way I was going to go. At the last second I decided
to turn north into Monument Valley, home of El Capitan
of "Close Encounters" fame. Very cool buttes and
mesas that stretched for miles. Now and then an
"Indian Trading Post" selling "Real Navajo Jewelry" at
"Wholesale Prices". And many little homemade roadside
stands with hand painted signs advertising the same
stuff. Passed three of four housing developments on
the reservation which must have been relocation
villages. The whole res culture is so mysterious to
me. And I have real hesitation and discomfort about
asking questions (which I have never had in
Newfoundland, for example). I feel like I used to in
the Middlebury Natural Foods Coop, imagining the
salespeople saying to themselves "what's he doing
here?" My own mischugass ("craziness" for you goyim
((gentiles)) ), of course.
Went through Mexican Hat and Bluff, CO, two little
towns on the San Juan River that are starting and
stopping places for rafting trips. There's a lot of
water in the San Juan because of the amount of snow in
the mountains and there were lots of rafts getting in
and out. I toyed with floating some of it but the
shuttle back to the starting point was a problem. I
liked the funkiness of the two towns. One had a
restaurant with a sign that said "Home of the Swinging
Steak" and no explanation or picture.
Drove through Cortez and Durango. Elevaton stayed
pretty steady at around 7000 ft. Lots of snow. The
only campground open was a state park near Ignacio,
which is also the home of an old college buddy, Hope
Vail. Hope tried to teach me to smoke and drink
scotch. Needless to say…. She and her partner lived
in Asheville, NC . after graduate school and enticed
me and Phoebe to move there. Anyway, I left a message
but haven't heard anything. Hope works for the
schools and this is spring break.
I'm camping on Navajo Lake, right on the water, no one
else in the campground. A beautiful view of the
snowcovered mountains. Had a campfire. I'm a little
worried about the temp tonight. It was 19 above in
Durango last night. It's a little lower in elevation
here.
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