Beautiful Southwestern Colorado

Greetings friends and loyal readers, welcome back to our travels. Our last chapter concluded on Monday, July 19th, with our arrival in Cortez, Colorado to the Sundance RV Park. We got ourselves set up in the park and just relaxed the rest of the day. Around 7:00 a series of thunderstorms moved into the area and one of them sounded like it was right on top of us. We didn’t get any wind to speak of, but lots of lightning and thunder that sounded close. It rained pretty hard for a short while. When we were setting up I noticed that our weather radio wasn’t getting any reception here, so just out of curiosity, while the storm was going on, I went to the NOAA weather radar site just to see how big the cells were so I would know how long to expect the storm to last. To my surprise, I saw the ominous red box that indicates a local tornado warning sitting right next to the little dot that said “Cortez”! Had the weather radio been working we would have heard the warning warble. We didn’t have anywhere to go hide anyway, but I wasn’t too worried because it appeared the worst part of the storm was passing by just to the West of town, and we weren’t getting any wind. Nonetheless, I was pretty happy when the warning expired 15 minutes later. Didn’t think we would be dodging tornados up here in the mountains.

Cortez history is centered around the numerous native American tribes that call this part of the Southwest home. The town was established in the 1870's as a trading center. In the 1950's the oil and gas discoveries in the four corners area, as well as local tourism, became the primary economic factors supporting the town. Tourism is a mainstay because of the proximity of the city to the Four Corners monument, Mesa Verde National Park, and the Navajo Nation, with monument valley and Canyon De Chelly both within an day trip of Cortez. The town’s population is about 8,600 and it is the largest town in Montezuma County, and the county seat. The elevation is 6,200 feet.

One interesting fact that I found when researching Cortez is that on August 3, 1959, an Taiwan (Republic of China) Air Force pilot, Major Mike Hua, was flying a U-2 spy plane on a training flight out of a base in Texas in the middle of the night when the engine flamed out at 70,000 feet. The pilot did not know of any air fields in the area, but as he was gliding down he spotted a lighted airport that wasn’t on his map. He brought the U-2 in to a perfect dead stick landing at the Cortez airport, the only one in the area that was lighted throughout the night hours. This incident has since become known in aviation circles at the “miracle at Cortez.” Major Hua later received the U.S. Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross for bringing the aircraft in safely. At the time of the emergency landing the U-2 was a top secret project that was not known to the general public at all. The world was introduced to the U-2 nine months later, May 1, 1960, when Gary Powers was shot down over Russia while flying a U-2 spy mission. The Republic of China’s Air Force was the only other agency besides the CIA and the U.S. Air Force to fly U-2's, and a total of 28 ROC pilots were trained in the aircraft. The actual aircraft involved in this incident is on display in Palmdale, California.

Tuesday, July 19th, we left the coach after lunch to spend the day at Mesa Verde National Park. The park is only about ten miles East of Cortez and encompasses just over 80 square miles. The park was established in 1906 to protect a treasure trove of Anasazi Indian ruins dating back to 600 A.D. The entrance to the park is on the North side at an elevation of about 6,100 feet, however there are several points in the park that are over 8,000 feet and the majority of the mesa where most of the facilities and ruins are located averages about 7,500 feet. The park has about 45 miles of paved road and we drove all of them during our afternoon visit.

We first stopped at the visitor’s center to learn a little of the history of the area. When I was younger, growing up in Arizona, the term Anasazi was pretty widely used to designate the ancestors of many of the current Indian tribes in the Southwest. The term is Navajo and means, more or less, the ancient ones. The park has stated using the term Ancestral Puebloans for the peoples that populated the Mesa Verde area 1,400 years ago because it more closely aligns with the current native peoples that call themselves Pueblo Indians. According the scientists, the ancients came to the area about 600 A.D., stuck around for about 700 years, and then just left. During their stay they built numerous cliff dwellings, many of which are still in pretty good shape. They had the good sense to build most of their dwellings in the alcoves of the sandstone cliffs lining the numerous canyons that cut through the mesa. This protected them from the weather, and also protected their buildings after they left.

We spent the entire afternoon driving around the park, stopping at all the different overlooks and taking lots of pictures. The park is quite beautiful and the ruins are amazing to look at. We didn’t take any of the available walking tours, some of which take you right into some of the ancient buildings, because the heat and the altitude would be a little too much for Jackie, and probably for me as well. We still had a great visit and learned a lot about the Indian culture of the time.

After touring the park we stopped at the Cortez Elks Lodge for a quick visit. The lodge is just outside of town and is located right next to a City owned golf course. The building looks like a country club and we first thought that the lodge had taken over an existing building, but a member told me that the lodge built the building more than 30 years ago. It is large with a nice restaurant, ballroom and bar. The bar is big and has big windows overlooking the golf course. There were a couple dozen people in the place for happy hour and some of the patrons were pretty friendly, although the bartender was not. We did get a lodge pin for our banner since we have never visited this lodge before. After the Elks we headed home and relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday, July 20th, we decided we needed a stay at home day. Seems like we have been doing something every day for the last couple weeks. I did a couple of little chores around the house, like cleaning out our “file bay” where we keep all our papers and records. One of the issues with being true fulltimers is that we have to keep things like tax records and important papers somewhere in the coach. I had noticed a while back that it was getting a little disorganized, so I spent some time going through the stuff, shredding some old, unneeded paperwork, and straightening out the bay. Other than that, we spent the day relaxing, playing on the computer, and just enjoying the quiet. For dinner we BBQed a couple of magnificent rib eyes with all the fixings. A very nice day.

Thursday we left the coach about 11:00 for a day of geocaching. The first was only a few hundred yards from the RV park, at the Colorado Welcome Center across the street. We did four caches, then took a break for lunch at the Cortez Elks Lodge. There was a pretty good lunch crowd, most of whom looked like they had just finished a morning round of golf. It is clear that this lodge has a big group of golfing members. I guess they picked the right location. Lunch was pretty good, although the menu was standard lunch fare, burgers, sandwiches and salads.

After lunch we went back to caching and went North out of Cortez to the little town of Dolores, about 15 miles North. Dolores was established in the late 1800's as a railroad stop on the Rio Grande Southern railroad system. Today the town had about 900 residents and relies on tourism and visitors to the nearby National forests and McPhee Lake. The town displays it’s railroad heritage with a restored train station and railway museum which features a fully restored and functional “Galloping Goose” railcar. One of the geocaches we searched for was located at the train depot and related to the Galloping Goose.

The Galloping Goose, of which there were actually seven different iterations built and used, was created by the Rio Grande Southern railroad back in 1913. The Goose is a cross between a truck and a train and is technically referred to by railroaders as a “motor.” The line built the first as simply an inexpensive maintenance vehicle which was used for many years. However, by the 1930's the expanding road system were allowing trucks and cars to haul people and goods around the area. The railroad was struggling to stay afloat and its infrastructure, tracks and bridges, were deteriorating and there was no money to repair them. In 1931 the railroad built the first commercial Goose. All of the "geese" were built in the railroad's shops at Ridgway, Colorado. The first was built from the body of a Buick "Master Six" four-door sedan. It was more conventional in its construction than the later geese, though it had a two-axle rail truck in place of the front axle. Part of the rear of the car was replaced by a truck stake-bed for carrying freight and mail. This was later enclosed and partially fitted with seating. Number 1, as it was known, was used for two years to carry passengers, US Mail, and light freight before being scrapped. A second "goose" was built in the same year from another Buick, but later versions used Pierce-Arrow bodies, except for #6, which was constructed partly out of parts taken from the scrapped #1.

