wispfox

Poor museum must feel unloved.

It's a really neat place, with a geology room, a dinosaur room, and multiple rooms about the local Native American tribes both ancestors and present. Lots of pictures are to be had!

And I can't recall if I linked the pictures from my night camping right before the fire. Peektures!

I went to a state park south of Winslow, where I could camp for free near a lake.

Was reminded that the hot weather means that I don't actually need a campfire to make s'mores (good thing!), as the chocolate is already totally melty and requires squeezing out of the package, and the marshmallows are all melty and squished together. Sure, they are not toasted or burnt, but that's ok!

The gorp I made way at the beginning of the trip included chocolate chips, not m&ms, as I recalled 'chocolate' and did not consider the effect of loose chocolate in a hot climate. So now I have clumped, gooey, sticky gorp. :) (for 'early in the trip and I forgot to mention' value of 'now')

I am pleased by being able to look at the stars, although the lateness of dusk does mean I don't really stay up much to look at them. Still, though. I _can_!

The ranger for the state park lived nearby, and I had unfortunately situated the tent such that it was basically impossible to hide from the artificial and _bright_ lights outside his family's place.

Was ok, though. Free, and I did sleep.

And I did leave stuff set up, since the lake and minimal greenery around, as well as the proximity to a park ranger made me think I was ok from the perspective of fire.

I had still not seen the Hopi cultural center, so that was my first goal. As per all things in Hopiland, there was no photography. Alas! I unfortunately do not remember what of the things I did in Hopiland was specific to this last visit, so cannot say much. I do _like_ Hopi people, though!

Now, the 1.5 hour drive to Navajo National Monument. Had a bit of trouble finding it at first, due to believing the GPS, and finally just ignored it and followed map directions. I had forgotten that Navajo Nation was an hour ahead of Arizona, though, and made it there after they closed. Looked around a bit, simply because I could, and then decided to go back to where I had left the camp.

Pictures, BTW.

This was... a 3 hour drive. Because I was silly and forgot to account for how long it would take me to get _back_ again when deciding to leave my camp there. Sigh.

So... the GPS in the vehicle I was renting did _not_ know anything about avoiding unpaved roads. And the cigarette lighter refused to work with my phone, where my TomTom GPS software was. I frequently had to ignore it telling me to take an unpaved road, and then bitch about turning around to take it. This was bad enough. Worse, though, was when it took me down a paved road that became unpaved over 10 miles into it.

Because I hoped it might turn back to paved, I stayed on it. And it did, eventually, but then I had to turn onto another - unpaved - road. Gra! Stupid GPS.

And then, to top it off, I got a flat tire (quite possibly because of the road, but unclear). And - though I later determined that it did in fact exist - could not find the jack. Called roadside emergency service. Turned out that they could not find me, but while I was on hold while they tried, a Navajo man was kind enough to stop and find out what was wrong (another car had simply passed by). After finding out that I could not find the jack, he went back home to get his own (this probably took 20 minutes, although I did not time it). The emergency services people came back, and could not find me, as he had said would happen. They gave me the police number, in case he did not return. When he returned, I mentioned this and he noted that they tend to take 4-24 hours to respond to calls. So I'm _REALLY_ glad he stopped and helped!

With his help (mostly, his jack!), the tire was replaced with the spare. I did not really know how fast was safe to go on it, so went about 10mph on the rest of the unpaved road (~5 miles) until it turned into paved (he had mentioned that it would, which was good to know!). After I was on paved again, I drove 35mph until I got to the major road I was headed for, so that I could explain where I was if I needed to, and called Hertz to find out what I needed to do and how fast I could go on this tire. That was about an hour of driving _REALLY SLOWLY_.

Hertz said that it was rated at 55mph for over 100 miles (they gave the number and I forget), so that I was ok to get to the campsite and then to Flagstaff the next day to get yet another car. So the rest of my drive took probably another 2 hours. Now, keep in mind that the drive from the National Monument was supposed to take less than 3 hours. So I expected, initially, to get to camp around 8-ish, sunset. I actually _got_ there around... 10? 10:30? That was a _VERY_ long day.

And yes, I do know where the jack is in the car I currently have.

I have to say, I didn't _like_ the car I was in, but I certainly didn't wish it ill. Nor did I particularly want to buy a new tire, but at least it was not that expensive! (might have been covered by insurance, but the deductible was much higher than the tire cost)

Largely because I don't remember timing!

Via NPR: The Zombie Theory of Foreign Policy. There was an actual interview with the author, but I couldn't find it so I linked to someone else's. :)

Also via NPR: God particle signal is simulated as sound.

