We woke early after a magnificent night’s sleep to a very cold morning. The water we had left outside had frozen solid, which not a problem today, would require a new tactic for keep drinking water drinkable when camping if the overnight temperatures continued to drop.
By the time we had dressed into warm clothes and made it over to the main house the Sun’s rays were just breaking the horizon, once again revealing the spectacular land that we had stumbled across the day before.
Erec was up and preparing breakfast, while Michael was starting to mobilise after a night sleeping on the futon in the lounge. We were all glad for a night indoors when Erec confirmed the overnight temperature of 16 oF (-9 oC).
Michael was continuing his trek west, so after breakfast and a photoshoot we said our goodbyes, in awe at this young man. Truly amazing and inspirational… with maybe, just maybe, something new added to our own bucket list.
I’m going to keep the description of the day brief, as so much happened I would need a day to complete the writeup. I will, therefore, leave it to the pictures to do most the talking.
First stop of the day was Steve and Cheryl’s building site. Erec was helping them complete the build when he could and we asked if we could tag along and help too.
Next up, Erec gave us the keys to his pickup truck so we could head back down the road to visit the El Morro National Monument.
We then had lunch at the Ancient Trail Cafe in the centre of El Morro, which consist of only a handful of buildings, but which forms a hub for a thriving community.
Upon returning to the building site. Cheryl gave us a short guided tour of her property, including an area where a mountain lion appears to be used as it’s larder and dining area.
I then went to the next town of Ramah with Charlie to help his return his pickup truck from the garage and return it to his home.
By the time we returned to the building site, Erec, an English Professor, had returned to his home to run an online class, while Deborah and Cheryl had headed up to the house they are temporarily staying at while complying there own build.
With the build for the day complete, I helped pack up the tools, before saying goodbye to Charlie and Ken, then heading up to join Deborah and Cheryl.
We sat at the dining room table with a drink and a few tasty snacks, watching Sun setting when Erec joined us, cycling over on his bike.
We watched the Sunset on a scene that is difficult to put into words while talking about everything from life in the El Morro community to life on this planet.
We returned to Erec house at around 9 pm. The night sky was once again spectacular with the ribbon of the Milky Way clearer than any picture I have ever seen, with more visible stars than I thought was possible to see. Deborah commented that the sky was as good if not better than witnessed on her Atlantic crossings… with that, we went to bed in the knowledge we would be leaving this magical place.
Magic !
Wow – what a juxtaposition in your days. I can’t imagine residential construction was on your list of things you thought you might do on your travels, especially following such a slog of a day riding!
I’m sure you are having as may unexpected experiences on your travels mate… I understand you once rescued a cyclist with an enlarged left testicle that was stranded on a small Scottish island by sailing him to the mainland on a 42ft sailing yacht! 😉🤣