September 25, 2010

I'm a little late with this one, because Budd came home for lunch yesterday and told me we had to go to Farmington (NM) so he could get his hair cut. I had intended to blog about the interesting and fun night we had on Thursday, but instead had to get laundry finished and dishes done so I could head out when he got off work early. Not much of interest on the Farmington trip, so I'll back up and talk about the 'musical presentation' that we were invited to on Thursday.

The chief LE ranger (Law Enforcement, as opposed to Interpretive) had shyly asked Budd several days before whether he would attend this musical presentation and, knowing I'd enjoy it and he probably would, Budd agreed. We planned to eat dinner out, as the program was at the Holiday Inn. As an aside, that's the last time I'll have dinner there if I have a choice. There are NO healthy or low calorie options. I exceeded my calorie count by over 1000 that day, and exceeded the sodium allowance twice over. But I digress.

When we arrived, slightly late because of our dinner being delayed, we found William (the ranger) standing in the center of a small meeting room, with about six elderly couples seated around the sides of the room. William was playing an Apache drum (we learned this later) and singing some traditional Navajo songs and some that his father or he himself had composed. Between songs, he regaled us with the cultural context of the songs and the story line of the words, when there were any. Some were merely chanting.

Navajos are great story-tellers, as I learned last time we were here. I also learned that certain stories are only told at certain times of the year. This wasn't particularly evident in the lecture we were receiving along with the songs, but the story-telling certainly was. William would act out the entire story, sometimes with props, before he sang. One of the songs was about a young man who had acquired a large flock of sheep, and was chiding his would-be bride, who had turned him down, that now 'all of this', meaning his sheep, would never be hers. William brought out four toy sheep and one toy goat to sing over, and made quite a production of it. Did I mention that Navajos love to laugh also? Sometimes their jokes don't translate well, or at all, but we were getting a big kick out of this flock of sheep. After the song, he knelt down to pick them up and at one point sort of fell forward, his forehead on the floor for a second. Then he shook himself as if startled, and said, "Oh, I fell asleep." It took us a second, and then the room erupted as we realized he was counting his sheep.

From the Navajo songs, he went to a few from other tribes, always telling about the tribes and their languages. I learned for the first time that the Ute, Puebloan and Hopi tribes share a common language root, called Uto-Aztecan, while the Athabascan language root of the Navajo is related not only to the Plains tribes (which I knew) but also to the Apaches. I think I've mentioned before that this kind of historical detail fascinates me, and I found myself wishing I had brought a notepad to take notes.

William had us all get up and do two Navajo dances, one that he called the Navajo two-step, and another that he called the skip-dance. No pictures, sorry--it didn't occur to us to take the camera. These dances are very similar except that the second has a sort of hop on the second step. William explained that the dances are always done in the clockwise, or right direction, with the man on the outside and the woman on the inside, closest to the fire. These are social dances, as opposed to the ceremonial dances that he didn't go into. He did explain that even in the most solemn ceremonies, some social dancing takes place at intervals, to keep The People happy, so that sadness doesn't interfere with the healing that is taking place. We had missed the beginning of this two-part presentation, which was about ceremonies, the matriarchal and clan systems, and the Long Walk, but we cadged an invitation to the next one on Monday of next week.

As everyone sat down, quite out of breath from the skip dance, William told of a man who explained their dancing this way: when a child is small and wants his mother's attention, he tugs on her clothing until the mother drops what she's doing, picks up the child and soothes him. In the dance, the tapping of our feet on the earth is like the tugging on the mother's clothes, a way to get Mother Earth to pay attention to our needs. There was something about Father Sky, too, but unfortunately, I didn't have that notepad and can't quite remember how that fit in with the analogy.

After the dances, William took up a cedar flute, beautifully made, and played a haunting tune of his own composition. We later asked him if he had made the flute. The story behind the song was of a shy young man who didn't know how to approach the woman he loved, and sought the advice of the shaman, who told him to perform several tasks, culminating in the making of a flute, composing a song, and playing it to the young woman as she approached the place to get water. William hadn't made his flute, but it had been given to him by Travis Terry, a famous Hopi flautist that we met when we were here before.

The final section was another dance with all members of the audience participating. William laid out the two songs we'd be singing along with him--right--and the instructions for the dance. Where the other two had been couples dances, this dance is performed with individuals all linking hands in a large circle, and it starts in the counterclockwise direction. This, William explained, is like un-weaving a basket, and as we un-weave, all the bad things that might be in the basket are spilled and leave the basket. Then the song changes, and so does the direction of the dance. Now the basket is being rewoven and only good things are put in. This is called the Round Dance.