Numbers 2 and 6 were constructed with two rail trucks, with the rear truck powered on both axles. Number 2 had an enclosed freight compartment (like a very short boxcar), while #6 had an open bed similar to #1 (but larger). It was used only for work train service. The other four had three trucks and were articulated in the same manner as a tractor-trailer truck. In these, the second truck was powered, and the freight compartment was essentially a conventional boxcar. In 1945 #3, #4, and #5 were rebuilt with Wayne school bus bodies (at least the front half) replacing the old Pierce-Arrow bodies. This provided more passenger seating and comfort. A year later they also received new war surplus GMC engines.

In 1950, when the railroad finally lost its mail contract (in favor of highway mail carriers), #3, #4, #5, and #7 were converted for tourist operations, Large windows were cut in the sides of the freight compartments, and seating was added. This service lasted only two years before the railroad finally went bankrupt and shut down. Interestingly, six of the seven motors built remain intact and functional. Three are at the Colorado railroad museum in Golden, Colorado, one is on display in Ridgway, Colorado, one is here in Dolores, and one is at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Only #1 was lost completely when it was dismantled and bits and pieces used on other motors. I remember seeing the one at Knott’s Berry Farm years ago when my kids were little.

After Dolores we continued our caching, ultimately ending up with a dozen new finds with no DNFs. About 4:00 we finally decided we had enough heat and we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Friday, July 22nd, my daughter Tracie’s birthday. Happy birthday Tracie! Today we left the coach after lunch and headed Southwest to Four Corners, about 40 miles or so. Four Corners is where the states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet. It is the only place in the USA where four state borders meet at a single point. The location is actually on the Navajo Reservation and is a Navajo Tribal Park. There is a modest charge for admission. Except for the monument the area is bleak and desolate, truly out in the middle of no where. The monument itself is very nicely done with a large concrete plaza surrounding the brass plaque the marks the spot where the borders meet, along with the four state flags, the US flag and the Navajo Nation flag. The plaza is surrounded on all four sides by concrete sales stalls where local Indians set up booths selling jewelry, tee shirts and other trinkets. We took the requisite picture of Jackie standing in four states at once. (Families were lined up to be next for the picture) We then shopped the booths. Jackie got some nice hair decorations and we picked up a Four Corners pin for our banner. We also stopped for a big piece of hot, fresh Indian fry bread. Yum.

After our visit to the monument we started back towards Cortez and did some geocaching along the way. We ended up with five new caches before we decided it was getting a little late in the afternoon. We made a quick stop at Wally World for some supplies before heading back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, July 23rd, was a travel day again. This time we were only going a little less than 50 miles East to Durango, Colorado. Since we didn’t have far to go we didn’t leave Cortez until just before 11:00 and still got into Durango at noon. Durango is just a couple hundred feet higher than Cortez, about 6,500 feet, but the surrounding mountains and valleys are much greener and more “Colorado looking” than the area around Cortez. We settled into the United Campground of Durango, which is on the North end of town. Our camp site overlooks the tent camping area, a large green space full of tents and people. The railroad tracks for the Durango-Silverton excursion train run between our motor home and the tent sites. Since there are three or fours trains per day we should have plenty of opportunities to see the trains in the mornings and evenings.

After lunch we drove into Durango proper just to cruise around and see the town. We drove through some of the residential areas, which are very nice for the most part, and parked in the historic downtown area. We spent about an hour walking around old downtown, which is very picturesque, looking in the shops. We also drove through the campus of Fort Lewis College, which is located on the top of a high mesa on the east side of town. I never heard of the school, but it has a very large, very pretty campus. The sign said it was founded in 1911.

Durango was founded in 1881 by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as a transportation center for the gold and silver mining going on in the area at the time. It now relies on tourism for its primary economic support. The Durango-Silverton railroad brings thousands of people every year to the town. The line used by the excursion trains is a remnant of the old D&RG line. Rafting the Animas River, which runs right through the middle of town, is also a big attraction. Every time we caught a glimpse of the river while we were touring we saw it was full of rafts and kayaks.

After our touring we went back to the RV park and sat outside with our cocktails waiting for the trains to arrive back from Silverton. The first one showed up about 5:30 or so and chugged by just a few yards in front of our motor home. Since there is a grade crossing going down to the tent area right next to our site, the train blows it’s whistle just as it approaches our site. Damn that thing is loud! It was fun to watch the kids, and even some adults, from the campground putting coins on the track for the train to run over. I remember doing that when I was a kid living in Tempe, Arizona. We watched the other two trains go by later in the evening before retiring to the coach for the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 24th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching in the Durango area. We had thought that there would be a lot of urban caches in the downtown area, but we were surprised to find that there weren’t any right in town. There were a lot in the surrounding area, however, but some of them were pretty tough. We managed to find six in a couple of hours, along with one DNF. It was very hot and humid, so about 4:00 we stopped caching and headed to the Durango Elks Lodge for a cocktail.

The Durango Elks were chartered in 1899 and they are still occupying the building that they built in 1925. The building is a four story block building located near the historic downtown. The inside is very nice, not real elaborate, just tasteful opulence. It has the very high ceilings that were popular in the day and everything is divided by archways. There is a ballroom on the bottom floor, which they rent out. The clubrooms and bar are on the “main” floor. The building is built on a hillside, so the second floor is at street level in the front of the building, which is the main entrance. The bar was very full when we got there and the folks were very friendly. We chatted with the bartender for a while and she told us that the lodge had about 550 members. We had two cocktails, the lodge bought our second, and also got a lodge pin for our banner.

I went for a little tour of the lodge while we were there because I wanted to see their Lodge room. Like most of the lodges that are still in the old, early 1900's buildings, they have a dedicated Lodge room on the third floor that takes up most of the floor. It is very nicely decorated with great lighting and furniture. Again, not real flashy, but very dignified. The top floor looked like it was just used for storage. After our visit to the lodge we went back to the coach for the rest of the night. We did sit outside for our happy hour watching the trains coming back from Silverton.

Monday, July 25th, Jackie’s brother Dennis’s birthday. Happy birthday Dennis! We left the coach around 10:00 for a driving tour. We went North out of Durango on US 550, heading for Silverton, about 50 miles North, and then Ouray, Colorado, another 25 miles North of Silverton. We will be going to Silverton on the train tomorrow, but we only have a couple of hours in town and we wanted to make sure we saw it all. In addition, the train and the highway take two completely different routes to Silverton. The train follows the Animas River canyon for the majority of the journey, while the highway follows the ridge lines and goes over the passes. We also wanted to see Ouray, which is beyond where the train goes. The highway goes across two nearly 11,000 foot passes on the way to Silverton.

We arrived in Silverton about 12:15 and went to a place called Thee Pitts Again BBQ house. The owner also has a place in Glendale, Arizona, which was featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives show. The place in Silverton has the same menu and recipes, so we wanted to give it a try. The entire building, inside and out, was painted in shocking pink, as was an old Chevy panel truck parked by the front door. Since two of the days trains had already arrived by time we got to town, the place was busy, but it was worth the wait. We both had the pulled pork sandwich, which was wonderful. We also had the onion rings which had been featured on the show, and they were also great.

After lunch we spent a couple of hours walking around the town, looking in stores and just window shopping. We both marveled at how much the town reminded us of some we were in while we were touring the Yukon and Alaska a couple of years ago. Old block and wooden buildings, dirt streets and the backdrop of snow capped mountains. Only the main street was paved, everything else was dirt. Silverton sits at an elevation of 9,318 feet and grew from an bunch of gold-rush mining shacks in the early 1870's to a community of mostly Victorian structures, most of which still stand. The entire town is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Gold mining gave way to silver in the 1880's and production continued at modest levels even after the collapse of the world silver market in 1893. The last working mine closed in 1991, and the town now relies almost entirely on tourism. A scenic road, locally called the “Million-Dollar Highway,” forms a part of the San Juan Skyway and connects Silverton to Durango and Ouray. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which runs in the summer months, is a major attraction and uses the same lines and rolling stock as the original Denver & Rio Grande line did. There are three or four trains per day, each with several hundred people, so the tourist trade is vibrant. The town has about 16,000 population, compared to about 5,000 at the peak of it’s mining days.

