Itinerary:
Williams, AZ 5/16-5/19
Cottonwoods, AZ 5/19-5/22
Hollbrook, AZ 5/22-5/24
Gallup, NM 5/24-5/29
Albuquerque, NM 5/29-6/6
This is my second writing of this blog. The first would not save nor publish. Here’s hoping I remember everything I put in the first go around.
For those wondering “Where are the photos?” let me tell you we work hard at downloading photos onto this site. Most times they just do not stick. We’ll keep working at it. No matter how many times they don’t go through.
For the most part I don’t notice anything wrong with my vision, then pow! Last night I saw double moons, and each moon itself looked like a Venn Diagram, so it was like seeing four moons. Or amoeba’s dividing. It’s only been two weeks since I hit my eye, so it will get better,
Going backwards. Today we will be driving through Bearazona. Several RVers did this and said it was worth the money (although they were in their 80’s and anything that didn’t involve walking was worth their money). We’ll end up at Lowell Observatory as we want to view Saturn before it is beyond our scope.
Thursday we took it easy as we were waiting for FedEx to deliver my new phone (old, dead one only two months old!). It came in at 10:30 so we took the drive into Flagstaff’s Verizon to get it set up. There was no way to activate the old phone so only things saved in the Cloud could be reestablished in the new phone. Good-bye all my sticky notes that held various important passwords, numbers, info. We boxed the old phone and sent it back to wherever phones go when they die an untimely death. As we drove back we saw that a towtruck, which was towing three other towtrucks, had broken down and another towtruck (different company) was going to tow this ensamble off. We spent the rest of the day doing laundry (one week’s worth) and writing the blog that didn’t go through.
Wednesday we drove to Flagstaff with my dead phone. The Verizon service guy pronounced it absolutely dead and made a notation that it wasn’t dropped or immersed in water/liquid.
We drove to Walnut Canyon and saw the cliff dwellings. We took the upper rim trail and looked across the canyon at these apartment-like homes. We went to “Experience the IMPACT!” at Meteor Crater. The museum and video was worth the price of admission alone. In the museum Chris destroyed planet Earth with an asteroid hitting us at a 90 degree angle with a simulator. We hiked up and down stairs to get different views of the crater. 50,000 years ago the blast took out all animal and plant life within 20 miles. We parked and stood on the corner of Winslow, Arizona. And took photos! I bought a t-shirt there and we spoke with many shop owners. One told us not to miss going through the La Posada Hotel, which we then did. Two hours later…. This was built by Mary Coulter in the 1930’s and the people who fixed it up after years of abandonment did a great job. Everywhere was history to read and admire. We weren’t allowed in the hotel hallways where people roomed, but there were so many other areas and floors to explore. The owner’s wife is an artist in her own right and her paintings were also everywhere. Tina Mion. Look her up on the internet.
We went to the Indian casino, Twin Arrows, for dinner (Wednesday night is prime rib night). After my first bite I became very ill. Chris ordered the exact same meal so it wasn’t food poisoning. I took Pepto and went to bed. Woke up the next day fine.
Tuesday I had a really nice Facebook messaging chat with Helen, daughter of Diane, first cousins. Diane’s father and my mother were brother and sister (both passed on). After a late breakfast we called and had a really nice chat with Diane. They are the reason we are traveling all the way to Norfolk, Virginia, this trip. Helen is working up an itinerary of places to see and things to do for the time we are there. We might even get to see Bobby (Diane’s brother) and Shirley (my uncle’s widow) as they live somewhere out there. Today it is 30 degrees in Williams. There it is already 80. By July it will be in the 90’s and humid. I need to finish making my next two dresses.
We then drove to Sunset Crater. The visitor center was really neat with all sorts of hands-on exhibits. Chris created his own earthquake, then tried to get a little 8 year old girl to do one. Unfortunately she spoke no English (German), but her mother translated and the girl had a great time. The national park service stopped people walking the crater rim 30 years ago due to erosion, but there were other hiking trails for us to go on.
We took the ruins loop and hiked around Wukoki Pueblo, Wupatki Pueblo, Citadel Pueblo, and the Box Canyon Dwellings. I was appalled to learn that it took until 1990 before the Native Americans were allowed to live on their ancestral lands again. They were evicted in 1924 as the land became “protected” by the US government and they had no paper proof that this was their land! On our way back we saw three very adult male elk grazing by (almost on) highway 40.
Monday we went to the Grand Canyon to Desert View. We stopped at every vista and wide spot in the road to view the overlooks. I got my passport book stamped at the Tusayan Museum and Desert View, which had a huge four floor monument designed by Mary Coulter in 1933. This was to represent all of the Native American cultures, building styles, and artwork. Outside a mother was trying to pose her two teenage kids with the Grand Canyon in the background. “Now smile, Children of the Corn,” was her way of getting the kids to at least grimmace. While parked there was an RV rental with the words “I see Dutch people” written on the side (yes, the visitors were Dutch). While driving we passed one of those animal crossing signs, except this one was of a cougar leaping. If we see it again I will take a picture. At Grand View there was a copper mine 1/2 mile below the rim (we did not hike this!). Right when the brothers were hauling out tons of copper (70% pure) the bottom fell out of the copper market. So they built a hotel and hauled people by stagecoach to stay there. When Williams became the railroad way into the Grand Canyon, no one wanted to go to this hotel, which folded and eventually burnt to the ground.
We continued along Highway 64 onto the Navaho Reservation. Our cell phones added an hour as they are on daylight savings. We traveled the Little Colorado River canyon and stopped at many Indian trading posts (a lean-to and family tables) until I was constantly seeing the same things (almost like they took the same jewelry, stone and pottery classes). I did end up buying two more hair clips so now I have one in turquoise, one in jade, and a pink one (the beaded strands hang in your hair). I also bought silver and turquoise spiral earrings. At one trading post was a hiking trail to the cliff. Chris got really close to the edge and stumbled. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. After all, the car keys were in his pocket and the dogs locked in the car (windows down a bit). And who would drive the RV…?
We drove to Cameron–a desolate area with a hotel and trading post where everything was really pricey–double or quadruple the prices on the reservations. We saw where the Little Colorado River came out of the canyon.
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