Day 6. Morning. June 5th.

Day 6. Morning. June 5th.

Included in the pix is a shot of our security chief, Ranger, taking a well-earned rest after a grueling security check undercover. He’s very conscientious about his undercover work, does a thorough check every morning, seeking out terrorists, thieves and rapists. He keeps his findings to himself, isn’t much for either verbal or written reports but that’s okay cuz his judgment on these matters is legendary. He is the security chief after all.

Chaco’s amazing, a center of activity and culture circa 800-1150, they built dams, canals, 400 miles of roads, all with stone tools. Several great houses with 500+ rooms and sophisticated masonry have been excavated but hundreds of smaller dwellings have not. They traded far and wide, some of the artifacts such as seashells and conches coming from the Pacific coast and chocolate from Central/South America.

This seems an unlikely spot for 2000-6000 people to live for over 300 years. It gets down to 35 below in the winter, 100+ above in summer, elevation is 6200’, and average rainfall is 8”. The culture, activity and occupancy shriveled in the latter years, due, it’s thought, to a major long-term drought. The people dispersed, heading for greener pastures.

Just a minute: now that I think on it for a bit, the upper midwest has the same temperature spread – and it’s NOT a dry heat.

If you want to learn more about Chaco, you can check out the national park system website or of course you can google it and get a zillion hits.

Hot here, 97 high yesterday, same forecasted for today, about 10 degrees above normal. We’ll be doing a guided tour of the largest ruin, Pueblo Bonito, see brochure pix, this AM, and also viewing some of the other lesser ruins. We originally scheduled 3 nights here but 2 will do it. Had planned 2 nights in Durango, will expand that to 3, maybe get the RV leak fixed, play some golf.

Had salmon over the campfire last night, with sides of snow peas and heavy duty whole grain French bread; leftovers tonight.

Yeah, I know: one of the pix is up there twice. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to delete pix.

Day 5. AM. June 4th.

Day 5. Morning. June 4th.

Danger. Lake Ahead. Slow Down. Huh? Put signs like that in Minnesota, everybody would be slowing down all the time

Today we’re heading south to Chaco Culture NHP for 2-3 nights after a stop in Aztec, NM for groceries and email. Took a wrong turn to get to Aztec, meant to go through Bloomfield but it worked out well, Safeway and McDonalds with wifi in the same parking lot.

Chaco is one of the largest complexes of cliff dwellings and petroglyphs in the SW. It’s not as well known as Mesa Verde because it’s so remote and relatively undeveloped; for starters you have to drive 20+ miles of unpaved road to get there. There is potable water at the visitor center, and rest rooms, fire pits and picnic tables at the campground, and that’s all we need. More than we need, actually.

Comes right down to it, we don’t need a darn thing cuz we pretty much got it all on board. We carry enough food for a week, just need to get water and empty the holding tanks every 4-5 days.

Day 4. Morning. June 3rd.

This is a no-travel kick back, smell the flowers day and it feels great after 3 days on the road, preceded by several days of house shut down/trip prep busy work.

Had bacon-wrapped beef filets cooked over the campfire last night, along with hash browns, fresh salad and a glass of Chateau La Boxe cabernet sauvignon. We eat healthfully but well on the road, don’t have red meat very often. Trish is a marshmallowchocolaholic so she roasted a few before we buttoned up for the night. Tonight, it’s chicky boobs over the campfire.

Discovered a leak in the fresh water holding tank supply line this AM. Tightening the hose clamp didn’t help, could be it got hit by a rock and the 90 elbow is cracked. It’s only a slow drip but still need to get if fixed, maybe in Durango, next stop after Chaco (see day 5).

Our campground is on the San Juan River, which flows out of Navajo Lake, a huge reservoir. Trophy trout are caught here, browns, maybe others. Many of the folks camped here are fisherman but we are not. I posed as one for many years and caught the odd fish here and there, but finally admitted that I lacked the necessary dedication and patience. You catch it, I’ll cook it and help eat it.

Day 3. Trip mile 676. Evening. June 2nd. New Mexico.

Got gas in Gallup at $2.55 per gallon, likely the cheapest we’ll see on our trip. The remote places in Canada and Alaska will be maybe 3X that rate.

We went through Shiprock, NM today. Shiprock itself is a monolithic mountain standing all alone in the desert – impressive but we were unable to see the ship resemblance. Either we weren’t viewing it from the right angle or whoever named it was heavy into peyote.

Stopped at ACE in Bloomfield and got the stuff to fix the door latch I was whining about. It took longer to find the stuff than it did to do the fix. I didn’t find an appropriate metal backing plate so went with a 4” round flat plastic doorknob bang plate. Works fine and looks better than the metal plate would have.

Cottonwood Campground at Navajo Lake SP is our home for the next 2 nights, pretty spot on river below large reservoir; no wifi.