Leaving New Mexico: Off to Arches National Monument

October 16, 2008 - Thursday - enroute to Moab, UT

Well. Despite our love of Santa Fe, it was time to move on, so Kathy went to get her morning coffee in the lobby - and was gone a long time. I started loading the car - and found her talking to our now-friend Randy. I got Monroe loaded - and they were still talking. He is just a great guy and was trying to convince us to just stay there - while also giving good advice about what else to see and how to get there. We DO hope to see you again, Randy.

We finally got Monroe on the road and, at Leila's direction, headed *down* I25 - back toward Albuquerque - to pick up State Road 550 toward Moab, UT - which would have us skirt just past Cortez, Colorado again (where we'd stayed to see Mesa Verde). We really struggled with whether to bother with the Arches National Monument since, at this point, it was 300 miles of extra driving, but ultimately "we" decided to go. (smile).

As we got established on 550, we saw signs saying to beware of trucks entering the highway because of a "special event". Uhhh... what? But we kept driving - and passed a turnout with a sign labelled: "Doc". Uhh WHAT??? THEN we passed a turnout and a bunch of trucks with a sign labelled: "Sets".

We looked around carefully and saw a bunch of *teepees* set up - up off the road - and concluded that someone was *filming* in the area. Cool!

The day went by and the miles rolled along as we passed over the Continental Divide - and went thru Cuba, NM. Yeah. We even visited *Cuba* on this trip (smile).

We stopped to get gas in Cortez - and wave "hello" as we powered on toward Moab. Kathy was wearing her new jacket:

The scenery was beautiful as we worked our way thru Colorado - including some sunflower fields (I think?):

up into Utah and finally wound thru the hills down into Moab - to our Rodeway Inn. Nice room - both a King AND a Queen bed in the one room, and a hot tub and water slide at the pool. AND they had a good strong wireless internet connection (which is even-more important than a bed! :) )

We walked down to a local pizza place for dinner and enjoyed the local atmosphere - and found out that everything was *mobbed* because this was a "teacher in-service" weekend in Utah - so the kids were out of school for Thursday and Friday - so everybody decided to hit the National Monuments. OK. We'll have company.

We shivered back to the hotel and enjoyed the beds. Ready for Arches tomorrow.

4356 Miles.