After spending a couple hours in Silverton we continued North to the town of Ouray (pronounced you-ray). Although only about 25 miles, the road between Silverton and Ouray is very curvy and goes over the Red Mountain pass which tops out at over 11,000 feet. Because of its location in the bottom of a fairly narrow canyon with tall peaks all around, Ouray likes to call itself the “Switzerland of America.” Originally established by miners chasing silver and gold in the surrounding mountains, the town at one time boasted more horses and mules than people. Prospectors arrived in the area in 1875. At the height of the mining, Ouray had more than 30 active mines. The town—after changing its name and that of the county it was in several times—was incorporated on October 2, 1876, named after Chief Ouray of the Utes, a Native American tribe. By 1877 Ouray had grown to over 1,000 in population and was named county seat of the newly formed Ouray County on March 8, 1877.

The Denver & Rio Grande Railway arrived in Ouray on December 21, 1887. It would stay until the automobile and trucks caused a decline in traffic. The last regularly scheduled passenger train was September 14, 1930. The line between Ouray and Ridgway was abandoned on March 21, 1953. The trains came from Ridgway to the North, rather than Silverton because of the Red Mountain Pass and lack of a good rail route between the two towns.

Ouray has an Elks Lodge, located in an old block building right downtown, however, it was not open when we were in town. According to the sign on the door, it is only open a few hours a couple of days a week. We did take some pictures of the building. We spent another hour or so walking around Ouray, looking in shops and checking out all the neat stuff. The town is much smaller than Silverton, only about 1,000 or so population. One interesting note for Country Western music fans is that in 1986 a man by the name of Bill Fries was elected mayor of Ouray and served a total of six years in that post. Most people know him better as C.W. McCall, the author and singer of the hit songs “Convoy” and “Wolf Creek Pass,” favorites of truckers to this day.

After touring Ouray we started back South on Highway 550, back towards Silverton and then Durango. All during our trip today we also did some geocaching along the way. We found a few on the way up to Silverton, and then a couple between Silverton and Ouray. We ended up with five new finds, along with a couple of DNFs. We finally got back to the coach around 5:00 and settled in for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 26th, we were up early and out of the coach by 7:30 a.m. (Yes, you read that right) Today is the day we take the train from Durango to Silverton and back. We are on the 8:30 train. We arrived at the station in time to see the 8:00 train depart, and then we boarded our car. Our car, originally built in the 1880's but completely rebuilt and restored, was a regular train car with standard bench seating. There are several classes of travel on the train, ranging from the regular coach, which we took, to luxurious parlor cars. The price difference was huge though, and it didn’t seem to be worth the upgrade. We did opt for the enclosed car instead of the semi-open gondola car. That turned out to be a good decision later in the day.

The train left the station promptly at 8:30 and started the 45.2 mile trip to Silverton. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) is a narrow gauge heritage railroad that operates 45 miles of track between Durango and Silverton. It is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and is also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Narrow gauge means that the tracks are laid only three feet apart as opposed to the four foot, eight and one half inch distance for standard railroad tracks.

The route was originally built between 1881 and 1882, by the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, in order to carry supplies and people to and silver and gold ore from mines in the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG narrow gauge from Antonito, Colorado to Durango. The last train to operate into Durango from the east was on December 6, 1968. The States of New Mexico and Colorado purchased 64 miles of the line between Antonito and Chama, New Mexico in 1970 and operates today as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. The trackage between Chama and Durango was abandoned and rails were removed by 1971.

The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few places in the United States which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. In March 1981, the Denver & Rio Grande Western sold the line and the D&SNG was formed. Some of the rolling stock dates back to the 1880s. The trains run from Durango to the Cascade Wye in the winter months and run from Durango to Silverton during the summer months. The depot in Durango was built in January 1882 and has been preserved in original form.

The train takes 3½ hours to run the 45 miles each way, with a 2¼ hour layover in Silverton. The train spends the first hour going first through Durango and then the broad valley North of Durango. Of course, at the North end of town we passed our RV park and waved at Smokey in the motorhome. The train then starts to climb, ultimately reaching a peak on the stretch of track that is called the “highline” by the railroad. This is the most famous section of the railroad where the train crawls along the face of high cliffs with a sheer drop down several hundred feet to the Animas River. The speed limit on this stretch is five miles per hour, and it appears to be for good reason. There is no room for error on this part of the trip. After the highline section the track descends to just a few feet above the river and the roadbed closely follows the Animas River through a usually very narrow canyon. Just before Silverton the train breaks out of the canyon into the valley where the town sits. The scenery is magnificent, even the stretches that are only forest. We only saw one deer, and that was on the way back, but we were always watching for wildlife.

The train crosses the river five or six times during the trip, so no matter what side of the train you are sitting on, you will have a great view at least part of the time. We visited the concession car once for a great coffee and Baily’s wake up just after leaving Durango. Once we got to Silverton we went to another of the local restaurants for lunch. After lunch we spent an hour or so looking around town in the various shops we missed the day before. We also did two new geocaches that were right in town, close to the train depot. One of the caches was rated "very easy" but stumped me for while. We then got back on the train for the three and one half hour trip back over the same scenery. This time we didn’t take as many pictures, but just sat back and enjoyed the ride and the great views. A good part of the way back we traveled through very heavy rain. This is when I was glad that we had the enclosed car because the folks in the open car behind us were getting pretty wet.

We got back into Durango about 6:15, got in the car and drove back to the coach, where we collapsed for the rest of the night. This was a great day and, although the train ride is not inexpensive, it is a great experience and we are glad we did it.

Wednesday, July 27th, we went out after lunch just to visit the local mall and get some walking done in an air conditioned setting. We spent a couple hours in the mall before going back to the coach for the rest of the night. Today was intended as just a relaxation day after the long day on the train.

Thursday morning we packed up the coach and departed Durango about 10:00, heading South back into New Mexico. Today’s trip was only about 50 miles and we stopped in Bloomfield, New Mexico for a couple of nights at the Desert Rose RV Park. Bloomfield is about 25 miles East of Farmington, where we spent a few days before going up into Colorado. Our arrival back into New Mexico marks a good stopping place for this chapter of the blog. We spent ten wonderful days in Southern Colorado and had a great time. We will be in New Mexico for another week or two before heading out into the prairie region for a while. Until the next time keep the faith and enjoy every day.

Enjoying The Land Of Enchantment

Hello again, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, July 2nd, with our arrival in Tijeras, New Mexico, outside of Albuquerque. We settled into the Hidden Valley RV resort for a week’s stay. On Saturday we spent part of the afternoon getting moved in, then just hung around the coach for the rest of the day. Although the RV park is technically in Tijeras and is served by that post office, the exit nearest the park bears the name Zuzax. It seems that a guy named Herman Ardans opened a curio shop here on US 66 around 1956 and made up the name Zuzax so it would capture people's attention and also so it would be the last entry in the phone book. When asked by his customers about the origin of the name, he would frequently tell them it referred to the Zuzax Indians. Of course, there were no Zuzax Indians. Ardens eventually got out of the business and his curio shop is now gone.