When the program was over and the rest of the audience had gone, we asked all the questions that we had been wanting to ask all evening. It turned out that William is somewhat of an international celebrity for his drumming and knowledge of the history and customs of his people. He has played in the Netherlands, Paris, Belarus, and in the South Pacific--I can't remember the precise location there.

The presentations here, by the way, are part of a series of educational events that are designed for older travellers who want a structured experience provided for them as they travel. I believe it is called Road Scholars. We're excited to be able to hear the first part of the presentation on Monday, also. Even Budd, who normally dislikes any sort of interaction with strangers, especially if it involves public dancing, thoroughly enjoyed himself.

On another subject, as usual, news that we would be here another month turned out possibly to have been premature. You'd think I would learn not to mention it until the travel orders are cut. While Canyon de Chelly does want Budd for another month, there are rumors that Denver does, too. If those turn out to be true, we'll go back to Denver at the end of the upcoming week, then return here again in November. This is actually better timing for what needs to be done here, as equipment is ordered that will take about six weeks to arrive. While we've been on pins and needles about it for a week now, at least the wait is almost over. We'll either know by Thursday, or we'll be here. I picked up a couple of long-sleeved tops and a pair of long lounge pants to tide me over until we can get to Salt Lake to retrieve cold-weather clothing, but at some point we will have to make that trip. Rather than speculate, I will wait patiently to be told when and where we're going (AGAIN1), and then I'll report.

September 22, 2010

It's taken almost a week, but I think this will be the final installment of the great into the canyon adventure from last Sunday.

As we turned around and drove toward the mouth of the canyon and toward home, it was nearing 5 p.m., and the shadows were lengthening quite a bit. We hadn't realized when we passed up the opportunity to photograph The Window on the way in, that the shadows would have lengthened to the point that they obscured one of the most interesting things about it by the time we passed it on the way out. From our original viewpoint, the triangular opening had a perfectly centered cave behind it, making it look sort of like the Eye of Providence symbol usually seen atop a pyramid. We had had quite a conversation about that symbol on the way to Spider Rock, in fact, after seeing The Window.

Now, coming back out, the cave was completely engulfed in shadow, so although it's as beautiful as any other arch, it doesn't have the mysterious image of the cave centered in it. The other mystery is that when I searched the pictures, I found some that had been taken before the pictures of Spider Rock, when I clearly remember Budd saying he couldn't spend the battery power on those. If he took any at all before, why wouldn't he have taken one with the cave?

It's a mystery that will never be solved. But here's what it looked like later in the afternoon:

The cave is in the deepest part of the shadow and was barely visible in person, if you knew it was there. Maybe sometime we'll have the opportunity to photograph it again at a better time of day.

The final adventure of the afternoon was rounding a corner and flushing a covey of wild turkeys! Both Budd and Mick were scrambling for their cameras, which was a little scary because Mick was also still driving. The road kept curving, and the turkeys kept running, so it was hard to catch them. Mick finally stopped (probably 10 seconds after we first saw them, but it felt like longer) and we all got out of the truck to try to spot them in the trees, where they had run for cover. Then I spotted them climbing the rocks! Here's the best shot Budd was able to get:

As the guys went crashing through the underbrush trying to get a vantage point, two of the birds took off from the rocks and flew across the road into the trees nearer the wash. Although you can only see a wing in this picture, here's what it looked like:

The funniest part of this episode was that a few seconds after the birds that flew off must have landed, an unseen horse in the same area let out a startled whinny. It cracked us all up, and sent us home in a great mood from seeing something that you don't get to see every day.

Tonight Budd and I have been invited to attend a 'musical presentation' by one of the Navajo park employees at the Holiday Inn just outside the park. We don't really know what to expect, but we're looking forward to it.

That's all for now...until next time.

September 21, 2010

Last day of summer, and I for one am not sad. Fall is my favorite time of year! The weather here in northern Arizona is absolutely gorgeous, and has been since we arrived. We did have high winds yesterday and it tried as hard as it could to rain-we maybe got 20 drops. But this morning dawned clear and sunny again.

I have just a few minutes before my tutoring shift begins for today, and thought I'd finish up the account of Sunday's trek into the canyons. As I recall, I had reached the point where we returned to the junction of del Muerte and de Chelly canyons. Our destination for this section was Spider Rock. If you had a chance to see them in person or Facebook, you may recall some of Budd's pictures from last winter:

This view is of course from the overlook on the South Rim. We were headed for the base.