I was confused to notice at some point the very whiteness of the skin on my ankles and thought it might be very dry skin. It is, in fact, actually just the color of my skin! But the fact that I'm somewhat tanned and had been mostly seeing Hopi and Navajo around that time meant that I was mis-parsing my skin color as being a wrongness, rather than a reality. Very odd cognitive dissonance there!

It is basically impossible to be clean, and the dirt mostly being red is just strange. :)

So I got to the camp very late, but then it was all sorts of windy and I had apparently not stakes the ends of the tent taut enough, because the edges were far too close to my head and they were also _moving_ due to the winds. Had much trouble falling asleep, partly due to the wind and late arrival, and probably partly due to recovering from the flat tire fiasco.

Then, the next morning, there was a very noisy dog very very early. This made for a tired and cranky me! But ok, I packed everything up, and headed north to the Navajo National Monument. This time, they were open, so I got info from them about their campsites for the following night, as it was very much time for a shower and I wanted to be indoors due to the windy tent problem.

I went to Monument Valley Tribal Park, determined that lodging in the Navajo Nation is horrifically expensive even before their taxes (I had, in fact, forgotten tax relating to the place I stayed in Canyon de Chelly; yikes), and ended up driving to stay in Bluff, UT that night. There were a lot of interesting things in Bluff, but I plan to be there later in the trip!

Next morning, noticed that there had theoretically been wi-fi, but whatever. Needed shower and sleep desperately!

Went down to Monument Valley, taking many pictures on the way, and after visiting their visitor's center, took a jeep tour. Because I was in no rush (did wait about 2 hours), and talked to the driver as I was passing by, I got a $10 discount on the tour, which was cool.

_Very_ gorgeous - if strange - scenery. Many pictures. :) The driver/tour guide guy brought me an ancient & tiny shell of which there are pictures, which I have since dropped on the floor near the passenger's seat and would like to find! It's very cool that he thought I'd appreciate it, since I totally did! Shells are not precisely current time objects in the middle of a desert. :)

After this, I headed to a campsite in Navajo National Monument, getting there early enough to set up camp before the sun set, barely. Again with the amusing s'mores, and the stars. Haven't been far enough in wilderness since that first day to hear coyotes, though, sadly.

Left the campsite, and headed back south.

Randomly stopped at a place advertising dinosaur tracks. Have many pictures. Did not know that red jasper is fossilized coral! Startling number of tracks, plus a space where dino bones had been removed for museums, and numerous eggs (perhaps fish?). Pictures!

Continued on to Cameron Trading Post, where I saw there museum, among other things. _SO_ amazing! Pictures!

Somewhere in here, I called a Flagstaff hostel to figure out what night this weekend I could get a room to myself (that night would be tonight!), and reserve it.

Stopped at Wupatki National Monument's visitor's center 5 minutes before it closed, to ask about Flagstaff camping. They said that the campground across from Sunset Crater National Monument, Bonito had opened that day, even though the fire was still going and it was smoky there. I figured that I could deal with smoke for a day in order to be actually near the area I was planning to be in, so headed there. Except the gate was closed!

So, sighing, I headed back to the campground in Winslow (forever the earworm!). Got there with more than enough time to spare to set up camp, have a s'more (what? They're tasty!), and figure out what I was going to do with the time between now and when I must leave to get

galaneia and

metahacker.

I did manage to not be near the very bright light this time, too! And had enough tautness in the tent and the stakes that I did not have as much trouble with the wind.

I decided to visit Sedona today, since it ought to not take that much time, and I could call to let the hostel know if I was going to be later than expected.

However, between Winslow and Flagstaff is Walnut Canyon National Monument. I decided that I had enough time, and stopped there. Only one of the two trails was open, the one which involves a very effort-ful climb up a lot of stairs at the end. Pictures of Walnut Canyon. Muchly tired and sweaty and looking forward to tonight's shower, I continued on to Sedona.

Sedona is... rather absurdly touristy. It reminded me of where I grew up, in terms of crowded & busy road full of tourists to get there and in terms of crowded & busy sidewalks full of rather... boring shops (not all were; the dress I am currently wearing is from there!). After being very disgruntled about the whole thing, I got myself some ice cream, and sat and watched people while eating it. Decided this was enough of Sedona for me, briefly stopped at the grocery store, and headed back up (both in altitude and northward) to Flagstaff & the hostel.

Stopped at a scenic vista place, chatted with the staff there, and took some pictures. Sedona pictures. Realized I was running late, but had no signal. Stopped somewhere that I had signal, and let the hostel know that I was still on the way!

Am now there, uploading pictures (slooow! I clearly take too many pictures!) and generally getting my internets stuff done and cleaned up.

There will eventually be photos from the Navajo National Monument (and the flagstaff fire), Bluff, and Monument Valley. Once they finish uploading. I have no idea what I have and have not tagged or sorted at this point.

metahacker and

galaneia in half a week!