Road Trip

Cortez, CO

1530 miles from home.

We had a “fun” day geocaching. The first one went smooth as silk and then part way towards the next cache the PDA went kaput. Didn’t realize how dependent we were on it. It is kind of tough to find something when all you have are just it’s coordinates, but I’m sure some advanced cachers relish that challenge, not us. We did manage to find one other one near Farmington, NM in a field near an elementary school.

We did manage to snag two mighty fine meals today. Lunch in Farmington at a place called the Deli Factory. Donna had a beef, green chili & potato soup and I had a Tortilla Hamburger. The hamburger needs some explaining, it was a tortilla on a plate with a thin beef patty (almost as large as the tortilla) on top, covered in shoestring french fries, then smothered in green chili sauce and topped with cheddar cheese. Dinner was at the Dolores River Brewery in “downtown” Delores (pop. 857). We split a Selfish Salad and a great thin crust pizza.

One of the places on the agenda for tomorrow’s drive was to visit the Four Corners Monument, but it turns out that it is not in the right place: X doesn’t mark the spot1. Still going anyway…

Santa Fe, NM

1389 miles from home.

From yesterday’s pure white sands to today’s black lava. We stopped at the Valley of Fires Recreation Area outside of Carrizozo. When you get about 3 miles away you notice the dessert floor looks darker than the surrounding land, almost like there is a big cloud in the sky, but there are none, it is the lava covered in dessert vegetation.

We are passing through Santa Fe from last nights southern New Mexico Stop to tomorrow nights southwestern Colorado stop and are back at the same HIE as last Friday. Donna was looking in the phone book for a place close by to eat and came up with the Plaza Cafe at only 3 blocks away. OK, I’m game. Turns out it was mighty fine food. She had a gyro and I had fish and chips. Both were great, they each had a bit of a southwestern kick that was just right.

5 out of 6 in geocaching today.

Alamogordo, NM

1398 miles from home.

We have reached our furthest point south today, White Sands National Park outside of Alamogordo, NM.

It is also the lowest in elevation we have been in a while too, only 4,334 feet. We no longer get winded bending over to tie our shoes.

I hope Scully and Mulder aren’t too disappointed in us. On our way south, a stop in Roswell was scheduled, but a late start due to a great breakfast and congenial hosts, plus the fact that it was over 90 miles east of our track, making for almost a 200 mile detour, caused us opt out of eating at the UFO Diner and trying to find Morris Fletcher for them.

Three for three on caches today.

Placitas, NM

1412 miles from home.

Woke up this morning and there was a light coating of snow over almost every horizontal surface. Donna and I left the Inn at around 6:30 for a walkabout. The sun was just clearing the east ridge, but the fog was ascending fast. I snapped the above photo of the Blue Horse Inn from the end of the driveway. By the time we had walked a 1/2 miles visibility was down under a quarter mile, but we kept on. The road went from paved to dirt and still we walked right down the middle of the road. The lack of visibility didn’t really bother us because we passed very few houses and besides it was so quiet that we would hear a vehicle coming or miles.

After the walk we drove the 60 miles to the Lone Mountain Cattle Company ranch to wait in line nearly as long, time wise, as we did for our rental car to get a 100% waygu beef burger. While the burger was tasty, it took almost 6 hours to digest. And it almost seemed a waste of the fine meat after it was placed on a bun, covered in mustard and ketchup, layered with lettuce, tomato and onions, because the sample slices of rib eye meat they gave out while standing in line were fantastic.

It was time for the big finish, the auction. It was fast and furious and interesting to me for a very short time. After 4 of 72 lots (2 more than Donna) I left the tent for some cold fresh air. We walked back to the bunkhouse with brother Scott, nephew James and 15 month old Logan and said goodbye and making tentative plans to hook up on Monday when we pass back through on our way north.

No geocaching today, but tomorrow on the way to Roswell we’ll probably attempt a few.

Placitas, NM

1412 miles from home.

It snowed today. When we got up in the morning in Santa Fe it was coming down lightly and as we drove south towards the Lone Mountain Cattle Company ranch it got more intense, but it still wasn’t sticking to the ground. As we went through Madrid we both agreed that the snow made the town look nicer. As we crested the last hill towards the gate at the ranch the snow stopped. But that is the way it went all day, sometimes it would be coming down (well, mostly sideways, because of the constant winds) and other times it would almost clear up. The photo above shows the Sales Office for tomorrow?s big Waygu beef auction during one of the snowy times.

We visited with Scott and James for a while before it was time for lunch. The folks here have been really great to us, we have been invited to eat every meal with the crew and we don?t have to even once clean out a cow stall or haul hay or anything. We?ve eaten one meal a day so far there, today?s lunch was chicken quesadillas, last night was fried catfish and the night before was waygu burritos. Tomorrow we will probably eat lunch with them, because afterwards is the big auction that is a definite must see.

We made 2 half-hearted attempts at caching today. One was near an outlet mall, but the GPSr was pointing .17 miles down a dirt road, usually that wouldn?t stop us, but there was a big official road closed sign and actual construction happening on it. The other was on the side of a very busy 4 lane divided highway. Did I mention it was snowing, windy and cold?

Santa Fe, NM

1389 miles from home.

We were supposed to spend a second night in the Casita in Madrid, but it was a bit more rustic than they lead on in the lovely web site for it, so we moved up the road 30 miles to a HIE in Santa Fe, NM.

Donna and I walked through downtown Madrid early this morning and the main drag through town (20 MPH) is lined with artsy type galleries and stores. Quite a bit of it is way out there and brief glimpses of the artists/residents leads me to believe we have stumbled into a LOST like time travel event that dropped us into the late 60’s. The town must put up gates and travel en masse to Burning Man every year.

The photo is of the 1830’s San Francisco Church in Golden and is reportedly the most photographed sites along the Turquoise Trail and I was just trying to do my part.

Speaking of the Turquoise Trail, we did find 4 caches along NM14 today in between visits to see Donna’s brother Scott, his wife Beth and nephew Baby James at the Lone Mountain Cattle Company’s ranch.

Madrid, NM

1394 miles from home.

Took this photo on our early morning walk from the hotel to a bagel place a 1/2 mile up the street. Pikes Peak dominates the western sky line of Colorado Springs. You can kind of see why someone would want to live there. I might even like it if the population could be reduced by 90% and they didn’t have snow and winter weather and, oh nevermind, I wouldn’t want to live there.

Today was a long day of interstate travel and even though Donna helped with the driving (don’t tell Dollar Rent A Car that) it still left plenty of time for me to come up with topics from the trip I want to post about, but just don’t seem to have the time to tell them.

We had lunch in Vegas, baby. No we didn’t take a wrong turn in Albuquerque, it was Las Vegas, New Mexico.

We only stopped for 2 geocaches today.

LOST was on tonight, but we didn’t watch it because we have no TV here. We didn’t think we had internet access here either, but it turns out we do.