On the way, we were treated to a view of a small arch or natural bridge in the canyon, but decided to wait and save the remaining battery life for Spider Rock. We were hoping to catch The Window, as the arch is named, on the way back. In this canyon the crossings over the wash as it meandered were extremely deep...not in terms of water, but how far the wash was cut down from the roadway. Because Mick is the chief for the Resource Management section here, he was telling us about some of the restoration and conservation efforts in the canyon system. We had known of the efforts to cut and burn the non-native trees, both Russian olive and tamarisk, but we really hadn't known why. It turns out that they draw down the water table and also are instrumental in causing the wash to cut a vertical channel, further drawing down the water table, rather than a broad V-shape. Mick's hope is that they will be able to implement a channel restoration project that will assist in returning this canyon to it's natural fertile state, with sufficient water for the needs of the residents' way of life.

When we finally spotted Spider Rock in the distance, it was even more breathtaking than when we saw it from above:

Budd took lots of pictures, but most were taken with the camera held sideways, and my viewer tells me that if I rotate them I may lose quality. I'll wait for Budd to rotate them, then post them another time. At least one was zoomed in so that we could see an ancient structure at the base of the rock, which we had been told was there last winter. It is supposedly the home of Spider Woman, one of the Holy People, who taught the Dine to weave.

Well, I'm out of time, but have more pictures to share, so will once again try to get some in tomorrow.

September 20, 2010

We had a great weekend, going on Saturday to Gallup for a few things we needed and then stopping in Ganado at Hubbell Trading Post on the way back to take in the bi-annual Navajo rug auction. Wow, were there ever some bargains to be had! We couldn't justify purchasing a rug when we don't have a house to put it in right now, and would have to store it. But when we do...we know where to go for authentic Navajo weaving at an incredible price.

Yesterday (Sunday) found us finally setting out to finish the adventure into Canyon de Chelly--the canyon floor--that we started last March. To refresh your memory, here's what happened in March:

You may recall that we got as far as the far side of the flooded Chinle wash and then turned around to go home when we became stuck and had to be rescued by the rangers. This month the scene in the same location was just a bit different...but even though it is sand, it still requires a four-wheel drive vehicle. To give you a hint how rough it was, my BodyBugg device that counts calories expended as well as steps reported that I had taken 18,500 steps by the time we returned home. I'm sure at least 10,000 of them were actually bounces in the pickup!

We were once again with our neighbor, Mick, and the plan was to go up one side of the canyon complex, Canyon del Muerte to Mummy Cave ruin, then back to the junction of the two canyons and up Canyon de Chelly to Spider Rock. Seeing the canyon from the bottom is amazing, as you can get a closeup view of the sheer cliffs, some a vertical rise of 600-800 feet from the canyon floor. In other spots, there is quite a bit of rubble, steps of sandstone mounds and even wide spots that are large enough for a small farming or ranching operation.

One such spot was our first destination, after stopping for photos of some of the minor ruins that abound in the canyon. Mick explained that he had met a woman of about 60 years in age walking along a trail that led down from the north wall of the canyon, across the wash, and back up a seemingly impassable series of steps to the top of the canyon on the south rim. The trail was her route home, and had steps carved into the rock on the south side that he wanted to show us. To do so, he needed us to climb up the first step on the other side so that we could see them.

I had been itching to get out and climb some of these formations already, remembering back about 45 years to the time I used to scramble all over Moab's east bench, including the famous Lion's Back where 4-wheelers now try their luck at a vertical climb. For some reason, my brain refuses to be its age, and with my new fitness push it keeps taking me back to my teen years. Ever patient and protective, Budd was forced to go along with the plan to make sure I didn't fall in my eagerness to regain my youth.

On the way up, I found that I didn't trust my balance walking upright on the steeper sections, so I used my hands a lot, but I had no trouble getting up once I gave up my dignity. As Mick waited patiently, I felt I had to explain that I was being so careful because I, too, was over 60. I was very gratified when Mick reacted with shock and told us he had us figured for early 50's.

On the way up, we spotted this feature: which Mick explained was a slide rock. Kids ride the small rock down this slope, wearing away the dark desert varnish in that straight line. Later, he tried it and unfortunately the slide rock broke, but we found another and left it at the top for the next kid. Too bad we didn't get a picture of Mick sliding...Budd was at the top with the camera at that point and didn't realize what was happening. The drop-off at the end isn't nearly as dramatic as it looks, by the way.

But before all that, we 'summited' and had a great view! Here we are standing on top, with the trails Mick wanted us to see on the wall behind us, unfortunately too small in this picture to really see.

Later I'll try to add some enlarged images of the carved trail.

