New drive to an old place

We are back in Steamboat! Needed to be here to finish up some dental work.  So seemed a perfect beginning to our trip -- see Leslie plus good friends, have massages, see the chiropractor, update nails, play a bit of golf and, most importantly, watch that mountain!  So all that makes up our agenda for this week. We're back in #307, our new alternate home in Steamboat thanks to our Texas kids; weather is mid-80's, feels wonderful to be outdoors, wildfire smoke is still hanging around & obscuring views of the Flat Tops. We'll be here until Friday morning when we'll head east to Minneapolis.

Getting here was a long but fun & interesting trip. Took three whole days rather than two and we traveled 1500 miles rather than 1100.  But we did experience some new and unknown places.  Headed west through Texas to El Paso, a trip so long it requires Interstate travel. And IH-10 through TX is one of the few interstates we've driven which is in good shape and has minimal traffic -- an easy trip. Spent that night in Las Cruses, NM along with thousands of our good friends. Travel in 2021 is extremely popular as we all know. In addition it turned out NM State University, in Las Cruses, is beginning classes this week so much of New Mexico was taking their young adult back to in-person school. Overheard conversations in the restaurant were often of the advice-giving kind; I'm sure those young adults were listening & heeding.

The next day we headed north to Albuquerque and then northwest to Cortez, CO. We had never been in much of this part of New Mexico and it did not disappoint. Much of the first half of the trip was along the Rio Grande River which runs through a beautiful, narrow valley which is surrounded by mountains. The flat land of the valley is all agricultural -- green, lush and very fertile. The major crop surprised us -- pistachios! They grow in luxurious orchards of large trees. Driving through this very large area is most pastoral and certainly not the image we had of New Mexico. In those same areas the land which was not flat and/or cultivated (essentially the other side of the road!) was brown desert scrub land. We loved this drive. 

The land turned more desolate as we began to leave the Rio Grande valley and suddenly we were in a large city as we approached Albuquerque. This is a major east/west and north/south intersection and the vibrancy and activity was obvious. It was in stark contrast to the valley. Then we headed northwest and clearly into Indian reservation territories. Some of this land is most beautiful with mountains, valleys. large vistas and brightly colored soils. Some of this land is depressingly sterile. It was hard to imagine any type of livelihood activity on most of this land.

It was a long drive to Cortez CO (made longer by one misdirection which had to be corrected) but we are so happy we went this way as we really liked Cortez. We stayed at the Retro Motel in the retro part of town -- both very cute and well done. A couple pictures of our motel: note Mick Jaeger, Elton John and David Bowie on the walls of the room and Elvis and Snoopy in the front lawn.

It's already Thursday and our short week here is about over. We are loading up again today to leave tomorrow morning.  We have been busy but did accomplish all those tasks we set out to do here. We were fortunate to spend happy times with Leslie and with several good friends  We were reminded again of what a special community it is at this place called The Ranch. We know we will miss it and thus sad to leave, and at the same time excited for the experiences still awaiting us on our trip. We will stay tomorrow night in Omaha and be at Mary & Jim's on Saturday.