New Mexico road rules

It snowed today in New Mexico.  I had decided to drive to Santa Fe from Albuquerque for the day and didn't let the flakes stop me.  It's about an hour drive.  Santa Fe is at a considerably higher elevation than Albuquerque, so the roads were tricky.

I made it safely, of course, thanks to the folks at the New Mexico dept. of transportation.  But they do things a little differently out here.  I don't know what they use in place of road salt.  It's not sand.  It falls off the back of the snow plow in large clumps, the largest about the size of a bowling ball.  Most break up, but some stay intact and bounce around until they hit your car.  As you might imagine, it makes one a bit jumpy to have clumps of "whatever" hit your car as you motor down the Interstate during a winter storm.  I felt like I was fleeing the eruption of Vesuvius.

And the stuff is purple.  Maybe it's grape tang.  All I know is my car looks like it was in a head on collision with Grimace.