Got up around 9 with the intent of eating breakfast, taking a nap and checking out right at 11. After eating breakfast, I took a shower and decided to load up the car and go into town to catch up on some writing from the last few days. I’m headed to Aztec NM later today where I will stay for two days while I visit Aztec Ruins National Monument.
I ended up at Absolutely Bakery and Cafe in Mancos. Lots of Pride on display , which I appreciated. Had a decent quiche, and a great iced tea, and sat and did some writing. I also worked on setting up the domain name, blog and newsletter for this trip. I settled on epicroadtrip.live for a domain name. I hit a couple of roadblocks getting things set up, mostly with getting email set up with the new domain name.
On my way to Aztec NM, Siri tried to take me down some unpaved county roads but I decided to stick to the paved state highways and streets.
The main reason I decided to stay in Aztec is to see the intriguingly named Aztec Ruins National Monument. Just on the north side of town, I’m staying within a 10 minute drive of the Monument. I’m very curious to learn how it got its name.
Aztec has a nice Main Street. I got here early so I went to a pizza brewpub and ordered a pizza and camped out for a while, waiting until my AirBnb reservation started at 4pm.
This AirBnb has weak AC and a fan that turns too slowly. There is no AC (!) or fan (!!) in the bedroom, so I might sleep in the living room tonight. hopefully I will survive the next two nights and not melt into an evaporating puddle. This rental has some shabby-chic art which is cute, including a skateboard deck that says “Velkommen” on it. Swedish, maybe?
Went to an old-school Mexican restaurant in an otherwise dead strip mall in Farmington NM, the next major town ove.. I had tamales and they were delicious. I forgot how huge the beverage cups can be in the Southwest. I ordered a water and it was at least 24 oz.
When it was time to pay, I realized I didn’t know where my wallet was. I felt terrible and asked the host if I could drive back to Aztec and try to find it and then come back before they closed and pay. It was a 20 minute drive each way, it was about 7:30pm, and I didn’t know if I would find the wallet. The nice, very gracious gentleman who I wasn’t able to pay said “Sure, you’re on your honor but I trust you.” I was freaking out-what if it fell out of my pocket? It had my ID, health insurance card, two credit cards and two debit cards.'
When I got back to the rental, my wallet was sitting on top of the dresser next to the bathroom. D’oh. I called the restaurant and asked if I could pay over the phone with a card or if I should come in to pay. The gentleman was kind enough to take my payment over the phone. It was only later that I realized that he didn’t ask for a tip. D’oh.
