early for my bus.

After a few hours the bus gets into Amarillo, Texas and it's a service stop, meaning everybody has to get off the bus while they clean it inside and presumably gas it up. After an hour of waiting the bus had not returned. Then two hours went by. People had been asking at the information desk what was going on and the guy there was telling them that we were waiting for a new driver. Amarillo, like many other service stops, is a driver change point. So our original driver would be resting or going back the way we'd come. It looked like Greyhound hadn't thought far enough ahead to get another driver ready for this extra bus at Amarillo.

Three hours after we arrived we finally reboarded, but of course that takes half an hour to do because it seems to take forever to check each ticket and then for the driver to check out once we're all loaded. But at least we do eventually get to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dawn broke during that last leg and I was so excited every time I opened my eyes in between naps to see desert scenery with small bushes and large rock formations. Finally, the change in scene I'd been waiting for!

My original bus should have got in at 6am but instead we turned up at 9:45am. Then it got even worse. I went to information to claim my bag but it wasn't there. After they checked, I ascertained it wasn't at Oklahoma City still, nor was it in Amarillo. The guy did reassure me by saying they often screw up in Amarillo. His suggestion was that it had gone through Albuquerque and would be picked up at the next stop in Gallup and be put on the next bus back. He suggested I wait around until the 11am bus comes in. I decided to do that and phoned my car rental company to say that my 7am pickup time would be more like 1pm.

So I set out to explore downtown Albuquerque. The bus/train station building was nice, done in an adobe style. I passed a cinema and a few closed bars and came to a diner offering free internet. So I went in and got a coffee and cream cheese bagel and went on the internet for a while. I got four cups of coffee out of it and choose to switch to decaf after two.

I went back to the bus station at 11:30am, assuming the bus would be late. It had come in and my bag wasn't there. The woman suggested it might be on the 8pm bus. I was quite annoyed but chose to make the most of the day. I went to the airport and picked up my car, a very fetching white Chrysler PT Cruiser (the retro looking car you've seen around in the UK for a while). It had only 1800 miles on the clock so it was very new. Because I keep my valuables and breakables in my carry-on I had my TomTom with me so I was able to navigate the one hour drive to my motel in Santa Fe. I didn't have the car charger for it with me so I had to recharge it from my laptop in the motel room.

I spent the afternoon in Santa Fe. It is a very beautiful town and very popular with tourists buying anything and everything that a Native American has made. The central point is the old plaza, which would have been the main focal point of the old Spanish town.

I did a bus tour to see more of the city without having to use my legs. Although it wasn't unpleasant walking because it was a very mild temperature, only in the mid 70s. This is not what I expected from the desert southwest but Santa Fe is at an altitude of 7000 feet, which might have something to do with it. Nor did I expect the thunderstorm that hit at 5pm as the tour was heading back down into town. I had the best views of lightning I've ever had and the thunder sounded awesome - unless you don't like storms of course. Then the rain came and it was heavy. The tour guide told us it was monsoon season and they get a storm like that every afternoon. I thought he was joking or exaggerating because I associate monsoon season with India and places like that.

The tour was otherwise pretty good and it was interesting to learn that if you build anything in the historic area, which is a huge area of downtown, then it has to be done in the old adobe style. This means that nearly every building you see is actually new, with some exceptions. The guide taught us how to spot a 'fake-a-roo' as he called them. Even if most of it is fake it's still lovely to see.

At the drop-off point in the plaza I dove under cover and went into a store to buy my fourth pair of sunglasses of the trip. I had broken my previous ones by fiddling with them on the bus and it wasn't surprising because I'd only paid $10 for them. So I decided to splash out and spend a decent amount on the next pair to get better quality, so I got a $13 pair.

It was dinner time so I ran across the road to the one restaurant I could see and went in. I should have checked the menu first because it turned out to be a little pricey but there was something within my budget and I could at least say I'd eaten on the plaza. The waitress was nice, telling me when the rain had eased off, so that I could walk the five minutes back to my car without getting soaked.

Back at my motel room I phoned the Greyhound station and my bag had turned up. Hurrah! They asked if I wanted it sent up to Santa Fe, but I said NO! I didn't trust them so I got in my car at 9pm and drove through torrential rain for one hour to Albuquerque, picked up my bag and drove one hour back through drier conditions as the rain had moved on. I asked what had happened to my bag and all they could tell me was that it hadn't been to Gallup, otherwise it would have had a 'resend tag' on it. So the buses must have been so full that there was no room for it on the 3pm from Oklahoma City or the 8:15pm, 8:45pm. Either that or it got stuck at Amarillo. Either way I was glad to have it back so that I didn't have to survive on one change of clothes. However I'd burned a third of a tank of gas on that round-trip.