After climbing down again, we continued on our journey to the junction, then passed to the left fork canyon and on to Antelope House, a major ruin that is highly accessible. Of course, all the ruins are protected and no one is allowed into them. But some are high on the canyon walls and must be viewed through binoculars, whereas others could be accessed from the canyon floor with no trouble. All are behind fences as people can't be trusted to respect these historic treasures. The structure on the right was once a four-story building!

To the left of the ruin you can see in this picture a narrow fin of sandstone that has collapsed, but once jutted out from the canyon wall to form what would have been a protective barrier to intruders coming up the canyon. We later spoke to the leaseholder who lives directly in front of the ruin and learned that this fin collapsed only about three years ago, when a large area of the cliff wall above flaked off and hit it. We asked if it had frightened them much, as the noise must have been tremendous. She said that it sounded like a helicopter, and that smaller rocks and even ice falls on a regular basis from the overhang under which they live. She went on to mention that they have taught their kids to always run OUT, away from the overhang rather than inward, when they hear anything falling, and that you can always hear it, no matter how small. Apparently objects make a whistling noise as they fall. What a way to live!

We went on to a more recently occupied ruin called Standing Cow for the very large, nearly life-sized pictograph image of a cow. There we found a hogan made from the prehistoric sandstone brick, but sporting a glazed window and wooden door. Unfortunately, by this time the camera battery was getting low and Budd wanted to save them for Spider Rock, so we have no images of the Standing Cow or the hogan.

We decided to enjoy our picnic lunch in a grove of cottonwoods there, and at that point also decided not to try to continue to Mummy Cave ruin as we had heard reports of a large jeep rally group who were there ahead of us. The road was extremely rough and narrow in spots, so passing 20 jeeps all going the opposite direction didn't sound like fun. That means we will want to come back again at some point, because Mummy Cave is by far the largest and most interesting ruin in the canyon complex.

We headed back to the junction and this time took the fork into Canyon de Chelly proper. Our destination in the Canyon de Chelly side was Spider Rock, which legend has it was the home of Spider Woman, one of the Holy People. As this is getting very long at this point, I'll take up the story here in a day or two, and post more pictures.

September 12, 2010

I don't know if I've mentioned before that Budd is not fond of exercise. If not, I'll do it now. Budd is not fond of exercise, especially walking. He wouldn't mind playing basketball, but I don't play games I don't have a prayer of winning, lol. Anyway, I was pleased and surprised Saturday morning after teasingly suggesting to him that he go on my walk with me and he agreed!

After a quick breakfast, we set out on what I had planned as a 1-mile walk, just to complete my 5-mile a week personal goal. I've been getting in 6 or more, but this week had done some other types of cardio, so I was short. We got about a tenth of a mile down the road when he said he'd rather climb a hill, gesturing to a rocky one we were passing, or go hike on the White House trail. I've been wanting to do the latter ever since we were here before in January, February and part of March of this year. Unfortunately, I was not fit enough to do it then, especially since some parts were icy and I didn't have appropriate footgear for that. Naturally, I jumped at this offer, so we turned around and went back to the house for the car, as it is several miles away.

At this point I'd better stop and explain for readers who haven't been with me since January that Canyon de Chelly is something of a slot canyon, though not as narrow as the ones that people get caught in flash floods in. It is a complex crack in the ground in high desert country, and from a few miles away riding along the highway, you wouldn't even know it's here. It has great historical significance to the Navajos, on whose tribal land it exists, and it was home before the Navajo to an even older people that have been named the Anasazi by archaeologists, or perhaps by more modern tribes. The name is usually interpreted as 'Ancient Ones'. They are the peoples who left tiny villages and the mysterious rock art on the canyon walls throughout the region we call Four Corners for the four states that come together at one spot; Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

The White House is one such ruin, situated in the bottom of the canyon and accessible by a trail that is 2.5 to 3 miles (depending on which sign you believe) from the rim of one side of the canyon , across a wash at the bottom and over to the other side. The trail switches back and forth down from the canyon rim for about a 600 foot drop, and of course if you walk down there, you have to climb back up.

Taking two 16-oz bottles of water, which proved to be just barely enough, we set off down the trail at about 10:30 a.m. This is the top of the trail:

And this is the bottom:

I started out strong!

But this was on the way back:
Thank goodness for the scraps of shade we found on the way back, especially in the two tunnels that have been blasted through the rock on the trail. Inside the tunnels was a cool breeze that made us want to stay and wait for the rescue crew.

When we got home, we both crashed for two-hour naps, more or less obliterating the calorie advantage. :( Next time we go, lol, like I'd ever get Budd to do it again, it will be earlier in the morning, and we'll take both food and extra water. Seriously, if Budd likes hiking better than walking on the flat, I'll find some hikes. I'm not the only one who needs to lose weight, and it's much more fun for me when he's along. In spite of the effort, I was laughing all day, much of the time at his remarks.

