Monday, October 11, 2010 – Travel Day to Cortez, CO

Four Corners Monument

 Got out about 8:30 or so, starting the day with coffee and plans to stop for breakfast along the way. We drove east on 64, then picked up Route 160, stopping at a travel center in Tuba City to pick up fuel and have a quick sit-down breakfast at the cafe there. I tried a local variation of pancakes with my eggs, they were made of blue corn flour. Who says there’s no such thing as blue food? They were lovely, had just enough of a difference in flavor to make it quite interesting. We headed off again into the desert, into one of the most remote areas in the country. Towns were few and far between, and the only radio station was a 100K watt station broadcasting Native American public radio, where we heard a combination of English and Indian languages, and a very eclectic selection of music, from country to jazz to Indian drums and melodies, all very fascinating, which made the boredom of the terrain tolerable.  Made a quick stop at Four Corners Monument, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada all come together. We had made arrangements to stop for the night at a Morgan horse breeding facility in Cortez that I had found on the internet, and we arrived there at about 4:00, just as we had planned. We met the folks there, got the horses put away in a good-sized corral, settled in the RV and spent a pleasant evening watching the sun set over the mountains and the stars come out. Cortez is a cute little town in a valley with stunning mountains emerging all around them, so the views were quite remarkable. Didn’t bother with the satellite dish for a one night stop, so we watched some recordings and went to be early, knowing that tomorrow will be a longer drive, though at least it’s one where we know what’s in store for us when we get there.