Sunday - August 15, 1982 - 8:05 am
8:05 am M.D.T. - Ate at the Holiday Inn. We had no choice. Changed our reservation from Farmington, NM to Cortez, CO. Want to see Mesa Verde.
9:30 am M.D.T. - Stopped at the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. Drove thru on dirt (you should pardon the expression) roads. Was really worried about losing the tail pipe here, not to mention the whole bottom of the car.
Yes, folks, that is the road he had to drive on. I should also point out that there were several places along the road where the road itself, disappeared. Huge holes where the car was supposed to go.
Can certainly understand why John Ford loved to shoot his films here.
See? Road, Hole. Drive carefully.
Now the rest of our journey today was really a doozy. There is a place called Mexican Hat which is named after a rock formation. We were hoping to get some rest rooms here. There must be some word to describe a town that is smaller than a town and slightly bigger than a breadbox. Needless to say...we kept driving. Now very innocently, Larry decided we should go and see the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. The road was described as unimproved and sharp curves. That was being very kind. Actually, the road surface wasn't too bad. It was gravel. The curves were hairpin but what they didn't mention was it wasn't a good move to have a person with acraphobia sitting on the passanger side. Wow...what a view! Oh really...what a drop! This is definitely not a road to pull a trailer on.
Come on. You can tell me truthfully. Do you see where the road goes up this rockface? (I don't.)
Now after climbing this mountain you might expect that, like the bear who went over the mountain to see what he could see, we would also see the other side of the mountain and come down.At the top of this mountain was a level road. Looked like any ordinary road. In point of fact, the area looked more like the great plains than the great plains did. Flat as anything. We passed two vans pulling boats behind them heading toward where we had just been. I would have loved to have been there when they saw what laid ahead. The conversation in their car probably went like this:
"Well looky here,Ma, this is some hill we have to get down."
"Oh, Pa, maybe we should turn back."
"Shhh, don't be silly woman. I've driven mountain roads before."
"But, Pa."
"Shhh, Ma, it's okay."
"But, Pa."
"Now, Ma, just be still and relax."
"Ok, Pa. I've jus got one question. What's our boat doing in front of us?"
We continue the adventures of the Strumpf family. On to the Natural Bridges. Arrived and spoke to the ranger about the area. Started our journey at the second bridge. We heard thunder and ran for the car. Decided discretion was the better part of valor and skipped seeing the other bridges. Didn't want to become natural lightning rods for the natural bridges.
Stopped at the Edge of the Cedars Park in Blanding, UT. They are excavating some ruins and had a small museum. It was a lovely place. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and the gift shop was closed. Looked like it had some beautiful things.
6:00 pm - Arrived at Motel. Had dinner in Cortez. This was the reservation we changed from Farmington NM.