Day 45 - Santa Fe, NM to Moab, UT

Ok, today has been a disaster. We were on our way to Moab, but are now sitting in a motel in Pagosa Springs. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Wanting to get an early start today I set the alarm on the Blackberry for 5:30, which would give us time to dress, pack and get down to breakfast at 6:30. Small problem. I glance at the clock on the nightstand as we are about to go to breakfast and it shows 5:20. What gives? Oh, the Blackberry is still on Central Time. What to do? We wait because it’s a very good full breakfast and included in the room rate.

So we hit the road at 7:02. I spy a Starbucks sign on an Albertsons and am rewarded with a Mocha for my quick left turn. North of Santa Fe the drive is beautiful, especially with the sun rising in the East. Lots of the canyons, mountains and red rock that showed up so often in O’Keeffe’s paintings.

It was cold and cloudy, but no rain. We saw a little snow on the higher mountains and the temperature was in the high forties.

About four miles out of Pagosa a deer thought about crossing in front of me, but a quick foot on the brakes and a game time decision by the deer to make a right turn avoided disaster.

About three miles out of Pagosa a deer suddenly appeared at the right headlight. After a rather healthy impact it was lifted onto the hood, careened into the windshield and disappeared off to the right clearing the oncoming lane and making a hard landing on the shoulder.

We are now in a motel in Pagosa. The car is a mess. Right headlight is gone, as is the bumper and hood. Right fender is pushed back into the passenger door and windshield pillar. This brut of a deer hit the windshield directly in front of me. Fortunately the glass held, although there is a small area that’s pushed in and there are small flakes of glass on the dashboard.

A number of really nice people stopped to see if we were ok, which we were. Except for Barb, but soon the tears were gone and she was making plans to buy a new car. Spent some time with the insurance company and I think everything is under control. Hopefully the car will be towed the 200+ miles to Grand Junction tomorrow. I opted for their preferred shop and a nearby Honda dealer for parts. And a rental car should be available after 9:00 am.

We now have a motel room full of everything that was in the car and neither of us can believe we got all this stuff in there. On the plus side, we have repacked and filled a large wastebasket. I don’t know what we are going to do next. I suppose we will load up the rental car and head for Grand Junction tomorrow to await the verdict on the car. If it’s to be repaired we will probably head back home and figure out how to get the car back to Oregon later on.

This could be a bummer way to end our trip. But it won’t. Nothing will take away from the wonderful time we have had for the last forty four days. 164 miles today.