We assumed we'd find Navajos vending food and water at the ruins, but all they had was jewelry. If we'd had an extra $750 and the notion that we could carry another ounce of weight besides our own back up that trail, Budd would have purchased a gorgeous silver wrist cuff with turquoise and amethyst insets. The artist told us he had won first place with that piece at some sort of exhibition. I don't know why they don't have bottled water and maybe even fry bread there...they are missing a bet. Of course, they wouldn't have to climb down the way we did, there is a road in from the mouth of the canyon. People with less ambition take Jeep tours to the ruin.

We had to laugh at a guy we met on the way back up. We stopped and rested in every scrap of shade, so younger, fitter people who arrived at the ruins after we did overtook us on the way back. We were discussing the water situation with one person who stopped to talk to us as we rested, and he said he told one of the Navajos he didn't need any jewelry, but he'd pay her twenty dollars to drive him out. I had to wonder how many people had to be rescued later in the day, as the people we passed coming down while we went back up had started as the day was beginning to get really hot, and the majority carried no water at all. I'm actually surprised there are no signs warning people to take water. Maybe the NPS assumes people have some common sense--a dangerous assumption.

Both Budd and I have recently read the account of Aron Ralston, a young man who became trapped in a canyon near Moab as the crow flies a few years ago. He was hiking alone and dislodged a several hundred-pound boulder which caught his hand between it and the canyon wall. After waiting for nearly a week for rescue and near death from dehydration, he finally managed to amputate his hand and walk out, a remarkable story that I remember hearing about at the time. In the book, he mentioned a Camelback, which is a small backpack in which to carry water, with a drinking tube so that you can drink as you go without removing it. The last people we talked to on the hike out had one, and having seen it in person I now want one for just this type of adventure. I think it carries a couple of liters. I seem to have acquired an addiction to buying fitness gadgets. REI, here I come!

By the way, that Aron Ralston story is a good read. It's called Between a Rock and a Hard Place, a clever title if there ever was one. I highly recommend it!

September 9, 2010

It's only been a little over a week, but it feels like two since I blogged. I'm satisfying my urge to write and spill the beans with my blogging on SparkPeople.com, but it's mostly about weight loss, so I'll be keeping this one up for now. I'll try to do better about it so each post won't be so long!

I forgot to mention in the last post that we had reconnected with our former next door neighbor, who gifted us with such lavish items when we left last March that I decided to cross-stitch a Navajo rug design for her. I had found a kit with the pattern, fabric and floss, which was a good thing, because it was May before I was able to retrieve my full stock of floss in every DMC color. I finished the design sometime in June if I remember right. The picture above is the finished and framed project. You can't really tell from this image, but the background you see is entirely stitched. There is no fabric showing through.

We've socialized a little more with our neighbors since we've been here this time. I mentioned in the last post that Mick had invited us to dinner and fed us fresh vegetables from his garden. Not to be outdone, Tess brought over some from her gardens, one here and one at her Colorado home, where she returns every weekend. Tess has also invited us to partake of the yield in the garden here any time we want. For Labor Day, I had fish tacos planned, along with guacamole, but I had forgotten to buy tomatoes and those that Tess had given us were long gone. Since I had invited Mick for dinner, we took some off the cherry tomato vine right outside our door, and they were so delicious! When Mick arrived he brought acorn and fairytale pumpkin squash. The latter, unfortunately, was picked before it was ripe, a result of another neighbor's too-enthusiastic 9-year-old harvesting everything he could see in Mick's garden the night we were over there. Then when Tess got here after the long weekend the next day, she had about a quart of large cherry or plum tomatoes for us. We'll be so spoiled by the time the gardens are finished that we may have to move to summer year-round country to cope.

The latest bounty was heirloom peaches from trees in the canyon that have been left to go wild. They were tiny, but very ripe, sweet, juicy and yummy. Since they were so ripe I could tell they wouldn't last, I made miracle cobbler with them and shared with Tess and the two seasonals who are living in the bunkhouse. It was the first time I had had a chance to visit with Gretchen, and the first time I had met Gayle. I served my portion (which I wanted with milk) and Budd's double serving, then took the rest of the pan next door and demanded they eat the rest. Tess reported that she thought it was delicious, too. I was so glad I had given it away when I ate mine. If there had been any left, I would have broken discipline and gone after more.

