The Final Leg

The final stop of this odyssey was to stop in Shipshewana, Indiana.  It was about two and a half hours from where we were and we could see evidence of recent snowfalls as we were driving.  We also ran through some squalls of snow that reminded us of what was to come.

And what was to come appeared to be deteriorating.  The Winter Storm Warning increased the amount of predicted snowfall, lending urgency to the last leg of our journey home.

We stopped at E&S Sales, one of Deb’s favorite grocery stores, and loaded up on bulk supplies.  Bags of groceries were piled in the shower and on the bed and in the fridge.  But at least we had the room for it all.

As we drove home, the lake effect snow came in squalls, sometimes reducing the visibility to near zero, and sometimes letting the sun peek through.  We got home just in time for another squall, and took some of the supplies out of the RV in the snow.  I quick winterized the RV, blowing out the plumbing and putting pink stuff in the drains so I could turn off the heat.  We emptied the fridge, took anything that could freeze into the house, and left the rest for tomorrow.

It was a great trip.  This snow makes me want to turn right around and go south, but I guess we have to face reality sometimes.

For the numbers geeks, here are the trip statistics:

Leave Date:  October 15, 2022
Return Date: November 17, 2022
Days on the road: 34
Miles Traveled: 7485
Gallons of Diesel used: 474
Gallons of Propane used: 19
Total Cost of Diesel Fuel: $2505
Average Price of Diesel: $5.28
Highest Price Paid: $6.40
Lowest Price Paid: $4.71
Overall Average Fuel Economy: 15.6 miles per gallon
States Covered: 16 (plus Mexico)
Total camping fees paid: $50

We dry-camped the entire trip.  Never had any hookups.  We took on water whenever it was available, which wasn’t often.  Finding places to dump the waste tanks was way easier than finding fresh water because a lot of places had shut off their water supplies for the winter.

All the power we used was generated internally, either by the 550 watts of solar panels on the roof or by the charge from the engine.  This was enough to supply our lighting needs, the furnace, the kitchen appliances including the microwave, instant pot, and panini maker, the waste tanks heaters, and keep all our various devices charged.

We were not without our problems, although they were minor on this trip:

Twice, the fridge started to thaw, the first time because it threw an error code because the guy filling the propane tank shut the valve, and the second time it somehow got turned off.  This is still a mystery.

The lights in the fridge stopped working because a wire got knocked off the LED strip.  I fixed this on the road by heating a screwdriver tip over the stove and using it to re-flow the solder joint.

A drawer catch broke, so it would wander outward in transit.  Since I’ve had a broken catch before, and bought multiple new catches, I replaced the catch.

A window blind sagged downward when its string got pulled loose.  I re-wound the string and got the blind working again.

A stabilizer strap on the bike rack broke when we hit a rather large bump.  A new ratchet strap bought at a nearby Walmart fixed this.

The edge of the countertop by the sink is coming loose, probably because of all the jarring dirt roads we went on.  This  could not be fixed in transit and will be addressed later.

We took a stone on the windshield, leaving a star.  I took the RV to a glass place in Washington and had that fixed before it became a crack.

A few times I could not vent the fresh water tank because the overflow tube was frozen.  I’ll have to figure out a different way to do this

A headlamp bulb burned out and was replaced.  We also lost a clearance light lens somewhere on the trip.

Somewhere we read where someone likened an RV to a home which is subjected to a continual earthquake.  That’s probably not far from the truth and it’s a wonder that more stuff doesn’t fall off or break during one of these trips.

Approaching Storms

Mostly a travel day today.  We left Kansas City on I-35 and left the Interstate to travel west on US-36, crossing the Mississippi River at Hannibal, Missouri.  Hannibal is the boyhood home of Mark Twain.  Since we stopped here on our way home from New Mexico last year, we pressed on.

We stopped in Springfield, Illinois, to check out the Ace Sign Company, which has a Route 66 sign museum in its production facility.  This museum contains or 85 signs from Route 66 and Springfield and boasts the worlds largest bottle cap, a 12-foot tall Neon Pepsi Bottle Cap.  

