Trippin' Numbers Style

Upon leaving Phoenix on day 5, we decided to take the long way around to Farmington, NM via Route 66 to put a little bit of iconic American history into our lives. We picked up I-40 in Flagstaff which follows right along the old Route 66 trail, most of which doesn't really exist anymore and the fact that it doesn't really exist anymore, made it really hard to gain access to some of the old historic sites off the road. In fact a lot of things we had to really look to find and some of those that where easy to spot would come up so quick off the side of the freeway that by the time you saw them, bam, they were gone.
Route 66 was a huge eye opener for me though, the abandoned buildings and even a zoo (the entry and animal exhibits still have fragments remaining, enough that you can recognize what it once was), it's crazy to see what has happened to these places as time and technology have progressed. This was really my first experience with seeing pretty much ghost towns, remnants of someplace that was once great, gone, just like dust in the wind. Huge eye opener and crazy cool with aspects of sadness; I am hoping throughout the journey we will be able to pick up more legs of this historic route.

 

Day 6 we spent doing visiting Durango, CO, Mesa Verde National Park, Four Corners and Shiprock using this fabulous route as a guide: http://www.farmingtonnm.org/pages/tours-fourcorners.html 

Needless to say Farmington, NM was not our cup of tea, but we were using free Marriott nights, so we took what we could and ended up there versus Durango; although the hotel was nice the town left much to be desired, but lucky for us it was just a quick drive to the much more hip, fun and clean Durango! So having said that, we got up early and hit the road for our fun little Four Corners loop, starting with coffee and a walk down Durango's main street. Such a cute town and extremely dog friendly, so dog friendly that many of the shops leave clean bowls of water out for the canine shoppers; my only wish we could've taken Miss Ethel on the train to Silverton, it would've been great to have seen it! 

 

Next stop on the loop led us directly to Mesa Verde National Park, which is amazing! This was a speed through and see as much as we could from the car or unguided viewings as we had to leave Miss Ethel in the car for quick runs to the sites to check them out (no worries, it was 40 degrees outside, she had water, the windows cracked and treats). Lucky for us we were able to do a couple of quick 15 minute walks and with the drive we were still able to see quite a bit without leaving Ethel to her own devices for too long. This truly is a must see site and a place I would love to go back and devote an entire day to exploring the ruins.

Next up, the loops surname, Four Corners! Out in the middle of nowhere, but a total must do at some point in ones life; seriously being in four states at the same time, how can you resist! The monument itself wasn't dog friendly, so we were in and out of there pretty quickly, however Ethel got to peruse the reservation while Tom ordered us up some delicious fry bread! Yum! This is definitely one of those places that I am glad I saw, but not sure if I would necessarily want to go back out there anytime soon. In fact they didn't have running water and now I am rethinking my fry bread choice....

And last but not least was Shiprock, which was incredible! I have to say seeing this giant rock jutting out of the earth, out in a vastness of flatness, is just majestic! There is just something powerful and eerie about it all at once; it seriously made me want to take up rock climbing just so I could see the world from on top of it! A goal for the next time we're that way!

Santa Fe, Roswell and our month long stay in San Antonio still to come, please stay tuned!