Sunday, July 3rd, we left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching in the local area. We cached in Albuquerque proper last year when we were here twice, once for the FMCA rally and a second time for the Balloon Fiesta. However, we have never cached in the mountains to the East of town where the RV park is located. We were able to grab ten caches in a little over an hour, which is a pretty good pace. However, some monsoon thunderstorms had been moving in all afternoon and we had to get our tenth and last cache of the day in the rain. We decided to leave it at ten and drove about 10 miles East to the little town of Edgewood where we went to the Walmart store for some groceries. After shopping we headed back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We had a lot of thunderstorms moving about in the area, but only got a little bit of rain at the RV park.

Monday, July 4th, Happy Birthday USA! We went out after lunch to do some more local caching and managed to get eight finds before we finally decided it was too hot and humid to look for more. We also had one DNF. We headed back to the RV park and stopped at the park’s laundry to wash our clothes. After doing the laundry we went back to the coach for the rest of the night. Since New Mexico currently has a dozen wild fires around the state, and there is a severe drought, none of the communities near us were having fireworks shows. Albuquerque had a couple but it would take us hours to get home and we decided we didn’t want to bother.

Tuesday, July 5th we decided to drive into downtown Albuquerque to have lunch at a little Mexican café called Cecilla’s. It has been featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and we like to visit places we see on the show. We had tried to go there back in March of last year when we were here for the FMCA Convention, but we arrived a couple minutes after the 2:00 p.m. closing time and they literally closed the door in our faces. We should have taken the hint, but we tried again today. We got in shortly after noon and ordered fairly standard Mexican fare. I had a machaca burrito and Jackie had a combo with a chili rellano, taco and enchilada. The food was OK at best. Like most New Mexican cuisine, it was quite different from the Sonoran style we are used to in California and Arizona. New Mexican food is MUCH hotter. The red chili sauce at Cecilla’s was very hot, but not a particularly flavorful hot. Bottom line is we probably would never go back and I wouldn’t suggest it for anyone else. This is the first real dud we have had from Triple D shows.

After lunch we tried to do some geocaching in the downtown area around where the restaurant was. We didn’t have much luck, we were unable to find the first three caches we looked for. Some of it was just not being able to find the cache, some was the GPS receivers bouncing around because of the tall buildings all around. It was also pretty hot and humid and Jackie was having a tough time breathing. We finally found one cache and we said that was good enough for today. After caching we did a Moose Lodge mini pub crawl, going to both of the Moose lodges in Albuquerque. One is near downtown and was a big building that was not particularly well taken care of. There were a lot of people in the bar, but they were not very friendly. After that we went to one on the East side of town, nearer to where we are staying, and that lodge was newer, nicer and much more friendly. We had a cocktail at each lodge. Unfortunately, Moose lodges do not have lodge pins, so we have no souvenirs of our visits. After the Moose visitations we headed back to the RV park for the rest of the night. Jackie wanted to see the talking heads on the news channels talking about the verdict on the Casey Anthony trial from Florida. Amazingly, at least to me, she was acquitted on all of the charges that had any relation to the death and was only convicted on four counts of lying to the police. My guess is she will get time served and be out by the end of the week.

Wednesday, July 6th, we decided to just stay in the coach for the day, hopefully to give Jackie a little respite from the heat and the allergies she seems to be suffering from. We just stayed in the coach, watched TV and played on the computers. Jackie didn’t seem to get any better, the coughing and chest congestion continues.

Thursday we decided that Jackie probably needed to go see a doctor, just to make sure that there were no infections or serious bronchial problems going on. I found an urgent care facility called “Doctor on Call” on line that was located in the East part of Albuquerque. After lunch we drove down and got Jackie looked at. As usual, it was really a Physician’s Assistant (PA) that saw her, but then most of the time when we go to our regular doctor’s office in Palm Desert we end up seeing a PA. She was in there for quite a while and they ended up giving her a steroid allergy shot that is supposed to help for three months. She also got a couple of prescriptions, one for a booster for the shot and another for antibiotics to help fight any infections that might develop. The PA couldn’t find any other problems besides just serious allergies. After the doctor’s visit we went back to the coach to relax the rest of the day.

Friday, July 8th we needed to do some shopping before leaving the big city. We always like to make sure that we have a sufficient stock of meats, vodka and other stuff that is way cheaper at Costco or Sam’s before we head out of the big city. We fueled up the car, but had to go to a regular gas station because the Sam’s Club in Albuquerque only sold gasoline, no diesel. Poop! The last couple of times we fueled up we were able to use Sam’s, which is always about a nickle less than anywhere else. As far as I know, none of the Costco’s sell diesel. We then made a run to Costco and Walmart for supplies. After shopping we went back to the RV park and I spent a half hour or so putting stuff away in preparation for our departure tomorrow. I had just finished my work outside when a little thunderstorm moved overhead and gave us a little rain. The summer monsoon is just starting here in New Mexico and afternoon thunderstorms are becoming the norm, just I remember from growing up in Phoenix.

Saturday, July 9th, we departed Tijeras about 11:00 and headed towards Sante Fe, New Mexico, a trip of only about 70 miles. That is why we were able to get a later start. We arrived at the Sante Fe Skies RV park around 12:30 and got settled in pretty quickly. We are only going to be here for three days, so I don’t put a lot of stuff up outside. Just hook up the utilities, put on the sun shades and that’s it. We had a quick lunch and went out for an afternoon of fun in Sante Fe. We drove down to old town Sante Fe, parked the car and spent a couple of hours walking around the old square and surrounding streets. We went into a lot of shops and galleries. Since it was a nice Saturday afternoon there were a LOT of people wandering around. We also found two geocaches right in the old town area using the caching app on Jackie’s phone. After shopping we stopped at one of the little boutique hotels near the square for a cooling beer in their bar. Although Sante Fe sits at 7,000 feet and is a little cooler than Albuquerque, the monsoon has raised the humidly some, so we were a little parched.

After our beer we drove over to the Sante Fe Elks Lodge for a cocktail and perhaps some gaming in their casino. Unfortunately, when we got there we learned that the Lodge has implemented a rule that only local members can use the gaming room. Well darn, that sucks. We had one cocktail, then the Lodge bought us the second. We were chatting with the bartender and the topic turned to where in Sante Fe people could rent halls. It came up because the Elks had three different parties going on in three different rooms on this day. The bartender, Ray, told us that there were only a couple of places besides the Elks, those being the Eagles and the FOP. That caught my attention, since the FOP is the Fraternal Order of Police, an organization I have been a member of since I started at the Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix in 1970. When I retired I became a lifetime member of the FOP. I asked if the local FOP had a bar and Ray said yes, a pretty nice one. We got the address out of the phone book and found that it was on the way back to our RV park. It is hard to know whether there is an FOP Lodge with a bar in an area because there is no central place to look up locations. Many parts of the country don’t even have a big FOP presence, the police have unions or benevolent associations or some other group that represents them.

After we finished our drinks at the Elks we left there and started towards the FOP lodge. On the way we stopped and picked up one more geocache in a business park right across the street from the Elks. We arrived at the FOP Lodge, a very large building, and found they also had a big party going on in the ballroom. We went into the bar and found only about a half dozen people in there. It was a pretty big bar, much larger than the Elks, and one of the strangest layouts I have ever seen. The bar was built with a sunken floor area for the bartenders, which is not real unusual in and of itself. However, in every other bar of this type, the patron side of the bar is low to the floor and the customers sit in regular chairs, not bar stools. At the FOP they built the bar the standard height and used regular bar stools. This put the top of the bar at least five feet off of the floor on the bartenders side! There was an older lady bartender who was about Jackie’s height and the bar surface was at the top of her head. She had to reach up to put stuff on and off the bar. Really strange. After a couple of minutes one of the other patrons in the bar walked over and introduced himself as Rob, a retired Department of Corrections employee. We chatted with him for quite a while as we had our drinks. After we finished our cocktail we left and went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

One thing of note is that our RV park is up on a little ridge above I-25, which gives a pretty good view of the surrounding area and we can clearly see the smoke from the Los Conchos wildfire that is burning to the West of Sante Fe about 20 miles. We have been following the fire on the local news since we came into New Mexico and it is now the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, burning nearly 150,000 acres. It is about 60 percent contained right now, but if the smoke is any indication, it still has some real hot spots. This was the same fire that caused the evacuation of Los Alamos, both the city and the National Nuclear Laboratory, last week. They were afraid for a couple days that the fire would burn down into the laboratory area and get into where they store nuclear materials. The media made quite a scare of it for a couple days. They stopped the fire over the weekend and everyone went back into town.