When we got there, Deb went in to inquire about the museum while I searched for a place to park a big rig in a small parking lot.  When I came in, Deb was talking to a tall guy that was happy to show us around the place.  She told him, “unfortunately, we only have ten minutes.”  She had scheduled a tour of a Frank Lloyd Wright house down the street for 3pm, and it was now after 2:30.  He seemed to take this in stride and showed us their production facility, their break room, and their manufacturing area, which were all ringed with signs.  He seemed to personally know where each one came from and how they came to be here and later on we figured out that he was probably the owner of the business.

We promised we would be back when we had more time and drove down the street to the Dana-Thomas House, one of the largest and most lavish houses that Frank Lloyd Wright designed.  He was essentially given a blank check when commissioned to build this home from a wealthy socialite named Susan Lawrence Dana.  The result is a 12,000 square foot home with 16 different levels in all, including a library, a gathering room with a separate loft for the musicians, a full-length bowling lane, and a built-in vault.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so the inside pictures were lifted from their web site.  It was an amazing house, and contains the most complete collection of Wright-designed furnishings of any of his homes.  The furniture looked quite uncomfortable, which is probably why most of it didn’t sell when an estate sale was held at the time the house changed hands many years ago.

Leaving here we headed north on I-55.  Two bad accidents in the opposing lane stopped traffic for miles going the other way.  We left the Interstate as soon as we could, heading east on US-24 north of Bloomington.  Checking the weather, we saw the winter storm warnings for West Michigan and drove a bit later than we normally would have, finally stopping for the night in Monticello, Indiana, in a Walmart.  Walmart is usually our last choice for stopping overnight, but in a smaller town, away from the major routes, this one was very quiet.  We were the only RV in the large parking lot.

This Isn't Kansas Anymore

...or maybe it is.  Today was all about Kansas, starting from the west end, and finally ending over the Missouri border on the east end.  This rest area where we stayed was very quiet; I don’t think people have figured out that the loop to the picnic area and the dump station serves as a perfect overnight spot, away from the truck lanes and the freeway.  It was cold again, nineteen degrees, which just makes you want to curl up and stay in bed under the blankets.

First stop was in nearby Goodman, which sports one of three “world’s largest” Van Gogh Paintings.  This painting (a reproduction) can be seen from the freeway, but we stopped here to take a picture to add to our World’s Largest collection.

Leaving here, we immediately lost an hour, crossing into the Central time zone, and traveled on I-70 until US-24 branched off.  We were all too happy to take the more minor road.  Listed as a scenic route in our atlas, it goes through lots of farmland and small towns.  Deb found a quote in the Kansas tour guide book which resonated with us both:

Interstate highways are like hit singles--big sellers with successful formulas that appeal to mainstream audiences.  Scenic byways are like album cuts--deep tracks underappreciated by the masses yet treasured by connoisseurs.

Driving 65 is a much more pleasant experience than driving 65 on the interstate.  With a speed limit of 75 (or 80 in Utah), cars and trucks blow by on the interstate, and I am probably an annoyance to them.  On the minor roads, I am often all alone and can pull off whenever and wherever I wish.

Our first pull-off was in Nicodemus at the Nicodemus National Historic Site.  This little town was founded by former slaves in 1877 and was the first western town built by and for Black settlers. This town is still largely populated by direct descendants of those settlers, or still own the land even though they live somewhere else.  We talked with the ranger who happened to be there for a meeting, even though the buildings were closed.  He told us that the Park Service would like to make some renovations to the buildings, but the owners have no desire to sell.  So some of the buildings remain in sorry condition, ravaged by the elements.  One of these is the First Baptist Church, which still retains one of its original limestone walls from the 1800’s.

As we walked through the town, it was eerily quiet.  There seemed to be no one here.  We were followed, however, by six cats who came out, begging for attention.

Cawker City was the next stop as it had another item to add to the World’s Largest list.  This town boasts the world’s largest ball of twine.  Containing over 8.5 million feet of twine and weighing over 27,000 pounds, this ball of twine grows every year in the summer when the community adds to it.  They’ve been doing this since it was created in 1951.

