Rolling again in SuperMalibu

I saw a lot of elk today, and 1 coyote, and, of course, some more crows.
Nobody would hold still long enough, or I could not stop quick enough, but I did get this wild horse who had just crossed the road in front of me on the road leading to Toadlena.
I did not throw a stick or any other object at this animal.


I hope the moon is visible above this rock formation in this photo. It was, well, it was magic like comet.


I think I took a picture when the temp was 95, today it was 0


I don't know why I do , but I love shadows in photographs, of people, of cars. Could be why I don't do photography for a living. This was the morning snow in Ridgway.


Shiprock, Navajo Nation, New Mexico

Thursday Nov. 6 I left Supervan behind to be rehabbed in Montrose (3 weeks) and headed for New Mexico.

I headed south for Red Mountain Pass, which was declared open by CDOT and the big signs on the road. It was a bad declaration. As I headed up the pass I noticed that all of the trucks had chains and anything that was not a truck was a four-wheel drive vehicle. My loaner is a very nice Malibu. Every other two-wheel drive vehicle, and many of the 4WD’s were sliding off the road or, worse, backwards down the mountain. The first chance I got I turned the car around and headed for the 45 minute detour alternative, Lizard Head Pass. Three hours, and a lot of sliding and skidding and spinning and temperature that stayed at zero, I crossed Lizard Head. I have been in, I think, 5 passes now and I don’t know how these truckers and other folks can do this all winter. It is beautiful beyond imagination, but every turn, descent or climb is a total adventure at 10,000 feet.

When I did reach the other side I headed for Four Corners (CO, NM, AZ, UT) and kept my compass pointed south. I spent most of the day driving through the Navajo Nation which is big, rugged, and full of small clusters of pretty spartan reservation housing. The Navajo town of Shiprock is named such because of the big rock that sits in the desert looking like, I guess, a ship.

At one stretch I was forced onto I-40 ( and I am trying to avoid interstates as much as possible) Along this stretch there were lots of signs for authentic Navajo shops. I took one of the exits. It put me on Route 66. I lasted on Rt. 66 for about 1 mile and that is probably as much as I’ll ever drive it. The “Indian Village” I stopped at had a great gift shop with jewelry and blankets and the like. The blankets were all made in Croatia or Portland Oregon. Not Crow Agency, which is the town where Little Big Horn took place that I visited some weeks ago. Not Crow Nation, which is another large reservation, but Croatia as in the place where the dictator Milosevic was taken out several years ago. It was silly. I did not buy anything.

I did stop at another Navaho museum/shop in Toadlena NM. It was a real place with real, locally woven, beautiful, extraordinary Navajo rugs. They cost $700 and up. I did not buy anything.

I finished the day driving through the “Narrows” of Malpai National Forest. It was just after sunset and the scenery was breathtaking. There were so many elk crossing the road that I set the cruise control at 20mph and kept my foot ready to hit the brake. I am not sure how Nationwide Insurance would feel about me crushing another vehicle, let alone how the deer and elk would feel about me taking out one more brethren.

My stop for the night was the town of Quemada NM, which is actually just a few buildings, a gas station and a great restaurant called Largos where I had a burrito smothered in green chili peppers and a piece of homemade cherry/apple pie which is now officially the 3rd best piece of pie I have ever tasted.

One last highlight of the evening was listening to a gentleman in the next booth, who I did not even know was talking to me for about 5 minutes. He had, by his own admission, an accent from Oklahoma that was thicker than the dung on his boots. He was rambling on about how the best thing he ever did was keeping the dog and dump the ole lady. To prove it he went to the door and yelled for the dog that was sitting in the front seat of his truck. I took his word for it.

Montrose CO was kind to me and if I needed to have an accident, that was a good place for it to happen, but I was ready and glad to be back on the road.