Colorado Cruiser: Ride to Arizona

I got up well before sunrise so I could go to the Blanding Cemetery to see my father's and grand parent's grave sites. Eric was going to leave early as well, so we sat and ate cereal together and chatted about families and riding.

Eric and I both left just as the sun was rising. He went South toward home and I went North a few blocks.

I spent a while just looking and thinking of my dad and grand parents. All of them were significant influences in my life (of course) but I still try to think of how they would react to this or that thing, or how would they handle a situation.

When I was 16, I spent 2 months of the summer with my grand parents here in Blanding. I drove tractor to plough fields, plant, cut, roll, and bail hay. I moved sprinkler pipe 2 times a day. I fed horses and helped train a young colt to lead.

And I learned how to nap.

Grandpa and I would get up about 5 every morning to go work the fields. Then about 11:00 we'd go back to the house for lunch and to listen to Paul Harvey. But after lunch, we didn't always (hardley ever) go back to do more work. We'd go over to an indian hogan he had built, and we take a nap.

A hogan is dug down into a circular hole in the ground about 3 foot deep. Then the hole is lined with cedar poles all around the circle. More cedar poles are lain across the wall in a special pattern that builds up to a dome with a hole in the middle. Finally the whole thing is covered with a thick layer of dirt to make it water proof.

Because of being buried in the ground and covered with dirt, it stays very cool, almost cold. Most days it was in the mid 60s when we'd go to take a nap. And we often napped for 2 or more hours before doing more work. It was a wonderful summer and gave me a bond to my grandparents that has never left me.

Standing in the cemetery and thinking of everything I've been given left me very emotional and determined to continue to love and enjoy my family, especially my mother, siblings, children, and grand children. Nan and I are so fortunate to have our kids and grandkids all in town with us so we can see and enjoy them almost daily. What a blessing.

Once I got back to my Aunt's house, John was up and ready to go. We wound up standing out front of the house for 30 minutes talking with Donna and Cardon before we finally hopped on the bikes and left.

From Blanding we headed south down highway 191 through White Mesa toward Bluff. At Bluff we left highway 191 to go towards Mexican Hat, but before we got there, we turned off the highway to visit the goose necks. That's a section of the San Juan river that winds back and forth through tight loops. They built a road to the top of a cliff on one of the bends so you can see several twists of the river below. We took allot of pictures and stared out for a long time before we headed on south.

One other thing I wanted to do was to visit monument valley. I don't think it's far off for me to say I've traveled the road between Mexican Hat and Kayenta over 100 times. But until a couple of years ago, I had no idea that Monument Valley was actually a few miles to the East of the highway. I thought it was just those 8 or 9 big bluffs that you could see from the highway.

So today, for the first time in my life, I turned East and paid $10 to go see monument valley. We weren't allowed to take the bikes down the dirt road (and wouldn't have even if allowed). The lady at the gate told us they were planning to pave the road in the next year, so I might have to do it again next year.

I even got to stand and enjoy John Wayne's favorite view. At least that's what the sign said.

From Monument Valley we rode to Kayenta to gas up and find some lunch. We looked for somewhere to eat, but everything was closed. Not just closed because it was Sunday, but doors nailed shut and weeds growing in the parking lot kind of closed. We finally found a Subway to get a healthy sandwich.

After lunch we turned South on a navajo nation road towards the town of Chinle. We were travelling a little quick because the roads were so flat, straight, and empty. The 56 miles just seemed to fly by and suddenly we were in Chinle. We turned east to drive along the south rim of Canyon De Chelly. Its a National Monument site. We stopped at several of the scenic overlooks to take pictures. Most of the overlooks had navajo vendors selling jewelry and artwork.

It suddenly hit me that now I have to buy 5 pieces of jewelry rather than just 4. It used to be my wife and 4 daughters, but now I'll have a daughter in law to buy for as well. I'm gonna go broke. But not this time. As nice as some of the jewelry looked, I'm sure that within days my girls would have green marks on the arms, necks, or wrists. So I skipped buying anything.

When we got to our fourth scenic view, we noticed that there were black clouds rolling into the area, The wind was picking up and temperature dropping fast, so we decided to get while the getting was good.

We were only 10 miles out of Chinle when the first bit of rain hit us but it didn't last long. We kept going until we reached Ganado to gas up. The wind was picking up fast and starting to blow allot of dust around. One group of bikers pulled in having just come from the south and told us they rode through allot of rain. We decided to take our chances and kept riding south until the rain really started to fall. We quickly pulled into a gas station to put our rain gear on.

Fully rain proof we rode on through the rain. It did come down pretty hard for about 15 minutes, then we rode out the far side of the storm. We kept going until we reached I-40, then stopped at a gas station. While John took a short break, I searched for a hotel further down the road. I found a Days Inn in the town of St Johns,

As we rode toward the hotel, the sun began to set and the temperature started to drop. I checked us in and asked about somewhere to eat. The guy started listing the gas stations and grocery stores in town, then said "Oh yeah, there's a subway". So we had Subway for the 2nd time today because that's all there was to eat.

Back at the hotel I watched the Denver Broncos put a whupping on 49ers. I also watched Payton Manning throw his record breaking 409th touchdown pass. With that pass, he broke Bret Favre's all time record.

It's only 8:30 Arizona time, but I'm done with this report and ready to sleep.

Me at the Blanding Cemetery. My father's headstone visible above the bike