However, I did meet a bunch of cowboys herding cattle down the highway, so I turned around and took this picture of the group. I said it looked like a family affair, and the guy told me it was three families. Being a school day and some of those kids looked school age, I don't know if maybe they were home-schooled or what. At any rate they were probably learning more practical things than they would at school.
I went over a pass towards Taos and it got really good. The Aspen trees above about 5 thousand feet are in full color and the road had some really nice sweepers with no traffic. It took me awhile to get my groove back after that day of straight lining the freeway. I took a couple of pics of the Aspens, but the full effect was hard to capture as they were golden patches all over the mountains.
I had planned to stop in Taos for a snack and to plan the rest of the day, but after walking into a restaurant and waiting to be seated, I turned around and walked out. Taos was just too much. Too much touristy crap, too many people, and too much highbrow for me in my biker mode. It's a shame because I really liked the history of the place and the home of Kit Carson.
Just after I left Taos, I came upon this gorge unexpectedly. It was the Rio Grande Gorge, apparently the same river that makes a border between US and Mexico.
Not very far after than I came upon this weird building:
This was just the first of a whole community of similar structures. There were dozens of these alien looking things that are homes for people who belong to Project Earthship. I looked up their website. Check it out: http://earthship.com/
I was headed for Chama, NM, which was my planned overnight stay. I had modified my route from the original stop at Farmington NM because I didn't think I could make the distance which was 490 miles. However, I was now back in the rural West, with few towns and high speed limits, plus I had a time change that gave me an extra hour. So I ended up at Chama at 3:30 in the afternoon, which was too early to stop for the day. Problem was the next lodging opportunity was in Farmington, which was another 110 miles. What to do, what to do. I went for it. Some road construction slowed me down and by the time I got near Farmington I was a whipped puppy. I found a Super 8 in Bloomfield, which is ten miles short of Farmington and called it a day at 6:30 pm (actually 7:30 by the time I started on). I rode close to 500 miles and hadn't had a drink or a bite to eat, other than a small bag of M&Ms, since breakfast at 6:30 am. Couple of beers and a burger never tasted so good.
On the way to Chama I went over a pass that was above ten thousand feet. There was snow alongside the road and here's some proof:
Beautiful country Gerry!
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