Page 55 - NORTHERN ARIZONA IN A DAY OR SO ...

April 13, 2005

Hello Folks!

Well, the e-mail coming here has been sparse, but that's got to be due to all you guys trying to get your taxes done at the last minute. (I finished mine a good ... week or so ago.)

Some odds and ends before I forget them.
(1) Best "old guy" T-shirt I have seen said: "Yeah, I'm a Senior Citizen - Just Give Me My Goddamn Discount."
(2) Arizona doesn't believe in Visitor Welcome Centers as you enter their state. Neither did California the two times we entered it. It could be that they don't really want visitors.
(3) Arizona legislative news here is that it is now legal to carry a gun into a bar or restaurant, but that sparklers are still too dangerous to make legal. Arizona government reminds me a lot of Maryland.
(4) Donna broke Arizona law. At a rest stop, she bought some earrings from some Indians. The handwritten sign behind the glass at the rest stop made it clear that buyers and sellers of jewelry on state land would be prosecuted! Could Indian jewelry be as dangerous as sparklers?
(5) Arizona doesn't have many trees, but they sure do have geology.

We left Lake Havasu City on April 12, and ended up in Holbrook, AZ. That's a trip across upper Arizona, but not so upper that you hit the Grand Canyon. As you get on Interstate 40 going east, it's mostly all uphill until you get to Flagstaff. Just north of Flagstaff is the highest peak in Arizona, Humphreys Peak at 12,633 feet. Yes it's still snow covered. In fact, the rest stop near Flagstaff was still trying to get its winter snows to finish melting. To go to the Grand Canyon, you go north from Flagstaff about 90 miles. But as it was still going down into the low 20's at night, and as we are packing no winter wear gear, we kept going east on I-40 (which is mostly the old Route 66 of song and TV show fame). Some sections of Rt 66 still exist in tact, but many times it has been widened and has had its number changed.

As you gain elevation going toward Flagstaff, you get into areas of grass and bushes, then actual trees. That's when you start seeing the Watch Out For Elk signs. Sadly, we did not see any. As we headed east after Flagstaff, the elevation does not change drastically. We are in an area called "high desert." It's a desert all right. The trees are gone. It's rocks and dust and desert plants and such, and it's no longer mountainous. We stayed in Holbrook so we could spend a day at the Petrified Forest National Park, which also includes a good slice of the Painted Desert. It's a great place to spend a day, with some very strange geology in spots that are easily accessible by car. The park people here want everyone to stay on the paths. They say that the ecosystem is very delicate, and walking around the area (off the paths) will contribute to erosion. Now, this is silly, when you consider that if it wasn't your eons of severe erosion, that place would be nothing but flat high desert still. But the Park folks have their jobs to do, and they do it pretty well overall. They even have inspection stations as you leave the park, to check to see if you are taking any petrified tree rocks. But the station was just a wave-through, like the border patrol stations down south.

And you don't need to steal petrified forest rocks. There are tons of places all around Holbrook and the National Park that are not only selling petrified trees, geodes, meteorites, fossils, crystals, and rocks and gems of all kinds ... they will give you a free pound of petrified forest rocks just for visiting their store. The best one by far was Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Company south of Holbrook. He does cutting and polishing on site, and his store would put most rock and gem shows to shame. There are incredible coffee tables that must weigh tons and go up to $20,000 each. And each is a work of art. To be honest, his store made the Petrified Forest museum seem a bit shabby.

So it looks like we will skip the Grand Canyon on this trip. You can spend an entire day at the Petrified Forest National Park, but size-wise, the Grand Canyon is much more than a 100 times larger. We have learned that if you are really going to do the Grand Canyon, you had better plans for several weeks. And it would be best not to do it during the winter time, which appears to extend through April. Also, during the summertime, temperatures at the canyon bottom exceed 100 degrees. It's Grand, but it's a tough place. That's got to be why the helicopter rides are so popular.
That's all for now. Oh yes, we got a spectacular photo at Petrified, and it was not made of rock. There was this single cloud in the sky, and for a minute or two, it was rainbow colored -- COMPLETELY. Never seen anything like it. Hell, let me try to attach a photo for you.

