Canyonland and Back Tour: Taos to Dumas

OK, this waking up to freezing temperatures needs to stop. This morning it was 30 degrees and pretty darn cold packing the luggage into the Model A. The hotel’s wifi was not working well last night and before breakfast I had to use the hotel’s computer to post yesterday’s blog, it was late but that was better than no post.

We left Taos heading east and the morning sun was pretty annoying, but with sunglasses it was manageable. Following US 64, were treated to new pavement, which was a welcome relief to the usual NM bumpy road surface. Boy the Model A’s have really been shaken apart on these roads so far. US 64 will be our route to Dumas, Texas today, and leaving Taos it was a winding road through and over the Angel Fire Pass at an elevation of 9100’. The drive was spectacular, but very twisting and really gave our arms an aerobic workout. Once over the pass we continued on the Veterans Memorial Highway though Angel Fire and to Eagle Nest. This section of road was flat and circled around the large and very picturesque lake. One more “hill” to climb and we were out of the mountains and on very flat land, I guess it was cattle land as there were miles and miles of fence to keep the cattle on the rangeland. Have I mention the roads out here are very unfriendly to the suspension of a Model A, well in Cimarron, we planned to make a stop to visit a roadside oddity and bio break. Oddly enough the horn on my Model A had been randomly growling as we were driving and I decided to check this out. Well, I’m glad I did as all the vibration had loosened up the screws holding the horn. Thankfully it only took a few minutes to get this fixed.

Back on the road and it was a very flat and straight drive to Clayton, NM. After 65 miles of driving 50 + MPH and only 9 miles from Clayton, Lou had to make a quick stop, right rear tire went flat. We pull off the road onto the driveway of a home and we got the car jacked up and the tire changed in about 15 minutes: Great team work from Lou and Larry.

On to Clayton and we stopped at a local eating place that was very good. We chatted with a man at the next table and found out he had Model T’s and about 40 other cars. It was a nice break.

We gassed up and unfortunately were not able to get corn free gas as we did in Taos, oh well. The road to Dumas, TX was straight and flat. But the good thing is Texas roads are great. My GPS said I hit 58 MPH while cruising along. As I said this country is flat, but what didn’t realize is how much Corn and cotton they grow here. The corn fields are enormous. We did see a very large fire off in the distance and the conclusion was that after the corn is harvested they must burn the remaining stocks to clear field. The other indication this is corn country is the size of the corn storage container along the side of the railroad tracks.

We checked into the hotel and decided to fix Lou’s tire, but once we got the tire broken down we could see the tire sidewall had separated was totally gone and could not be fixed. Bruce and I took advantage of the late day sun to grease the chassis and water pump.

Today was 251 miles on the road.

Tomorrow we will plan to arrive in Oklahoma City and tour that area.