Keep your eyes on the road, hands upon the wheel–A South West RT-The End!Bonus Tracks

[franandaj]

Soon we were back at the hotel. It was kind of a plain looking building but that helped it blend into the hills a little easier.





This was the main entrance to the hotel portion.



And waaaaay down there was our room.



By this time it had been several hours since breakfast and we were ready for lunch. I realized one key ingredient that I had not packed. Sometimes we had them in the car, but today we were all out of salt packets. I decided to go on a reconnaissance mission to the restaurant under the cover of a tourist taking pictures. This is the second floor walkway that connects the hotel to the restaurant/gift shop area.



Hello parking lot



Hello car.



Looking over the railing down to the first floor lobby.











Here is the path to the visitor’s area.



Here are the outside seating areas for guests.







See our room all the time way at the end of the building on the top floor?



And then I went back inside to look for the salt.



The only way that I could heist any salt packets was by stealing an entire set of cutlery, a napkin, with salt and pepper. They were all packed up together in a little sealed piece of plastic. So with my salt and extra goodies in hand, it was back to the room. We had our Chicken Salad Sandwiches, with chips.



And a view.



[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

We both decided that we wanted some internet time, and went to the lobby with our computers. Our evening tour began at 5:00PM, so around 4PM I suggested we start packing up and head back to the room to change and have a little snack. Just as we were about to shut down our computers, our guide Duffy came in the lobby.

“You’re early,” I said. “We were just going back to the room to change and get ready for the tour.”

“Well I’m not sure you’re going to see anything out there. It is so windy and dusty out there that you can barely see 5 feet in front of you.”

It was at that point we decided that we were going have to come back in two years and try this all over again. Maybe this time we would include a stop at the Grand Canyon. So he called the payables lady, she came up to the hotel and gave us our refund. We spent about another hour in the lobby surfing the internet. If you were wondering where I found all the time to update this report and the PTR with my goings on at D-land, it was this night.

I actually wrote two or three updates for this TR and saved them to post over the next couple days. I also took some pictures of what it looked like outside. If you look beyond this butte and see all the dust, Mystery Valley is back there.







Even the main Valley was kinda dusty too.





Notice how the light changes as the sun is setting.











Just a few more….







I decided to give the Sunset a go. These pictures were taken out my hotel room window instead of the balcony I stood on the other night. It was so windy outside that we could hear the wind whipping up against the building. I really didn’t want to stand out there in all that.











After the Sunset, I made us some Jambalaya in the Microwave. I also made a salad for me and some sliced veggies for Fran.





I caught the last half of one of the Harry Potter movies on the TV, now I remember, it was the first part of the last movie because I still teared up when they buried Dobie. Sorry for the spoiler, but if you didn’t know that happened, you’ve had long enough to either read the books or watch the movies!

Next up, the Road Trip adventure resumes. And it IS an adventure!

 

[PrincessInOz]

No star tour......and now no Mystery Valley either?????


I think a trip to Gouldings might be in order next time. That's definitely much better value for breakfast.


LOVE the sunset pictures. I need to get back here again at some time in my life. Glad you've got your return trip planned for 2 years hence.

 

[rentayenta]

I'm glad you enjoyed the beautiful red rocks. Having lived here for 20 years, I'm totally over it. Bummer no starry sky though, would have been beautiful but cool you got a refund. Lots of companies wouldn't have done that.

Can't wait for the next part of this adventure.

 

[jedijill]

That stinks that the weather didn't cooperate with your star tour but that was cool that they immediately processed your refund. The desert is still beautiful even with the haze.

Jill in CO

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Sorry if it’s kinds of repetitive, I did choose only a few of the pictures that I took!

I don't know if you can ever get tired of the view, though.

For anyone curious about what this place looks like, it’s nothing fancy, but does the job.

My kinda place.

This must have been fun cutting the spot for this road.

Bring out the dynamite!

I’d be a little wary of staying at this hotel perched on a cliff right there.

Marketing slogan: We Haven't Fallen Off the Cliff Yet!

So anyways, I googled “Mexican Hat” for a totally different reason, and it turns out that this rock structure is why the town is named Mexican Hat. DOH!

There was a painting of this scene on the wall in our hotel room. I was pleased when we saw this and I recognized where the picture on the wall depicted.

Cool! Now you just need 3 ladies posing randomly.

The only way that I could heist any salt packets was by stealing an entire set of cutlery, a napkin, with salt and pepper.

This reminds me of the time my old college roommate wanted to have some cereal in the dorm in the morning, so he stole dishes from the dining hall. Amazing they didn't catch him, what with his backpack clinking and clanging the whole way back.

“Well I’m not sure you’re going to see anything out there. It is so windy and dusty out there that you can barely see 5 feet in front of you.”

Well, crud.