Sunday, July 10th, we left the coach around 11:00 a.m. for a day to touring and caching. First we drove South on State Route 14 from our RV park headed to the old mining town of Madrid, about 20 miles away. Route 14 is known as the Turquoise Trail and is a National Scenic Byway, running from Tijeras, near Albuquerque in the South to Sante Fe in the North. The name comes from the Turquoise that the Indian tribes in the area found in the area and used for decorative and religious purposes.

We arrived in Madrid about 11:30 and headed for the Mine Shaft Restaurant for lunch. Madrid was started in the mid 1800's when coal was found in the area. The town was established in 1891 and was a coal mining center until the 1950's when the mines closed. After about 20 years, like some other old mining towns we have visited, Madrid moved out of ghost town status by becoming an artist community and tourist attraction. The Mine Shaft Restaurant was first established in Madrid in 1905, primarily as a bar, and burned down in 1944. The current building was built in 1947 and has operated continuously since. It is the largest building in town and is very popular with bikers, who flock to Madrid on warm summer days because of the great ride on SR-14. While we were having lunch a group of bikers from an Albuquerque club called Los Carnales came in with about fifty people. It turns out that Los Carnales is a law enforcement motorcycle club. We had a great lunch, both had burgers, and then spent a couple hours walking along the highway in Madrid checking out the various shops. Almost all of the activity is right on the highway where the old miners homes have been turned into shops and galleries.

One interesting tidbit we found was a newer looking building with the word “Diner” on the stucco storefront and “Maggie’s” written on the windows. It turns out that this was built back in 2006 as one of the sets for the movie “Wild Hogs”, much of which was filmed in Madrid. The building is actually a store, not a diner, and they sell the ususal tee shirts and souvenirs, much of which is biker related. We saw the movie when it came out, but now I want to see it again just to look at the sets and backgrounds.

After we got our fill of browsing in the shops, we started to do some geocaching. Oddly, there were no caches in Madrid proper at all. We started about two miles North of Madrid in the little town of Cerillos, which was also part of the mining history of the area. We then cached our way along SR-14 back to the RV park. We got a total of nine new finds in about 90 minutes. One of the caches was located on the highway, but in view of one of the old New Mexico State Prison units, about fifteen miles South of Sante Fe. This unit, built in the early 1950's and closed in 1998, was the scene of one of the most violent prison riots in U.S. history in 1980. When it was over 33 inmates had been killed, all by other inmates. Most of those killed were housed in the protective custody unit and were informants, child molesters and other prisoners who needed to be kept separate from the general population. The riot was memorable in the level of violence perpetrated on those killed, including being decapitated and, in one instance, cut apart with a blow torch while still alive. Although a number of corrections officers were held hostage and injured, none were killed in the riot. Today, Old Main, as the facility is known, is used for law enforcement training and occasionally as a movie set. In 2005 the remake of the Longest Yard was shot at the facility. After our caching we went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Monday, July 11th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to the outlet mall which was located just a few miles from the RV park. It was a fairly small mall, so we only spent about an hour walking around shopping. After shopping we decided to just go on a driving tour of the Sante Fe area. It was pretty rainy on and off, but we spent about three hours just driving around some of the back roads and residential areas of the town. We drove by the New Mexico State Capital, and we found a place called Museum Hill on the Northeast side of town where a number of art and culture museums are located. We didn’t stop at any of them, but did enjoy driving around the grounds. We also found one geocache near the museums. There was a huge bronze sculpture on display near the entrance to the area. It is supposedly the largest bronze sculpture in the world. It is a full size covered wagon, complete with horses and a number of settlers, all set in a tableau of crossing the Sante Fe Trail. Quite impressive, and I figured that there just had to be a geocache there, or nearby. We fired up Jackie’s geocaching app on here Blackberry, and sure enough, there was a cache. I jumped out in the rain, found it and logged it. Yea! After our driving tour we went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, July 12th we left Sante Fe about 10:00 and headed Northwest across Indian country to the little town of Chama, New Mexico. The trip was about 116 miles and a good deal of it was, in fact, spent driving across a couple different Indian Reservations. It was a very scenic trip with generally good two lane highway and not too much traffic. We arrived in Chama, population about 2,000 or so with an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet. It’s primary claim to fame is as the Southern terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. The line uses old, original 1800's narrow gauge steam engines and rolling stock to run a 64 mile trip between Chama and Antonito, Colorado. The line was originally a part of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad company’s network, as was the famed Durango-Silverton line, however the company folded in the early 20th Century. The right of way and equipment were purchased for the scenic train system, which is jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico.

After our arrival in Chama about 1:00 p.m., we drove into town and visited the railroad depot. We had been thinking about trying to take the train ride during our three day stay here, but decided against it. It is pretty pricey, nearly $100 per person, and we are already booked for a ride on the Durango-Silverton train next week. We decided one train ride this month was enough. We spent an hour or so going through some of the shops on main street in Chama, near the railroad station. We also found one of the four geocaches near Chama. We may look for the others on another day. After shopping we headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening. Although cloudy, we never got more than a few sprinkles of rain. However, the temperatures in the low 80's are very pleasant.

Wednesday, July 13th we stayed at the coach for the day to give Jackie a chance to feel a little better. She is still struggling with the combination of the cough from the allergies and the shortness of breath due to the altitude. The altitude thing has gotten bad enough that we talked about the need to rearrange our summer itinerary some to get out of the high altitudes for a while. Our plan had been to go from here to Cortez and Durango, Colorado next week, which are both at about 7,000 feet, and then go up into central Colorado where we would be at as much as 9,000 feet for weeks at a time. I suggested just leaving from here and going “down the mountain” so to speak, but Jackie said she would stick it out until after next week and our train ride from Durango to Silverton.

I spent most of the afternoon reworking travel plans, so now after Durango we are heading into Eastern New Mexico, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, Kansas and the Colorado prairie. We will spend all of August “out on the prairie” which should keep us at or under 3,000 feet. We will then pick up our previous schedule the first of September in Loveland, Colorado. We will spend September on the front range of the Rockies in Colorado. Most of this will be at about 5,000 feet elevation, but Jackie seems to be able to tolerate 5,000 so long as we don’t do a lot of physical activity. We will still be at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and the Rocky Mountain Area FMCA rally in Farmington, both in early October.

Thursday, July 14th we decided to take a scenic driving tour of the North Central part of New Mexico. We left about 10:30 a.m. and drove Northeast out of Chama on SR-17 headed to Antonito, Colorado. These are the same two towns that are connected by the scenic railroad. By road they are 48 miles apart, by train 64. We left chama just after the morning train, so we met it a couple of times at crossings as it worked it way up the Cumbres Pass. You cross into Colorado about ten miles North of Chama. The road goes through both the Cumbres Pass and La Manga Pass within about 10 miles and both passes are just over 10,000 feet elevation. We took a picture of Jackie at the Cumbres Pass sign just to prove she really could breath at 10,000+ feet.

