Day 4 Pagosa Springs to Amarillo, TX

Day 4 begins in a crisp cool 54 degrees. We are definitely higher altitude. Pagosa Springs turned out to be a more accommodating town then I had thought. Even though we had to eat out of the cooler for dinner morning seems to be the time to be in Pagosa Springs. The area is well known for it's hot springs. Bill and I agree to get an early start so we decide to forgo the hot springs (my newly acquired sun burn thanks me). We are both a little anxious to get breakfast and hit the road!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I really believe this. Now I should mention that I am a Sonic Fanatic.. For those of you in Seattle I am NOT talking about the basketball team. I am talking about the restaurant that you may have seen obscure commercials for on some of your cable channels. I am convinced they run these commercials to taunt me since I moved from an area where Sonics were frequent to Seattle where they are non-existent. (There are a few other restaurants I miss, Chic'fil'a, Cracker Barrel, CC's Pizza but I will get to those later.) So as I look at "Find Restaurants" feature on Streets & Trips what do I behold?!?!??! Sonic! We stopped in Idaho and got just a Cherry Limeade… one of the yummy drink concoctions they are known for and one of my very favorites. In Utah we got a watermelon slush… oh yum… even better after hiking and chili cheese tator tots.

As we leave Pagosa Springs this morning Bill wants to try one of the breakfast items I have been bragging is "one of the best breakfasts I have ever experienced. It's a breakfast burrito. Contents include Egg, sausage, tomato, jalapeno peppers, cheese, tator tots and onion. Yummmo! I also grab a fresh Vanilla Coke… not like the yucky ones in a can… but a real soda-jerk style vanilla coke…. Heaven. So we stop at Sonic and grab breakfast and head out of Pagosa Springs. (next sonic stop will have to be the ultimate in milkshakes… the Chocolate Cream Pie Milkshake… with graham cracker crumbs and all

Note: Sonic Claims (on their cup) to have 168,894 different drink combinations.

Leaving Pagosa Springs there is still snow on the ground in many places. Also this is the first area where we have seen a high population of trees since crossing the Snoqualmie Pass. Now Entering New Mexico. We got a very early start this morning so we will be driving for a while. More later.

10,000 FEET?!??! So we decided to take this little state highway through Northern New Mexico. As we left Colorado we were already up to 7000 elevation. (Streets and Trips GPS gives you your elevation… something we have kind of made into a game. I ask Bill to guess the current elevation… sometimes he has been close but other times he was quite shocked.) So as we go along I realize that we are going up at a fairly regular rate. I look down at the Streets and Trips and see us around 8900 feet… but we are still climbing! Our highest point was 10,554. I guess it wasn't a problem that we bypassed Pike's Peak. LOL

As we drive along this unknown road we come across a canyon… Reading the signs it turns out to be the Rio Grande Gorge. It's amazing and we get a number of pictures at the rest stop. If you ever happen to be running down highway 64 in NM stop at this rest stop. The view is amazing and the bathrooms are awesome! Tiled in a rich natural orange and the walls made out of local stone. Not to mention the cleanest rest stop I have ever encountered. There are also covered picnic tables for public use.

Ok we are back down to earth… well partially. Current Altitude is 6300 feet. As we drive along the back roads of New Mexico we run through a small town full of adobe buildings. I play the tourist taking tons of pictures while the natives laugh at me. We drive through the Carson National Forest which I believe is named after Kit Carson the Female gunslinger. I will have to check my reference book to clarify. We go from massive hills and frozen lakes down to plains with roaming Buffalo… or are they Bison???? Maybe Beefalo? As we drive we have 2 deer dart across the road a few yards in front of the car than shortly down the road there are antelope playing… I figure I have now had the full SW experience… I should just head home… or not.

Out here there is next to nothing. Towns consist of a Bar or Liquor store, gas station and a grocery store. We can see for miles. The sky is clear except for a few tufty clouds and dozens of shades of blue depending on which direction you look. There is dry grass for miles around on our road from Cimarron to Raton, New Mexico.

The dry air is taking a toll on my hands and feet. I had to stop and buy a large bottle of lotion. I can tell I am a Florida girl because I seem to need at least 50% humidity. My breathing has been hard when walking very far but I have faith that my system will adjust to the drier air in the next day or so. I am amazed that we have been able to keep up with our 2+ liters of water per day without having to stop every 5 minutes.

We stop in Raton, NM for lunch at a little steakhouse. It's pretty good. The road from Raton to Clayton is sparse of anything… other then maybe rattlesnakes. Not to mention it is under construction to widen it which neither of us understand as we have only seen about 10 cars headed in each direction. With the construction we are stuck in a 45 mile per hour zone with double fine threats ever few hundred feet. So we creep along in nowhereland hoping this road will end soon. Our first several hours in NM were far more interesting. Thank goodness the rest of the time we have in this state will be on Route 66 which has enough interesting things to keep us distracted from the repetitive and monotone landscape.

According to the First National Bank of New Mexico it is now 6:17pm and 75 degrees. Gotta love this weather! We have discussed it and it looks like we may continue on until we hit Amarillo, tonight. This would save us quite a bit of driving tomorrow and we would have time to visit the Palo Duro Canyon or some of the more… interesting… areas of Amarillo, TX.

Amarillo it is. We are hoping to stay at the Big Texan Hotel that is attached to the Big Texan Steak House, best known for their 72 ounce steak that if you eat it all in under 1 hour it's free. Neither of us has ANY intention of even trying it but we hope to have a reasonable sized steak for lunch tomorrow and hope to see someone attempt the monstrosity.

We made it. 4 days to Amarillo. We are staying at the Big Texan Motel and you gotta see this! I will post pictures in the morning since you won't be able to see much in the dark. Picture an old John Wayne movie that clashed into a bad 70s flick. Oh MY! We are sitting in the Big Texan Steak House as I post this. The restaurant provides free Wi Fi for guests. The restaurant looks like the inside of any classic movie tavern but with the added touch of about 100 stuffed animal heads… we aren't talking teddy bears here. It is complete with a full balcony around the entire restaurant area with seating. The motif is just stunningly tacky Texas and I love it. I am beginning to realize that many people reading this will know more about me and my bizarre sense of fun by the time I am back home in Seattle. Maybe I can even make a few new friends from this experience.

P.S. We can't find Bill's phone. We aren't sure if we might have left it in Colorado… Hope to find it soon… Time to eat!