Wandering Spirit

So much to say…

I’ll start by telling you I’m happy with the new mods. Probably my favorite done by Konrad is the double step. My hip joints are already feeling much better thank you.

The TV is now hanging securely from the celling in the corner. It’s good to have a place to put it, instead of trying to store it safely. Also, maybe I’ll use it from time to time now. Up till now I’ve only hooked it up once.

As for the window tinting, I love it, and that includes the new window in the door. It’s so nice to have some privacy and still be able to see outside.

So now, onward! I’m finished with scheduled appointments, and we have no reservations anywhere, so “I’m Free!” (That’s the title of a Stones song from the 60’s, remember? 🙂

We leave the Phoenix suburbs behind gladly, and head southwest…not too far…to I-8 and about 13 miles beyond Gila Bend (population 2000). We exit at Painted Rock Road, and travel the paved road for 11 more miles and that brings us to Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and the adjoining campground.

This is BLM (Bureau Of Land Management) land and it costs $8 a night to camp here. With my Senior Pass (any US citizen can get this at age 62 for $10) it’s $4 a night. There are no hookups, and no water spigots. There are 2 pit-potties, and every site has a cement picnic table and a fire pit. If you just want to go visit the petroglyphs, it’s $2 for day use, including covered picnic tables and one of the potty areas. No dogs allowed near the petroglyphs.

This is my campsite

Last night the moon was just a sliver, but the sky was literally bright with a thousand million amazing stars. Wow. The clear night sky with minimal light pollution leaves me speechless.

Last evenings sunset reflected in WS’s newly tinted read window.

Bonus! Four dots (bars) of 3G AT&T. I talk to the camp hosts today and they tell me that Verizon is good here too. They point out the towers to me on a distant hill. Add to that there are 60 campsites here and 7 are in use. I asked how long I can stay and they tell me I can stay all winter if I want to. They indicate there is a dump and water in the town of Gila Bend.

Another bonus. Mail is delivered here. USPS, UPS, and FedEx, Monday through Friday.

Well I’ll be. I don’t want to stay all winter but it’s good to know all that, and know I can come here whenever I would like.

This mornings sun rise.

This morning I go to see the petroglyphs. Joy and Shiloh wait in JR. The sign says that these pictures go back some 7500 years!

This is the mound of rocks from a distance.

People have been busy here!

The dark slick coating of the rocks were just right for pecking pictures with special tools.

If we could only really understand….

Yes, here we are in Surprise, Arizona. It’s one of the many suburbs of Phoenix, with endless shopping malls and strips, that run into the next burb, in all directions. It also has endless, huge RV resorts where snowbirds come for the winter, with all the conveniences of home, and then some. I’m not at one of the big resorts. I’m at a little dinky RV Park with a lot of full time residents. I have a nice grassy yard though with palm trees and a yucca and some other lovely bushy tree that the birds love.

Anyway, Surprise has something that no one else has and that’s Victor at Fantasy Window Tinting. WS is going to get her windows tinted! And JR is going to get her two front-side windows tinted. (The rest were tinted when I bought her.)

So that’s the surprise in Surprise. It’s all going down tomorrow morning at 9am. Fantasy Window Tinting is only a couple miles from Donorma RV Park where we are staying.

I’m very excited about this because I’m tired of the fish bowl effect, and feeling like I need to keep the curtains drawn.

I chose Victor to do this job because he comes highly recommended. I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

Friday morning I plan to leave the big city behind and head for the boonies. I’ve got somewhere in mind that I’ve not been yet and I’m hoping it works out. Not sure if I’ll have a decent internet connection there. I’m considering getting a second carrier, at least for emergencies. Anyone have suggestions about that especially for southern Arizona? I realize the obvious answer is Verizon, but I’ve talked to them and their ‘deal’ doesn’t seem that good to me.

PS. I meant to tell you that dogs are allowed on the trails at Montesuzma Castle National Monument and at Montezuma Well National Monument!

Sunday morning, November 8, we head south 22 miles to Camp Verde. That’s the home of “Little House Customs, Arizona”. (“Little House” for “Casita”.) I made an appointment with Konrad about a month ago to have some work done on Wandering Spirit…two days worth of work, actually.

Today we meet him and his lovely wife Lynn, and their little 15 year old dog, Sparky.

