Day 7 & 8 - Old friends and old pueblos

I was not able to get the Day 7 blog posted because the wifi at the hotel would not let me log on and it was a late night as well so this will cover two days.

The day started cloudy again (Day 7) and I came across this marked about the Santa Fe Trail and the two little hills on the horizon.

This is Elmer and I approaching the marker, notice the many bugs on the windshield.
I hit a large patch of especially mushy bugs!

I could now start to see the mountains in the distance.

US64 headed toward Cimarron and this marker about Cimarron Canyon.  Only a few bullet holes in the marker!!!   Almost every sign has at least one bullet hole.

When I got to the town of Cimarron, NM, there was a small historic down town area that had a couple of art galleries and a few other buildings.  I chatted with a nice lady at one of the galleries and she told me about how the fire got to within 1 mile of town but that no one was injured.

Cimarron NM 

Most of the damage was on the Philmont Scout ranch where a number of buildings were burnt.  The scout camping season has also been delayed.  The big worry now is that, while rain is needed badly, it will not take much to cause mud slides in the burned out areas.  That will likely close down US64 again.  Here is some of the burned area just west of town.

This burn area was tiny compared to some of the hillsides I saw along the way to Eagle Nest, NM.  It was lunch time when I rolled into Eagle Nest and the town had quite a few tourists in it so I parked and started walking down the main drag.  One small cafe had two folks singing country songs and the fellow said to come on in.  I took his advice and then sat and listened to them sign for then next 45 minutes or so as I ate lunch.  Dale and Gayle are two retired teachers who have sold their home and bought an RV to travel around and sing their songs.  It was a lovely hour with pleasant conversation, nice music and gentle warm breezes.  I made a small contribution to the tip jar and as I was leaving Dale gave me one of their CDs.  I played it for the next hour or so.  Thanks Dale & Gayle.

Dayle & Gayle in Eagle Nest

The day ended in Taos NM where my friend from high school Willis Greiner and his wife Cheryl Price live.  They invited me for a visit and then we joined Mike and Terry from Kentucky for dinner.  Mike and Terry were visiting the area and had spent an evening observing the skies of Taos.  Willis is an amateur astronomer, talented photographer and world traveler.  He had a story for any country or place that came up in the conversation!  You can view Willis' photograph at this link and Cheryl`s artwork at this link.  Here they are just before dinner...its a terrible photo but the only one I thought  to take at the time.

Day 8 started by crossing the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  The bridge is 656 feet above the river and its quite a sight.

Farther along in the day I came to a Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park that Victor and Jeanne Westphall created for their son, David Westphall who died in Vietnam.  It was the first Vietnam Memorial and inspired others.

Eventually I made it to Mesa Verde National Park and spent some time in their museum and touring the dwellings.

The park had lots of people in it including lots of tired kids!  Tomorrow I head farther west to Kingman AZ with a swing through the south rim of the Grand Canyon.