November 9-12, 2021 Farmington to Grants, New Mexico

 Cloudy and cooler today. 63 degrees. 

Meanwhile back in Colorado I am honored to have won ribbons on two of my pieces in the Echter's Garden Center glass show in Arvada.  Those of you in Denver go to the show if you get the chance. The glass work there is phenomenal. 

Today we drove to Grants, New Mexico. Scenery along the way. The ride was a bit bumpy today. The clothes that were hanging in the closet got bumped down and some things from the shelf above.

My pin cushion for basket making self destructed so I made a small basket, recovered it and put it in the basket. I may have to redo it, the cushion is longer than the needles so they could get lost in it. It came out cute. I started this new masterpiece today. The center is a glass puddle I fused. 

We decided to come to Grants because the Junkyard brewery is a Harvest host. We could have parked for free, but John decided since it will be below freezing tonight that we should stay somewhere else we could plug in. We, of course, went to the brewery anyway. It was a car mechanic shop and car junkyard when the owner bought it. He remodeled the shop into a bar and brews beer. He recycled many car and truck parts for the bar. The sign out front is made from a hood from a car. And we are on route 66. The inside of the Junkyard Brewery has this late model truck in front. Behind it the bed of the truck is the bar. 

Inside the bar has a vintage car and a corvette. The tables are car hoods. I bought dinner in the bar. The tables are truck tail gates with truck wheels holding them up. John with his Alien IPA. They were out of their signature beer Rack and Pinon lager, so we will have to come back to taste it. John had delicious smoked duck. I had pulled pork. Cool place. 

Here is a much better photo of my masterpiece in the glass show at Echter's from the Glass Artist of Colorado Facebook page.  It is named  Raven and has a raven in it that you can only see at certain angles, it is like a hologram. 61, sunny and windy today. We hung out inside. The bus at the Grants KOA. It looks a little grim, but we have a tree and picnic table, the bathrooms are great and it is the highest rated RV park in town. The others are either right on the highway or right next to the railroad among other problems. 

I wanted some new masks that fit better. When I ordered some online they were too big for my pin headed face, so I made some today. Will see how they work. Grants, New Mexico sits on a lava flow. You can see the lava in the foreground and the lava cliff behind town.

We visited the El Malpais national monument visitors center today. Planned our visit to the actual monument for tomorrow. They had a great movie about north western New Mexico. Very scenic. This was one of the pots on display at the visitors center. This sign in front of the visitors center explains that the park used to be a weapons practice range and that there are unexploded bombs in the park. A beautiful fall tree in the parking lot with the faint waxing gibbous moon above. 

We stopped at the Elkins Brewing company and Lava RV park. They are both owned by the same guy. We only went into the brewery.  Here is John with his Double Number Double Ipa and my Bombin' Out Pinon Stout. They were delicious. We didn't stop at the RV park. It is right on the highway and very noisy. But it had nice trees. Sunset from the Grants KOA where we are camped.