Trip Report Keep your eyes on the road, hands upon the wheel–A South West RT-The End!Bonus Tracks

[jedijill]

This is one of those bucket list trips for us, although Fran doesn't believe in "bucket lists". As she has said (and you will find out where later). "I don't believe in once in a lifetime, some things need to be done multiple times."

I love this philosophy! Words to live by.

Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

So the next morning I woke up around 5:30AM totally sore. Luckily I had packed a whole bunch of bath salts and used them for a nice soak in the tub. I reheated my leftovers and enjoyed them for my breakfast. Then we loaded up the car and headed to fuel up. That was starting to become a regular event!

We drove through Mickey D’s for an iced coffee for me and a sausage burrito for Fran. No pictures, sorry! We picked up a media card for our old DSLR camera at WalMart and then headed to Safeway for grocery shopping. The events of the morning, took about half an hour longer than we hoped and at 9:30AM we were on our way to Monument Valley.



I was a little surprised to see snow capped mountains in May especially in Arizona, but they were pretty.





The roads were quite open as we headed north to our destination.



Ever since I learned about them in Weather class I’ve always loved Lenticular Wave Clouds, rarely do we see them in California. I should have used the big camera!



Soon we came down from the mountains and back on to the prairie.



And we made our first stop.



This was my first purchase in Navajo country.



A few miles later we came to another stop, this was a total Tourist Trap. If you are at all familiar with Casa de Fruita in California, this was like that. Much more merchandise, and very touristy. I didn’t buy anything here.





The countryside changed from Prairie to sedimentary rock formations.





We were in Navajo country by this point and unfortunately a lot of the buildings looked a little worse for wear.



As we moved into Navajo country we also lost an hour. When we arrived at our interim destination, Tuba City, it was around 1PM. Our plan was to have lunch here. The AAA guide book listed two options. The Tuuvi Café was inside a Travel Center along the highway. It featured Hopi Cuisine. Or the other option was the Hogan Restaurant which featured American and Navajo Cuisine. We chose:



It was a quaint little place. The guide book said that it did most of it’s business as the restaurant attached to the Quality Inn.













I went with the Soup and ½ Sandwich Combination. They were serving a Pork and Green Chile Soup. It was very good, but had a little bit of spice on the back end.



And a BLT.



Fran went with the Navajo Cheeseburger, a traditional beef patty with Cheese surrounded by Frybread instead of an American bun. This was an excellent choice and I decided that next time I saw this on the menu, I was having one of these!



We ordered some Navajo Fry Bread for dessert.



This is what it looks like all dressed up with Powered Sugar and Honey.



Completely stuffed, we waddled out of there….

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Lunch taken care of, we headed to our next destination, which conveniently was located next door to the restaurant.







Normally it’s not respectful to take pictures inside Indian places or of their things without asking first, but there were two girls up at the front counter who were just gabbing away like young girls do. They were not paying any attention to us guests. With the sound off on my camera, I had no problems with taking pictures inside the shop to let you all see the Indian artifacts that we had been looking at and considering for purchase this trip.



I swear that I saw this exact same statue at the last shop, so not all of these things are “handcrafted”.





We saw our fair share of gorgeous turquoise jewelry this trip and I did get some. I’ll show you the pieces as I got them, but the only things we ended up getting from this shop was a T-shirt for me and a cookbook for Fran. How could I (as a musician) resist a shirt from Tuba City????



These are called “Squash Blossom Necklaces” and we looked at a whole bunch, they start at around $1200-$2500 and up, but if you start asking one shop was willing to go as low as $750 to sell me one of these. I tried it on and I’m not sure I could deal with having that much weight around my neckline regardless of the price!



I think I might actually have one like this that Fran gave to me years ago and I have never worn it.



Not only do they make them in turquoise, but also coral. I was looking at reversible coral and turquoise necklaces.



This one is quite elaborate



This is the author that I mentioned a few posts ago. He has passed away, but his daughter is continuing the series of books that he started.



And then we were back on the road to Monument Valley listening to our book.



