McKinley County

Day 8 Broken Arrow Bible Ranch, NM - Grants, NM
Miles - 56
How many deers we saw - 3

We had a late start time, because everyone was very exhausted. We got a message that we would be packing up and going 30 minutes down the road to a small town of Ramah for breakfast. We would need to load up and be ready to leave by 8:15am.

It was pretty smooth as we packed up, and crammed into the van. Neil visited with old men at the Stagecoach Cafe. I sent a photo and little note to Kris back at NBC so she could pray for the conversation that was happening.

I ordered pancakes and Glenn ordered biscuits and gravy. Very good. When I started talking about lunch options, Glenn realized that he left the "cooler" stuff at camp and then quickly called the camp to ask if they could bring it to us. By the time we were ready to leave, Ann showed up with the cold stuff.

The ride today was gorgeous also. It took us through beautiful and breathtaking locations. We stopped at the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. Neil was exhausted, so after cooling down and stuff, the rest of the gang wanted to visit the Ice Cave and Volcano. So while Neil slept in the 2nd seat of the van, we ventured out to Ice Cave. Unbelievable how the Cave can be so cool. Aerage temperate is 33 degrees. That felt wonderful for the cyclist. They continued on to the volcano, but I decided to go back benches outside of the rustic lodge. Glenn and I then started talking to Dave and Debbie the owner of this place. Its not a national park, but privately owned. This couple have been married for 45 years, met and attended the Air Force Academy and served for 10 years. He was very interesting. Once Neil woke up, he started speaking and having a conversation with Debbie.

Well, this stop was longer than normal, but a good stop for Neil to get some additional rest and then for everyone else to take a walk and see the Ice Cave. The bikers got back on their bikes and continued onto Grants. As we pulled into Grants, we decided to go to the hotel, check in, unload the van, and then take a shower and be back at the van in 30 minutes. And we did!

I called ahead to the Steak Restaurant to make sure they had room for us. They had the table ready for our arrival. I had enchiladas and Glenn had Fajitas. Very good. Afterwards, we came back to the Southwest Motel and rested for 5 minutes before we took Una to the laundry mat and she washed ours and the boys clothes. Thank you Una. I told her to text us when she was done and we would pick her back up. We drove towards Wall-Mart and got some gas. We checked about a GPS Garmen to buy, since Betsy died 2 days ago. They did not have any.

The other folks that went to Walmart purchased vanilla BlueBell iceceam to go with the apple pie Neil bought at the Stagecoach Diner in Ramah. Good idea. We sat out on the park area and enjoyed the delicious pie. Glenn offered to give the "left over nearly melted vanilla ice-cream" to Kim, the owner of this cute hotel. Kim was very grateful and then even accepted Neils offer to have a filmed conversation together.

Glenn and I drove to pick up Una and on our return back to the hotel, there was Neil in the parking lot filming with Kim.

I am two days behind in my blogging, but I feel better, now that its only 10:30 and all I have to do is answer a few emails and send a deposit to Darla via Paypal and sometime in the next few days, I need to get my pills organized.

Good night. And if you have made it this far. GreatLes mer