One of the coolest things I saw in New Mexico was the Very Large Array (VLA). It consists of 27 parabolic dish antennas that are on 13-mile long Y-shaped tracks so that they can be moved into various configurations. Together they form the world's largest radio telescope. http://www.nrao.edu/imagegallery/php/level2a.php?subclass=VLA&class=Telescopes

After getting the seized fan diagnosis in SLC, I called ahead to Santa Fe BMW and had them order the part. So this morning on my way down to Socorro, I stopped in to pick it up. $200!! (I heard from someone that a fan kit for a KTM only costs about $80....oh well). Guess I should be used to the Beemer sticker shock by now.

Unfortunately, they didn't have time to put it in for me. So I pulled off in the shade to install it myself. It seems to be a pretty easy operation, but I couldn't see how to get the fan off without breaking the plastic(?!) tab holding it on. Since it wasn't a critical situation and I now at least had the hard-to-come-by part with me, I decided to wait until I was somewhere where a mechanic could do it in case something went wrong.

Besides, I watched the weather channel this morning, and they were expecting 40 to 50 mph winds in the area I was going through. And it was supposed to be worse traveling from north to south rather than east to west. Cross winds....great. So I wanted to get going before the wind picked up anymore than it did.

Another view of Cliff Palace.

Left Moab this morning for Santa Fe, NM. Stopped at Mesa Verde National Park to see the Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings. Amazing. Had lunch in Durango, CO before heading into New Mexico. Watching lightening storms in the distance tonight from Santa Fe while typing this. Very cool.

A happy Beemer. My last night in Moab tonight, on to Durango, CO tomorrow after Canyonlands National Park.

Ute Indian petroglyphs, Arches National Park