<– Day 14 – Tuesday March 22nd: Wind & Range  | Beginning | Day 16 & 17 – March 24-25th: Homeward Bound –>

Lost as usual.

Today’s goal was to drive from Albuquerque to Pueblo, Colorado (See yesterday’s post here). Mother Nature had a different idea.

Today we drove from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Cortez, Colorado

We awoke on Wendesday morning to learn that Mother Nature had decided to spoil the Coloradoans early spring by sending a wintery blizzard through the Denver area. Winds accompanied the snow (it remained very windy in Albquequerque as well), causing a snow plow to tip over at the Denver airport. We didn’t have to read much of the news to decide that we were ready to save Colorado for another day. So, we altered our plan to drive up the eastern slope of the Rockies in favor of driving the short route home through Utah.

However, another issue appeared when we made that decision; it seemed that we only had a narrow window through which we could get over Oregon’s Blue Mountains (on I-84) between storms. This meant we couldn’t mess around too much on the way home. We had to get going. But, first we wanted to stop by The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History’s gift shop (Ann wanted some bomb shaped shot glasses) and then visit the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum, aka the Albuquerque Balloon Museum, before heading for Cortez, Colorado.

We visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History during our trip last year. They had some cool gifts, including a set of shot glasses and wanted to buy. When we walked into the gift shop, look what we found! 1956 CJ-5 (serial number 10006) purchased by the federal government, complete with a data plate. One of the more interesting mods was the RPM gauge on the grille and a custom bump on the hood. When I saw those mods I got very curious about what was under the hood, so I pulled the “I run a large vintage jeep website” card. Of course, they had no clue who I was, but they let me open the hood anyway. It was all stock, except for the mice droppings; someone hadn’t cleaned under the hood in a while. I concluded the gauge and hood were likely not original to the jeep, hence they were painted black.

We left the gift store and drove over to the balloon museum, a place suggested by Benita and Scott, both balloon officanados. It’s beautifully designed building. Inside, we found a number of smartly designed exhibits. We had fun learning about the early years of ballooning. At $4/per person it’s worth a visit.

After leaving the museum, we spent the next few hours driving almost directly into a constant, powerful wind. It was non-stop until we reached Shiprock, New Mexico. There, we turned north and the winds seemed to subside somwwhat. Here’s some scenery from that remote area.

Tomorrow we rise early for a drive to Salt Lake City, where we plan to take the kids out to dinner.

<– Day 14 – Tuesday March 22nd: Wind & Range  | Beginning | Day 16 & 17 – March 24-25th: Homeward Bound –>