New Mexico Jaunt
October 5-17, 2025
Sunday, Oct 5
High Country Lane to Springville, UT
522 miles
We pull out of High Country Lane shortly before 7am, Spur looking sad in the garage entry. First stop is the church to drop off the Backpack bins in the back of the car, letter mailed, then gas and coffee at the Maverick station. NOW on the road south!!
Rick drives us through Boise traffic (not as bad on a Sunday) and stops at the rest area on the east side of town. I then take over the wheel for the ‘scenic’ stretch of southern Idaho, which in the fall is a little bleak!
The day is perfect driving temperature...hovering around the mid 50’s. (It was mid 30’s when we left Baker City!) But big clouds are forming in the east!
Quick stop at a gas station in Burley to get drinks and pull a few things out of the food boxes/ ice chest for a snacking on the road lunch. I drive to the second rest stop on 1-15 just north of the Utah border. That’s 200 miles and enough for my share of the day. I have more pieces of Kai’s stable to finish in Needlepoint!
Rick runs into the storm in northern Utah – heavy rain briefly while we can see blue sky ahead! By the time we make the Wasatch Mountain run, the peaks are covered in snow and they are beautiful!
We pull into our Microtel in Springville around 4:30 MT. Have been upgraded to a suite which is large and spacious!
Quiet evening – Rick watching football. We eat the leftover quiche from the other night. I walk around the floors for abit talking to Annalea who is just getting to the house. We plan out a route on some roads we haven’t taken before to get down to Rusty and Anne’s in Bluff tomorrow.
A few pictures along the way...
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| Some flowers in bloom at the rest stop near Ontario |
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| Blue skies and a rain storm! |
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| Wasatch Mt beauty outside Provo...taken from motel window |
MONDAY, October 6
Springville to Bluff, UT
388 miles
What a day for some GORGEOUS scenery!
We arise, eat some breakfast, and check out by 8am. Gas up at the Love’s (just topping off, but the price was right!) and then on our way. Once we checked the map again in the car, we altered our route to include a road that Rick had seen earlier that cut off from Hwy 89 at the town of Fairview, and cut UP UP UP to a 9500’ pass before dropping DOWN DOWN DOWN to Huntington. Our road was lined with aspen trees, cottonwood, lots of junipers. The colors were amazing! We thought we were going to miss the fall colors by not going through Colorado, but ….WOW! Between the aspens and the redrock, I probably took 100 pictures today!
We went through Torrey and the upper part of Capital Reef National Park – red rock walls and canyons everywhere. I thought they would end at Hanksville, and the terrain did level out for abit, but then we wound down through gulch and canyon and red rock past Natural Bridges and over to Blanding. The rock formations just never ended! Plus we actually saw water in the Colorado River.
Into Rusty and Anne’s place in Bluff by 3:30pm. Visit and get the house tour before meeting Rusty’s sister Janice at the local Smokehouse (the only restaurant open in town tonight).
Left the restaurant in time to see the full moon rise over the rock formations. Amazing.
I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story...
TUESDAY, October 7
Bluff, Utah
A rather lazy morning as we enjoyed cinnamon rolls, sausage and blueberries before finally leaving for a slickrock hike around 9:45! The moon was just setting when I went to join Rusty and Anne around 7am.
Hike highlights….I rode with Rusty’s sister Janice and her dog Caddy, while Rusty and Rick drove with the other three dogs – the hiking area was only about 10 minutes from their house. We didn’t go clear to the top of the ridge because Belle was still recovering from her rattlesnake bite a couple weeks ago. (Life in the southwest!) Love the potholes in the rocks, some filled with water. Prickly pear and Mormon tea that seems to exist in nonexistent soil.
Restful afternoon – did some errands with Anne about town.
Anne worked on computer and emails/phone calls regarding the Bluff art festival 10 days from now. Rick and I relaxed reading or doing needlepoint while Rusty took a nap and then worked on his writing.