Next up, the Road Trip adventure resumes. And it IS an adventure!

 

[franandaj]

No star tour......and now no Mystery Valley either?????


I think a trip to Gouldings might be in order next time. That's definitely much better value for breakfast.


LOVE the sunset pictures. I need to get back here again at some time in my life. Glad you've got your return trip planned for 2 years hence.

I know. I was really bummed! Part of me still wanted to go out there as bad as it was going to be, but Fran talked sense into me.

While the View is the place to stay if you can swing it, Gouldings is the place to eat. Much better value for the meals. They did do a lot of "bus tours" filled with European tourists, but it didn't detract from our meals. We seemed to get in there just before the busses arrived. Now I can see if you got in there just as a bus arrived it might have been different.

One bus (the lunch we had) was allowed to choose from the menu. The bus that arrived just after breakfast, everyone was served Navajo tacos, so I guess each bus tour has varying levels of choice for their meals.

I'm glad you enjoyed the beautiful red rocks. Having lived here for 20 years, I'm totally over it. Bummer no starry sky though, would have been beautiful but cool you got a refund. Lots of companies wouldn't have done that.

Can't wait for the next part of this adventure.

I love the rocks! I think most of the Indian tours would have refunded money if the tour couldn't happen. I'm just not sure how many tours would have been up front about the visuals being sub par. There might have been some that would have taken us out there and seen nothing, but I don't know that.

Monument Valley Safaris - Love them! Everyone going to MV book these folks they ARE great!

That stinks that the weather didn't cooperate with your star tour but that was cool that they immediately processed your refund. The desert is still beautiful even with the haze.

Jill in CO

This company was great to work with.

I don't know if you can ever get tired of the view, though.

I think you're right!

My kinda place.

I liked it too!

Bring out the dynamite!

Marketing slogan: We Haven't Fallen Off the Cliff Yet!

Now that's a good one! Do you work in Marketing for the Transit Authority?

Cool! Now you just need 3 ladies posing randomly.

This reminds me of the time my old college roommate wanted to have some cereal in the dorm in the morning, so he stole dishes from the dining hall. Amazing they didn't catch him, what with his backpack clinking and clanging the whole way back.

my pockets were not clinking with the sound of plastic utensils!

Well, crud.

I said a little more than that.

 

[Leshaface]

Noooooo not DOBBY!!!





Hehe jk

Ugh, can't believe both your tours got cancelled. You're definitely going to have to go back in a few years for those shots.

So does Fran not like her veggies mixed?? Or does she not like salads?

 

[franandaj]

Noooooo not DOBBY!!!





Hehe jk

Ugh, can't believe both your tours got cancelled. You're definitely going to have to go back in a few years for those shots.

So does Fran not like her veggies mixed?? Or does she not like salads?

I know. To say I was bummed about the tours wouldn't even come close to the sentiment that I was feeling. Somehow putting a little entry in my vacation spreadsheet for April 2016 SW road trip redo made me feel a tiny bit better.

It's not that she doesn't like salads or mixed veggies, sometimes at home she'll ask me to slice her a cucumber before dinner to curb her appetite for the higher caloric items. I only wanted half the tomato on my salad so she said she would eat the other half with her sliced cucumber. It was more of "don't waste it" kind of thing.

 

[rentayenta]

2016 road trip? Do tell!

 

[ACDSNY]

The weather just wasn't cooperating with you on this trip, sorry your evening tour was cancelled. A repeat is definitely in order.

 

[franandaj]

2016 road trip? Do tell!

That's all there is to tell. We need a MV redo!

The weather just wasn't cooperating with you on this trip, sorry your evening tour was cancelled. A repeat is definitely in order.

Yeah, just wait.

 

[franandaj]

I woke up on our last morning at Monument Valley determined to get some sunrise photos. I knew that even if I started packing, I still had a few hours until Fran was up and about. I was probably up before 6AM waiting to see the sun poke it’s little head out from the horizon.



I’m not sure if it’s the leftover dirt in the air that is causing all the variations in color in the sky, but I like it!







One thing that I love about shooting on “manual” is that you can tailor your settings to bring out the deeper colors. Even though the sun had risen higher in the sky at this point, I was able to speed up the shutter to give the impression of a darker skyline and thus really contrast the blues with the orange and purple hues in the sky.







I also liked the variation of shooting the entire valley vs a lone monument in the shots. I have to decide which ones I like best and in the new house, I think I will start a wall with framed photos of some of the beautiful places we’ve been.











Then the sun began to rise too high in the sky for any more sunrise photography.





And the sunshine cascaded over the valley floor.



Now this monument outside our window was beautifully lit.