This is a rather interesting little town.  Coming in, we noticed a lot along the road with rows of old cars, paint long gone, and another lot with several old tractors.  Across from the ball of twine was a restored gas station called The Old Station Inn.  We were looking at this when we were approached by a guy who was working on the building next door to the gas station.  We struck up a conversation and discovered that the lots of old cars and old tractors, this gas station, another gas station, and several other parcels in town were all owned by the same person.  Our bearded friend was a carpenter who was hired by this guy to fix up some of these buildings to use as hotel rooms or AirBnb’s for hunters and fishermen that came to this area to hunt birds or fish in the nearby lake.

He showed us the inside of the gas station.  It was made into a tiny hotel-type room with an adjoining bathroom and another bed hung as a loft near the ceiling.  All done very nicely.  The building next door will eventually also join the available places to stay, and he was busy adding ornate ceiling treatments and wainscoting, pocket doors and wood floors.  

Very interesting guy to talk to.  He told us to check out the other gas station down the street.  “I fixed up that one. If the blinds are up, just go on in because nobody is there,” he said.  “It’s never locked.”  We looked but didn’t enter.  The blinds were down.

Deb asked him if there were donuts available in this town.  He just laughed.  “You won’t find them anywhere.  Except maybe at Dollar General,” he told us.  We had a hankering for a good donut but were unsuccessful in finding a suitable bakery, even in the larger towns along this route.  And the Dollar General donuts were probably on par with Hostess Twinkies for satisfying that hankering.  So today was a donut-less day.

We did a drive-by viewing of Rock City.  It is the only place in the world where so many concretions of such size were found in one area.  Having just been in the canyons of Utah, these looked like fat little pancakes.

We had a couple things to get at Ikea in Kansas City.  Since we were running a little late and would not make it there before it closed if we continued on this route, we rejoined I-70.  Aside from eating dinner in a rest area, we made no more stops.  This was the one time when I drove the speed limit.  75 miles per hour seems very fast in a motorhome, plus it really reduces the fuel mileage, so I was glad when we arrived at Ikea, 20 minutes before closing.  We got our stuff, including 21 chocolate bars to replenish our supply, and headed north on I-35 with the intention of leaving the interstate soon after leaving the city.

We found a Cracker Barrel just north of downtown Kansas City and decided to stop for the night.

Homeward Bound

The time comes in any road trip when it’s time to head for home. We’ve been wandering in that direction, turning north and east a few days ago.  We had considered a more southern route but that would add to the time in the driver’s seat, and after over 6200 miles so far, I’m ready to do a little less driving.

Now that we’ve left Utah we’ve set our sights on home and the travel will reflect that.  We would love to explore more of Colorado, but the higher elevations and the time of year really don’t work well for staying warm.  The fastest way to get home is on the Interstates, so, on the Interstates we go.  Normally I like to take the minor roads as they are slower and more interesting, but once we get out of the Rockies, there really isn’t much on I-70 or I-80 for several hundred miles, even on the minor roads.

Last night’s camp site was super convenient, less than a mile off I-70.  The only issue was a half mile or so of deeply rutted roads, which required some concentration to keep from bottoming out some essential part on the RV.

As was the case several other times on this trip, we were being chased by snow.  It was snowing steadily for most of the trip through the Rockies, so we kept going with the exception of one stop for supplies in Frisco.

We’re not against making stops, however.  We stop at anything interesting, and today’s interesting thing was the Denver Mint.  This place still churns out pennies and nickels and dimes and quarters by the truckload and also makes collector coins.  They do tours and Deb spent a good deal of time arranging a 3:30pm tour for us, most of that time spent looking for places to park.  Downtown Denver is not exactly RV-friendly as most parking places are set up for passenger cars.  We finally ended up parking on the street and plugging two meters because we took two spaces.

Interesting tour.  One thing I was not aware of: they store about $80 billion of the gold  for the United States Treasury in this facility.  That’s about 20% of the US gold reserves. The rest is stored in Fort Knox and West Point.  We were able to view about $2 million of that.  They filed us past a room with heavy bars across the doorway which contained a large balance with three gold bars one one of the pans.

