August 31, 2013
Left Cave Creek at 1:30 on Thursday, hit rain at Woods Canyon Lake and the temp dropped to 64. Heavenly. Rained off and on all the way to Pinetop where we stopped for the night at Whispering Pines Resort. Told the clerk, "We stayed here on our honeymoon 34 years ago and this is our first time back. Can we have the same cabin and can we have the same rate?" $110 later, we had us a fine little cabin and walked next door to Darbi's, which was packed. Sat out on the porch and listened to the rain and had a very nice meal. We also had breakfast here in the morning and left around nine.
Stopped in Eager and bought a bag of roasted green chiles from San Antonio, New Mexico. The roaster recognized me from the Westerns Channel and we posed for a photo.
From Springerville we took off for New Mexico. This is one of the last wooden windmills on a ranch north of Quemado. Beautiful day, ground very wet from rain. Heading towards Grants and a rendezvous with The Top Secret Writer.
Lone Windmill, North of Quemado, New Mexico
And here's a closer look (this is one of the rare occasions when I actually turned around and went back to get a photo):
Last of the Wooden Windmills
Got into Grants, New Mexico about noon and spotted this Route 66 graveyard on the edge of town:
Route 66 Graveyard
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because for a few miles they believed you were the real bus driver."
—@Jason Lastname