We arrived in Antonito a little after noon and stopped there for lunch. There appeared to be only two restaurants in town, so we picked Dos Hermanas and found a very nice, clean café with a great menu of both Mexican and American dishes. Jackie had a taco salad, which she said was good, but had a little too much refried beans and not enough lettuce. I had a hamburger which was one of the best I have had in a while. The patty appeared hand formed and the meat was excellent and very tasty. The fries were also excellent. The salsa they put on the table for the chips and salsa was so good that we bought a pint to take home with us. If you ever find yourself in Antonito, Colorado, first figure out how the hell you got there, then stop to eat at Dos Hermanas, right on the main street through town.

Like Chama, Antonito is very small, about 1,000 population, and exists primarily because of the scenic railroad. At one time Antonito claimed to be the “perlite capital of the world” but one of the mills has closed and that industry doesn’t support the town anymore. Perlite is a type of volcanic mineral that is very light and is used as a filtering agent, usually for bottled water or beer.

We left Antonito after lunch and started South on US-285. Again, about ten miles South of town we crossed back into New Mexico. After driving South for 30 miles we turned back West on US-64 at the little village of Tres Pierdras. After 48 miles US-64 joins US-84, at the village of Tierra Amarilla and starts North back towards Chama. Between the two villages the road again climbs to over 10,500 feet at the Brazos Pass. We arrived back at our RV park about 4:00 having gone about 140 miles in a big square. The scenery was breathtaking, with very little traffic and very good roads. Some of the switchbacks on the passes were 35 mph turns, but there were no really bad spots at all. We also did geocaching along the entire route, although the caches were spread out quite a bit. As you might expect, there were several caches located on or near the various summits. We ended up with ten new finds. One of the caches took us to a very unique Catholic shrine built into a limestone cliff side. The shrine could only be seen if you left the main highway and went through the tiny village of Los Ojos on a County road. This was another great example of the locations and sights that caching brings us to. There is no possibility that we would have ever seen this shrine except for geocaching. Los Ojos is a few miles North of Tierra Amarilla on US-64/84. We had a very nice day and didn’t exert ourselves too much at the high altitudes.

Friday, July 15th, we were up early to pull in the four walls and cruise on to our new destination. We left Chama about 10:00 and started West on US-64 for the 110 mile trip to Farmington, New Mexico. I was a little bit apprehensive about this route, only because it was not shown in the trucker’s atlas as being a big rig route. However, it really wasn’t a bad road. Since Chama was almost 8,000 feet elevation and Farmington sits at a little over 5,000 feet, it was mostly downhill. Much of the road was standard two lane highway, but there were areas with no shoulder, which always increases tension a little. There were some curvy bits, but none were real tight and traffic on the road was very light. The worst part was most of the road was in poor condition, so it was bumpy and noisy. Drove the cat crazy, he doesn’t like noisy roads. We made it to Farmington by 12:30 and got settled into the Lee Acres RV Park.

This RV park is on the lower part of the spectrum as parks go, but it offers full hookup, 50 amp sites for $25. The two guys working in the office look like they just left the set of Hee Haw. A couple of real hicks. The park is mostly dirt and gravel and appears to have mostly monthly rental folks. One of the things that we noticed coming into the Farmington area was a lot of oil and gas wells and facilities. Judging from the trucks we saw on the road, and similar trucks in the RV park, it looks like most of the residents are workers in the oil fields. We will only be here for three nights, so as long as the utilities work, we will be OK.

Farmington was founded back in the 1880's as a farming community, however, in the 1950's oil, gas and coal became the mainstay of the local economy. Back in 1967 the government set off an underground nuclear blast about 50 miles East of Farmington as a part of Operation Plowshare, an effort to find peacetime uses for nuclear weapons. The blast was intended to break up the rock and make retrieval of oil and natural gas easier. The town has a population of about 45,000, and is pretty much surrounded by native lands. We drove across the Jicarilla Apache reservation on the way from Chama, the Navajo Reservation is South and West, and the Ute Nation is to the North.

Saturday, July 16th, we went out after lunch to explore Farmington and do some geocaching. We drove around a good part of the city while caching and found it to be an interesting place. We were able to find eight caches during the afternoon, but we also ended up with four DNFs. I guess the local cachers outsmarted us today. We quit caching about 3:30 because it was getting pretty hot and humid, so we stopped at the local Walmart for some needed groceries. We then went to the Farmington Elks Lodge. The Farmington Lodge has a very large building on a hill overlooking the city, near the airport. The bar was busy and the lodge bought the first drink. This lodge also allows visiting members to play in the casino, so both Jackie and I went in to play some video poker. We ended up losing, I lost $10 and Jackie about $30, but we had fun. We had another cocktail after gaming. In addition to a large bar area the lodge has a huge round ballroom and a large dining room. There was a wedding going on in the ballroom, but we were able to peek in and check it out. We also got a lodge pin for our banner since this was the first time we have ever been to this lodge. After the lodge visit we headed home for the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 17th we took a little driving tour after lunch to Navajo Lake State Park, located about 25 miles Northeast of Farmington. Navajo Lake is the second largest lake in New Mexico and is a man made lake formed by damming the San Juan River. The Farmington Elks Lodge also has a recreational area and campground located near the lake. We wanted to check it out to see if it would be a good place to come on future visits to the area. We arrived at the damn about 1:00 or so and found a very large earth dam. The road actually went up the back face of the dam and then looped around to go over the top edge of the dam. Pretty neat piece of engineering. We found the Elks recreational area about five miles outside of the park. The last two miles to the place is a gravel road that is in very poor condition. The RV park sits on a bluff, overlooking the lake, but there is no lake access. The place looked to be full and most of the RVs looked like the people stayed there all summer. We decided that even if we wanted to come this far off the beaten path and take the coach on the dirt road, we probably wouldn’t find a space anyway. We crossed the Elks rec area off the list.

We also visited the State Park campground, which is right on the lake, and found that they have about a dozen full hookup sites, including sewer, as well as a couple dozen water and electric sites. The campground is down on the lake and the water is within walking distance. Best of all, about half of the spaces are available for reservation through a web site. We might stay here for a while the next time we are in the area.

After checking out the lake and the campgrounds we started back towards Farmington. On the way we stopped at a small vineyard and winery where they were having a car show. Although there were only about 20 cars in the show, we walked around for a half hour or so checking out the rides. We then drove back into town and stopped at one of the geocaches that we had to take a DNF on the day before. The owner of the cache had seen our DNF log and emailed us a hint. This time we found the cache, so we got one more find on our list. We also stopped at a Staples store to get some supplies for caching. After our touring we headed home just in time for happy hour. We stayed in for the rest of the night.

Monday, July 18th, we packed up the coach and pulled out of the RV park about 10:00. We headed West and then North, leaving New Mexico with a final destination of Cortez, Colorado. The trip was only about 77 miles, but the roads were really bad. Lots of frost heaves and torn up pavement. Most of the time I had to do at least ten miles per hour less than the speed limit just to keep my fillings from popping loose. Fortunately, there wasn’t too much traffic. We arrived at the Sundance RV Park in Cortez just after noon. We got ourselves settled into a nice spot and then just stayed in for the rest of the day relaxing. It looks pretty stormy out, so a T-storm is likely later this afternoon.

Our departure from New Mexico, and arrival in Colorado, seem a natural point to close out this episode of our story. We are going to be here in Cortez for five days, then nearby Durango, Colorado for another five days. Until the next time you hear from us, remember that complaining is not productive. If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. See ya!

300 Miles of Route 66

Welcome back friends. Our last chapter ended with our arrival in Flagstaff, Arizona on Wednesday, June 22nd. We got settled into the Black Bart RV park, just outside of town. After lunch we packed up our laundry and went into town to a nice laundromat where we got everything done in a couple hours. After that it was back to the coach for the rest of the night. The temperatures here are warm, but in the low 90's where Cottonwood and Camp Verde are in the 100's. Yea!

