10/1/2016 9/15-29/2016
I know it has been 2 weeks, but we have been on full speed, been without decent internet and the time for this just seems to disappear. We had a nice dinner in Williams, AZ with Barb's fun cousins, enjoying our last night in the area. The next morning, we were off pretty early on a short jaunt to Winslow, AZ. We set up camp at Homolovi Ruins State Park, which is within sight of Winslow. About 130, we drove west on I-40 a couple of exits and a visit to Meteor Crater. It is a big dang hole in the ground supposedly made by a meteor strike, Always makes me wonder why there are none of those craters in populated places, like NY? Then we drove into Winslow and spent the rest of the night enjoying our time in the town made famous by Glen Frey & Jackson Browne while writing the ballad 'Taking it Easy' with The Eagles. We took a bunch of pictures, bought a few souvenirs and walked down Route 66 to an old classical restaurant for a fun time with an 81 year old woman running the restaurant. Those things just happen. We drove Route 66 quite a bit in Arizona, relishing old times and uber strong Americans, fun times.
The next morning, we drove east on I-40 to Holbrook, AZ, a short part of US 180 and a drive through Petrified Forest National Park with a glimpse of Painted Desert at the end of our drive. It was an interesting couple of hours. Petrified Logs have significantly different looks than the original, but the look like they were cut with a saw was the real out of place look. They tried to explain it but some of it didn't make sense. It was interesting anyway. At the end of the drive is an overlook at a portion of Painted Desert and an Inn that has been there since the Route 66 days. At the overlook, we met a couple from Cologne Germany who had been riding the west on a motorcycle for a month, interesting to meet folks just as interested as we are, but from Europe. On our way back to the camper, we drove a section of Route 66 through Holbrook and again in Winslow. We also stopped at a 9/11 Memorial in Winslow and an old restored La Posada Hotel that still has 2 stops a day by Amtrak. Winslow is still on the map. We sat & enjoyed the bar area and then walked around the lobby before going back to the RV.
The next Morning was moving day again. We are headed to Mesa Verde National Park in SW Colorado. The route takes you east on I-40 into New Mexico to Gallup then north on US 491 (formerly US 666) through some pretty bleak country, nothing to see except tumbling tumbleweeds and dilapidated structures, one after another. Shiprock, NM is the only town of any size we pass through and it was pretty dreary too. We finally made it to Mesa Verde about 3, got set up and relaxed the rest of the evening. The Harvest Moon came up about 830, got a real nice picture. It cooled off enough at sunset that we turned the heat on, Sept 17, but we are at 7000+', so I guess that can be expected. We are here for 10 nites, and a lot planned, so we set about getting that all straight in our minds.
Sunday, we took it easy in the am and then took a drive through the western section of Mesa Verde. It is a nice park and there is more to see than we anticipated. We went back to the RV and spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching Football & NASCAR on TV...I even took a short nap. Monday morning, we drove to Durango (35 mi) and then north on US 550 on most of what is called the San Juan Skyway Scenic Drive. At Silverton, we had lunch and then continued north on US 550 through Ouray, Ridgeway & Montrose, then east on US 50 to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, an amazing canyon surrounding the Gunnison River. We took a bunch of pictures and headed back south, to hopefully get back before dark (we didn't make it). We re-traced our route to Ridgeway and then turned west on 62 to Placerville, then south on 145 to Cortez. That completed the San Juan Skyway when we returned to Mesa Verde. What a ride!! Over 350 miles of some of the prettiest scenery in the Lower 48. Numerous 14K mountains, deep valleys, rushing streams, canyons, waterfalls, just a beautiful drive!! Love to do that again someday, take 2-3 days instead of 1.
The next morning we were both slow getting going. But we got going about noon and drove west to the 4 corners monument. 4 states all coming together (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico & Arizona) in a very desolate place on a Navajo Indian Reservation. So we paid $5 each to go stand on the intersection and pose for pictures. Then we headed back and did a little checking out of Cortez, CO before heading back to the RV. It was mostly overcast all day, so it was a nice day to rest up some.
Early morning ride to Durango for a train ride to Silverton & back. It was raining lightly all the way to Durango and while we walked from the car to the station. We had selected an open car for our trip so we were dreading the rain, but before we even got out of Durango, the rain mostly quit and we had a beautiful ride north, following the Animas River through the Animas Canyon all the way to Silverton. We got off the train at Silverton and went to Eureka Station for lunch, good food and a place to warm up a bit. We bought a sweatshirt for me and a blanket for us both and re-boarded for the ride back to Durango...same route going south but looking east instead of west, so a whole different view, including some blue sky...yay!! I took a lot of pictures on the way up, so I was low on battery on the way back, but I got a good set of pictures...it is a beautiful ride both directions...wow!!
When we got back after a day without cell service, we saw a text from out son Mark. His 12 y/o Beagle has pancreatic cancer and is not doing well. We wish we could be there for him but that is not possible. Unfortunately, within 36 hours she was gone. Se was a nice doggie and we all loved her and will miss her...we loved when she came to visit, every second she was awake, she was sniffing :).
