Day 5, 9/6/08

We left Alamosa early & drove through a couple of 10,000' passes - La Manga & Cumbres, much of it parallel to the railroad we took yesterday. Didn't get to see the train running, since we were too early. Both trains had 3 more cars on Saturday than on Friday - plan accordingly.

From Chama, we took US-64 across to Bloomfield thru a part of NM we'd never before visited. Spectacular scenery - of course (ho hum, that's New Mexico). Stopped at Salmon Ruins, where we'd never before stopped, visited the Aztec NM museum and said "hi" to the cat who'd given us a tour 4 years ago - now she's fat and sassy and demands attention.

The Farmington area is very grown-up - way too much traffic for my taste. We'll stay there tomorrow night after our long visit to Mesa Verde; may take one of the tours that requires going up and down ladders. Other possibilities include the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores.

Cortez is having a beer fest tonight & we didn't go. Isn't that terrible? Too disgusted with our visit to the Ute Mountain casino - took 40 minutes to hand-pay Sandra when a machine wouldn't print out her cash-out ticket. Had Mexican food twice more today, but it wasn't as good as either of the two nights in Alamosa.

Miles today - 282, total to date - 1,212 (68 more than our original plan - didn't leave enough slack in it).