We are going to have shocks put on (Casita travel trailers don’t come with them), new bearings and a break check, a double step at the door, water heater maintenance, a new tinted window that opens put into the door, and a tv mount on the celling. Nothing real glamorous, but all things I’ve felt a need for over time.

On Sunday Joy, Shiloh and I hang out with Lynn and Konrad while he works. Lynn is doing a marathon NCIS with Net Flicks and I LOVE NCIS, so I help her watch. 🙂

On Monday we leave WS in Konrad’s capable hands and go visit Montezuma Castle. I was here 20-some years ago and remember being highly impressed with the remains of this Native American dwelling built a thousand or so years ago, 5 stories high, into the side of a cliff.

From a distance…

Montezuma was never here.

Closer…

I just find this amazing. it stayed so well preserved because the cliff overhang protected it from weather.

Next we go down the road apiece to Montezuma’s Well. (He was never here either.)

Huge amounts of water bubble up daily from two vents at the bottom of this limestone sinkhole. Even in times of drought, the amount of water here stays the same, and it always remains at the same temperature, about 74 degrees F.

Built into the walls of the well are the remains of what is thought to be storage areas. Can you see them above the yellow tree?

This lifestyle would certainly keep on agile, wouldn’t you say?

Tuesday morning we take off and we are headed for…Surprise!
Yes, Surprise, Arizona, not far from Phoenix. I’ll keep the reason we are going to Surprise, a surprise, for next time I post. 🙂

November 5, 2015

When we walk trails in the park I can see Tuzigoot National Monument in the distance.

Its hard to recognize in the picture, but over to the right you can see a light color almost like stair steps. That’s Tuzigoot.

Time to see it close up. There is a $10 fee here, covered by the Senior Pass. Yay.

“Tuzigoot” is a mispronunciation of an Apache word meaning “crooked water”, given by the people who worked on restoring these remains. When it was discovered it was a crumbling mass, so what we see here now has mostly been rebuilt.

This was an apartment type building, and it was the village, with 87 ground floor rooms. Most rooms didn’t have doors. Entry was by ladders through openings in the roof. It was built between 1000 and 1400, increasing in size over those years as the population grew. It is thought that when they began building the population was about 50, and 400 years later it had grown to about 200. The valley below was the farming area, and the Verde River runs nearby.
So they lived there about 400 years…nothing to sneeze at, when you consider the U. S. is less than 250 years old.

By the way, dogs are allowed on this trail!!

After Tuzigoot, we traveled 5 miles further to visit the tiny town of Jerome, an old copper mining community built just about straight up a mountain. When the copper was depleted, the people left too, and it was a ghost town until the 60’s when the Hippies came in and made it into an artist community.

It’s getting very rainy so back we go to Cottonwood to do some chores. There’s a nice laundromat beside the Safeway. While doing the wash I learn from the TV that Flagstaff got 5 inches of snow yesterday and last night…right after I left. It’s a mess, and the schools are closed. Whew! So glad I didn’t try to stay the 4 nights I had originally planned there.

After the wash is dried and folded, I head over a couple of blocks for my hair appointment.

Yikes! Now it’s too short. I’m not comfortable with this. Thank goodness for hats and hoods!

We leave Monument Valley on Sunday,eNovember 1, and drive SW across the Navajo Nation…Dinetah…home of the Diné. We travel miles and miles with an occasional almost unnoticed dirt road leading way off in the distance to a small group of living quarters, usually with a Hogan among them. This is the round shaped, 8 sided traditional Diné home.

Highway 160 passes 3 towns that most of us would recognize as such, in this 150 mile stretch. First Kayenta, 21 miles from Monument Valley, then Tuba City, 50 or so miles further, and last Cameron, not far from the boarder of the Rez.
In these settlements, we see mostly government housing, modern government buildings, trading posts, and the “traditional” MacDonalds, Burger King, and KFC.
Bashas grocery stores, too.

“Navajo Police”

I see growth since I passed this way 20 years ago. To be expected, right? Yet somehow, I don’t expect it.

As I drive through the Reservation for at least 100 miles the snow-capped San Francisco Peaks loom in the distance, growing larger as I travel. These mountains are sacred to the Diné and Hopi, but they are part of the Flagstaff area where I’m headed. I have an appointment at Babbitt Ford tomorrow, Monday, for routine maintenance on JR. When I bought her, I bought the maintenance service package that covers 70,000 miles at any Ford dealer in the US.