The building is a stately structure in Denver, just a couple blocks from the capitol building.  We got a whole brochure on the architecture and construction.  The building was modeled after the Medici Ricccardi Palace in Florence, Italy.  Kind of ironic, patterning the building for the US Mint after a building owned by one of the wealthiest (and sometimes most ruthless) families in Italy.

Security, of course, was tight and there were some nonsensical Covid policies in place.  Unmasked groups in the small waiting room were fine, but we were not allowed to see the grand entry hall due to Covid.  Huh?

It was rush-hour when the tour was done.  This is when a small RV can feel really huge: when piloting it out of downtown Denver during rush-hour.  We got on I-70 headed east, and stopped a few hours later in a rest area just over the Kansas border.  We’ve overnighted here before.  This particular rest area has a loop that goes back to an RV dump.  Since it is now 22 degrees, I dumped the grey tank, put some antifreeze in the black tank, and parked in the loop for the night, away from the trucks and the freeway.

Route 128

State highway 128, one of the routes connecting Moab, Utah, with Interstate 70, is probably my favorite scenic drive.  It is 30 miles of the most amazingly breathtaking canyon scenery in the country.  Anytime I am out in that area, I make sure to take that route, and I enjoy it every time.  Coming off of I-70, the first ten miles or so is just a road going straight through a desolate area.  But then it joins the Colorado River and winds along with the river down increasingly larger canyons, opening out into large valleys flanked by high red-rock walls at times and then closing down to just the river and the road.  

We camped along this route last night, about six miles from Moab, and then drove back into Moab this morning to attend the Community Church of Moab, a friendly church where we felt welcome enough to join them for goodies and fellowship after the service.  There was one other couple from Michigan there, a family from the UP who rented a house in Moab for a couple months.  Dad works remote and they homeschool the kids, so they are here to take in the hiking and kayaking opportunities.  What a cool idea

We left Moab and headed up highway 128 again, wanting to take the hike at Fisher Towers, about 20 miles up the road.  We had thought about doing something in nearby Arches National Park, but we’ve been there a couple times.

We had lunch in a wide spot in the road in a valley along 128, enjoying the views.  Anywhere you stop, the views are great.

We stopped at the entrance to the Fisher Towers, and were stopped short by the sign:  Maximum vehicle length: 22 feet.

Well, what to do now?  We’ve come all this way for this hike.  Let’s give it a shot.

A couple miles up the dirt road we could see the parking area.  There were quite a few cars there.  When we got there it was obvious that a vehicle our size would have trouble in this parking lot.  But a hundred feet or so away was the campground, with several empty sites, so we found one large enough for the RV, backed it in and paid the twenty-dollar camping fee to make it legitimate.  We didn’t really plan on camping there tonight, but this hike appeared to be worth the twenty bucks.

And it was.  This trail had it all.  Gorgeous views of soaring sandstone towers, lots of scrambling over rocks, both upwards and downwards, ladders, adrenaline-boosting drop-offs, steep slippery slopes, and today, just to add some interest, mud from the melting snow.  2.2 miles of this, and then 2.2 miles back.  This has now become one of my favorite hikes, located on one of my favorite roads.

Just don’t do this trail in the summer.  Today, at about 45 degrees, it was just about perfect.  Except for the mud.  That made the trail treacherous in spots.

This trail adds an item to our Largest list: the tallest tower, the Titan, is the largest freestanding sandstone spire in the United States.

It took us just under four hours to do this hike. We were under a bit of a time constraint because it is late in the year and the days are short.  But we made it down before the sun set.  I wanted to launch my drone and get some aerial pictures, but the sun dropped behind a cloud bank just as we reached the RV, so my pictures didn’t have that sun/shadow look that I was wanting.

This area is also popular with climbers, the most daring of whom climb the spire known as Ancient Art.  There was someone standing on top of this as we were hiking.  Somehow, standing on that tiny surface several hundred feet from the valley floor is a bit more of an adrenaline rush than I am prepared for.  Click on the picture for a larger version.  It really takes your breath away.

We drove the remainder of highway 128 in deepening darkness, finally arriving at I-70 in complete darkness.  We crossed the Colorado border, sad about leaving Utah, but it’s time to head for home.  Two miles into Colorado, we turned off onto some BLM land to camp for the night.

