As we had driven to Moab Peter had become more and more concerned about a noise in the rear of the car and was apprehensive about heading off on the 2000+ mile journey back to North Carolina. With a Chevrolet dealer in Moab he decided it best to have the car checked and sure enough they confirmed his suspicion that the diff was the problem. Fortunately for us they could complete the work, and had the parts available, so a few hours (and yes a few dollars) we had the car back in great running order again. To avoid wasting a full day we rented a car and went off to explore Canyonlands National Park. This park is about 35 miles north west of Moab and doesn't get the crowds that are attracted to Arches National Park. We enjoyed checking out the various canyons but the most impressive was Mesa Arch. This was one of the best arches we had seen. Any person who enjoys four wheel driving will absolutely love Moab. As our car is not four wheel we resorted to the next best thing - we booked on a guided tour that allowed self drive of the all terrain vehicle on a trail called "Hell's Revenge" so definitely not for beginners! We chose the early morning tour - there was only the guide, two other vehicles and us. Interestingly the atv's are allowed to be driven on the road so we headed off direct from the office and headed up behind Moab and into the off road recreation area. Utah has rocks, rocks and more rocks and, as expected, this is where we played for the next few hours. Up and down over the red rocks, picking up speed and twisting through the sandy gullies and then up the rocks again. It was so different from any four wheel driving we have done previously but in many ways easier as there was no mud or water to sink down into. We had an awesome time and definitely would have regretted a visit to Moab without giving the rocks a try. One last visit to Arches to check out the famous windows and a few other arches and rocks. They really have to be seen to understand the sheer size and wonder of the rocks. But for us it was time to move on, and add another National Park address was in the GPS! Peter was feeling that he had seen enough of red rocks (unless we were four wheel driving) so time for a change. We drove through Utah and entered New Mexico. It is not far from here that there is the area known as Four Corners where four states meet - Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. However our destination was Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. We did not stay in this park but stopped for a few hours. This required unhitching the caravan and leaving it at the Visitors Centre (no towed vehicles allowed past the campground) and driving the hour long access road. Mesa Verde National Park was created to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people and is very different from any other national park we have visited. The park includes over 4,500 archeological sites which includes 600 cliff dwellings. The first Ancestral Pueblo people settled in Mesa Verde (which is Spanish for "green table") about AD 550. The original people lived in pit houses which were dug into the ground and had four corner timber supports for the roof. The fire pit had an air defector to help circulate the room. We were able to see a number of the remains of these buildings albeit without the roof structures. As the architectural skills advanced structures of two or three stories of stone masonry were constructed. Some of these houses had 50 or more rooms. Many families lived in these communal homes. Our first visit was to Spruce Tree House. Unfortunately this site is currently not open to the public because of rock fall but we were able to view it from the opposite cliff top. Spruce Tree House was built under the overhang of the cliff and the multi level structure is still visible. Peter might have been reluctant to visit another park and walk lots of tracks - he was staggered to see these buildings. Yes, there are trails for walking in the park but we didn't venture on them as we had mileage to cover. We were able to see a number of the ruins, including square tower house, balcony house and cliff palace but from a distance. It is possible to go on a tour of cliff palace but we chose not to as this requires climbing four long ladders into the building and I wasn't up to that idea. The remains are impressive to say the least and this little known National Park is well worth visiting. Next stop was the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico. It is a large city, and we only had limited time so chose a couple of places we wanted to visit. The first was to go to the newly opened Indian Pueblo Museum. We were keen to learn more about the Indian Pueblo people after our visit to Mesa Verde and this museum certainly did that. One thing that struck us both was that in many ways the Indian Pueblo people were treated similarly to the Aboriginal people in Australia. For many years the children were taken from the families by the Government and placed into "White American" schools to teach them to be good Americans. This displaced many communities and families and left a fractured race who even today are still showing the wounds. Many of these families now live in low grade government housing and no longer have the extended family support structures previously evident. The museum also had a very popular restaurant attached which served an amazing array of ethnic food that just had to be trialled! We have now commenced our 2000 mile journey basically in a straight line on Interstate 40 to North Carolina. This is a four lane highway which replaced the old Route 66 highway. At times along the way there were signs to historic sections of the old highway. From San Jon, which is getting close to becoming a ghost town, we joined the original highway for about thirty miles some of which was asphalt but a section was gravel. The original highway ran through eight states and through three separate time zones from Chicago (where we had seen the commencement sign) to California. Along this route many businesses and towns supported the travelling public and with the road closure in the 1980's many of these towns and businesses have failed and are now just crumbling empty buildings. There are a number of historic societies actively involved in retaining the history of the original Route 66. With Peter bursting into song, even without knowing the exact lyrics, we were on the way to Amarillo which is in Texas. I had checked out a couple of places worth going to and the first was on our way into town. Cadillac Ranch was one of the world's first roadside sculptures. It features ten Cadillacs buried nose down in a field. Personal creativity is encouraged but not shared by us. You can take your own spray paint and add to the artwork. Certainly interesting to see. In Amarillo we also took the opportunity to visit another RV Museum which was just as good as the one we had seen in Goshen in Indiana. It is interesting to see that many of the American caravans and motorhomes had bathroom facilities back in the 1920-1930's. It seems that New Zealand and Australia were far behind in this aspect. We have been amazed at the number of wind farms as we have driven across this section of the Interstate 40. We have literally driven miles and miles and on both sides of the road there have been wind farms. Checking up on the internet we found that many farmers and ranchers lease out their land to the wind farm owners as an additional source of farming income. For the number of windmills we saw we were surprised to read that only 10% of the electricity used in Texas is generated from wind farms. We continued eastward and stayed one night in a wonderful freedom camp - on the edge of the lake, providing power and water on asphalt slabs. We were impressed and we enjoyed meeting with the neighbouring campers. In Elk City they had a very good Route 66 (the Mother Road as it was known) and Old Town Museum that just had to be visited before heading on, this time towards Oklahoma City.