The plan was to stay in Flagstaff for 4 nights, but I see that the weather forecast is rapidly deteriorating! Weatherbug says ‘winter mix’ with lows in the low 20’s starting on Tuesday. Uh-oh. I’ll need to head farther south sooner than I expected. I stay at Black Bart’s RV Park Sunday and Monday nights and leave early Tuesday morning. It has already rained, hailed, and as I leave it’s raining again, and it’s darn cold!

Our destination is Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood, only 66 miles away, but the elevation there is in the 3000 ft range, and it makes a big difference from the 7000 ft of Flagstaff.

Since we can’t check into the state park until afternoon, we stop at a city park in Cornville, a small town not far from Cottonwood. We wile away a few hours, walking, reading (well, Joy and Shiloh sleep rather than read), and having a snack. When it starts to rain, we move on.

A half hour later we have arrived at our campsite with electric and water hookups. I hurry to set up camp before serious rain starts.

Interesting sky…

Our camp at Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

We decide to take a walk between the raindrops. There are lots of trails here, and leashed dogs are allowed on all of them! We don’t get far before the rain gets heavy, so home we go.

The Mesa Trail

We are back in the desert!

We’ve been seeing lots of rainbows.

Our view is raindrops on the window!

Rain causes bored dogs!

Ho-hum. What to do?

Lots more rain predicted for Wednesday, so perhaps we can do chores in town. We have 5 nights here, and after Wednesday night the rain is predicted to stop for awhile. We have lots of exploring to do!

(Pictures will be near the end)

We arrive at Navajoland and Monument Valley with iffy weather ahead of us. I’m excited to be here, yet I have mixed emotions about this place in particular. I’ll try to explain, but some of it isn’t that explainable.

Long ago…about 24 years ago anyway, I was doing a lot of camping out of the back of my little Toyota truck. The truck bed was covered with a cap and I had a mattress back there. There were windows that opened with screens and I made curtains for them. I brought a tent with me and I’d set it up at my campsites, to ‘save’ them, but most of the time I slept in the more comfy truck bed.

My mom and step-dad lived in Arizona so I did a lot of camping around the state when I would go to visit them on vacations.

One time I was going to camp at Monument Valley on the Tribal Park campground here. As I got within about 5 miles of my destination, I started getting TERRIBLE vibes. I continued to drive to the park, but there was no way I could stay and camp there. Everything within me said ‘get out of here NOW!’ I don’t know why, and I’ve never had that strong of a reaction about anywhere I’ve been, before or since. I couldn’t turn around and leave fast enough!

Being out in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t know where to go, instead. Back to Flagstaff and a motel, I supposed. I set off in that direction thru the Rez on route 160. After about 50 miles I saw that I was approaching Navajo National Monument, and there was free camping allowed there. I decided to check it out. It turned out to be one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever camped. (It’s no longer free btw). Only 2 other campers were there, and the night was so dark on the high desert I felt like I could reach out and touch a star.

Forward a few years…must have been 20 years ago now…I went with a group of about 40 women in the medical field, for a week of learning and fun on the Navajo Reservation. This week was worth a whole 2 years of Continuing Education Units for RN’s, and it was pure heaven for me. This learning expedition was put on by…mmm I think it was Northern Arizona University, and the Navajo Community College. It was for the purpose of introducing us western medicine people to the Navajo Way medicine, and learning to combine the two cultures. The area of interest was birthing, and so we were all L&D nurses or midwives.

Navajo Certified Nurse Midwife Ursula Knoki-Wilson conducted the whole thing and she is a fantastic woman. She is a true ‘medicine woman’ in every sense of those words.

Some of the things we did…
Toured two hospitals to learn about how the women who made it to a hospital, labored.
We went to the Navajo Community College, lived on campus for a couple of nights, and took some classes. We had a beautiful ceremony in a Hogan with a Medicine Man who was also a college professor.
An old medicine woman took us gathering medicinal plants. Then we went back to the classroom and learned about them.
We went to a Navajo home for a traditional meal, all cooked outdoors.
We had a healing ceremony with Ursula.
We did drumming.
Went to a Navajo church service.
And more….
And also we did some sightseeing. Namely at Canyon De Chelly and at Monument Valley. (finally I get to my point!:-)

The only thing I had concerns about was coming to Monument Valley, where I’d had such a strong and frightening reaction a few years earlier. We were traveling by bus, and as we approached the area I felt anxious, wondering if the bad vibes would happen again.