Utah

We’ve been in Utah for three days now and we keep getting reminded why we like Utah so much.  The scenery is always beautiful.  There’s no such thing as a bad view.  The Mormons may have their theology very wrong but they did do something right.  They settled in Utah, establishing towns that now serve as base camps for all sorts of outdoor activities. These cities have grown over the years into thriving adventure centers.  Moab, for example is a haven to rock climbers, mountain bikers, hikers, off-road drivers, kayakers, and a whole bunch of other -ers that I may not even be aware of.

Moab has grown since the first time Deb and I came out here and fell in love with the surrounding canyons.  Lin Ottinger’s rock shop used to mark the edge of town.  Now the town has grown past his rock shop by at least a mile, with new hotels, restaurants, RV parks, Jeep rental outfits, and more.

We took one of Lin Ottinger’s canyon tours a few decades ago. At that time he used older Volkswagen busses for his tour vehicles because they were durable and easy to fix.  He had a picture of one of his busses parked on top of one of the arches, something that would never be allowed today.  The boys loved pawing through his collection of rocks when we took them out here.

Lin Ottinger is long gone, but his shop is still there and still looks the same.  The town, however is a far different place.

Another cold morning on Comb Ridge Road.  We took a brief look around when the sun came up and then were off towards Blanding, where we got fuel and groceries.  Taking 191 north, we stopped at anything that looked interesting.

Monticello:  I spotted propane here for $3.30 per gallon, so we topped off.  WE’ve been using quite a bit with these cold nights so this should last us until we get home.  Deb also stopped in the visitor center to gather more brochures.

Wilson Arch: Situated right next to the highway, this appears to be a popular place.  At a minimum, you can just lean out your car window and take a picture.  Many people (including us), choose to scramble up the steep slick rock to the arch itself.

Looking Glass Rock:  This looked interesting enough to drive the few miles of a bumpy dirt road.  This was a large rock in the middle of the high plains with a round arch.  Kind of a fun little discovery that you would never see from the highway.

We drove through Moab, marveling how it has changed since the last time we were here a few years ago. Somehow we didn’t plan this right and arrived on a Saturday, when all the weekend adventurers were out in full force.  We just drove through on the way to our next destination, the trailhead for Corona Arch, about 10 miles out the north end of town.  

Potash Road offers a lot of activities, as it follows the Colorado River for quite a few miles.  We passed Wall Street, which is a section of vertical rock faces popular with climbers.  There were a lot of them on the wall today.  Campgrounds, parking areas for ATV use, trailheads: they were all in use today.  It wasn’t very warm, barely into the 40’s, but, as has been said: There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing.

The hike to the arch is a fun scramble which even includes chains and a ladder.  One thing that surprised me was the number of people who took their dogs on the hike.  I get the need to take the dog for a walk, but after seeing one guy struggle down the steep chains section, carrying the dog in one arm and hanging on with the other while nearly slipping down the steep slope, it reinforced for me that a dog is not in my future.  I needed both hands to hang on.

There were quite a few people hanging out at the arch, but a good-sized group of them left shortly after we got there.  After a few more people left, we were the only ones there.  We celebrated our accomplishment of arriving at the arch in one piece with a donut.

A branch from this trail also goes to Pinto Arch.  This trail scrambles up some very steep slickrock  to the arch, high on the canyon wall, which looks like a round cave with an open top.  Water was dribbling from one of the layers of rock, and the plant life growing in that area made it look like some sort of hanging garden.

This was a great hike that took us about two and a half hours.  The canyon floor was in shadows when we got back to the RV.  Which made me wonder if the people we met as we were coming down were going to have to hike down in the dark.

We treated ourselves to pizza at Canyon Pizza Co in Moab.  Kind-of nice to enjoy a meal made by somebody else in an actual oven.

Finishing this, we stopped at the Maverick Gas station just down the main street as we read they had a free RV dump station.  They did.  One of the tasks of Deb, the navigator, is to sniff out all the sources of water, all the dump stations, all the campgrounds along the way.  Sometimes they are difficult to find; especially fresh water in the winter months, but she finds them, sometimes in very non-obvious places.  The last fresh water fill was from a spigot in the Sand Island Campground near Bluff, Utah.  We would have never known it was there but for a mention in one of our guidebooks.

