The old dilemma of the last day hit me this morning.  The cabin was really quiet and I was able to make some coffee, sit at the big table, and watch the mule deer play outside of the big bay window that perfectly framed our Utah world.  The bags were packed ready for loading in the truck.  In the back of my mind was the fact that the house was available for at least one more day.  We really could do it – stay one more day and get home on Saturday instead of Friday.  OK – back to reality.  We were leaving in about an hour.

Into Monticello one more time before heading south.  There is one tire on the trailer that has a very slow leak and needs air every 2 or 3 days.  Today was the day.   That task was accomplished in short order and the latest round of postcards home were dropped off.  There was nothing left to do but hit the road.

The only real diversion we had talked about for today was to hit the Four Corners Monument where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah come together.  It took almost 2 hours to get there over some less than ideal surfaces.  It wasn’t exactly as I had pictured it.  It was a nice concrete area with the states designated and a nice marker in the exact center.  We stood in line to do what so many had done before us – stand in 4 states at once.  There was a sign that said “Limit 3 photographs” in order to keep the line moving in the bright (hot) sunshine.  I figured since there were 4 of us we were entitle to 12 pictures.  I think we exceeded that by a little.  I managed to click off a few before we were banished to all the small booths that surround the monument.

The small “shops” each sell similar “hand made” trinkets made of silver, turquoise, and beads.  Since this is actually on Indian reservation land, the local tribes benefit from the sales and from the $5 per person admission charge.  Jana found some earrings.  Spencer and Laura found a couple of small items too before we shoved off.

We wound our way down to Gallup, New Mexico and set sail on I-40 headed east.  This isn’t my usual road of choice but we were trying to make 1700 miles home in 4 days.  Our intrepid family had set a goal of being home by Friday night to sleep in our own beds.  We stayed on course and hit Albuquerque right about 5:00 PM local time.

We enjoyed the family time together in the air conditioned comfort of the truck but we were all ready to relax and get off the road.  We walked across the parking lot to Sadie’s Café which turned out to be a Mexican restaurant.  The food was OK but we weren’t really up to the task of tackling their “small” nacho.  (The small version served 3 or 4 people and the large 6 to 8.)  We gave up and returned to the room.

In 3 days we will be sleeping in familiar surroundings instead of another hotel.  That assumes that we are still speaking to each other after 3 more days of racking up big mileage pulling a big box full of motorcycles.