A Quick Update Before Running East

We had a whirlwind few days in Santa Fe, yes almost all surrounding food:-)  It was just a stepping stone along the way, but we had a couple things specifically in mind in case we don't get out here again.  

The sunsets and clouds did not disappoint.

First on the agenda was a particular plate of nachos and awesome chicken tortilla green chili soup, the nachos mainly to share and a quart of the soup as take out, except for the little bit we ate with our nachos.

We also wanted to get the best green chili cheeseburger in the entire world.  Many years ago we discovered Bobcat Bite, a tiny restaurant with famous burgers a bit outside of town, we're talking more than 25 years ago.  They served a huge burger 10 oz, cooked to order that was ground to their formula and never frozen with, of course, green chili and cheese.  It was a masterpiece and was featured in many publications and on several TV shows.  We found it extraordinary.  They closed up Bobcat Bite in 2013, and moved into Santa Fe proper renaming the restaurant to Santa Fe Bite.  We visited it many times while there.  It then closed up in that location in 2018 and moved a little farther out and is still in that location today.  We are glad to know that a part of the original ownership is still active, but for the most part it is now owned by the employees.  But the most important part is the burgers are still the same huge juicy amazing ones they always have been. Jan and I have said many times, it is the best burger we've had anywhere even ignoring the green chili and cheese, they are amazing!

And then just before we left for Texas, one more stop, The Pantry, another favorite, established in 1948, a real institution.  So fortified with awesome Huevos Rancheros with excellent green chili for breakfast we made our way to Texas to visit our daughter Kelly and Brian after a very quick overnight in Amarillo.

Durango

As I said we didn't plan to go directly to Durango, but the weather and road situation had us change plans.

Since there is no way on earth I would drive the motorhome down the Million Dollar Highway, let alone the truck, we took a alternate route around through Ridgway, skirting Telluride, through Rico, Delores, and Cortez, a little longer, still with great views, just not terrifying:-)

Near Telluride.

Our lunch stop.

I should also report that the new clock spring did not fix the cruise control problem either, working on a few more things:-(

So we had several must do things while we were in Durango and one of them was pizza, I would say it's the best pizza we have found anywhere, Fired Up in downtown Durango.

Wood fired oven with incredible crust!

Then the next day we picked up some sandwiches and drove up behind Purgatory Ski Resort to the Harris Ranch area for a picnic.  

Then the major thing for Jan was a hike to Spud Lake, she had to go solo as I am not able to hike right now with my hip.  She had a nice peaceful hike on a gorgeous day and only saw 3 people, perfect!

I went with her and waited in the truck with my Sunday crossword puzzles and after we went on up to Molas Pass, 10,910', then back to Andrews Lake for a picnic.

Molas Pass

Andrews Lake

We stuck around town the next day and had a delicious lunch at Akami Poke and Noodle Bar before running errands and grocery shopping.

Fantastic pork belly Bao buns

A wasabi tuna poke bowl

And a tempura shrimp roll

The next day we drove over to Pagosa Springs to see what the flooding had done, and thankfully, the river is back down and not a lot was impacted, although the road through town is under major construction, causing a lot of back ups.  We had a meh lunch in Pagosa and then went up to Williams Reservoir, another favorite for coffee, and then worked our way back.  Unfortunately the lake was still showing signs of the flooding and really didn't look very appealing so that is my excuse for no pictures:-)

Then our week was almost over, we went back into town, had a nice long walk around, as long as I can stay on level ground I can still get around, then had to have one more pizza lunch.

So now we are on the move, a few days here in Santa Fe, and we want to do a few things, yes they revolve around food, then make our way into Texas to visit our daughter, Kelly and Brian, then eastward bound all the way to Florida so I can get some of my pre surgery doctor appointments out of the way.

A Small Change of Plans

We left Heber City and headed south to Montrose, CO to another of our favorite campgrounds, Centennial.  We lucked out this time and got a site on an end with no one in front or beside us with an amazing view.

 

We are quite fond of Montrose and the surrounding area, Ridgway, Ouray, even Telluride are right down the road, Black Canyon of Gunnison is nearby, and Last Dollar Road.  But one of the first things we had to do was go to Gnarly Tacos in Ridgway for their amazing tacos!

Beans, they call them Whistleberries:-)
Ahi on the top and Korean BBQ on the bottom

Ahi, pork belly, and fish

Eclectic and delicious!