Page 55 - WE HAVE RESERVATIONS AT THE RESERVATION

April 16, 2005

After the Petrified Forest, Donna wanted to visit the Hopi Indian reservation out on "First Mesa". She had visited there when she was around 10 years old. We drove about 70 miles to get there through the high desert, and the best part of the drive was seeing a big old badger crossing the road and waddling into the desert. We had never seen a badger in the wild. I thought they all lived in Wisconsin.

The First Mesa village is on top of a very narrow and rocky mesa. It could be 300 yards long and as narrow as 6 yards wide. I think about 80 Hopis were living there, and the village has been continuously inhabited since around 1200 a.d. That's pretty amazing. Donna said that when she visited as a kid, the Hopis were doing dances and ceremonies for the tourists and all the tourists could walk around anywhere. All has changed. The Hopis, I am sure, got sick and tired of the tourists. Now, you can only visit with a tour guide, and no photographs are allowed. All ceremonies are private and no longer viewed by the touring hoards. The tour was 8 bucks a head, and there is not that much to see ... well, other than a very primitive village with satellite dishes on the roofs. I liked the dogs and cats that were everywhere. Those Indian dogs seem a bit different than the RV tourist dogs. Very gentle, as are the Hopi people. The village Hopi sell a few handmade Kachina dolls, jewelry and pottery, but there are no shops. Individual Hopi just show their wares by their homes, and the inventory is limited to about 5 or 6 items. We bought some special blue corn bread, which tasted exactly like a stale taco shell, and was paper thin. This was an ancient village. Most of the more modern Hopi live down in the valley in very modest homes. The most modern buildings were the schools and the hospital/medical center. If there was a grocery store, we didn't see it. Very few stores on the reservation.

Oh yes, the touring hoards, when we were there, were about a dozen seniors. I think they came on a bus, but I never saw it. The village is too small to handle a bus. Our truck was the largest vehicle in the village on that day, and would not fit on most of the inner roads.

If there is a word to describe the Hopi people, it is laid-back. They are very gentle and polite, and have a sense of humor. Their visitor's center didn't have much to show you. Some old photos, a couple of books, and some hand drawn maps. They had some woven wall mats that depicted the various Hopi clans. The snake clan, the tobacco clan, the corn clan, etc. etc. Our guide said that they don't have a mat for every clan yet. They ran out of yarn. Maybe some day they will finish the project. Laid-back. At the very far end of the mesa, 8 people still reside without electricity, but plumbing and propane is available. Best Hopi Indian T-shirt seen on a village resident had this message: "If a man is out in a desert away from all women, and he says something, is he still wrong?"

We left Arizona, going east on I-40/the old Route 66 route. Lots of amazing rock formations around the AZ/NM border. Lots of shops/gas stations selling rocks/Indian stuff/dinosaur stuff/etc. There is one section around Grant where the ground is covered for miles with frozen black lava rocks. Looks like Hawaii in spots. Again, this area does offer you "geology!"

We are now staying at the Laguna Pueblo Indian reservation. Specifically, we are at the RV park next to the Dancing Eagle Casino. Ten bucks a night, with the casino players club card discount. Diesel fuel is the cheapest we have encountered in 6 months. They know you will contribute at the casino. Even though the casino is about 40 miles west of Albuquerque, the vast majority of the folks using the casino are Indian. I think the casino is the new meeting place. They had a live band, and the Indians sure do love to dance. I noticed that many of the Indians just sit at the machines and watch the activities. They either ran out of money, or are just too smart to play. This casino / RV park / shopping mall is going to be five years old this year. Everything is new and well maintained.

