New Year--New Adventure

We arrived at last on New Year's Day, about mid-afternoon. We hadn't known what to expect, really. There's very little information on Chinle, AZ even on the internet. Wikipedia says its a CDP (Census Designated Place), which should have given us the first clue that there isn't really a town here. At least, not like any town I've lived in before. Budd lived in Bluff, UT for a while, which may be a close comparison, except that Chinle is actually on the Navajo reservation.

It's beautiful country, if your taste runs to red-rock desert. Some of the cliff formations we drove through after we crossed the Utah-Arizona border were literally blood-red. The park itself, Canyon de Chelly, is spectacular, at least what we've seen of it so far.

But, back to our arrival. The town consists of a few gas stations, a post office, a grocery store, a couple of laundromats and fast-food restaurants and a number of offices for departments of the Navajo nation. Schools look brand-new and we've heard that there's an Olympic-sized pool in the sports complex.

The park is 3 miles east of the highway, but the entrance and visitor center give no hint of the spectacular canyon beyond. I waited in the car while Budd went in to get the keys to our new home (for the next six weeks or so). Then we drove down the hill and into a No Visitors admin area of park housing.

Our domicile turned out to be one side of a modular duplex, about 475 square feet. As I look at that, I can't believe it, but I measured it at about 19 feet by 25 feet. There are two bedrooms, a bath, and an open kitchen/dining/living room arrangement. The previous occupant was a bachelor we've been told, and I do believe that. Today is our fifth day here, and the first that I haven't spent most of the day either trying to figure out how to fit the food and kitchen equipment we brought into the cabinets or scrubbing the floors. And I mean scrubbing with bleach cleaner, on my hands and knees, with a scrub brush.

We did take a break on Saturday to explore a bit. First we went from one end of the town to another, no more than two miles, and then we took the North Rim road into the park and across to the Antelope House lookout. From the parking lot, a 1/2 mile loop takes you out to the rim of the canyon where you can look at Anasazi ruins (called Antelope House because of the pictograph of an antelope beside the biggest structure) on one side of the point, and huge fields that the Navajo cultivate in the canyon floor on the other side. I can't begin to do justice to the scenery, so will go out again with a camera and post photos at a later date.

Sunday we had dinner at one of the two restaurants in town that aren't fast food, and treated ourselves to some wonderful Navajo tacos. For those who haven't experienced this little bit of heaven, a Navajo taco is similar to a chalupa, but served on a dinner-plate sized portion of frybread. Frybread is just that...a bit of light bread dough, flattened and stretched by hand to the desired size and deep-fried. Taco-seasoned ground beef, pinto beans, lettuce, onion, tomato and cheese are then piled on top. Sometimes avocado, too.

Monday was Budd's first day at work here, and he quickly learned that a) there's not much to keep him busy for six weeks and b) he bears an extraordinary resemblance to the superintendent of the park, a gentleman named Tom. He was greeted by several coworkers who quickly became confused when they realized he wasn't Tom.

Around 4 p.m. the Frontier phone tech showed up and quickly had our DSL modem hooked up and working. Yay! Internet! Communication, entertainment, gainful employment for me! WOOOHOOOO!!! Yeah, I was excited. Budd then tested all the peripherals and the USP went nuts everytime he tried to print to the laser printer. Hmmmm. Guess our power isn't as powerful as we have come to expect. The lights also dim when I use the hair dryer. Worst of all, the power fluctuations may have killed my WII, which powered up yesterday but won't today.

Monday evening we were invited to a 'send-off' of one of the park rangers who will be attending law-enforcement classes in Georgia for several months. There we met a number of the other employees and family members, including our duplex neighbor. We were also treated to a pot-luck supper where I sampled posole for the first time, and Budd muddled into sampling some menudo. He said the broth was good, but the tripe was like slimy turkey skin. Ick. Guess I'll pass on that, lol. Park service people seem to know how to have a good time, even (gasp) without booze. Yep...illegal on the res. If Budd had known it would be six weeks without beer, I don't know where we'd be right now, but it probably wouldn't be here. lol.

Which brings us to this morning. I was invited to take a walk with the superintendent's wife, her mother who is visiting from California, and the dog, a sweet Springer with arthritis who fortunately kept the pace comfortable for sedentary me. At a brisk 26 degrees, I still found myself sweating in my down coat. Obviously I will need to modify how I dress for these walks! Could have used a hat, too, as my ears almost broke off. But it was invigorating, and I'm looking forward to more. Pat (the mom) is fascinating...80 years old and talking of trips she wants to take to Madagascar, the Antarctic, and the Canadian Rockies. She wasn't breathing as hard as I was on the walk, either, despite the fact that she lives at sea level and we're at 5500 ft in altitude here.

Now I'm caught up to real time. I'm planning a trip to 'town' for laundry and a grocery run this afternoon, and hopefully will be back in time to float on tutor.com for a while. Have to justify the outrageous cost of installing DSL for only six weeks, lol.

Pictures soon.