All these fresh vegetables are certainly helping with my meal planning in my new lifestyle of eating healthy, too. With the help of the food tracker and exercise tracker in SparkPeople and the data on calorie burn from my BodyBugg, I've managed to average just under a pound and a half of weight lost per week since I started using SP. The seven pounds I put on between New Year's and getting back from my family reunion at Easter are gone, and so are four of their little buddies. Good riddance! I'm still not hungry, in fact I'm eating more volume of food and more variety than ever, but because of the healthy choices it's under 1500 calories a day. Even when I have peach cobbler. ;-)

I joined a challenge team on the site, too, which has upped my exercise from a reluctant 40 minutes every day or two, to cardio and strength training every day, averaging over an hour. Between that, the social aspect, and my tutoring which started again this week, I barely have time to read or cross-stitch. But that's ok, that doesn't burn calories, and I'm on a mission to burn as many as I can! In fact, I'm beginning to bore even myself talking about it. I do have to say one more thing, though, and that is that dodging the heavy equipment that's tearing up all the pavement in the park is quite an adventure. I never know when my route will be open or I'll have to take a detour. If they tear up our road, I guess I'll have to jog in place in the house.

Let's see...since I blogged here, my daughter Laurie and her husband have found out they are having a girl. She's quite relieved, because we were all demanding one, and she felt a lot of pressure about it. Silly girl, we would have loved a boy, too. But now everyone is happy, including Laurie and Huggy, so it's all good.

Oh--we went to Farmington, NM the Saturday of the Labor Day weekend, travelling through Tsaile and Lukachukai, up over the Chuska range past the Shiprock formation and through the town of Shiprock. On the way we saw many vendors on the roadside with fresh melons, corn, and something called kneel-down bread that we weren't familiar with. In Farmington, we found most of the items we wanted to buy, groceries that included fish, no salt tomatoes and most of the items I hadn't found at the local Basha's. We had spent the night, so were disappointed to find most of the vendors gone on the way back. We did stop at a stand with the kneel-down bread to ask what it was and buy some to try. It turned out to be a dish made from fresh corn which has been cut from the cob, smashed in a machine made for that purpose, then packed together back into the husks and roasted in the coals of a fire. It's very reminiscent of tamales texture-wise, but with a flavor more like that of fresh corn with a hint of woodsmoke. It's good, and would go perfectly with chili.

Backing up, the scenery on the drive over the mountain was breathtaking. After winding slowly up some very steep grades to 7000 or 8000 feet, you suddenly see the drop down the other side, with the Shiprock out in the middle virtually all by itself. The road itself isn't too steep, but in places you feel as if you'll just fly off the side of the mountain and make that long drop to the desert floor more than 3000 feet below. On the way back we encountered a couple of Navajo women whose small car had overheated as it climbed up. Near the top, it just quit on them, and they were parked across the entrance to a side road. We stopped to see if Budd could help them, and fortunately had several large containers of water in the trunk, so he was able to help and they were soon on their way.

This weekend we are going to try again to take a four-wheel drive vehicle into the canyon, accompanied by Mick, who was driving on the ill-fated canyon attempt last March. Presumably, Mick knows the canyon better now, too, since he's had six more months to explore it since then...except for the times it was even more flooded than last spring. Fortunately it's dryer now, so I'll be able to report on that trip next time.

September 1, 2010

After a couple of days of screaming frustration, my DSL connection is finally working today. I was screaming because I had started two weeks early to arrange this, and had talked to technicians at least three times who were trying to set up installation appointments before we were here. Here, by the way, is right back where we started on January 1 of this year--Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

When we got here on Monday afternoon around four, we were surprised--no, shocked--to find the Visitor Center closed and the parking lot gone. Well, the land was still there of course, but the pavement and sidewalk had been ripped up and there was a barrier preventing cars from entering. No one had mentioned this to Budd, so we were a bit perplexed. Before trying to find where everyone was, we drove past the house and tried a key that Budd had been carrying around, knowing it was a Park Service key but unable to determine what it fit. Thankfully, it fit the house! So we started unloading the car. About an hour later the park superintendent, who lives in the second house to the west, dropped by with another key and the DSL modem. I was very happy about that, having understood from the last conversation with the phone company that it would be delivered on Tuesday.

After getting everything into the house, Budd turned his attention to setting up the DSL. That's when elation turned to disappointment, as the modem didn't detect any signal on the line. The next day, I missed a phone call on my cell phone by a second or two, racing out of the shower to pick it up. There is insufficient cell signal here to actually talk, but I was able to pick up enough broken fragments of the message to understand that the tech had decided to reschedule because I wasn't home! NOOOOO!!! I threw my clothes on and raced the car up to the top of the hill to call him back, but no luck...he didn't answer. Left a message that I was home, please don't reschedule, need it TODAY! And didn't hear from him again.

