May 11, 2011
We headed out of Page in the morning and began driving towards Monument Valley. We had to make a stop at Wal-Mart to buy lotion. We all have begun feeling scaly. Seriously, it's so dry that you dont even feel completely wet in the shower! Poor Steve has been getting nose bleeds in the morning because of this. I don't mind the dry air, though, because you don't get soaked with sweat even when it's hot and you don't have to use a hair dryer! Of course, my hair looks crazy, but luckily I brought a large supply of hats! My hands feel like snake skin, which is gross, and my arms and legs feel like I have a thin layer of rubber over my skin, so Gold Bond to the rescue! Also, and I can't be sure why, but everything smells faintly like a burnt match. I'm even tasting sulfer, but I don't know where it is coming from. I also have a constantly dry mouth and my face feels weird. Climate changes do weird things to me.
Although the scenery is very beautiful, after a while it all starts looking the same! Still, I couldn't stop looking out of the window! As we drove, Me. Lee found a Navajo radio station, which we listened to even though we had no idea what they were saying. I tried sending a picture to some of you from my phone, but again service was spotty at best. Maybe you'll get it one of these days.
We stopped briefly in Kayenta, Arizona because we found another shop that sold the pumpkin cookies we like! SCORE! Then we drove a bit further and entered the Land of Very Big Rocks.
One thing I had forgotten about traveling with Mr. Lee, is that he goes full on "honey badger" when it comes to take pictures. It's so funny! He has been known to climb fences, trespass, and simply drive out onto dusty ranch roads to get the perfect shot. Today was no different. First thing, he swung onto a ranch road on someone's property, within sight of their house, parked on the shoulder and walked out into a pasture. I just knew we'd get shot! I jumped out and snapped a quick shot or two, but Lee was out there for a long while. Steve and I watched him as he took pictures, and then we saw him moving some stuff around. We were too far away to really tell what he was doing. When he finally got back to the van, I asked what he had moved, and he told us it was a horse skull!! Gross! He said it added the element he needed for his picture, but still... I hope the picture was worth dragging around a skull!
We finally reached Monument Valley, and apparently, things are much nicer there than they used to be. There is a large, modern building that has a museum, gift shop, and restaurant there. It was very nice!
We Got back into the van and made our way down the semi-paved roads into Monument Valley proper! It was unbelievable!
I've never seen anything like it before. I mean, I've seen pictures, but none of them do it justice. The buttes were just enormous and red and beautiful. Mr. Lee and I took dozens of photos. We'd drive, stop, jump out and take pictures. It was so much fun. I got scared that Mr. Lee was going to fall off of a cliff, because he was so wrapped up in taking his pictures that he didn't seem to be watching where he was going. Luckily, though, we all made it out alive. There were a few bad moments where I thought I was going to barf, because the roads were terrible. They were not much more than ranch trails, and driving on them shook us around terribly. I didn't barf, but it was a close call.
Oooooooh! We saw tumbleweeds! Real, live, tumbling tumbleweeds!!! I squeed.
It was still cold, and it got very windy. At the first stop, a gust of wind hurled sand and dust into my face and it got into my eyes and stuck in my lip gloss. Yuck. If the wind hadn't been blowing, it probably wouldn't have been cold. Oh well, I still say it's better than being hot!
We took pictures for several hours, and went to Gouldman's Trading Post museum and restaurant for lunch. It was fun walking through the museum!
After that, we moved on to the Four Corners, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet! It was the ultimate foot picture opportunity!
An epic place for a foot picture!
We walked around the center point, and Steve took pictures of my feet in each state. I realized while looking at them that I'm so pale that I look green. It's not easy, you know.
We were staying in Cortez, Colorado, and when we got to our hotel it turned out we got a honking big suite. We think it might have been an apartment at some point, because the dimensions didn't make sense when compared to the rest of the hotel. Also, Steve and I found a creepy little kitchen right off of our bedroom.
*Psycho Music*
It's old and doesn't look or smell as if it had been used in a long time. It also has a doorway to the outside, so we were a bit creeped out thinking that someone could just walk into our room in the middle of the night. We locked the door and hoped no weird people would walk in and try to spoon us in the middle of the night. The hotel is great, but that kitchen just doesn't make sense and it weirded me out.
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