Then back through town and a little ways up state route 128 to find a place to camp for the night.  Several campgrounds along this route.  They used to all be free, but now anything within 20 miles of Moab has a $20 fee due to their popularity.  The first one, Goose Island, was full, but we found space farther out at Drinks Canyon Campground.  For twenty bucks you get a wide spot and a fire ring.  But we could easily spend that much on fuel hunting for something better.  We stayed.

We were far enough away from Moab that the light from the city didn’t affect the night sky.  Without any other habitation here, it is dark.  We stood outside and gazed at the stars for a while.  It’s not often we can see so many stars.  I took a long exposure picture.  There were even more stars in the picture than I saw just looking at the sky.

Exploring Cedar Mesa

The lower elevation on Comb Ridge Road did not help our temperature situation.  It was 19 degrees again when I got up this morning.  And, because we were in the shadow of Comb Ridge, the sun did not start melting the ice off the windshield until we were about ready to leave.

We afforded ourselves the luxury of a hot shower since we knew there was water available in Bluff, just a short distance away.  Rather than take the entire length of Comb Ridge Road, which we had considered, we came out the same way we came in, drove to Sand Island campground, and topped off our water supply.  No telling when the next water may be available.

We drove north on 191 towards Blanding, then west on 95, stopping at the Butler Wash Ruins.  This is an easy hike to some ruins which can be seen across a small canyon. There is supposed to be another trail here to another set of ruins, called the Upper Butler Wash Ruins.  This was supposed to be a longer hike, about 45 minutes one-way, and the trail branched off from the Butler Wash Ruins trail.  However, we could not find it.  We searched for a while, going over the instructions several times, but had to admit defeat.  On to the next destination.

Cave Towers is a set of ruins perched on the edge of Mule Canyon.  The parking area is not accessible to RVs due to rocks and pits, so we parked by the entrance gate and hiked in.  Like many of the other canyons here, Mule Canyon is beautiful in it own right, the ruins just give a specific destination.  It would be fun to hike the whole canyon but you gotta stick to the established trails.

We also stopped briefly at Mule Canyon Kiva, a set of ruins close to the highway that is accessible by a short paved path.

Since we were already headed in that direction, we decided to go the extra distance to Natural Bridges National Monument.  We were here as a family nineteen years ago so some of this was a bit of a repeat, although nineteen years does fog the memory somewhat.  I had to look up in my pictures from 2003 which natural bridges we had hiked to with the boys, and discovered we had done both the Sipapu Bridge and the Kachina Bridge.  Back then we had more energy so we hiked to the bottom of both and still had time to have the kids sketch some of what they had seen.  Today we made it just to the viewpoint, one-third of the way down to Sipapu Bridge, and all the way to the bottom of the Kachina Bridge.  It didn’t help that we arrived mid-afternoon, when the sun was already low in the sky.  The days are considerably shorter this time of year, so with sunset at 5:15, that didn’t give us a whole lot of daylight.

David, in 2003, sketching one of the bridges

Josh, in 2003, climbing out of Sipapu Bridge

We made it to the third bridge, Owachomo Bridge, just after the sun set, and looked at it from the viewpoint by the road.  I got a picture of the Bears Ears, still illuminated by the sunlight, while everything else was shrouded in shadow.  We made dinner right in the parking area for this last bridge, and watched the darkness settle in.

We wanted to get to lower elevations again, although it probably won’t make much of a difference.  The forecast for tonight is a low of 19 again.  Could be another three-dog night.  We drove back to Comb Wash Road, although this time we are on the north end, found a level spot, and parked for the night.

Deb discovered that the fridge was turned off when she went to retrieve our nightly dose of ice cream.  Not sure how that happened.  I turned it back on, but the ice cream was runny.  It will take all night to re-freeze everything.  At least it has help from the below-freezing outside temperature.  What a bummer.  We’ll have to keep a close eye on it for a while.  Just one of those things that happens.