But no. Nothing. No bad vibes. We stayed at Gouldings Lodge, less than a mile from where I am right now. I felt fine, had a great time and made wonderful memories.

Present time. As I approached the area from the north now, I wondered…how would I feel this time, so many years later?
Well, again, there was nothing bad. My mind felt clear. I felt sentimental about the memories of that very special time, 20 years ago, but nothing frightening, like before.

My campsite. I love it!

I do have sad moments here. I feel the poverty all around me. Winter is coming. I have full hook ups here at Gouldings Campground. That’s more than the residents of the area have. I see huge water tanks in the beds of their trucks. They come to Gouldings to get water from the well and take it back home. Frequently they have no electricity either, and no central heating or cooling. Life isn’t easy for them, but for so many it is life as they have always known it. I feel sorry for the stray homeless dogs that come to the tourist places, like this campground, in hopes of being fed. And yes, I’ve been feeding them.

We’ve had rain and now it’s sunny but the wind is buffeting my little home and it’s cold outside. I’ve been to the Tribal Park twice. It usually costs $20 to drive a car in, and through Monument Valley, and there is no senior discount here. Except both days that I went there they were ‘closed’. It turns out that all that was actually closed was the pay booth and the visitor center. The road to the valley was open, as was the campground and the gift shop. It was nice to save some money that way since Gouldings Campground is probably the most expensive place I’ve stayed ever, at $190.44 for 4 nights. The view and the surroundings are priceless though.

Now that I’ve driven through the Tribal Park camping area with no bad vibes or ill effects, I would certainly camp there, too. It’s about $20 a night. No hook ups, and just red dirt, but again the view is priceless. You are right out there face to face with the ‘mittens’.

For these people…the Dine’, as Navajo’s call themselves, there is a need to learn the old ways and there is a need to learn the new ways…and a need to understand the benefits of both, and combine them. That’s kind of what our classes focused on 20 years ago, and it’s useful and helpful for all of us to learn these things, not just the Dine’. (that mark is supposed to go over the ‘e’, but I don’t know how to do that.)

I’m the blue dot.

Amazing landscape…

These are the ‘mittens’ I spoke of. See, left hand, right hand?

Left hand. 🙂

Selfie.

Bad road! And you don’t want to come here during or right after a rain.

You’ve probably seen similar scenes in old western movies.

My campsite from a distance. Hardly anyone here.

See the trail in the lower left corner. This is near our camp. I took the previous picture of our camp from this trail.

More scenery on the trail.

The scene from standing in my doorway.

Mittens in the Mist. 🙂

Approaching from the north on Hwy 191, on the right side of the road there is a wall…a very tall wall of red rocks. Not mountains, no it looks like a red wall.

In this picture the red wall I’m talking about is to the left of the road. This is taken from Arches National Park, but this wall continues into and on through Moab, along 191.

To the left there are the snow capped La Sal Mountains, the tallest being well over 12,000 feet.

View from right behind the OK RV Park, where I’m staying.

This is a popular tourist destination, and I can certainly see why, with Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park and La Sal National Forest all close by, it’s a pretty amazing place.

There are lots of ways to get around. You can:

Hike, go by Jeep, ATV, Hummer, bicycle, horse, zipline, climb, sky dive, and on the Colorado River you can take a boat and have dinner, kayak, jet boat or white water raft. You can take a tour of any of those also, and you can fly over.

In this small town of 5000+ you can eat vegan (Yay), BBQ, Chinese, deli, deserts, Italian, juice, Mexican, pizza, sushi, subs, Thai or taste wine.

It’s beautiful. It’s awe inspiring…these canyons and arches and walls and mountains. It all gets me to thinking…

I look at the town…and at the rock art on the canyon walls…

Petroglyphs

More petroglyphs

…and I wonder…what would those people think if they could see their home-place now? How things have changed in 700-1000 years. And yet the rocks are still here bearing their messages (that we, with all our learning don’t really understand). The river is still here. Much of the fauna and flora are the same. They would recognize the human form, but what would they think of all of our motorized contraptions, and what we have done to the earth-mother?

Had the Europeans…and the rest of the world…left the natives on this continent alone, how would things be different today?

Is “progress” really progress?

Is to “live long and prosper” really advantageous?

What is being “successful” in life?

Is technology really the best way?

