Albuquerque to Cortez, CO

Today we drove from Albuquerque to Cortez.  The route was I40, to I25, to NM-550; and then into RV hell.  It was a very pleasant drive up 550 until Aztec, NM.  There was scenery and it was very nice.

There are not many places to pull over on 550.  This is a casino out in the middle of nowhere, around milepost 86.  Plan your coffee consumption accordingly.

Things went bad for us in Aztec.  It had been our intention to go through Durango, staying on 550, but we ended up heading west on NM-574.  This is a terrible road, just terrible.  It's very bumpy and narrow; the edges look like they've been chewed on.  NM-574 T's into NM-170 which is marginally better, but not really.  Jim was fairly tense until we left New Mexico.  Once you cross into Colorado, the road improves markedly and it goes back to being a pleasant drive.

CO-140 is out there, it's rural.

I think today's key learning is that GPS has an evil sense of humor.  Both cell phones and the Magellan gave us the 554/170 route.  It was doable, but I think 550 from Aztec to Durango would have been much less tedious driving.

We saw this a couple of times on the drive today.  It's a 1966 Avion.  We saw it again in a gas station in Cortez, so we stopped to talk to the owner.  He's done a complete restoration on it, inside and out.  It is so cool.

I love it when ancient RVs are rehabbed and kept in use.