And it was time to get Fran up for this:



[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

We finished packing and I had the car loaded and ready to go by 9:30AM. Our guides were in the lobby chatting, probably having just finished another sunrise tour. What a gig, huh? Spending your mornings watching the sunrise from beautiful locations every day.

Anyways, we said our “Goodbyes” and promised we would call them in a couple years for a rain check. On our way out of the park we finally took these shots that most people take upon arrival.









This poor little horse was on the wrong side of his fence and seemed rather agitated about how he was going to get back.



One interesting thing about Indian country was that they didn’t really have many fences like in urban neighborhoods. Someone’s house would be out in the middle of the prairie, their horses would be grazing hundreds of feet away from the structure and there were no fences marking territory, like the (for lack of a better word) “white man” seems so concerned with. Their concept of space and sharing seems quite different to the way that most of us are brought up to believe. Anyways!

We stopped in Kayenta for gas and a snack at Mickey D’s. Somehow we had used up an hour and a half from the time of loading the car to arrival at the drive through. I know this because we tried to order breakfast and they told us that it was 11AM and they no longer served breakfast! Oh well, all I wanted was an iced coffee anyways. Fran got something to snack on and we were finally officially on our way.

We still didn’t have internet access, I was trying to use my Waze navigator and it couldn’t get a signal. Plus my friend house sitting the plants was trying to text me photos of the work going on at the house (new HVAC system) and they wouldn’t go through. It’s amazing how we come to depend on our phones and how lost we are when they are out of service!

Here’s where Fran and I had our first difference of opinion. I wanted to take State Highway 98 that cut off about 60-80 miles to cut across to Page, but Fran wanted to take the Interstate Highway 160 back through Tuba City to the Interstate 89. PIO I guess you must have taken the long way too since you went through Tuba City….

Anyways in hindsight, now I know why she wanted to do this, but she insisted that she wanted to stop in Tuba City again. I took this to my advantage. If you remember a few posts back I said that if I ever had the chance to eat a Navajo Cheeseburger again, I was going to do it? I demanded that if we were going through Tuba City again, we had to have lunch at that same place we ate a few days before. “Sure.” She said. Well that was easy!

I wasn’t taking pictures along the route since we had already taken pictures on the way in. Besides the trip wasn’t very long to Tuba City and we arrived at just around noon. We both got the Navajo Burger and fries.





And of course frybread for dessert.



About 5 miles before we got to town, I realized that we had 4G coverage again, so we both spent most of lunch on our phones, looking up things and I did some DISing. As we were finishing lunch Fran found a response to an email she had sent the night before. Evidently she had sorted her favorite eBay sellers of Navajo Jewelry by distance from Monument Valley, then she emailed them to find out their locations. One of her favorites had a storefront in Tuba City. Guess where we were going next?



We ended up with a few “old pawn” Indian items. Fran explained to me that back in the day, it was safer for the Indians to keep their special ceremonial turquoise jewelry at the pawn shop rather than at home. When they needed the jewelry they would take it out of pawn for wearing and then put it back for safe keeping. Eventually some of the folks would either die, run out of money, or any other unfortunate circumstances and their pieces would go up for sale. This was the kind of stuff that Fran was looking for, not the trinkets that the Indians make now to sell to the white people.

We lucked out and found a couple things. This is why we brought cash, those of you know who Fran, know that she is all about the “credit card miles” if she can get them. If she can get a “deal” with cash, well then she is all about that even more. The woman who owns the store made us a pretty good deal on these items. I got a necklace and some barrettes.





Fran got a belt buckle.



But this was the real piece of the day. I’m only showing you two of the medallions, but they repeat throughout the belt. This piece was done by a man (he is now deceased), but the woman in the shop said that many of his pieces are in museums for his handcrafted work.



Pawn jewelry craving satisfied, we were finally able to move on with our tip into other adventures.

 

[kid-at-heart]

And the sunshine cascaded over the valley floor.

This one is my favorite. All are awesome but this scene seems "peaceful".

Kate

 

[ACDSNY]

Beautiful sunrise pics and cool turquoise. Fran picked up a great piece. I guess I'll have to wake up early one morning if I ever get a chance to stay there.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Gorgeous sunrise shots, Alison!
The hard thing is to pick which one to blow up for the wall.


And the jewellery is amazing! Well done and great shopping. You got lovely lovely pieces.




We didn't go the long way round. I knew we made a mistake when we got to Tuba City so I made DH turn around and head back up the 89. It was definitely about 90 minutes quicker to turn around than to head towards the alternative route.

 

[jedijill]

The sunrise photos are stunning!

Love the jewelry...the belt is truly a work of art.

Jill in CO

 

[Luvchefmic]

Beautiful sunrise photos I really like the first necklace and of course you know I am thinking about that beautiful young horse out there

 

[rentayenta]

Wow wow wow on the jewelry. Love big turquoise pieces.