The simplicity and innocents of the old ways is sometimes so appealing to me. Not that I’m not a fan of electricity and my IPhone, and epidurals, oh yeah, I love so many of our modern conveniences….but could the price we pay for them be too much, in some ways?

Have we lost our awareness that we are all one…with each other…with the animals…with the earth?

So many thoughts, the rock art produces…

Red rock wall against the Colorado (red) River.

To end on a lighter note! Joy and Shiloh have been going to the dog park here in Moab every day.

Shiloh and Joy at the Moab Off Leash Bark Park!

We have rain everyday here in Torrey. Not just a little bit either, but on and off every day, sometimes heavy, sometimes soft.

One day we have rainbows! I see them four different times and one is a double rainbow!

This one is the double rainbow, but I don’t have the upper one in the picture.

On the rainbow day I decide to go over the mountain to Boulder, to see the Anasazi Museum. In Torrey it’s 50 degrees, and the rain has stopped for now.

As we drive up the mountain the temperature begins to drop.

Aspen on the mountainside

After awhile we encounter thick fog. At the scenic overlook all I see is fog!
I wonder if I should turn back….?

No, I continue on. I’d really like to see that museum.

Next, we get rain, and I notice on my dash that the outside temperature continues to drop. 45 degrees. Hmmm.
After awhile, the rain begins to splotch on the windshield, looking suspiciously like sleet. Ewww.

I see that the temperature is now 38 degrees. It IS sleet! If I remember correctly, sleets buddies are frozen rain, snow, slush and ice, and I’m on Scenic Route 12, with 10% grades and sometimes not much next to the road except air.

I’m goin’ back baby!!

Today we head in the other direction…into the town of Loa, 18 miles down Hwy 24, to go to the hardware and grocery stores. Whoopee. 🙂

The only other exciting news…well, exciting to me anyway…is that my new winter coat arrived by UPS from LL Bean. I just love it. It’s mid-thigh (read ‘covers my butt’), is light weight but very warm, has a hood, inside cuffs, drawstring waist, deep pockets, double zipper and snaps too. It’s rain resistant (good thing around here), and it fits just right. I even love the color I picked…turquoise.
You can see it at llbean.com. It’s called ‘warmer winter coat’. Original, huh?

I’m a happy camper, even in the rain and cold. It’s supposed to be 37 degrees tonight! I don’t begrudge the rain. I’ve seen so much drought, it will be a long long time before I start shaking my fist at the raindrops.

Here are my traveling companions to say ‘HI!’

Joy

Shiloh. He is actually a lighter color than Joy, but you’d never know it by these photos.

Friday October 16

It’s only 56 miles to Torrey, Utah where we stay at Thousand Lakes RV Park. Walls of red cliffs line the campground and the road for miles before we get here.

Yes, I’ve seen red rocks before, but somehow things that I see now are more beautiful than the last time I saw them. Somehow my appreciation for the beauty of nature continues to grow.

Right here behind the RV Park

I need the services of a bank and I wonder where a grocery store might be for future reference. I plan to stay here a week. I ask in the office when I register and the lady tells me there is a bank in Loa right next to the grocery store. That is three towns over. 🙂 After we get settled, I drive to the bank, the post office, and check out the grocery store while I’m there. Also get gas because it’s less expensive here than in Torrey.

Americas Mailbox sent me an email to notify me that JR’s and WS’s registrations are due in November. It’s a grand total of $165.50. If I send them a money order or cashiers check they will register the vehicles in Pennington County, SD for me for $10 each. That’s about a $500 savings of what it would have cost me in CA.

I use my ATM card to get the money at the bank, get the cashiers check, and mail it from the post office.

Thunderstorms are predicted for all afternoon today (now Saturday the 17th), and there are flash flood alerts. The washes can fill up fast, even if the rain is in some distant place. I decide to spend the day at home. The scenery is not too shabby! However, it barely sprinkles here. That doesn’t cancel the flash flood alerts though. There will be other days to see nearby Capital Reef National Park and Grand Staircase Escalante. Also I’m quite excited about the Anasazi Museum in Boulder.

…Now to back up…when we were in Salina we went to Freemont Indian State Park to see Pictographs and Petroglyphs. There were many sites there and I only got to a few of them, but wow, it was impressive.

I tried to upload these pictures a bit larger but i don’t have a good enough connection. I hope you can see ok.

Hand prints!