Day 12

Day 12 - July 30, 2014 - Grand Junction, Co. to Albuquerque, Nm.

Sara and I woke up a bit wet this morning. Get your heads out of the gutter. Somehow over night the entry way of the tent flooded a bit and our sheets at the foot got wet. So we were curled up in little balls all night trying to keep our feet from the freezing cold wet area of the tent. It rained a bit over night but mostly we stayed dry. We packed up camp for the morning early since the meet and greet was starting super early at 630. While getting ready to fold the tent I realized there were about 30 ittsy bitsy spiders all over the top of the tent. AHHHHHACKCKC!! BURN THEM WITH FIRE!! I can deal with ANYTHING, bugs, snakes, you name it. I BLOODY HATE SPIDERS. After much dancing around, swatting and itching and a bit of screaming, I got them free and clear so we didn't have hitch hikers and packed the tent away.

We made our way back over to Allen's Unique Auto's for a morning breakfast. We decided that we wanted to get a start on everyone because trying to park and depart from there is a bit of a hassle.  We grabbed some breakfast, and went for seconds at Starbucks. Needless to say I was hurting this morning and did not want to wake up as evidenced by this picture.

We made our way out of Grand Junction heading towards the Rockies across fields and farms. While driving we realized in the distance there was something that looked like a plane flying very irratically. Is it a bird? A plane? A drone? A glider? As we got closer I realized it was a crop duster! And this pilot had balls the size of coconuts (As General Conway would say). He was dive bombing the fields like the best fighter pilot in the Marine Corps. I swear at one point he even split the electric lines that were at the edge of the field. Sara and I were watching, gasping at every pass.

Continuing on our round about route down country roads we came upon the town of Ourey, Colorado. A quaint little town at the base of the mountains (around 7,000 feet) and stopped to see if there were magnets and collectables. We noticed the massive amount of Jeep wranglers rolling in to town and asked about them. It turns out this is the Mecca for Jeep enthusiasts. There are no less than 10 mountain passes that they go off roading through and Jeep badges for each one. I briefly considered taking Tycoon down with the ALL4 and then thought better of it after seeing the condition of the Jeeps coming down off the mountain. We drove instead through Red Mountain Pass, the Million Dollar highway, Rt. 550. It was magnificent, and terrifying at the same time. No guard rails, 400 ft. drops, breathtaking mountain views, and waterfalls. The waterfalls were almost completely dry by this time of year, but the scenery was like being punched in the chest, it made you breathless.

As we were coming back down off the mountain we ran in to a massive amount of traffic. We had heard there had been an accident on the road about 40 minutes ahead of us. But we had thought that it would be cleared by the time we got there. Unfortunately it was a terrible accident, much worse than we had known about. At the time we didn't know who or what type of vehicle was involved. The entire highway was shut down and we were being diverted through a golf course and resort to get us around the accident. We tried to ask if there were MINIs involved but no one could tell us. We didn't find out until we made it to New Mexico that thankfully no MINI drivers were involved, but terribly, 3 people were killed when an suv crossed the yellow line and hit another truck head on. A 4th passenger was air lifted.

 Not long after we arrived in Durango, Colorado. What a great town!! We decided to stop for a bite to eat at Jean Pierre's French Bakery in downtown Durango. This place is legit! We had an amazing lunch. I had spinach and mushroom quiche with a tomato and chevre soup. Can I just say wow. Yum, yum yum yum.

On our way we went, heading towards New Mexico. After hitting the border we stopped at the Apache Nugget Casino and Rest stop where we were greeted with restrooms and freshly fried Indian fry bread. It is a lot like funnel cake that you get at the boardwalk, maybe a bit heavier. But woof, it's good, but reeks havoc on your insides. We continued down the road starting to get tired and bored. La Sara realized that she had forgotten that the remainder of the pop rocks were still in the door. So I joined in for a funny video moment. Gotta love the pop rocks.

We arrived somewhat earlier than usual to our evening stop in Albuquerque and decided to go straight to Sandia MINI to get a service notification checked out and possibly the fuse replaced that we blew. The first MINI arriving gets in to service! Five minutes later everything was ready to go. Fuse replaced and power ports activated, and informed that it was time for another oil change! Holy macaroni, I had the oil changed right before I left for MINI Takes the States, which means that we have motored for almost 5,000 miles on this trip already!

Rather than leave I decided to sit down and try and charge up the computer and get some blogging done for all of my three readers. Yes yes, I know more of you read it than that...my six readers.

The party started all around us at Sandia MINI. Bull rides, cow roping, fantastic food, a band, and everyone from Sandia MINI came out. What a great dealer, seriously, this was probably one of the best evening owners events we have been to so far. You couldn't ask for a better host. The MINIacs of Albuquerque are certainly in good hands with this dealer.

 Sara and I wanted to try and hit a few Breaking Bad locations before the sun went down so we left a bit early and went on a scavenger hunt. We found Walter Whites house! As we were pulling up we realized that the owner was standing out front of the house. Rather than slink away we walked up and started talking to her. She was a super nice lady and has lived in the house since the 1970's, raised her kids and her grandson there. She talked to us for about 10 minutes telling us how the film crew just knocked on her door and asked to use the exterior of the house to film when they were making the pilot episode. Six years of filming later, it took them a week to get the house to look like it did in the finale. It was the middle of winter, so they had to shovel snow out of the way, a crew spent a week wrapping the tree in front with fake leaves, and making the rose bushes look like it was summer. We asked if she regretted it since now people show up to her house all the time. She said no, as long as people are respectful and don't come on the property she doesn't mind it at all. We asked to take a selfie with her, she said no, but that we could feel free to take a picture of the house.

After the house we went and found the car wash, which really isn't A1 car was. It is the octopus car wash. On the way there were some ominous clouds coming over the hills. It honestly looked exactly like the poison fog clouds from the Hunger Games. We realized we were in for a rough go of it tonight with the weather.

 After getting a few quick pictures we high tailed it back to the camp ground to set up camp before the storms rolled in. It took some looking to figure out where the bathrooms are here. Turns out they are about a quarter of a mile away around the back of the office. That is most certainly going to be a hike if I have to pee in the middle of the night like I always do. Sara was the one who finally found it, when I asked if she went in she said "Heck no, would you want to go in there alone, I know I don't". Turns out it was very clean, just very creepy. We managed to get everything buttoned up at camp and us in the tent just as the storm opened up around 1000. Boy did it come down and come down hard. It sounded like it was going to come through the tent, but thankfully moved through somewhat quickly. The forecast says that we are supposed to get more rain around 1am so lets hope that everything stays tight and dry.

Goodnight!