You turn off the highway, go though a booth charging $3.00 per person and you arrive in a huge sand parking lot. There is a large square with about 10 10’ x 10’ booths or stalls on a side where Navajo merchants have set up their wares to sell. Inside this is a large cement square and in the center of this is a circle divided into fourths. Yep, the spot where 4 states meet. You’d have thought it the center of the universe with all the people about taking pictures. Everyone has their own pose there, some look like they’re playing Twister, some are on all fours, others just stand in the middle. People must have been planning these poses for days.
Me, I sat in the middle, Gary lounged on the 4. Then, after we had taken a picture of the Canadian couple, they took a picture of us.
We then left. That was it.
However, we did have more planned. And, would you guess it was hiking? We had read about a neat hike which wound up a canyon around a cliff honeycombed with cliff dwellings. As we walked along the bottom of the cliff, we kept peering around the trees up at the cliffs trying to find cliff dwellings. Like a treasure hunt, we’d come around a corner, gaze through the trees, peer up at the cliffs and exclaim: there’s one. And, yes we found a lot. Of course, sometimes the trail markers said: ‘spur’ and then there were little signs that said ‘please keep out, fragile area.’ We read all the clues. I was surprised that the BLM pointed out the cliff dwellings, given the prevalence of vandalism these days. But they were amazingly intact after 800 years.
I am amazed at the work it took to get the building materials up into their cliff and then to build a home up there on that uneven stone, sloping down, using the contours of the stone around them. And, looking at the terrain through which we were hiking, I was amazed that they could make a living there, growing their crops and catching what small animals they could. It was sandy, rocky, uneven and riddled with small canyons - not like the flat-forever, black soil fields in Iowa that I’m so used to.
It was an overcast day so the hiking was cooler. The views up the canyon were stupendous and the finding of the cliff dwellings made it all the more special.
As we left, we noticed this pretty special RV in the parking lot. It is obviously an ‘Adventure’ RV with high clearance, 4-wheel drive and indestructible sides. Not like our ‘snowbird’ RV.
Afterwards, we headed towards Walmart. When we travel, we find it easier to get our alendronate prescriptions at Walmart. When we need to fill a prescription we can get Walmart to transfer it from the last place we stopped. Very handy. And, it became even handier when I noticed that they had no one in their salon and I could get my hair cut with no wait. Hoo, boy, does it get any better than this?
Getting a haircut when you travel is a crapshoot, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs. No matter how much you pay or where you go, they are not your usual person, are not used to your hair and do not know how you like your hair cut. I don’t understand why they always cut it too short. You’d think they’d cut it longer so you’d come back sooner and they’d make more money. But, no-o-o, it’s always a bit short. The saving grace is: IT ALWAYS GROWS OUT. Today I got Katie.
She did a great job. She cut it a bit shorter than I had thought I had told her (natch) but she gave it a little ‘style.’ She added some - who knows what, squished it with her fingers and let the curl shine through. Best haircut I’ve had since I quit work and left my regular person, Renee, who worked in downtown Des Moines. And, so easy to take care of: I just wash it, squish it with my fingers and let it dry. for the first time in my life, I’m not fighting the curls.
Back to the RV, dinner, showers and relax. It’s moving day tomorrow.
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