Back in business

12 October

We laid low Sunday. The owner of the campground, who grew up in the area, gave us a  couple of recommendations for places to get the motorhome fixed. So in the morning we left the campground and got to Sweetland’s Automotive by 9:00. We ate breakfast in the Roadtrek while waiting for a lift to become available. They found that the hose going into the fuel filter was loose. The clips holding it were gone. The mechanic made a temporary fastening — with cable ties, I believe. Then they power washed the undercarriage to get rid of the diesel there.

About 1:15 we were off toward Navajo Lake. It took an hour and a half to get there. Everything in this desert is a long ways away. 

Navajo Lake is the second largest lake in New Mexico, which explained why we occasionally saw boats parked in people's yards here in the desert. I took some pictures, including this interesting scene on the way back.

How convenient to have a place to go out here in the middle of the desert.

We headed back to the Aztec Visitor’s Center. We arrived just as it was closing (4:00 o’clock). We wanted to see some of the 200+ arches in the area, so we got another Arches brochure (because we couldn’t find the first one). Then headed off to the first (and easiest) one. After six miles on a washboard county road in which things were shaken off shelves, etc., and 1.3 miles of dirt — rutted but smoother — we found it. Disappointingly, it is small and low. The arches hereabouts are not very impressive. I took pictures anyway, then headed for home.

 

 

 13 October

After a few chores, we left and found a Wells Fargo for Jean to do some business. Then it was off to the Four Corners Monument via Teec Nos Pos. This is a Navajo town that comes up occasionally in the Hillerman novels. We spent a couple of hours at the Monument, taking pictures and shopping the Indian vendors who were set up around the edge.

For those who may not know, the Four Corners Monument marks the only spot in the country where four states come together at the same point. Sometimes you see people contorting themselves in order to have different parts of the body in different states.

Then we drove to Hovenweep, where we spent about an hour. There is a fairly rough trail around the edge of the canyon, including a stretch where you go down into the canyon and back up again. I was too tired to do the whole thing, and Jean was spooked when a ranger told us he saw a small rattlesnake. The dwellings at Hovenweep are on the canyon rim and seem to be mostly towers.

We didn’t see any rattlers but there was a bunny rabbit along the path back to the visitor center.

After wandering around in the desert like the Israelites, we ran out of sun in Bluff, ID. We stopped in a campground there, where the owner was a woman of Norwegian heritage. We had an expensive but delicious dinner at a nearby steak house. We walked home in pitch dark (with a flashlight). It was so dark we could see the Milky Way and hundreds of stars.

We're really getting in to this area. What will tomorrow bring?