Finally this morning I took matters into my own hands and walked far enough down the road (Budd had taken the car) to get two bars so I could call him again. This time I made him understand that just because I didn't answer the phone it didn't mean I wasn't home. Some other tech showed up about four hours later, and whew!! here I am.

Now, back to the trip. We loaded out on Friday morning in Lakewood and managed to pull away from the hotel only an hour later than we had wanted to. That's almost a record--we never get it done as fast as we think we can. Budd had meant to start loading Thursday evening, but as luck would have it tying up loose ends and a last-minute emergency phone call at the office kept him overtime about two hours. Unfortunately, he had already turned in his time sheet, so Uncle Sam gets that two hours for free. I thought Budd had said that the trip from Lakewood to Salt Lake across I-80 (rather than the I-70 route we took coming the other way in July) would be 5 1/2 hours. I realize now that he wouldn't have said that, as it is over 500 miles, but I kept thinking we were making horrible time as the day wore on. By the time we left Evanston, WY in a rainstorm at 6 p.m., I knew my plan to walk when we got to the hotel was a goner.

Between Evanston and Park City, we were treated to the most beautiful full rainbow, with a faint double just above it. We pulled in at the hotel that was to be our home for the next two nights at around 8:00. I had researched where I could find meals with my calorie and sodium requirements before leaving Lakewood, and was already off track due to not being able to find a Burger King or McDonalds (!) in Ft. Collins. We had stopped at an old-fashioned diner, where the best I could do was get the smallest burger, ask them not to season it and to substitute slices of tomato for the fries. Still, I could only approximate the nutritional information for my tracking. Now in Salt Lake, I was hungry, cranky and determined not to do any more estimating. I wanted what I had planned! Which required by-passing the six or eight restaurants nearest the hotel and traveling 3 miles in the dark and rain to Chili's. There I had my grilled chicken Caribbean salad, which was delicious!

Next morning I was happily texting my son and making arrangements to visit with the kids all day when Budd threw a monkey wrench in that plan. He wanted to go to Springville where we had left our trailer and make sure we could get everything we wanted to bring here into the car. I thought that was terribly inefficient, as Springville would be on the way when we left, but he didn't want to leave it until the last minute to find out we couldn't pack that efficiently and would have to take the pickup. He won.

Still texting the kids, we headed for Springville. Heather and Chris had gone to Wendover the night before and were on their way back. Jared was hanging out with his boys and would be free all day. Laurie and her husband were planning on going to his dad's inspection and emissions shop to get her car registered. Wait...did I remember that my plates were expiring on the 31st? Yes! Could Huggy's dad do mine too? YES!!! Who would have thought, on a Saturday...?

At the trailer, we pulled everything out of the car and began to re-pack more efficiently, but did have to give up on some of the items we had wanted to retrieve, either because we couldn't remember exactly where in the tightly-packed trailer we had left them, or we couldn't get to them without taking out the king-sized mattress, something we needed one more guy to help with. One thing that definitely wasn't going to fit was our tv. It looked like we would finally get that flat-screen we had decided to buy with Budd's bonus from the first Canyon de Chelly detail.

I was still texting back and forth with Laurie trying to get the address for the inspection shop when lunchtime rolled around. My research once again paid off and we went to Taco Bell, where I had beef tacos fresco-style, which meant without cheese or sour cream. Just as we finished, Laurie came through with the address, so we headed out to meet them there. After the inspection and registration were taken care of, we stole Laurie and her husband went to keep a promise to his nephew. Laurie had called us a couple of nights previously to tell us we had won something from a car dealership and it might be a new pickup or $25,000. We tried to convince her that it was probably the MP3-style radio that was the booby prize, but she insisted that we go try our key to see what we had won. 45 minutes later, we arrived at the dealership to discover we were right. And the MP3-style radio turned out to be a pink plastic affair that "looked" like an MP3 player. With Laurie apologizing profusely for the waste of time, we headed back to Draper where she and I had a date to look at baby afghan pattern books so I can crochet a gift for her firstborn, due March 1. Budd dropped us off at the store and headed out to look for the new tv. We had a date to meet up with my son-in-law at Olive Garden, where I had another pre-researched meal planned.

The day was capped by a grand visit with my other daughter, Heather, her son and a couple of her stepsons at her house. Her husband had taken his son and some friends to a varsity football game for their high school, where the son plays junior varsity ball, but when we got to the house, we found the game was being televised and had just started, four hours later than expected! Laurie and Huggy arrived shortly afterward, having gone to pick up Jared and his boys. We all visited, watched the game, and had a great time, although we never got to see Chris or his son or daughter. It was so late by the time the game ended, that we elected not to wait for them to get home, and went on back to the hotel.

