Mt. Taylor

Yesterday (4/11/2007) we decides to go to Gallup. It's just 50 or 60 miles from Milan on route 40. The morning drive was great. The Red Rock Mesas are outstanding. The are a deep rusty red and beautiful, at that time of day the sun was shining on them just right. On the way we tried to find Red Rock State Park but the signs to it are bad and we never did find it. The first stop in Gallup was at Walgreens to get one of my many prescriptions filled. We left it with plans to pick it up on the way back. Next we went to the main post office on 2nd street to get our mail which we had forwarded to it. I had looked up the address on line. However, when we got there we found out it was only a central point for deliveries of mail. Fortunately a lady who was putting some mail in the mail box outside directed us the the correct post office on Aztec Street. After picking up our mail we went to the Wal-mart. Peggy always has to check out every Wal-mart fabric department. She buys more fabric than I buy books. While at the Wal-mart I got a call from Walgreens telling me they didn't have enough pills to fill my prescription but that she had called around town and found some place that did, did I want her to transfer the prescription there. Naturally I ask where? She said "Wal-mart. " I said since that was where I was that would be nice, so I got my prescription filled at Wal-mart. We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel which was just across the street from Wal-mart and then headed back home.
Thursday 4/12/2007
Today since the weather here has been so bad, windy and cold, we decided to go back to the visitor center and view some of the 35 videos they had to view. When we got there at 10 o'clock and ask about viewing some of the videos, they told us that a meeting was being held in the theater and would not be available until 12 o'clock. So we took a drive up to Mt Taylor. What an experience. The man at the visitor center had told me that we could only go so far because part way up the mountain you needed a high clearance vehicle. Well believe me the Saturn is no high clearance vehicle, so I thought I would have to turn around some where on the way up. Well we kept going up and up. About half way up the road turned to a gravel road but a well maintained road, so I kept going. About 10 miles up, not in altitude but in distance, we saw a sign that said to Mt Taylor look out, so we took it. Well we kept going up and the road started to get slick and muddy, the surrounding forest had snow patches all through it. We finally came to a rest area and I pulled off to look at the map we had. The road continued on up and was getting more muddy and narrower, so I decided to turn around. We went back down to the turn off that we had taken and continued on it. The road got narrower and there was more and more snow. The trees still had some snow on them from the snow the night before. The map indicated that if we continued on we would finally get to a road that would take us back to Milan. We kept going and it started to snow. Just ahead two Elk ran across the road, so I stopped while Peggy got the camera to try and get a picture of them, then there were two more and two more and three more. We thought that was all, so I started to drive on, Peggy yelled there's two more. I coasted further down the road and sure enough two more ran across the road. Guess what? Peggy never got a picture of one of them. :-) We drove on and I was getting more nervous, the road was actually getting snow on it and slippery, I sure didn't want to get struck up in these mountains. Finally we came to a dead end intersection. No sign, which way right or left? Peg said left. The road left was wider and better maintained so we went left. After what to me seemed like forever we started down the mountain and we could see the valley below and knew we were on the right road. When we got to the valley it started to sleet in sheets, but the sign said to Milan 15 miles and the road was a black top, "hurray." We finally got home, had lunch and I spent the rest of the evening watching the Braves get beat, but it was a good game. You really don't need a high clearance vehicle but a four wheel drive would be nice.