There were a lot of fabricated homes in the Navajo land. It was very sad though once something became unusable, they didn’t have the funds to destroy it and haul it off, the buildings just sat there vacant and disintegrating, sometimes being vandalized. Evidently there are still quite a few households without power and running water.



These were some pretty cool structures that were just “out of the blue”.



Since we’d been listening to the books, I learned about the Navajo home structures called Hogans. I was seeing lots of them and started taking pictures of the Hogans. If you look off in the distance you can see them. They are round one room structures where the whole family lives together.



Just before we reached Kayenta, Fran started falling asleep or at least exhibiting signs of drowsiness. Listening to the book didn’t seem to be enough to keep her awake, so in Kayenta we pulled over and I finished up the driving. I did make her take pictures though. These are some of the rock outcroppings that we saw along the way.





These are some of the numerous Indian Jewelry stands that you see along the way driving through Navajo country. The people here are the ones who make the jewelry, so if you purchase something here, you are actually helping out the people, not some corporation or middle man who is distributing the goods. They have some really good bargains here. We stopped at quite a few of these, and I’ll share our goodies later.



Here we are on approach to Monument Valley. You can see some of the well known outcroppings in this picture.



Here’s another picture with a Hogan, this is a better view.



And then we reached the hotel, and checked into our room. I think I’ll stop here with this update and give folks a chance to catch up. But not too long! I need to push this thing along! I have lots more to show you and as you all know the pace comes to a crawl once I actually get home!

 

[franandaj]

I love this philosophy! Words to live by.

Jill in CO

Especially when things don't work out like you've planned. Foreshadowing...

 

[podsnel]

Hey girlfriend! this is SO AWESOME you are writing it as you go! Very, very jelly of your In-n-Out stop- Tyler still says he is opening one out here. SO YUMMMMMM....

I loved Route 66 and how AMAZING it really WAS Carsland!

All of your pics are absolutely fascinating to me, I have never seen any of this area of our country, and it is soooooooo different from everywhere else. Thanks very much for showing it all off-

 

[rentayenta]

Holy carp that's the biggest burger I've seen!

 

[Misskitty3]

[Continued from Previous Post]



These are called “Squash Blossom Necklaces” and we looked at a whole bunch, they start at around $1200-$2500 and up, but if you start asking one shop was willing to go as low as $750 to sell me one of these. I tried it on and I’m not sure I could deal with having that much weight around my neckline regardless of the price!

The jewelry photos are amazing!! I LOVE looking at silver and turquoise anything!! Love that crow and cow (?) figurines too!

 

[Leshaface]

Thanks for the info on Total Rewards. And here we were obssessing the whole time about making sure we grabbed our cards from the machines so no one could take them to cash them in Now I know

You guys always manage to find the car shows don't you?! !I don't know why i never mentioed this before, but my brother has a 1956 Chevy Bel-air in that pretty teal/turquoise blue color

We've only drove by Casa de Fruta in Holiister(or Gilroy?) but never stopped.

That frybread burger looks fantastic!

The jewelry is gorgeous. I think that Coral color is very pretty!

 

[Pinkocto]

That was quite a spread at the buffet. I was thinking, and you confirmed it, that they must keep in mind the all night gamblers.

How fun to come across a gorgeous car show! Those were some beauties!!!

How was the food at the diner?

Oops, I think I'm missing another update, must read that too.


***ETA: I missed the whole last page...

Glad the diner food was delicious, I love finding places like that.

All that silver and turquoise would have had me drooling! Note to self, must remember to do lots of over time before going to that area of the country.

Was your first purchase a hair clip or a bracelet?

That fry bread looks delicious

 

[eandesmom]

WOW! talk about stumbling across the perfect thing for the 2 of you. What a fun little side trip that was just planned to be a meal stop. Gorgeous cars and I love all the themes and staging. So much fun. Lunch looked good and score on the parking mojo!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Wow! I missed out on Tuba City. That Trading Post looks great.

You definitely picked the better place to eat. We got lost around Tuba City and I ended up heading to somewhere that I thought was the visitor centre to ask questions. I think I saw the Tuuvi Café but can't remember. If it was the place, the Hogan Restaurant is streaks better than Tuuvi.

