After several 100 miles of flat lands it was more than exciting to come across some kind of elevation in the distance, even if it was relatively slight to what I would see later on the trip. Granted, it was only day 12 of a very extensive road trip, but those few hundred miles of nothing but so much flat had me going crazy.
New Mexico is a very cool place, though my first experiences walking around it had me in contact with a nasty cactus. Learned that lesson pretty fast! 2011-2012.