Camping at Comb Ridge

This morning was another Ecclesiastes 4:11 morning.  It took two of us to keep warm.  Nineteen degrees and snow on the ground.  Kind-of makes you not want to get out of bed.  But the sun eventually rose and began to melt the ice off the windshield.  We took our time having breakfast and doing a little clean-up to give the sun a chance to do its work.

The roads were quite icy also, but it was just a short distance to the visitor center, where a couple of the trails originated.  We sat and watched the video, giving some more time for the snow to melt away.

The Canyon View trail was short and only had a couple inches of snow on it.  We were rewarded with some amazing views of Betatakin Canyon.  The snow gave the views some extra interest.  We caught just a glimpse of this on the way in and it was good to see it in full daylight, at zero miles per hour.

The next trail went to the Betatakin Overlook, where a series of dwellings can be seen on the other side of the canyon.  Binoculars or a big camera lens were helpful here because of the distance.  The trail was icy, slippery, and the melting snow just greased things up a little bit.  We did manage to stay upright all the way to the viewing platform and viewed the ruins for a while.  This natural alcove housed as many as 125 people at some point in the 1200’s.  Kind of a grand bandshell for their community.  They probably didn’t think of it that way.

Once we had picked our way back over the icy trail, it was time to move on.  The roads had cleared considerably and we drove north on 160, stopping in Kayenta for groceries and fuel.  These small towns are always interesting.  At the gas station, I was approached by an older Native American who asked me where I was going.  We’ve seen several panhandlers at gas stations, so I have to admit my first answer was just a bit short.  It turns out he was just trying to be friendly so we talked for a bit as I completed my fill-up.  When I came back out, he was talking to the guy filling his pickup truck at the next pump.  He waved and wished us a good trip as we went by.  I waved also and mouthed thank you through the window.

We turned north on US-163 towards Mexican Hat, Utah.  I have driven this route before and have always enjoyed the scenery.  The distances and the red sandstone formations are always captivating.

We stopped to eat lunch at the Forest Gump section of the road, a place where tourists will stop and stand in the middle of the road while having their picture taken with the iconic Monument Valley formations in the background.  I took the same picture several years ago when we came through; it is the banner picture of the blog page, and I had to do it again.  Probably would have been better late in the afternoon, but you take what you can get.

We rolled through Mexican Hat, an interesting little town with some interesting memories perched in a canyon on the San Juan River.  On a trip a few years ago we stayed overnight in a motel which appears to be built right into the canyon wall.  One misstep could almost plunge you into the river.  There was no place else to stay. While we were taking some stuff in from the car, a cockroach went skittering across the floor.  I trapped it under a bowl which I left for the cleaning staff to discover after we had left.  I also developed a rash which lasted for days, probably from bedbugs.

Now we take our lodging with us and stay in the desert.  No more cockroaches.

We rolled into Bluff, Utah, and stopped at the Bears Ears Education Center in town.  Deb got the usual load of paper brochures and maps and a bunch of information from the woman who worked there.  We had also read in our guidebooks that there is fresh water available in Bluff and that it is very good water.  When asked about this, the woman said that we could use the hose behind the building.  Water is getting very hard to find as many places have shut off their supply for the winter.  So we filled up here.

One of the recommended places to visit here is the Sand Island Petroglyph Panel, located right next to the campground and boat launch on the San Juan River.  We spent a few hours here, just exploring this cool little section of the Cedar Mesa area.  The cottonwood trees were still displaying some of their fall colors so we got to experience fall all over again.

One of the nice things about not having an agenda is that you can spend as much time as you like in a place.  This was a gem, and we were also enjoying the sunshine and 50-degree weather, having come from such a cold morning.  So we spent a good portion of the afternoon here.

One of the defining features of this area is Comb Ridge, which splits the area from north to south for quite a distance.  It was a formidable obstacle for early settlers, who had to travel long distances to go around the south side at the San Juan River or around the north side, near Arch Canyon.  Highway 163 eventually solved this problem, being blasted through the ridge.  They literally had to move a mountain to put the road in.  A few years ago, when we came through here, we remarked that it would be fun to disperse camp in the shadow of this ridge.  So today we are doing just that.  We came back through the ridge on 163, got off on what we thought was Comb Wash Road, and parked the RV just off the road next to the wash.  I took some drone footage of the ridge and the road.  The late afternoon shadows obscure the cutout for the road somewhat, but it is quite impressive.