 

[dgbg100106]

Wow! I missed out on Tuba City. That Trading Post looks great.

You definitely picked the better place to eat. We got lost around Tuba City and I ended up heading to somewhere that I thought was the visitor centre to ask questions. I think I saw the Tuuvi Café but can't remember. If it was the place, the Hogan Restaurant is streaks better than Tuuvi.

Something to remember....

 

[dgbg100106]

That fry bread burger looks amazing.

The trading post has some pretty items in it.

 

[franandaj]

Hey girlfriend! this is SO AWESOME you are writing it as you go! Very, very jelly of your In-n-Out stop- Tyler still says he is opening one out here. SO YUMMMMMM....

I loved Route 66 and how AMAZING it really WAS Carsland!

All of your pics are absolutely fascinating to me, I have never seen any of this area of our country, and it is soooooooo different from everywhere else. Thanks very much for showing it all off-

I bet folks on the East Coast would thank Tyler for doing so!

Just wait it gets even better! The Southwest is an amazing place!

Holy carp that's the biggest burger I've seen!

It's just the angle of the picture, that was a pretty reasonably sized burger. Just you wait!

The jewelry photos are amazing!! I LOVE looking at silver and turquoise anything!! Love that crow and cow (?) figurines too!

We saw some really amazing jewelry on this trip, so beautiful. I didn't take many other pictures except of my own jewelry, but there are so many beautiful pieces out there!

Thanks for the info on Total Rewards. And here we were obssessing the whole time about making sure we grabbed our cards from the machines so no one could take them to cash them in Now I know

You guys always manage to find the car shows don't you?! !I don't know why i never mentioed this before, but my brother has a 1956 Chevy Bel-air in that pretty teal/turquoise blue color

We've only drove by Casa de Fruta in Holiister(or Gilroy?) but never stopped.

That frybread burger looks fantastic!

The jewelry is gorgeous. I think that Coral color is very pretty!

That's cool about your brother's car! Is he into collector cars? We call it Casa de Potty and stop there often. They also have wine tasting of fruity wines. It's a fun stop, but we've never eaten at the café.

The frybread burgers are amazing, if you every have the chance try one!

I love all the jewelry we saw this trip!

That was quite a spread at the buffet. I was thinking, and you confirmed it, that they must keep in mind the all night gamblers.

How fun to come across a gorgeous car show! Those were some beauties!!!

How was the food at the diner?

Oops, I think I'm missing another update, must read that too.


***ETA: I missed the whole last page...

Glad the diner food was delicious, I love finding places like that.

All that silver and turquoise would have had me drooling! Note to self, must remember to do lots of over time before going to that area of the country.

Was your first purchase a hair clip or a bracelet?

That fry bread looks delicious

So far all the food has been pretty darn good, glad you caught up on the updates. The first purchase was a barrette. I'm sure you would love the fry bread, it's great as a savory food or with the powdered sugar and honey!

WOW! talk about stumbling across the perfect thing for the 2 of you. What a fun little side trip that was just planned to be a meal stop. Gorgeous cars and I love all the themes and staging. So much fun. Lunch looked good and score on the parking mojo!

The day in Kingman was our best for Pixie Dust....we'll have to see how that works out for the rest of the trip!

 

[franandaj]

Wow! I missed out on Tuba City. That Trading Post looks great.

You definitely picked the better place to eat. We got lost around Tuba City and I ended up heading to somewhere that I thought was the visitor centre to ask questions. I think I saw the Tuuvi Café but can't remember. If it was the place, the Hogan Restaurant is streaks better than Tuuvi.

We had read beforehand that Tuba City was the largest city in the Navaho Nation so we made it a point to stop there. We knew about the Trading Post before we got there, but it was our AAA Guide that clued us in on the Hogan Restaurant.

Given the choice between Hopi Cuisine and Navaho, Fran will choose Navaho. She has been raving about fry bread for years. I think the first time I really had the frybread was at the Smithsonian Cafeteria in the Indian Heritage Museum. As you will see, we definitely got our fill of frybread on this trip. I think I counteracted all my 10K step days with frybread!