Next morning found us up and in the car by 8:30 a.m., but with a trip to WalMart still to do to pick up some supplies I needed and that tv Budd had spotted the day before. We literally had a 6-inch wide hole across 2/3 of the car to in which to fit it, and could have found no other room at all without dumping a suitcase or two. As I shopped for my nutritional supplements and shampoo, a yoga mat and small hand weights (all of which were going to have to ride under my feet in the car), he was debating between a cheap, small tv (that would become a bedroom tv if and when we ever land somewhere permanently) and a 42-inch, state-of-the-art LCD tv that was on sale. Once I had all my purchases ready, I went to find him and he laid out the choices. We were still debating when the salesman said, "Did he tell you this one comes with a Blu-Ray player?" I was already leaning toward the larger one, as long as it would fit in the car. That tipped the balance, and we made the purchase. The look on the salesman's face when he helped us out to the car and we showed him where to put the tv was priceless! We did have to shift a couple of things to make the hole go all the way across the car, but we managed, and were on our way south by 11 a.m.

We stopped in Green River for one of their famous watermelons and continued on to Grand Junction. Between Thompson and Grand Junction we were once more nearly involved in an accident with a driver who wasn't paying attention or possibly was drunk. He passed us on the left, but then swung back into our lane before he was completely past. Budd said we had to stop going to Grand Junction, because every time we do someone tries to kill us.

We spent the night in Grand Junction, which isn't really on the way but gives us a chance to see his mom, stepdad, sister Gaylene and her kids and grandkids. There, for the first time since the lunch at Ft. Collins, I ate something that wasn't in the plan. It was just too much trouble to figure out what else to do when my mother-in-law suggested pizza. I did find that one slice, after a slice of that wonderful watermelon, satisfied my hunger and evidently didn't do much damage to my weight-loss effort as I was on-track when we arrived here.

Next morning I found my father-in-law up and waiting when I rose at six to get in a much-needed walk in the park across the road from their neighborhood. He and his brother routinely walk this park, but as the brother had a doctor appointment, Jim was happy to have someone else to walk with, and we had a very pleasant walk and conversation as we dodged raindrops. After a quick breakfast, Budd and I were on our way again, planning to stop in Moab for a quick visit with his sister and niece.

He called his sister before we set out, saying we'd be there in a couple of hours. I called his niece when we were about half an hour out. During that small period of time, Budd's sister's best friend had passed away after a long battle with cancer. Staying longer than planned to give her a little moral support, we left late and had to grab something quickly for lunch at McDonald's, the only drive-thru on the right side of the road on our way out of town. Mentally counting calories and grams of sodium and not wanting another hamburger, I threw caution to the wind and ordered a classic chicken sandwich, Southern style, and fries. That sandwich turned out to be a fried piece of chicken breast on a lightly-buttered bun with two pickle slices and NOTHING else. I was glad for the grease in the chicken as otherwise it would have been too dry to eat. They didn't include ketchup for our fries, and for the first time in years I forgot to ask if the iced tea was brewed...it wasn't. What a disappointing lunch!

Now I'm back to where I started, arriving here around 4 p.m. on Monday. One of our neighbors kindly invited us to dinner, and I resigned myself to once more eating something I shouldn't, but this time I was very pleasantly surprised. He served grilled farmed catfish (much milder than the wild version I remembered from my childhood), brown and wild rice, steamed kale and carrot slices from his garden, and steamed green beans, also from his garden and garnished with a bit of bacon and onion. It was delicious! To add to the great surprise, he had a package of green beans, kale, a large green onion, and three yellow squash for us to take home.

Yesterday and earlier today were spent getting situated, taking my walk in the campground, which turns out to also be under reconstruction, and grocery shopping. To my dismay but not surprise, I found that there is virtually no healthy-alternative food in the local market. The fruit and vegetables are still from Mexico or points beyond, they don't sell any fish (!) and I found only one vegetable that comes in no-salt-added canned form. The lady that I asked about tilapia for my fish tacos told me their 'grandmothers' are afraid of fish--I guess being a desert tribe they aren't familiar with it at all. She said when they used to stock it, the old women would give it a wide berth in the aisle, walking on the other side and refusing to look at it. I guess I'll have to stock up on weekend trips.

Saving the best for last, I got on the Wii Fit balance board for weigh-in this morning and discovered I'm just under a two-pound loss for this week, despite all the barriers and challenges. I guess moving is good for the program!