When surveying the area with the drone, I discovered that we were not actually on Comb Wash Road, so we drove the short distance to the correct road, and drove the dirt road in for a few miles until we found a nice flat site with a great view of the ridge.  The last site we stopped in would have been great, this one was even better.  Since it is the off-season, we are the only ones here for miles.  We ate dinner with the view of the ridge in the window, watching the sun set.

Ruins

I checked the election results this morning and was deeply saddened to see the passage of Proposal 3, which codifies abortion for any and every reason into the state constitution.  Two other states passed similar proposals.  This makes Michigan one of the most dangerous places to be an unborn child.  This and other recent developments in our country reminds me of the progression described in Romans 1, where God eventually gives us over to our sin, allowing us as a nation to pursue our own selfish passions, because we have exchanged the truth about God for a lie.  Proposal 3 is certainly one of those lies, denying that the unborn bear the image of God, and are fearfully and wonderfully made, (Psalm 139:14) being knit together in my mother’s womb. (v13)

This clouded my mood for a while today.  Even the weather seemed to agree, with the day dawning cold and blustery, super windy, and dark.  But early this afternoon, as we were driving, we could see a rainbow in the sky ahead of us, a sign of God’s covenant faithfulness, reminding me that God is faithful to the end.  Satan may have won this temporary battle, but the war is already decided.  Sin and death have been defeated, our God reigns! 

Most of this morning was cold, with periods of rain and a hard driving wind.  It was a bit of a battle keeping the RV on the road.  We fueled up in Flagstaff, then drove to nearby Walnut Canyon National Monument. This is a place I have never heard of and it contains a canyon with several ancient cliff dwellings.  The canyon itself is breathtaking, even in the driving rain, with several microclimates all in one small area because of the steepness of the canyon walls.  On one side, the yucca and pinyin characteristic of the desert.  On the other, fir trees characteristic of places that are less arid.  The ancient Puebloan people used this to their advantage, having winter and summer homes just on opposite walls of the canyon.

All these dwellings were built into the steep canyon walls, and a path with nearly 300 steps downward into the canyon was constructed by the CCC in the 1930’s to allow visitors to see all this.

I just wonder how the ancient people did this without concrete steps and paths and handrails.

Back in the RV we quaffed a mug of hot chocolate after removing our soaked coats to warm up.

Going north on US-89, we stopped at Sunset Crater, which is the volcano largely blamed for the disappearance of many of the ancient Puebloans when it erupted around the year 1075.  This national monument was largely closed--the visitor center was closed, the scenic drive was closed and several trails were closed.  The park had experienced a series of fires recently, so most of the terrain was barren and charred when driving in.  But there was still a person in the entry station to collect your $25 when you came in.

There is a short interpretive trail that goes through the lava flows that we walked, but we went quickly because of the wind tearing at our clothing and the chilly rain.  It was starting to mix with snow at this point.

We left and drove north again to Wupatki National Monument, another area of ruins from ancient peoples. These were not cliff dwellers, but they built their homes on high rocks and on the edge of small canyons, farming the bottoms of the canyons because that’s where most of the water was. There were several sites where these ruins were, and we visited all of them.  The sun was starting to peek through, but the wind still tore at our clothes and it was still quite chilly.  But the ruins were interesting.

Leaving Wupatki, we headed north, aiming to get to some lower elevations and perhaps some warmer weather.  Deb found a campsite at Navajo National Monument, and we set our sights on that.  In the nearly two hours it took to drive there, several things happened.  We drove into an ominous cloud bank.  It began to snow.  The temperature dropped to below freezing.  And the sun set.  We drove the last several miles in growing darkness on roads that were beginning to be covered with snow.  After we parked at our camp site, we checked the elevation.  7200 feet.  Well, that didn’t work out so well, but here we are, at 28 degrees, with icy roads, hunkering down for a cold night.  At least we topped off on propane a couple days ago.