Archive for September, 2008

There is nothing better to wake you up than starting the day with heart stopping fireworks and a bang in your hotel room. One of the forgotten items we picked up in Albuquerque was my straitening iron. I plugged in the new one and sparks started flying out of the top and that was followed by a bang. Shane and I are still in shock that I wasn’t hurt by it. Needless to say this one is getting returned and next time I’ll be purchasing a different brand.

There were really no plans for today, we just wanted to see some interesting things and make it to Bluff in time for dinner. We started out backtracking 15 miles to Aztec, NM to visit the Aztec Ruins. We decided to see this on a whim and were very happy we did. The tour of the ruins is self guided and took us just over an hour. The architecture is amazing and I find it amazing that parts of these buildings are still standing over 800 years after they were built.

After leaving the Aztec Ruins we headed West to four corners. I love it that we were able to drive an hour out of the way to stand in four states at once just because we wanted to. After days of hardly seeing any tourists we found all of them in one spot. Apparently four corners is a very popular place and was flooded with tourists, most of them German. Four corners also has some Navajo  Indians selling jewelry, pottery and t-shirts. We picked up Shane an arrow head made of flint, Georgie and Ethan two little turtle necklaces and Georgie a turquoise necklace.

We started heading North into Colorado and stopped for lunch in Cortez. It was a beautiful little town with great views of the mountains. Shane took over driving duties and we headed to Hovenweep National Monument. It was boiling hot but we managed to do the two mile hike down into the canyon and back up to see all of the cliff dwellings. It was a steep 80 foot drop into the canyon and an immediate 80 foot hike back up. Once again we were in awe of how these buildings were constructed. They were perched on tiny little ledges high above the canyon floor.

After the walk we jumped in the Jeep and headed on to Bluff Utah; our stop for the night. We love our GPS, its a Magellan Crossover and it directs us in the most interesting routes. Today it gave us a short cut through a field and down a dirt road. The word for the day was "wow", the scenery was amazing and we loved every second of the day.

After arriving in Bluff we checked out the town. it took all of three minutes. It is a beautiful little town surrounded by bluffs, go figure. We ate dinner at the Cottonwood Steakhouse which was OK. I think our waitress was ready for tourist season to be over, she was not a happy person. The food was good but thanks to the mozzies that were attacking us we took our dessert to go. It was a really fun day and the alarm is set for 4:30am tomorrow.

Almost forgot, tonight’s accommodation was at the Rosewood Inn. It is a big beautiful log building and has gorgeous log beds. We had a room on the back side of the building with a beautiful view of the bluff.

Aztec Ruins – unfortunate that we had bad light for photos

View near the New Mexico/Arizona border

On the way to Cortez

Between Cortez and Hovenweep

Cliff top dwelling at Hovenweep

The road less traveled

Sunset/moon rising at Bluff Utah

Today is a driving day. We have about 9 hours of road to cover and no plans to stop and see anything. we started the morning with dense fog that stuck around for the first two hours of travel. When the fog finally lifted we decided it was there to keep us from getting bored with the scenery, very flat, scattered shrubs and a lot of dirt. The closer we got into Albuquerque the more interesting the scenery became. By the time we actually got into the city it was breath taking. Watching the scenery change reminded us why we prefer road trips over flying.

We got into Albuquerque and made a quick stop off at  Target to pick up the few items we left behind in our rush to get out the door. We continued on and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Bernalillo NM. All I can say is I am happy I don’t work there for many reasons! We happened to be there on a bad day for the staff. One waitress had ticked off another one and they were all standing around at the counter not 10 feet from where we were gossiping and complaining. We still have no idea who our server was meant to be. We sat and watched as our order was sitting on the counter ready to be delivered to us for five minutes before I got up and asked a waitress to bring it over. The manager came over later and apologized and said our meal was taken care of. There really is a such thing as a free lunch! We weren’t even complaining, we were actually finding the gossiping waitresses humorous.

The day was sunny and beautiful and after we ate lunch we decided to drop the top for our journey into Farmington.It was a fairly quick trip and the scenery ranged from desert to towering mountains. I took tons of photo’s out the side window and the front windshield as we were flying along Highway 550 and surprisingly they turned out pretty good.

When we arrived in Farmington we went straight to the hotel, checked in and hit the bar for a well deserved drink. We’ve been dieting and hadn’t had alcohol for over a month, that’s a new record for us. After we had a drink we tried putting the Raingear on the Jeep for the first time which lead to us once again putting on a comedic performance for those passing by. I love the rain gear, hate the long straps and really wish it had come with directions.

We wanted to continue drinking so we went out for a walk and by dumb luck came across a Mexican place with outdoor seating and a live band. The band was what we call "special", they didn’t really seem to know what they were and didn’t know many songs. They started out with gospel and then switched to blues and played one song three times and another one twice. Despite it all we sat there and polished off two bottles of a local champagne and enjoyed listening to them. The Bass player was playing the exact same Peavey Millennium 4 Tiger eye that I have, wish mine sounded that good! The drummer has an excellent blues voice and was fun to listen to.

A foggy start to the day

The open road

Typical scenery for the afternoon

Shane and I had been planning a trip to Las Vegas for some time. After we bought the Jeep we decided it was time for one of our great road trips. All our friends thought we were crazy and some even said we were insane for driving that far. At our daughters birthday party one of our neighbours asked why we weren’t taking the Yukon "wouldn’t it be more comfortable". Sure it would be more comfortable, we would get to Las Vegas faster but it wouldn’t be near as much fun.

Despite the call for thunderstorms the day we were leaving it turned out to be an amazing day. The sun was shining and there were a few scattered clouds. We were able to start our week of freedom with the top down and fully enjoying the feel of freedom. We were welcomed to Tulsa Oklahoma with a very large electronic sign with information for Hurricane Ike evacuees. We did not take that as the best sign seeing that we were heading to Texas. The beautiful weather continued past Oklahoma City then the clouds started moving in. We drove for a long time under clouds with it not looking like it was going to rain. Then the clouds opened up and the downpour started. Barreling down the highway at 70 with the shade top on we were not even feeling rain drops. We made a mad dash to the next exit with the hopes that we would find a hotel, bank or something with a covered area so we could put the top up. At the bottom of the exit we took there was a perfectly placed abandoned gas station, what luck! Of course that luck was short lived when the light turned red and we had to sit through a traffic light. When the Jeep stopped we got soaked!

We finally made it under the wonderful shelter the old abandoned servo provided and proceed to make putting the top up a comedy for anyone watching. We have been doing this for five years, have it down to a fine art and together normally complete this task in under five minutes. It took us over 25 minutes this time, anyone watching would have assumed we were two idiots who rented a jeep with no clue how to put the top up. Everything that could have gone wrong did.

After we put the top up we got back on I-40 and kept heading towards Amarillo. The goal was to make it to somewhere near the Texas state line. We were feeling good so we continued on and finally stopped at Amarillo. for the night. We turned on CNN when we got in the room to see that Ike was almost ready to make his attack on Galveston.

Typical scenery in Oklahoma, lush green and not very exciting

Shane under the best placed abandoned servo we’ll ever find