Too funny. Last Chinle craziness. We needed a 5x8 Uhaul to pack up for Ajo. This location didn't have any, just 6x10s. So Uhaul corporate calls us and says Budd's pickup won't pull one of those, it's too big. They'd give us a 10' truck and auto dolly for the same price. Then they called back and said he'd have to disconnect the drive shaft on the pickup for that to work. No place or tools to do that, so they'll give us an auto transport trailer, still for the same price. He gets to the local dealership, and their 10' truck is stuck in the mud, so they'll give us a 14' truck for the same price. We're finally getting our money's worth, but now we've got way too much room in the truck.

We have loaded almost everything in the truck...1 layer of boxes, and still have room for more on the bottom. Does anyone have about 500 cubic feet of something they want to send from Chinle to Ajo?

We'll be on the road for about half a day tomorrow and half again on Sunday. Ajo is still full of people building the virtual fence, so we have a little cottage that normally rents by the night for two weeks at least.

When we were getting ready for Canyon de Chelly, we knew that we would have a two-bedroom, 1 bath house, but had no idea what size it would be or what amenities, if any, we'd find. I thought that was adventurous, but here I am 10 weeks later moving from this little house to the real unknown. We have no idea how long we'll have to wait before we can rent something appropriate, or where we'll store what's in the truck until that happens. I think I'm beginning to understand what people go through who are homeless.

I find myself wishing we hadn't brought so much stuff with us, including the things that got here accidentally that were supposed to have been left in storage in Salt Lake. For example, Budd's big stand-up poster of the Rolling Stones Voodoo tour, that stowed away completely without our knowledge.

It reminds me, once again of a song from my mother's era that she used to sing when we were going on trips: We're on our way, pack up our grip, and if we stay, we won't be back! How can we go, we haven't got a dime, but we're goin' and we're gonna have a happy time!

See you on the other side.