I related earlier of our travails with the cruise control, sometimes doesn't work, sometime works for a few minutes, and sometimes works for 300 miles?????  We replaced the controller, same results, so we decided to replace the clock spring, and like so many projects it was a 30 minute expectation that evolved into several days.  You have to pull the steering wheel to get to the clock spring, we had replaced it one time many years ago and had used a cheapo puller jury rigged with some angle bolts, but this time it wouldn't budge.

You can see the two angles in the hub, they just straightened out

So that found me looking around for a decent steering wheel puller, and after 3 auto parts stores followed up with a hardware store we finally got the wheel off.  By the way a clock spring is what allows you to turn the wheel and still operate lights, wipers, cruise etc, no matter where you turn it.  Pretty clever actually.

Inside the clock spring

The new in my hands, the old on the top of the column

But the bad news is, it didn't fix the problem, now what?  I'm trying to work on that now:-(

Enjoyed some beautiful sunsets.

Next was Last Dollar Road, a fairly famous drive through incredible mountains, forests, and fields starting just south of Ridgway and ending at Telluride, it is a fairly rough 4X4 road, but worth it, a real favorite of ours, especially in the fall.

Started it off with a shot of a house used in the filming of True Grit, with John Wayne.

It was a beautiful fall day with a touch of snow on the peaks.

And our view for coffee with snow showers over the peaks

Ha, then back for another round of tacos before our next ride.

A fish and a shrimp

2 fish and a chicken

This time we went up over Owl Creek Pass, 10,114', then by Silver Jack Reservoir, almost empty, over to Cimarron, then had coffee overlooking some of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Jan took this picture, Black Canyon terrifies me, it is so deep, 2,722', and so steep and sheer, so I do everything I can do to stay away from it, but if heights don't bother you it is amazing:-)

As for the slight change of plans.  We had planned after Montrose to go to our "secret boon docking" spot near Clear Creek Falls, unfortunately there has been huge flooding that closed Wolf Creek Pass, and parts of Pagosa Springs so our route from our spot to our next stop in Durango was impacted, and also the forecast of highs in the low 40's and lows in the 20's didn't seem all that inviting, so the two situations changed our route to go directly to Durango where we are now.

A Touch of Winter

We're finishing up a nice week here in Heber City, UT over the mountain from Salt Lake City and Park City.  We are in one of our favorite parks, Mountain Valley with virtually no neighbors:-)  This is a large park, all paved roads, large premium sites, all concrete at least 80' by 30', privacy hedges, and entire parts of the park are adult only, with views in every direction.

One of the first things we did when we got here was head over the mountain to go to one of our all time favorite Vietnamese restaurants, Oh Mai, a small place that has grown to 7 locations after being featured on Triple D, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  First banh mi's, we each got a different one and shared, a garlic rib eye and a pork belly.

They were awesome!  Then on the way back we drove up to the top of Park City and dropped back down into Heber City.  Beautiful views and fall foliage.

The next evening and night we were hit with major storms to include hail along with torrential rain.  The next morning we woke up to this.

Hello winter

We took a nice ride through some mountains north of Heber City.

Finished it up having coffee beside Strawberry Reservoir.

Then we quietly celebrated our 52nd Anniversary with a nice bourbon, Weller 12 and a special Crown Royal and I made shrimp and grits for dinner.

Then we just had to go back to Oh Mai, this time for pho, yummy on a cool day.

We ran some errands, Costco, grocery store, then wanted to drive back over the mountain through Sundance on Hwy 92, a narrow 1 1/2 lane, windy, pretty drive.  And it was, although there was more traffic than we expected, and surprising, at least to us, our experience had been  that 95% of the traffic goes west to east, so it flows really well around the hundreds of very tight corners, well this day it seemed we were in the minority going that direction, making it not quite as enjoyable as usual, somehow dodging cars in the middle of blind curves just wasn't wonderful:-)

As we climbed up above Salt Lake City to start our route and then started down, we got to talking about a place we had been to many, many years ago with, in our memory amazing french fries, but we couldn't remember its name.

Then as we drove through a busy congested area we both looked over and saw Cubby's, and asked each other, "Was that the place?"  Jan looked it up quick and confirmed it so, of course, we had to turn around and get an order of fries, and yes, they are still delicious!

The views were great, especially with coating of snow here and there.

We stopped for coffee on the way back at Deer Creek Reservoir, pretty low.

Try to ignore our filthy window:-)

One more day here, more errands, flu shots, then on to Colorado tomorrow.  This was our  morning surprise.