Something to remember....

That fry bread burger looks amazing.

The trading post has some pretty items in it.

As I said in the post, if I had the opportunity to have one of my own again, I was taking it!

 

[Luvchefmic]

How beautiful that jewlery is but I can't even imagine how heavy some of those necklaces must be The fry bread delicious I tasted it many years ago

When we lived in New York we would go to the annual Pow-Wow of the Shinnecock Nation where they hosted visiting tribes every labor day weekend I have always been fascinated learning about Native American culture and their history so this is another interest that has been peaked with your TR ( and Pio's )

 

[franandaj]

How beautiful that jewlery is but I can't even imagine how heavy some of those necklaces must be The fry bread delicious I tasted it many years ago

When we lived in New York we would go to the annual Pow-Wow of the Shinnecock Nation where they hosted visiting tribes every labor day weekend I have always been fascinated learning about Native American culture and their history so this is another interest that has been peaked with your TR ( and Pio's )

I'm going to try and include as much as I can, we learned a lot (or I learned a lot) on this trip. It was fun and educational!

 

[franandaj]

Now something we learned about the View Hotel upon our leaving is that they actually only have three rooms with King Size Beds, all the other rooms have two queens. The King Beds are in the “Premium” rooms. I learned a lot about the hotel on my numerous trips to the lobby for updates and posts on the DIS. The Premium rooms are located at the end of the building so as to give the most panoramic view of the Valley. End of Building, think Boardwalk Villas hallways!

Yes, we were in room 330, translation: 3rd floor (elevator, thank god) and the 30th room. Yes, we had to walk past 29 rooms to get to ours. Now for me, being Ms 10K stepper this wasn’t a huge problem. Fran, well that was a different story. She did make it to the room, but you can see what it did to her.



The room was amazingly HUGE!!!!!













After the obligatory pictures were taken, I went downstairs to load in the luggage. I used the luggage cart for my first trip. Fran and I agreed that she needed her scooter to get back and forth to the car, lobby, anywhere in the hotel, so my second trip in was with the scooter loaded down. Groceries unpacked, we were now settled in.









Finally I was able to relax on the balcony with an adult beverage and enjoy the scenery.



These are some of the iconic Monuments of the Valley



I also enjoyed this view



[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

I noticed that the 17 mile road they mentioned was just visible from the balcony.



I started watching the cars traverse this road and thought that I should post this out of order, we didn’t find this sign until the next day, but it explains a lot about what I saw going on with the road below. It also made me realize how many people either didn’t read or ignored this sign.



There were cars of all shapes and sizes trying to navigate this road. We had no plans of trying to drive it ourselves. I had read on several sites that while the road is open to the public in limited areas, it is not paved or graded. Having been on my share of 4WD roads I was not willing to risk the suspension of our car, or the $800 in maintenance that we made to it driving over a road filled with sharp edges, drop offs and sand bogs that can trap a 4WD. I found it humorous to see sedans and sports cars attempting this drive. So much so that I put on the telephoto lens to capture it in detail.







With the telephoto lens, I could spy on the diners in the café.



These were the standard vehicles that most people toured in.



As the sun began to set you could see the shadows long on the monuments.





I so desperately wanted the sun to set here.



But alas it had it’s own mind to set over here.











And with my first Sunset at Monument Valley (using the “Auto no flash” setting) I was feeling pretty OK about my camera skills.

Earlier Fran and I talked about whether or not we wanted to really eat at the view restaurant. She had not stirred in bed since we arrived, and was still sawing logs. I woke her enough to say that there really wasn’t anything on the menu that I was thrilled about eating, and she was fine with skipping it. I got myself some chicken, made a cup of macaroni and cheese, and a salad and I was good. If she ate anything that night I made her a peanut butter and honey (she likes the skippy combination flavor) sandwich and that was her dinner.





We put in a wake up call for 4AM and with that, went off to bed.

 

[dgbg100106]

The view there is truly amazing. Score on the room and the size of the bed.

I so wanted the sun to set over there also...