Dinner with bread, mozzarella, tomato, basil appetizers and then a shrimp stir fry with asian sauce – a bit spicy but good! After dinner – off to Cottonwood Canyon to watch the full moon rise behind the rocks. Best part was watching the light shadow move down the cliff behind us, anticipating the moon to peak over the mountain. Early to bed!
WEDNESDAY, October 8
Bluff to Albuquerque NM
301 miles
We are up and on the road shortly after 9, having enjoyed a delicious Rusty breakfast in a cup (perhaps one of his former guide service meals of egg, banana, blueberries, and pancake type mix!) We take the main road having heard from Rusty and Anne that the cutoff road directly out of Bluff toward Shiprock is full of construction delays right now. So it is down into the NE corner of Arizona and then cutting across to Shiprock/Farmington/Bloomfield.
I began driving in Bloomfield and took us through the high mesa country on US550 until a little past Cuba. We were hoping to pick up a sandwich at the Subway in Cuba, but apparently it has closed! So, I pull over a few miles past and we pull whatever we have left in the ice chest and food box for munching on down the road.
Near Bernalillo we veer off the highway shortly before I25 to head through Rio Rancho and a small little bookstore where Anne has asked us to drop off a poster for the big artfest in Bluff next weekend. I didn’t pick the best route, especially since the Walmart where I was hoping to pick up some yarn turned out to be a neighborhood store with just food and pharmacy. But they did have a much needed bathroom!
Into Luke’s around 3:30! He had a 5pm lesson, which ultimately got cancelled due to a thunderstorm dumping a bunch of rain on the courts just prior! Rick and I got just a few drops of water on a short walk up and around the neighborhood park. Kady home from school and conferences and we enjoyed a good dinner together.
A few games of cribbage and Spite and Malice while watching the Dodgers blow their game…
THURSDAY, October 9
House Closing Day!!
Luke and Kady leave around 7 to head up to HomeWise – a nonprofit lender located near Grandma’s old apartments up on Wyoming. They have an 8am closing time to sign papers for the new house. Exciting time! Rick and I have a leisurely morning. Kady has taken the morning off (it’s conference day) having scheduled many conferences for after school earlier in the week. She has to be back to work by noon.
Luke returns around 9:30 and we put together a plan of attack for the day which includes purchasing new keys, changing locks, and assessing the place. But first, we have to wait for the phone call from the lender that all papers have gone through on the seller’s end and he can pick up the keys! In the meantime, I make some bread and leave it to rise...slowly!
So we load up our car and head back up to HomeWise, get the keys, and over to Lowe’s. We didn’t find the desired locks, but did run into Ran, Patty, Reg, and Kai! We will head out to their place on Sunday afternoon. A stop at Home Depot nets the locks and we head to 1714 Anderson Place!!
As soon as Luke pulls into the driveway, a man crosses the street from across the way, introduces himself asking if Luke is the new homeowner. They visit for nearly a half hour! But he has a lot to share about fixes that have been made and a little history from the previous owner.
Afternoon spent tearing apart some pieces of the kitchen – determining the nature of the pillar, removing the stove (too old), chunks of the floor. As Rick puts it, ‘it is Discovery Demolition!’ We don't know what we'll find until we tear it apart!
I take measurements, trim some hedges, rake the leaves, etc. Around 3 a guy from the flooring company comes to assess the damages in the master bedroom. Not good news there, but he says the rest of the floors don’t need sanding – they’ll clean and put new sealer on. That’s good news! Bedroom floor needs to be replaced – the stains go all the way through.
Time for dinner! We head to The Bosque Brewery...I enjoy my second glass (ever!) of beer from a restaurant – Elephants on Parade again!! Rick and I share a nachos. This was the brewery where I had my first beer several years ago!
More S&M tonight. I finally won a game! And...the Dodgers won to clinch the Division playoff. In a weird 11th inning finale that was more Philly mistake than Dodger victory which was sad for the Phillies. Oh...and the bread did eventually get baked!
FRIDAY October 10
Demolition, Tennis, Conferences, and...Balloons!
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