"New Mexico Bound" is the name of the directory on our laptop where I keep my trip photos. And we are finally here, in the land of Jim Chee!! Okay, I know I should probably be embarrassed to have read most of Tony Hillerman's New Mexico-based novels, when I could have used the time to read something more valuable, but it's better than watching TV, I think, hopefully, right? Anyway, we started our New Mexico journey in Shiprock, and I expected to run into Jim on every corner. Shiprock, perhaps obviously, is named for a big rock, which impressively juts up 1,700 feet into the air. We actually saw it when we were many miles away several days ago in Mesa Verde...it's very distinctive. Sorry I couldn't get a good photo of it.
Traveling east from there through Farmington, we settled in for two nights at a very nice campground on the San Juan River, which was evidently a big fly fishing spot, judging by the numerous fishermen standing in the river and several nearby flyshops advertising Orvis and other brands (though I haven't seen any Sage). Huge old cottonwoods make this a very pleasant spot. The weather is now exactly what I expected: cold nights and warm, sunny days. There was some obvious flash flooding here a few days ago, though, and we had a wet crossing on the road to the campground. We sent Ruby through to check the depth. No problem.
We visited two more large Anasazi sites yesterday: Aztec Ruins (a misnomer, the Aztecs were not here) and Salmon Ruins (another misnomer, surely). Very interesting, but I have officially seen a lot of abandoned Anasazi dwellings now. On the way back to our campsite, we ran across a winery, stopped and had an unexpectedly good tasting experience. More wineries, fewer ruins, please!
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