A prompt
start today as we have a long mileage. Our first stop after 2 hours of
motoring is at a place called “Four Corners” the unique location in the USA
where the Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah borders all abut.

A dais indicates the exact spot so we all take pictures holding hands,
straddling the 4 states - great fun. The surrounding fields smothered with
orange and white flowers and obviously for Jeremy’s benefit some were purple
(Lilac-Ed). As we continue the journey we experience one of the many joys of
our trip, dead straight roads with a blue sky backdrop often lined with
power poles. We also experience our first helpings of American fast food at
our lunch stop, Bloomfield’s Dairy Queen.

We then followed the signs of Aztec ruins and in this region there was a
vast network of structures that took shape and flourished between 850 and
1130AD when the ancestral Pueblo people built this truly vast
settlement...and incidentally this civilisation had nothing to do with the
Aztecs of Mexico.
Another 100 miles of motoring and a real surprise of finding a “Switzerland”
in America – Chama Pop: 1242 Elev: 7860 feet and homely welcome at the main
hotel Branding Iron Motel.

Dinner at the High Country Restaurant, a typical Western bar. An excellent
dinner served by 2 very efficient girls who coped admirably with the hordes
of MOAers.
An Apache lady appeared during our dinner and it transpired she ran a nearby
ranch and the superb filet mignon we were eating came from her herd. She
also claimed descendancy to Geronimo (great great great granddaughter)! (She
also invited Kemosabe to the next Apache fertility rituals! –Ed) On
finishing our meal we all toasted the efficiency of the staff, both the
servers and those in the kitchen, they had contributed so well to a great
evening. |