Orlando to Durango

Sunday

The alarm beeped at 5:45 am. I dragged myself to the shower. I returned t the bedroom to see Rhonda still asleep. I turned on the light to awaken her saying hello hello. Next I go to Sam’s room and repeat the process. We arrive at the care park and there is a long line of people waiting for the bus. Two men almost get into a fist fight over putting there luggage on the bus .A big brute with shaven head wearing a Louisville, KY. Sweatshirt is threatening to break the other guys noise. I thing that he could have done it if he has chosen to. The other guy’s wife pleaded with them to calm down. They ended up shaking hands.

We arrived at the terminal at 7:15. After electronic check in we headed for the tram. 7:30 we arrived at our gate. The plan was to leave at 7:50. The gate was empty everyone had boarded the plan. We were the last 3 to go down the gangway. For a Southwest flight this is not a good thing. We had to sit in the back on 3 separate rows, all of us in a middle seat.

I have been reading the book “A Cooks’ Tour” by Anthony Bourdain. As we cross the country in rout to Durango I am reading about Anthony’s trip to Saigon, Viet Nam. He is describing all the smells and sounds of the market. It reminds me of the sights and sounds of N’dJemma, Chad. Only not as fresh.

He also describes a trip to Russia, where the cops pull the car he is traveling in over and ask for their papers. Apparently there are never the appropriate papers in these instances. They didn’t even wait for them to produce the papers before saying it would be 50 Rubles. This is just like our trip to Cameron where the cops stopped us and we didn’t have the correct registration for the truck.

While in Chad I didn’t taste the local food , I will next time.

10AM MST we arrive in Albuquerque without incident. We picked up our Alamo rental car. A Jeep Grand Cherokee we got to pick out of 10 SUV’s available. We headed north to Bernalillo. Our first stop was to be Abuelitas New Mexican restaurant. Located at 612 Camino Del Pueblo in Bernalillo, NW. It is a restaurant that we have eaten at before. Once in 1992 when Sam was 2 years old. Rhonda had gone out early and Sam and I came out to join her at the Presidents counsel in Santa Fe. Another time with Rhonda when we had gone to Santa Fe. We all had the same thing. Cheese Enchilada’s with green chili sauce, beans and rice, a very small garnish of salad, and sopapillas. It was as I remember delicious. There was not the over powering taste of cheese as some cheese enchilada’s have. This is a family run restaurant. The grandpa of the clan was there when we arrived, helping us to our table.

After lunch we headed NW to Aztec about 150 miles away. The scenery was stark brown everywhere except for the sage brush. A few cotton woods had a yellow tinge, and the twigs growing by the river banks were turning red. These are the twigs that lamps are made of in Santa Fe. Some day we will make that lamp! The sky was azure blue not a cloud to be seen.

We turned down a side road and stopped at an arroyo and walked around. The sand was interesting harder than sand alone.

We arrived in Aztec and went to the ruins. It was 65 degrees. We spent an hour walking around and watching the video.

About 4pm we left for Durando 30 mile to the north. We found an old Inn the General Palmer. It was a block away from the Durango train station, on Main Street. The room was nice and well decorated. We walked the streets for a while. I bought a belt for the silver buckle that I bought last year in West Yellowstone..

We had supper at Nini’s a Baja Kitchen type place. The girl behind the counter had a bright red hair and a bright streak of green in the front. Sam had a chicken quesadilla, Rhonda and I had a fish taco not the best.

After supper we went back to the room and watched the Oscars.