Today was surprisingly cool and delightfully fun as we made our way across New Mexico and up to Monument Valley. We walked to breakfast at Kix on 66 Diner. We sat at the counter because Beth wanted to pretend she was one of the regulars.

There are dead hotels and shops along Route 66 in Tucumcari. Only a few hotels, a couple of restaurants and a few shops have been able to stay in business.

This is definitely a multi-purpose, multi-season shop.

We crossed the state on I-40, making good time and trying our best not to be bored by the highway. The scenery was definitely not boring and the Santa Fe tracks parallel the highway, so we saw one Amtrak train and several freight trains. The westbound freights had five engines up front and two helpers in the rear.

In one stretch of the road there were many, many bill boards advertising Flying C Ranch – a tourist store. There were also signs for 99cent coffee at Cline’s Corners. We stopped there for gas and coffee, but they had a cup-at-a-time machine and it was broken. They didn’t have the big Bunn makers and pots. What a waste of our time.

We took a picture of the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup. I stayed there three years ago with the Road Glide Gypsy Tour.

From Gallup we headed northwest toward Monument Valley. The roads were fine and getting better. We ran into a 10 mile section where they are repaving and traffic is restricted to one lane.

There were dark storm clouds to the west all afternoon. They hung over the mesas and did not come to the east where we were riding. A camera cannot capture the drama of what we watched, although I did take a picture.

The walls of the mesas were striped sand and dark green. The dark green was some kind of vegetation that is able to take root in the underlying sandstone. The mesas rise up to the clouds and form a border similar to a striped border at the hem of a dark, blue-grey dress.

We had dinner at a local restaurant in Kayenta, then rode the final 30 miles to Monument Valley. We picked out a tent site and set up camp for the next two nights. We have a great view of the valley. That must be why they call it The View Hotel and Campground.

Tomorrow we view the valley on a couple of tours.