So, we're back on the road again. This morning, we left Casa Goldberg in Santa Fe, headed to Albuquerque to pick up Joe. On the way out of town we stopped at the grocery store to stock the car for the next few days.
In the parking lot, a young woman was looking at the wheels of Jean-Luc and the Fish, as they sat on top of The Little Darkness. We got to talking about wheel widths as we added ice to the coolers. Jody likes his wheels 'the skinnier the better'. She wished us luck on our cross country trek, clearly envious. On the road: I drove, Jody power napped.
We picked Joe up north of Albuquerque. He and Jody conquered the challenge of where to put his bike carrier. As you can see, we're looking a bit like the Clampetts again:
Joe, Jody and the bungee cords.
Joe drove. I knew it was going to be great when he ignored the in-car Garmin as we came out of his hotel's parking lot. All three humans knew we wanted to go north. Carmen Garmin wanted to go south. North we went. Carmen Garmin eventually caught up with us. Seems she thought we hadn't finished picking Joe up and just wanted us to go back to the hotel.
We stopped in Cuba, NM for lunch. We had stopped for gas there on the way to Santa Fe. Jody remembered a tiny restaurant across the street. Bruno's. (No, not Brujo's. Bruno's.) Some of the best food we've had on this trip, and we'd just come from eating at four fabulous restaurants in Santa Fe. (Not to mention great breakfasts at Casa Goldberg.) Joe and I both had the trout with mango salsa and flash fried spinach. Fabulous. We compared notes on how spicy hot we like various foods. Some of us more than others. We bought hot salsa (yum, we'd had it with chips) and wine made from green chilies. (Seriously. I couldn't make that up.) Joe drove some more. It was my turn to nap. Over six hours in the car today, steady driving on the highway. (Are we there yet???)
Back in Kayenta, we found that had we arrived an hour or so earlier we might have scored Joe a room at our hotel. Not to be, however; he's down the road (ten miles, no kidding) at the Anasazi Inn. Which looks like a warehouse and has the 24/7 of a truckstop. We'll be interested to hear tomorrow how it was.
We asked at the hotel desk, as we usually do, for the best place in town to eat. Without hesitation, the clerk told us - here at the hotel. And we're glad we did. The food was good, but the information was better. While we were waiting for our meal, Joe started looking at the routes, wondering if there were a more scenic way to get to Bluff UT than spending a lot of miles on the route we had just driven in on. (Yes, you guessed it - desert, desert and more desert.) Joe was looking on Google Earth at a possible alternative, mentioned we should talk to someone local. So we did. Here is Lena, who also served us dinner, explaining to Joe that the alternative route is much, much prettier and that, despite the satellite photo, has been recently paved:
Joe and Lena, working on the routes.
She asked where we were going next. "Cortez, Colorado." She then proceeded to show Joe the back roads. Again prettier and paved. Lena has family in Cortez, has stayed in the hotel we'll be staying in, and even recommended a Mexican restaurant close to the hotel. The two new routes are shorter by a bit, but also hillier. But we're opting for Lena's scenic recommendations, and will ride the back road to Bluff tomorrow.
And speaking of food, yes, it's true that Jody and I have a jar of crushed red pepper flakes in The Little Darkness. Pizza without hot peppers? Not us!
Americans can eat garbage, provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, or any other condiment which destroys the original flavor of the dish. ~Henry Miller (1891-1980), American writer and painter |
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