Away from the motel by 8:15 or so, heading for the New Mexico Mining Museum plus fossil and Route 66 exhibits.
The area is known for its uranium deposits; so that's what the museum dealt with primarily, and quite well done it was too.
Enjoyed it; quite informative.
As for the 'fossil and Route 66 exhibits', I've seen them done better in gift shop windows.

Okay: the Bandera volcano and ice cave.
The ice cave required an easy walk of fifteen minutes or less, and was bloody interesting.
The water permeates down through the porous scoria to the bottom of s cave about thirty feet deep, where it freezes over the winter, and never gets enough sun over the summer to thaw.
I liked that . . . but the thought of a forty-five minute tramp in that heat to the top of the volcano . . . um, no.
We didn't go there.

And so on to Gallup and the Rex Museum.
Interesting enough, but I wouldn't bother again.
(And the bloke running it was an American Indian with a 'poor-me-I'm-a-hard-done-by-native' chip on his shoulder, and as camp as a row of tents. I felt like shaking him for his attitude . . . you can't let the past be the loudest voice in your head; 'cos otherwise you'll never hear the future calling you.)

Next stop was the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.
Bloody gorgeous! Amazing! An absolute 'must do'! Mother Nature at her best! Superlatives fail me!
I just don't have the words to describe it.
So if you're in the vicinity and opt out . . . then more fool you.
A very definite 'must do'.

Then on to Holbrook, a picture got took of the Wigwam Motel but I refused to stay there, finishing up instead at the Magnuson Hotel.
Another great day.
All good.