leaving tucumcari . .
once again, we had a breakfast compliments of the motel (it's the thing to do these days . . i don't remember this from when i traveled with my parents). they actually had oatmeal which was good. i also had a grapefruit and my own tea which i made with their hot water.
we were then on the road . . again . .
historic route 66 . .
mesas are beginning to appear . .
i love the brown hills and the red earth . .
it's looking very western!
we stopped for food and snacks at whole foods in albuquerque . .
i was excited about everything here . . the brown hills . .
the hot dry air . .
all the juices at the juice bar . .
the little cactus plants (these are a few of chanda's pics) . .
but especially the orange juice squeezer machine! anytime i drink fresh orange juice i'm reminded of the time my uncle had me pick an orange from his tree in woodland hills, california, and then proceeded to squeeze the fresh juice out with his special electric juice machine . . it's always so delicious.
a view of the hills at check out . .
and then we were on the road again . . on the big highways . . we took interstate 40 to 491, to 264 and then to 191 up to chinle. the following pics are from this route:
we were hoping to find a nice rest area with a picnic table, but that didn't happen.
instead we stopped at this travel center to eat our lunch (it wasn't the cleanest . . but at least it had a bench in the shade) . .
my special salad from whole foods: kale, tomatoes and mushrooms with walnuts and acai vinaigrette.
after lunch and back in the car, we started climbing a higher elevation . . i love the brown hills and the green shrubs . .
and red mudstone and layers of sandstone that make up so much of new mexico's hills and mesas. it's very complicated, but i found a geologist's blog that describes a bit of the process. you can read scott renbarger's blog post titled "it's sedimentary, my dear watson," here. it's very interesting!
we're now on the navajo reservation . .
elevation 7000 feet!
horses . .
and cattle . .
(i'm working on my loop shawl through this . . )
and then, finally, we're there! chinle is a small navajo town with a national park in its midst. we made it to the visitor center with an hour to spare, because we gained an hour, thank goodness! we rolled in at 5 pm, but it turned into 4 pm.
we bought a motoring guide for a dollar and visited the first two overlooks, tunnel and tsegi.
piñon pine . .
and utah juniper . .
houses in the canyon . .
a woman was selling her beaded necklaces and her father's gemstone earrings in the parking lot. chanda bought a pretty pair of orange brown posts to wear for the ballet intensive.
we next visited the cottonwood campground where chanda and i used the bathroom. it was very clean and i was prepared to stay, but chanda pointed out that there were a million spiders crawling all over the ground! there were also hundreds of grasshoppers that sprang up around our feet at every step we took to the bathroom. i looked around again at the campsites and surmised that, perhaps, that was why there weren't any tents! there were only three small trailers in the whole place . . it was really quite empty. we ended up staying at the thunderbird lodge, directly next door to the campground. i enjoyed this, as the last time i had been through with my family in 1990, we had visited the lodge to pick up our jeep tour through the canyon. i thought it had looked nice to stay in, and now here we were! of course now it felt kind of old and rundown, more like the motels my parents and sister and i stayed in on our first trip across (i think that was in 1967). i was glad chanda could get a a feel for an old motel that was still quaint and charming!
the ford freestyle with an oil spill on the ground . . what broke and spilled? a special something of morgana's that we had brought to protect us from mosquitos! we're so sorry morgana!!! we feel so bad! it was so nice! we hope you can bring more again, maybe? someday?!
the beautiful trees on the grounds of the lodge . . i think they were cottonwood.
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