Taos to Grand Junction
I slept off my headache, day 2 I just needed a good breakfast. I foolishly snubbed the continental breakfast in the lobby of my motel, I would go looking for something better but I didn’t want to go too far from our motel this was where we would be meeting in less than an hour. I saw there was a coffee shop across the street, The Kiva Coffee House. I talked Zack into walking over there. When we walked in the waitress was sitting at the bar with her head rested on the counter, her body sat up right away when she saw us but I am not sure that she wasn’t sleepwalking through the large empty restaurant. She had a seating plan though like she was being strategic about where she seated us so she could still accommodate a large rush that never materialized. The menu was printed on a dirty piece of paper with just a few items listed. All breakfast meals were priced at $6. I tried to act like it was was travel genius that found this place but Zack remained skeptical as he ordered. Sure enough his instincts proved right as they always were. The bacon was so thin I could read the paper through it, the eggs were not eggs I dont know what they were. We paid our money and crossed the street to forage in the lobby of our motel, I had a bowl of fruit loops and waited for the RV to come get us for our travel day, Taos to Grand Junction. Zack struggled to keep the told you so look off his face.
I was still a little embarrassed that my headache had caused Jim to have to miss part of the show the night before to bring me to the motel. Don’t get me wrong I also felt badly Zack missed part of the show but I had tried to talk him into going back with Jim but he insisted on staying with me. It turned out ok the tour hi jinks had gone on everyone had a blast with out us which I hoped made up for an interrupted show. The guys in the band came over to the RV and had a late night dinner with them in the RV after the show. I began to relax about messing up the last night for my friends, now it was just Zack that missed out but he didn’t seem upset at having to come back with me until he found out that the band ate all the tamales.
This was our only day without a show so we weren’t on a tight schedule. We stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge River Bridge about 10 miles west of Taos.
Rio Grande Gorge
Jim pulled over so I could take a crappy picture, but it was so windy no one else wanted to get out with me. Which means all I got was my pictures. The wind blew so hard that day that it pushed me as I walked towards the bridge. It seemed to blow stronger the closer I got to the gorge. There were signs posted a long the way that said not to throw things off the bridge, and it was funny because it wasn’t just the gale force winds there was something that felt like it was drawing me over the rail and down the canyon. It was worth the view despite the walk back against the wind.
Rio grande Gorge
More Gorge
Glenda and Jodi went up to buy a prayer braid that we planned on burning later. I wish we had more time to stay in Taos it is one of my most favorite spots. We took some bong hits before we left New Mexico’s beauty behind.
It was a windy drive between Taos and Grand Junction, every time we passed a semi truck they would suck us in to their path as we passed on the two laned highway. I was drinking too much water because I had to get up to go to the bathroom about every 20 minutes. The bathroom in the RV was tiny, the toilet and sink directly in front of the bathtub/shower combination left not a lot of room to plant your feet. I hadn’t yet my RV legs on the second day and the wind was battering our high profile Bong Palace which made it more difficult to keep your balance. The most dangerous time was when you were done pottying and had to flush the toilet. I had nearly pitched into the tub a few times so I made sure to firmly plant my feet on the ground before I flushed this time. The RV floated from side to side and I pitched backwards over into the bathtub where I nearly lost my balance completely and in fact I was doing a back bend into the deep tub and surely would have hurt myself worse if I lost the battle and fell over. As soon as I got my footing back I had to sit back down on the commode to check that I hadn’t opened up the skin on the back of my legs. Already seconds later I could see the gigantic purple bruising on the back of my left leg which had taken my weight. My first injury aboard the RV but not my last of the day.
when we stopped to relieve the dogs Jim noticed we had blown the wall of one of the tires. We drove on a flat to town where we pulled into a multigenerational tire store. The kid up front told Jim that they closed in 10 minutes, Jim reminded him of our luck to pull in before they closed. The shop agreed to change the tire and after having some trouble getting the tire out of the storage area they began to change the tire. Glenda and Jodi decided to take the dogs out again and I found myself alone with my husband and decided it the perfect make out moment. I called for a meeting of the lips. I just forgot to arrange whose head went where and we had a collision. The bridge of his nose on the brow bone over my eye. I could feel my eye was hot and I began to see it in my vision, I would add a black eye to my bruises. Which if nothing else kept my husband from carrying on too long about the bridge of his nose.
My black eye
When we finally pulled in to Grand Junction we parked behind the bus at the hotel the guys were staying at. We would spend the night in the RV together that night, relegating Jodi to the kiddie bed above the driver. We broke out the bongs, the snacks and got very high on all kinds of fumes. We told stories and laughed our asses off, the band was supposed to come over that night but they were off doing their own thing and we hardly missed them. It was one of those nights that we laughed so hard that we couldn’t catch our breaths. Jodi and I carried it on the longest we couldn’t control our giggles and later when we were on the bus we laughed so hard at our own jokes we had to leave the bus because we couldn’t control ourselves.
Later that night we decided to play UNO which is one of my games but the match spiraled out of control going hours so I decided to combine Uno with the game of Bullshit and began putting large stacks of cards down on every turn. When I called Uno the group seemed disappointed instead of relieved, I knew Glenda was tired–Jim had already went to rest. I announced my strategy of play and the circle turned on me for cheating. It was time for bed. Another round of bong hits.