We finally made it to the Mesa Verde Visitor's Center, getting Barb's book stamped, seeing if there is anything we have missed and seeing all of the cool displays they always have at these places. This is our last day before we head to Denver, so we want to make sure we have it all covered. Then we drove into Cortez to mail some stuff home for birthdays, stopped at the DQ for lunch and then drove back to Mesa Verde and drove the rest of the loop we missed back on 9/18. We stopped at the visitor's center, which is like a 40 min drive from the entrance. They had a museum & a movie and of course souvenirs. The movie went into how the cliff dwellings were constructed 8-900 years ago. I find that stuff pretty interesting. We then drove the rest of the loop, there are a lot of ruins on display. We took a lot of pictures and did quite a bit of walking. The sun set on the mesa was pretty cool and the drive back to the camper during twilight was too. We are off to Denver in the morning.
We didn't get going until noon, but we were planning on making the drive to Denver over a two day period anyway, so it didn't make a lot of difference, We had researched the drive and chosen a scenic trip on the way, US 160 through Durango, Pagosa Springs, Del Norte and US 285 the rest of the way. We called it a day at Salida, found a hotel and went next door to get some dinner. It had been another beautiful day, beautiful scenery and great travel companions make for some fun times. We got some breakfast and were on our way about 10 am the next morning, We had some not so pretty driving for a while north of Salida, but north of Buena Vista, it got really pretty with the Aspens in their pretty yellow fall color. The amazing part was all the cars headed south to see them...100's of cars moving about 10 mph and parking along the highway to take pictures, which went on for a lot of miles. We got to our hotel about 1 pm, got checked in and went for a ride to see about a jacket. I bought a jacket in 2013 in Maine at LL Bean with a lifetime warranty. The lining was disintegrating, so we went to see about an exchange. They didn't have my size so they gave us a refund of the purchase price. That is pretty good customer service in our eyes. Then we drove to where our friend Robbin was 'house sitting' not far from downtown Denver and spent a couple of hours chatting about stuff & catching up on our adventures. We drove back to the hotel and spent an hour of so at the hotel bar watching the end of a race on TV and having some snacks off the menu, then it was off to bed.
The next morning, Robbin came to the hotel and the 3 of us went to breakfast. About 11 am, we drove to Red Rocks to try to find our tickets, which were supposed to be at 'Will Call' at noon with a laminate & a poster, according to an email from the marketing guys. At noon, nothing. So we went for a ride, came back at 1, nothing. Finally, after about 3 emails, they showed up about 145, so we went & parked, waiting for a 3 pm 'doors open'. While we are waiting, I get an email from the marketing guy, again apologizing for the ticket issues and asking if we wanted a backstage tour, dinner, and a 'meet & greet' with Greg Allman? DUH! So we went in at 3, went to the grill and waited to hear the rest of the instructions on the meet & greet. At 430, we went & found our seats and listened to music until 6, when we met the marketing guy. He led us backstage, which is actually below stage, where we had a nice catered dinner and spent about a 1/2 hour talking to the marketing guy about our summer, the concerts we had seen, and all the cruises we have been on, he was amazed, to say the least. Then he took us on a tour of the below stage area, which culminated with a short meet & greet with Greg Allman. Then it was back up to our seats, where Robbin had met us. We spent the next 3 hours listening to Greg Allman & ZZ Top entertain us, Red Rocks is an amazing place and it is especially amazing after dark. We may be back sooner than later, you never know. It has been an exciting day, one we have been anticipating since we left home in June...glad we were here. We gave Robbin a ride back to his car, said our good byes and went our separate ways.
The next morning, was breakfast and then an 8 hour drive back to Mesa Verde. We decided to take I-25 back, maybe a bit quicker. But it was not nearly as scenic, in fact it was not even pretty. At US 160, we turned west and the view changed dramatically, up & over the Rockies & the San Juan Mts. The rest of the ride was beautiful. We made it back in time to drive to the highest point in Mesa Verde and get some amazing sunset pictures, It has been a mighty fun 3 days, time to move on.
The next morning, we were off pretty early, New Mexico here we come. We turned south on US 550 at Durango and it didn't take long to figure out we weren't in Colorado any more. We followed the Animas River for a while and then it was desert again. We crossed the Continental Divide just north of where the GPS took us across to US 84 through the Santa Fe National Forest. We arrive at Abiquiu (pronounced Ah-bi-kew) Dam & Lake with a Army Corps of Engineers campground, got checked in and set up. Barb sensed we were at the wrong place and pointed it out to me. I agreed with her, as I thought something was amiss too. So, we did some research and we discovered I had reserved our site at the wrong ACE Park back in April. It can happen, but has not happened before. So, we looked at where we thought we were supposed to be, and it was mostly full. So we drove the 80 miles in the car to see for ourselves. We found the attendants and reserved a spot for 5 nights. So this morning, after 2 nights in one ACE Park, we drove the 80 miles to a different ACE Park and will be doing some sightseeing in Santa Fe over the next few days. Then it will be on the Albuquerque.
It is all good, no harm, no foul. We have a nice spot near Cochiti, NM and we are only an hour from Albuquerque which will be our next adventure, the Balloon Festival everyone likes to attend. We hope to see friends there, in fact some are already there. We were here in 2001 and had a ball. Stay tuned, much more to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment