Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Woke up in the K-Mart parking lot in Show Low, AZ. Doug had left for parts by 6:30 am. We didn't know if we would be spending a day in Show Low waiting for parts to be shipped from points east or west. However, he was home and had the bus fixed by 8:30 am.

Drove with a tailwind from Show Low up Hwy 77 to Holbrook. Hopped onto I40 to Flagstaff. Bucked a headwind all the way. It was a very slow, stressful trip. From Flagstaff we took Hwy 89 North to junction of 160. These pictures are of the scenery as we passed it by.

The wind was so strong that in some places we could hardly see in the distance.

There were some prosperous looking farms and then there was desolation around the next bend.

The soil is very reddish rust or a very light beige.

Here is from one extreme to the other - a poor tumbled down, falling apart home and then on the hill was this large, well kept place.

I cannot have ever imagined the amount of land that was seemingly unproductive. Arizona does have a number of copper and silver mines, but it is just impossible to imagine the hundreds of thousands of unused acres in just one state.

Then . . .

out in the middle of nowhere there is a set of corrals! Must be cattle somewhere, but what would they eat?

And then, in the middle of tabletop flat acres there arises a majestic mesa. Can't you just image the Apaches up on top of the mesa watching the cavalry march by, and getting a good laugh out of it? Have I been reading too many westerns?

I can see why the Indians wouldn't stay on their assigned reservation. They would have starved. There are a few jack rabbits but we have seen very little of anything else in the five months we have been in Arizona. Oh, we have seen a couple

of coyotes.

Holbrook had these cute Dinos to welcome us as we drove into town.

Now the land is fairly rocky.

Oh goodie! SNOW in the mountains, and we are headed for the mountains.

There were signs "Headlights on Day and Night" the dust storms were so bad. How else could these giant carvings happen?

The wind was very strong, but from Flagstaff to Kayenta it was more of a tailwind.

Kayenta is on the Navajo Nations Reservation. The dirt was blowing when we stopped at 3:00 pm to fuel both vehicles and people. Actually, we stopped at this restaurant for a pie fix for Doug, and ended up eating our meal for the day. Gordon ordered a Navajo Taco and did he get a plate full. Dinner plate covered with Frybread

topped with all you would find in a taco. I had

ordered soup so I got to share his taco. The servings were very nice and very tasty.

We were all too tired to go further, and the wind was picking up, so we pulled into a shopping centre and requested permission to spend the night. As we walked to the shops the sand was hitting us with such force that it was very painful.

I really thought we were going to lose the roof, or at least the solar panels off the roof, the wind was so extremely strong.

We had a terrible banging until Gordon finally

folded in the stairs. A semi pulled in and was a partial wind break for us which helped.

Two visitors came, the first, a woman, around 5:30 pm. She really hated to ask, but she had her son with her and she needed to get to Flagstaff and didn't have money for gas. Could we help her with $15, and $1 for her son to have a Dollar Meal at MacDonald's. MacDonald's was just a stones throw from us. We considered that as our fee for camping. However, around 8:30 a knock on the door brought a man.

"You are on my land" No, Gordon explained, we had permission from the Mall to stay here.

"You are on my land - where you from?"

Alberta Well, could you spare some gas money

So, we had to pay an additional $5 for our campground fee. He did wish us God Speed.

After that we turned out the lights, went to bed and put dark towels on the windows so we could

read without getting more visitors. We were unsure if we would be vandalized if we didn't help "with the gas" to wherever.

We asked if the wind always blows like that and some said yes and some said no, but when you look at the rock formations you think that the wind must always blow in this country.