Thursday, June 23rd we woke up to a fairly cool morning for a change, somewhere in the 60's. About noon we drove South from Flagstaff, headed back to Sedona and lunch with some friends, Ed and Pat Ruese. Ed and Pat had been full-time RVers for over 25 years. We met them at our second FMCA rally when Pat was President of the 100%ers Chapter and I was drafted as Vice President. A couple of years later Ed and Pat decided it was time to quit the full time lifestyle and they bought a house in Clarkdale, Arizona, the neighboring town to Cottonwood. We had contacted them while we were in Camp Verde to try to get together, but they were traveling and would not be back until the day we were leaving for Flagstaff. However, since Flagstaff is only about 30 miles from Sedona, and Clarkdale is about the same, we made plans to meet there for lunch. We had lunch at the Oak Creek Brewery and Grill, the same place we went with the Cohen’s last week. The food is really good and Pat suggested it as well.

We had a great lunch and spent a couple of hours talking and catching up. We had last seen Ed and Pat up in Oregon in August of last year at the 3Ts rally. They seem to really enjoy being house bound again. They still have their motorhome and travel some, in fact, they are heading to the FMCA rally in Wisconsin this summer. It was nice seeing them again, they are very nice and interesting people.

After lunch we left Sedona and took the scenic route back to Flagstaff. When we came down from Flagstaff we used Highway 89A, which comes down through Oak Creek Canyon, a very nice scenic road through an area I have loved all of my life. I spent hundreds of days camping in Oak Creek Canyon during the 40 years I lived in Arizona. For our route back, however, I took an old forest road that goes Northeast out of Sedona called Schnebly Hill Road, or Forest Service Road 153. The first mile out of Sedona is paved, after that it becomes quite rugged. The road runs 13 miles from Sedona to where it intersects I-17. I would not recommend the road unless you have a high clearance vehicle, although we did pass several regular passenger cars on our trip today. Actually, I used to drive it in a regular car when I was younger, back in the 60's and 70's. You just have to go slow. The road climbs several thousand feet and provides wonderful views of Sedona and the red rock country of Arizona that you can’t see from any other viewpoint. Check this link for a more detailed story about the road, including some history of Sedona and the area. www.desertusa.com/mag02/aug/sed1.html It took us about 90 minutes to travel the 13 miles, but it was a great trip. The first ten miles of the road out of Sedona are also the primary route for the various Jeep tours that operated out of Sedona. One of the most famous is the Pink Jeep Tour company, which has been operating since I was in high school. We passed a dozen or so of the various Jeeps and Hummers on the road. Once we hit I-17 again we just drove North to Flagstaff. After our tour we stopped at Target in Flagstaff for a couple of things and then went back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Friday, June 24th promised to be another lovely day in Flagstaff. Pretty breezy with temperatures in the high 80's. We left the coach around noon and went to a restaurant called Brandy’s Bakery and Restaurant for lunch. Brandy’s was one of the two places here in Flagstaff that have been featured on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives TV program that we watch regularly. We visited the other place, a Mexican restaurant, on our last trip. Brandy’s is in a strip mall and is not a real big place, but has a nice menu. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and none of the items featured on the TV show are available on the lunch menu, so we didn’t get to sample them. The lunch menu did have some excellent choices and some interesting change-ups on common sandwiches. I had a California Dip, which was a French Dip with Muenster cheese and green chilies which was excellent. Jackie had a chicken sandwich with avocado, sprouts and some other veggies that she enjoyed also. Next time we will try the dinner menu. The food was good, so if you are in the area, give it a try.

Now a little history. The area that is now Flagstaff was first settled back in 1876 by some hardy settlers arrived and liked the area. The town was really founded and started growing in 1882 with the arrival of the transcontinental railroad and Flagstaff became one of the stops along the way. Although the largest town on the railroad between Albuquerque and the West coast, a 1900 newspaper article still called the town a "third rate mining camp, with an unkempt air and high prices of available goods.” In 1894 a well known Massachusetts astronomer named Percival Lowell was searching for a site for a new telescope and settled on a peak overlooking Flagstaff. The Lowell observatory was established and is still in use today. When we were here back in March of last year we toured the observatory. It is a great side trip for anyone visiting the area. Flagstaff is also the home of Northern Arizona University, which was established in 1899 as the Northern Arizona Normal School, a teacher’s college. The campus grew and went through several name changes, including Arizona Teacher’s College of Flagstaff and Northern Arizona College at Flagstaff. In 1966 it was granted university status and renamed Northern Arizona University. Current enrollment tops 25,000 students.

Just North of Flagstaff is the Arizona Snow Bowl ski area, a big economic asset to the area. Setting at 7,000 feet, Flagstaff is subject to harsh winters with lots of snow. By the way, the name Flagstaff supposedly comes from a lodgepole pine tree that was stripped of branches by settlers in 1876 to provide a place to fly the flag on the national centennial. Other travelers talked of staying “near the flagstaff” when traveling through the area and the name stuck.

After lunch at Brandy’s we decided to go out and do some geocaching in Flagstaff and we were able to get ten finds in a couple of hours. We did have one DNF, but learned later in the day that it was gone, apparently “muggled”, or stolen in geo-speak. The 7,000 foot altitude inhibited any long hikes looking for caches. Neither of us do well with altitude, but Jackie is especially susceptible and was puffing her inhaler a couple of times during the day. After our caching we visited the Flagstaff Elks Lodge. Although we have been here several times in the past, we have never made it to the lodge for some reason. They have a very nice lodge on the North end of town, at the edge of the forest area. Very friendly folks in the bar too. They have about 600 members, which is not too bad for a city this size, similar to membership at the Indio Lodge. We had a couple drinks and got a lodge pin for our banner before heading back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, June 25th we left after lunch to drive to the Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments, which are about 30 miles North of Flagstaff on the road to the Grand Canyon. The two monuments are only about 15 miles apart and are connected by a side road that goes through both parks. We first stopped at Sunset Crater and the visitor’s center. Sunset Crater is a volcanic cinder cone left over from an eruption about 1,000 years ago. The whole area of North Central Arizona is an area of heavy past volcanic activity. Because the eruption was relatively recent in geological terms, there is a lot of raw lava and cinders for miles around the mountain. We spent some time at the visitor’s center and then drove through the park. We then drove to the Wupatki National Monument and stopped at the visitor’s center there. This is a site of a series of Indian pueblo ruins, which also date back one to two thousand yeas ago. We didn’t get out and tour the cliff house ruins because it was too hot, but we drove through and took some pictures. After our driving tour we went back into Flagstaff, stopped at Walmart and Sam’s Club, and then headed home for the night.

Sunday, June 26th we packed up the coach and left Flagstaff about 10:00, heading East on I-17 to the Arizona town of Holbrook. The trip was about 89 miles and although it was warm, the road was mostly downhill or level, so there were no overheat issues. The wind was blowing pretty hard, which made driving tricky. We settled into the OK RV park in Holbrook around noon. We will be here for three days before moving on further East. Since it was very windy and hot we just stayed in the coach and relaxed the rest of the day.

Monday promised to be a hot day, so we decided that we would make it a driving tour day. We left the coach after lunch and drove 23 miles East on I-40 to the Petrified Forrest National Park. The visitors center is on the North side of the freeway at the entrance to the park, so we stopped there first. The park also includes parts of the Painted Desert. This whole area is a part of large plateau that extends all the way up into Utah and geologically is an ancient sea bed. As the surface erodes it exposes layers of sediment, limestone and sandstone which gives the area its distinctive hues. The park extends South of the freeway and there is a 26 mile scenic road that winds South through the park. There are numerous scenic points and pullouts where you can see the thousands of chunks of petrified logs scattered around the park. We took a lot of pictures and looked at a lot of petrified wood.

