Day 7, New Mexico

Day 7

Location: Farmington, NM
Gas Price: $3.15
Miles Driven: 2599 miles

Today was the most beautiful by far!

We woke up at 7:30 to call Midas to make sure our car was still there and they could get started on it right away. After telling them our situation they decided to go ahead and look at it immediately instead of waiting until 10:00 which is when they originally said they could! We were out of there with new brake fluid and clean brakes by 9:30! It was awesome.

We drove back up to Bandalier Monument with our new GOOD working brakes to see the ruins and cave dwellings there. They were incredible. You could still see some paintings in some of the cave dwellings and you could still see the blackened tops of the caves from where they smoked them in order to keep the rock from crumbling as much. You could climb up ladders into a few of the caves which was neat. The most interesting thing to me was to see the holes above caves they had made which would hold the ceiling beams. There were straight horizontal rows of holes up to three stories high that would have made their celings/floors.

Next, we took New Mexico Highyway 4 through the Jemez mountains towards the Aztec Ruins about 3 ½ hours north of Bandalier. This was by far the prettiest countryside I have ever seen. You must look at our pictures of the Vallas Caldera. It was breathtaking.

The Aztec Ruins were amazing. One kiva, place of worship, was rebuilt based on excavations made of the original one. We were able to go down into this one which was neat. We were also able to go into part of one of their buildings. The doorways were very low between five feet at the tallest and three or three and a half feet at the shortest. The most interesting part of the Aztec Ruins to me was that the original ceilings made of wood were still intact in some places!! These were built in the 1100’s and 1300’s!!

After the Aztec Ruins, we found a LOWE’S and bought a very large rain tarp in case of rain again. We are set on being able to keep our stuff dry and not sleep in the car!! We then drove over to Mom and Pop’s RV Park which is the cutest camp ground I have ever seen.

Look’s like we are going to stay dry for the first night!!!

Alison