The Internet Gods have not been kind lately. I have either been too busy doing other stuff (MPRF, QCD), we have not had internet, or surprisingly, too busy actually having fun. Since last we checked in, we spent a day at Mesa Verde National Park, drove to Taos New Mexico and spent time in the dust bowl, shopped in Sante Fe, and actually spent the night in Gallup, New Mexico which has no redeeming qualities other than it's mentioned in the old "Route 66" song. We did travel for a while on the old road and listened to the soundtrack to commemorate it, however the road is much longer than the song.
Some 18 wheeler closed I40 in Albuquerque and we couldn't go west anymore. Spent 1.5 hours driving around in major rush hour traffic, only to find that the highway didn't re-open in 1/2 hour as they expected. We also stayed in a couple of places that advertised WiFi only to find out that "the internet is down". On the upside, they had free WiFi at the McDonalds in Flagstaff. (The downside being we felt compelled to eat there).
On Wednesday, we drove from Gallup up to Page AZ and went to a place called Antelope Canyon which is a lovely slot canyon on Navajo land. There was a $6 fee to get in but you had to pay $20 for the guided tour as well. But since we were photographers, we didn't need to go with the tour but still needed to pay the $20. Pictures better be good.
Today we drove around Page looking for an internet connection, stopped at the Glen Canyon dam which was really quite big, and then drove to Zion National Park in Utah. The park is an amazing feat of infrastructure in the middle of ..... rocks. There is a small very cute and trendy town associated with the park and the whole Visitor Center area is one of beauty. You can't drive the scenic drive at this park, but they have buses that do a circle loop, stopping at all the trailheads and scenic byways, with another bus going by every 6 minutes. I guess if you get over 2 million visitors a year, you learn something about crowd control in remote places.
In general, I'd say the desert has been very hot (sunburn on the backs of our hands), very cold (the water line to the camper freezes and we sleep with the furnace on each night), and very dry (my poor little hands, my poor wrinkled face). Oh, and windy too. I suppose I would adapt over time, but I've decided that rain is not so bad after all. And I've also decided that I really like trees. Tree's are good.
I can tell we're having fun mostly though from how many nicknames we've been able to come up with for Bella. She rarely get's called by simply her name now. Miss B, Big B, Bellalicious, stick girl, dust bunny, and fancy pants come to mind just at the moment. She changed colour in the dust and so I gave her a bath the other night in the kitchen sink even though I knew it wouldn't last long. But I think we were both happy for a short while.
In the end game of the trip now and feel the pressure of places to go and things to do and not enough time to do it. Oh, and it's about that 1000 mile straight shot back to Ferndale - that should be fun. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment