Making Our Way To Gallup

28 September 2014

Weather: Rain & storms and 22C

We had a 5:00am start, checking out of The View Hotel by 5:30am to try to drive to Mesa Verde National Park for a 9:00am tour of the Cliff Palace.  We were delayed an extra 15 minutes as I had read on the internet that there was a flood watch for Colorado but couldn't find any information on any road closures, so we decided to go and see if we can get there.  We drove for over two hours to reach the Mesa Verde Visitor Centre and there was no road closures anywhere along the way.  We purchased a 9:30am Cliff Palace Tour ticket because we couldn't guarantee that we would reach the meeting place in time.  Justin drove another hour in the rain up the mountain side, arriving in time for the 9:00am tour.  Justin still had a headache from the day before so he relaxed in the car while I walked around the carpark.  I thought there was a museum there but all I found was some pit toilets and a picnic shelter.  We met the ranger at the overlook and at this stage there was a fine mist which lasted throughout the tour.  Laura was our ranger/guide, she was very knowledgeable about the Pueblo’s and the cliff dwellings history.  The walk to Cliff Palace was quite easy as I was worried about the ladders, being scared of heights, but the ladders weren't that high.  Once we finished the tour we drove around to the starting point for the Balcony House but it was not visible from the overlook. 

Our guide Laura at the Cliff Palace

Cliff Palace from the overlook

Balcony House sign

From here we drove South West to Four Corners Monument to have our photo taken on the four states which we had visited: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  We stayed in the last two states mentioned but only drove through or visited the other two.  At Four Corners Monument there is an entry fee so you might as well take your time there. We looked at the Indian jewelry stalls but there wasn't many stalls open due to the rainy and cool day.  It is cheaper to buy jewelry here than at The View Hotel but there was nothing as elaborate as those at the hotel.

Justin at Four Corners Monument

Four Corners sign

Once we were done at Four Corners we headed South East to Shiprock.  We had seen Shiprock Mountain on Google Maps and wanted to get some photographs, but the weather was not ideal for getting the shots we wanted.  We stopped in Shiprock Township for lunch at KFC.  The menu is very different to Australia as they only had one burger and a mini roll.  They do the fried chicken, hot wings, chicken pot pie and a soup.  

Shiprock

Once our tummies were full be headed South to the Red Roof Inn in Gallup, where I was to meet a distant relative from doing the DNA genealogy.  Justin was still wrecked from the headache and cold so I met Constance.  Constance is Mum's 5th cousin, we just don't know which side of the family we are related through.  Constance drove me to a Cracker Barrel for dinner.  I had the crumbed chicken livers, fried okra and corn.  This was the first time I had tried okra and was glad to see it on the menu, I enjoyed it, but sorry I can't remember what it tasted like now.  Constance bought me a souvenir of the USA, cowboy boots salt and pepper shakers, too cute!  She also bought Justin a vegetable soup which we took back to the hotel, where he was trying to sleep off the headache and he hadn't eaten anything at that stage.  Constance and I got on like a house on fire and so I grabbed Justin's iPad and sat outside with Constance.  Showing her photographs of the relatives living and dead to see if she could see a resemblance.  It was cold and started to rain so we sat in her jeep in the carpark looking at each other’s photos of family and our home towns, using the hotel’s Wi-Fi.  Many places we stayed in the Wi-Fi was pretty disappointing but not here at the Red Roof Inn in Gallup.  Constance said that her father and my grandfather looked very similar so we are guessing that the connection must come from that line somewhere.  Once we ran out of things to talk about we called it a night, me returning to my sick husband and Constance to her sick friend in Gallup as she lived in another state but agreed to meet us at this point in our trip.

Our room at the Red Roof Inn in Gallup

Fried Chicken Livers, Fried Okra and Corn

Constance and I at Cracker Barrel, Gallup