There was another, much larger casino complex on the Acoma Pueblo reservation at Sky City (about 8 miles from where we are now). We would have stayed there, but they don't have an RV park. An article we read had a very interesting tidbit about the Acoma people. It said: "The Acoma are a matriarchal society, with a twist ... the youngest daughter inherits everything. While the chairman of the tribal council is traditionally a male, he is elected for a one-year term by the women of the tribe." I do think this form of government would work a lot better than the one we are using.

Also we almost got wet by a passing rain storm yesterday, but it missed us. I think the last time we got some rain was when we were on the east Texas coast. We are still high ... elevation wise ... chilly evenings and sunny days in the 70s. Enjoy your weekend!

Page 55 - ODDS AND ENDS AGAIN

April 19, 2005

Forgot to mention this. As we left Arizona, the news said that there were 8 rattlesnake bites in the past week. That is up, as there were only 8 bites for the entire month of March. Lots of them were silly hikers. Must be why they call the baseball team the Diamondbacks.

Yesterday, in far NE New Mexico just outside of the small town of Logan, we saw a herd of wild antelope. Damn nice looking critters. About 2 dozen of them. In far NW Texas, we saw fields of prairie dogs. Cute critters.

In Hooker, OK, the sign in town said Home of the Hooker Horney Toads. Now that just cracked me up.

Sad critters ... the gigantic cattle feed lots that cover the hills as far as you can see in Texas and now in Kansas. STINK? Yeah. Some of them poor critters are standing up on hills of cow dung. What do they call the steer who is on the highest pile? King of the Crap? Captain of the Cow Pie? Almost makes you want to give up on the beef steak.

Dead critter. A very large bird ... maybe a prairie chicken? ... took off a hundred yards in front of our truck. It missed us clearly, but smashed into the pickup that was coming the other way. Lots of feathers! LOTS!

On Monday evening, we were at the only RV park located in Garden City, Kansas. I don't know why they call it Garden City. One night is plenty.

Tonight we are in North Platte, Nebraska. Or is it South Platte? No, I think it's North Platte. I guess we have decided to pay a visit to the Bad Lands and the Black Hills of South Dakota. The RV parks up there open on April 22. It's spring here, meaning that it looks like the last week of March in Maryland.

Western Kansas is very flat. But as you get into Nebraska, you get back to the hills. Some areas even look like Washington County. (And others look like Texas.) We did see one buffalo today. You can see more buffalo just West of Hancock, if you know where to look. We saw two cowboys on horses actually working cattle! But that was unusual. It's usually the Ag-college graduates working the feed lots.

Had lunch at a small diner in a small town in Kansas today. Most folks eating there are serious farmers and cattlemen. The overheard snippets of conversations go something like this: " ... won't eat that feed ... truck ... air compressor ... water ... busted valve ... truck ... pipe line ... tractor cab rides like a bronc ... dust storm ... no water ... truck ..." and so on.

What amazes me is that everywhere you look, there are these field sprinklers for watering the plants. You know, the ones on wheels that are 400 yards long. And because of this, there are a lot of very green plants at this time. (Where they don't sprinkle, it's not too green yet.) If I had a dollar for every field sprinkler I have seen today, why I'd have enough to play all night at an Indian casino. Now, due to all this watering, there will probably never be another Dust Bowl like what occurred in the 30s. However, I am guessing that because of all this watering, the thunderstorms seem to pop up every afternoon after a good sunny day. The weather always talks about the sizes of hail happening: it goes from baseball, to golf ball, to quarter, to nickel to dime. If the thunderstorms and tornados in the mid-west are a problem, or if they appear to be getting more severe each year, it's got to have something to do with all this watering going on.

Well, the news said they elected a new Pope today. And no, I am not going to do any Hitler Youth jokes at this time. If it turns out that those Catholics are right ... and they really are the chosen people ... then I am in deep doodoo out in the feedlot.

Take care.