They obviously do not allow any collection of minerals inside the National Park, but it seems that there was plenty of petrified wood to be had on surrounding private land to supply a pretty good sized local industry in petrified wood gift shops. We did stop at one in Holbrook on the way back from the park because the RV park we are in provided a coupon for a half pound of petrified wood free. This place, Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood store has about five acres of land which is covered in pieces of petrified wood, ranging in size from tiny chips to pieces the size of a Volkswagen. We spent some time in the store, got our free piece of rock and spent about ten bucks on some other things, including a small, cut geode that had some pretty crystal formations inside. They had some beautiful stuff, like huge coffee tables made of petrified wood, but even we could afford the thousands of dollars they cost, the weight would flatten the tires on the motorhome. Not too practical for our lifestyle.

We were also able to get credit for two geocache finds today. One was a virtual cache that was actually inside of the park at one of the scenic turnouts. Virtual do not have a physical container, it is something you are supposed to find, look at, and then answer some questions about. The other was a regular cache on one of the “Welcome to Holbrook” signs in town. We were going to do a couple more, but the temperatures were in the triple digits by late afternoon, so we just went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, June 28th, we left the coach before lunch to do a couple of quick geocaches before it got too hot. We only had a couple to do because we had cached here back in October and there were not that many caches in town to begin with. The first cache was right in town, a typical urban cache near an abandoned gift shop. The second cache took us North of town, near the municipal golf course, but out into the desert to a rocky gulch where there were some old Indian petroglyphs. I had to walk about a quarter mile into the site on a trail (Jackie stayed in the car), but once I got there I found the cache without any difficulty. After caching we went to a local Mexican restaurant that one of the girls at the RV park had recommended. The place was called El Rancho and was in the middle of town on old Route 66. It seems that many of the towns along Route 66 in the Southwest had a motel and/or restaurant called El Rancho. We have seen a number of them during our travels. The food was pretty good, not outstanding, but better than average. The salsa they put on the table, however, was excellent. The restaurant was in the motel and had the usual gift shop as well as the office for the motel. Since I don’t know what the food is like at some of the other local eateries, I can’t highly recommend the place over trying something else, but it was good. After lunch we went back to the coach for the rest of the day. I did some minor repairs and other chores and we just relaxed.

Wednesday, June 29th we left Holbrook about 9:30 a.m. and started East on I-40 again, this time headed for Gallup, New Mexico. We got into the USA RV park about 11:30 and got checked in. We are familiar with this park as we stayed here twice last year, both going to and leaving the Balloon Fiesta in October. It is a very nice park, although the sites are kind of close together with side by side parking. We didn’t go anywhere after we set up. The weather called for scattered thunderstorms and just before sundown we had a little rain. Then about 9:00 there was a whole line of thunderstorms that came through, but the bulk of the storm was West of us. We got a lot of noise and lightning flashes from afar, but only a little bit of rain and wind.

Thursday we went out after lunch to do some local sightseeing. We drove through the old downtown, parked and walked around a little bit. Went into a couple of Indian trading post stores, of which there are dozens in Gallup, but didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without. We spent another hour or so driving around various parts of town before we finally went to the mall and spent a couple hours walking around there just window shopping and getting some exercise. After the mall we went back to the coach for the rest of the day. We didn’t do any geocaching because there are not a lot in and around Gallup and we had cached here last October, so we didn’t have any in town that we hadn’t found. It was too hot to go out into the desert looking for those type caches, so we just didn’t cache.

Friday, July 1st, half of 2011 is now officially gone. Yikes! We left Gallup around 9:30 and started East on I-40 again, this time headed for Milan, New Mexico, a little town next door to Grants, New Mexico, which is no big whop in itself. We go in about 11:00 and drove to the Speedo Truck Lube shop for the annual service on the coach. Every 15,000 miles, or once a year, we have to change the oil, oil filter, fuel filters and air filter. Since we never get close to 15,000 miles in a year, we do it sometime around June or July of each year. The last three years we went to various Speedo locations around the country and have been very happy with their service. For less than $300 we get the same service that the Cummins service center charged us $1,000 for the first time we had it done. The second year we went to a Monaco service center and they were over $800. There are Speedo’s all around the country, you get in and out in a couple hours, and they do it right. After we had the coach serviced we drove across the freeway to a little RV park in Milan where we got a full hookup site for less than $20. Of course, we are only a block from the busiest railroad line in the world, but we have heard trains before.

After we got the coach settled in we went out in the car to see what the Milan and Grants area looked like. Although I have driven through this area many times over the years, I have never had any reason to stop here and look around. Milan is just a small village, but Grants is about 8,800 population. We went to a Chinese buffet that the AAA book recommended and found it was very good. It was called the Canton Café and is right on the main drag, Santa Fe Avenue, or Old US 66. The selection was a little limited, but they had everything we liked and the quality was very good. The price was right too, $14 for both of us for lunch.

After lunch we drove around town a little bit, just seeing what was around. The answer, not much. Grants started as a farming town at the turn of the century, but in the 1950's a major uranium lode was discovered and nearly overnight Grants became a mining town and the center of uranium mining in the U.S. The mines and mills closed in the 80's and the town has withered somewhat. We visited the Grants Mining Museum, which chronicled a lot of the history of the town. They also had a mock underground mine that was interesting to walk through. Lots of pictures and tools of the trade to look at. We also looked for a couple of geocaches, just to keep our finger in the game. We found one and had to DNF one.

We found the Elks Lodge during our tour, but found it didn’t open until 5:00, so we went back to the coach for a couple hours. About 5:30 we went to the Grants/Milan Elks Lodge and found an very nice lodge on a very big (6 acre) plot of land. I found from talking to the bartender that the lodge building used to be a community center for one of the mining companies. The Elks bought it and turned it into a very nice lodge building. They have a separate dedicated lodge room that used to be the bowling alley for the center. They kept the hardwood floors and ended up with a very elegant lodge room. One of the interesting features are the stained glass panels that line the entire room. The bartender told me that they had been in the original old Elks Lodge in Albuquerque and when they sold that building and moved to the suburbs, they were going to throw away all these beautiful stained glass panels. The Grants Lodge took them and installed them in their lodge room with backlighting that makes for a very regal look. They also have a huge ballroom that they rent out. There was a wedding reception being held while we were there.
The clubroom, or bar, is also very big, and, like most New Mexico Elks Lodges, they have a gaming room with slot machines. Jackie had forgotten that New Mexico allows slots in non profits, so she was quite happy when I pointed out the casino to her. She went in and played some nickle poker for an hour or so and turned $20 into $60. Yea Jackie! I had some drinks, watched TV and talked to the bartender. After a couple drinks and getting a new lodge pin for our banner, we headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, July 2nd, was another travel day. This time we are headed for Albuquerque, just about 100 miles East of Grants. It was a little windy and warm, but not enough to cause any driving problems. The closer we got to Albuquerque the worse the haze got in the air. There are a lot of forest fires in New Mexico, including one big one just about 70 miles Northwest of Albuquerque. We arrived at the Hidden Valley RV Resort around noon and got checked in. We are actually in Tijeras, New Mexico, a little town about 15 miles East of Albuquerque on I-40. It is up in the mountains, a thousand feet or so higher than Albuquerque. We got the coach parked and everything set up by mid afternoon and then just stayed in and rested for the rest of the day. It looks like some thunderstorms are brewing for this evening. It is hot and humid, so we didn’t want to go out.

With our arrival here in Albuquerque, where we will spend a week, I will publish this chapter of our story. When we leave here we will still be traveling in New Mexico for another week or so, so I will publish again in a couple weeks. Until we meet again, remember that it is much better to always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. Bye.