Aztec Ruins and Motorcycle Museum

After the great riding day on Sunday, March 29, we went over to Doug and Pat's house on Monday to talk about life and get to know each other better. Doug and Pat are some of the most awesome people I have ever met. Doug has a friend that has a private motorcycle museum. He arranged for us to go see it on Wednesday. I guess we will stay a bit longer. We planned to stay in the Farmington area for a day or two. We will end up staying a week. There is that flexibility happening again.

On Tuesday, we hung out at our beautiful campground at Navajo Lake SP and took a hike around the lake. Here are a few shots.

This could be the prettiest campground we have stayed at. The weather has been awesome. 

Here is a shot of our campsite from across the valley.

On Wednesday, we got up and decided to visit the ruins at Aztec, NM. These are not from the Aztec people of Mexico. They are part of the ancient people of the area. We thought it would be a good precursor for our visit to Mesa Verde. The Aztec Ruins are a National Monument. They are amazing to look at and consider what life was like about 1000 years ago. The workmanship is amazing.

Here is a shot from inside the largest Kiva that has been reconstructed:

Check out the lines of colored stone. The builders took an amazing amount of time to make this look like that and when you consider how long this has stayed together, it just blows me away. 

The area was abandoned by the living around 1300 AD and then covered by moving sands and soil. The area being covered is why it is so well preserved including the wood. I really enjoyed this visit and I can't wait to see more of this while we are in the area. 

We then met up with Doug and Pat at the shop. I got my brake line and it looks right. We will see once I get it installed. We then went over to see the Motorcycle Museum of David Pierce. The sad thing is that I was so intent on listening to the history of the motorcycles that I only took one picture. Here is Dave and a one of a kind titanium framed Husky. He had about 50 motorcycles that were amazing to see. 

Doug is racing both road racing and MX on the vintage circuit. I really enjoyed talking to him and this was another one of those amazing experiences. He and I have at least one common friend. 

Kim and I have been thinking about our plan to move on. We could stay in the Farmington area for another week and do some riding, but we need to get moving on to Utah before it gets too hot. We are already later than we planned. It is always hard to leave behind new friends, but you have to stay focused on the future and all of the things we want to do and see. Farmington, NM will always hold a special place in our hearts. Thanks again Doug and Happy 73rd birthday.