So we leave Saturday morning, early as Daryl always does, and will head to Chinle, AZ where we hope to tour Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo reservation. Then we head for Moab, Utah and hope to see lots of beauty in four national monuments (Navajo, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, and Arches) along the way. From there we want to go to Glenwood Springs and take advantage of the thermal baths there at the big hotel. Then we plan to head through the Rockies to Denver and up to Berthoud to see the Stratmeyers (our next door neighbors in Tucson) and an overnight with them. One of our neat options is to add a night either at Moab or Glenwood Springs. Add a day on the interstate between Berthoud and home (Omaha) and we arrive sometime in the afternoon on Friday May 1. just in time for a long-awaited Friday night Fish Fry...... yea, too.
Bonnie has a haircut appmt. for Saturday downtown. And of course, Jamie Wunrow's confirmation at HCLC is the Sunday. So, count on it, we'll be there.
Our Tucson days are rapidly coming to an end and looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone in person oftener than we have been able to during these past four months.
We left Tucson this morning just after 6 AM. Yesterday we said good-bye to Keith and Jan (Daryl's brother) and Dave and Cheryl (Daryl's brother-in-law). Our drive from Tucson to Chinle in northeastern AZ was beautiful as we took state highways through the
White Mtns and the Salt River canyon. Major road construction on 77 had us stop for about 30 minutes. The last 30 miles we were in a major dust/sand storm. As we enter Chinle could barely see 20 feet in front of us. At the Holiday Inn in Chinle next door to Canyon de Chelly Nat'l Mon. we checked out the guided tours of the Canyon, wondering if the sand storm would make the tour impossible. But our guide Oscar Bia said that the visibility in the Canyon would be okay, so we agreed to join him in his 1993 enclosed Jeep. Well the result was fantastic.The water levels in the Canyon are up this time of year, generally one to two feet, so we were inthe water at least half the time. It was just amazing. We traveled over 30 miles on the 3+ hour tour. The color of the canyon walls were a little muted because of the blowing sand, but the action was continuous. Then there was Oscar himself. It turns out he is a Navajo Shaman (a medicine man who sings native ceremonies). He grew up in the canyon and has learned many of the ceremonies of the Navajo from his adopted grandfather and now performs them. We engaged in nonstop chat about the sites in the canyon and his knowledge of Navajo culture and tradition. In fact, this evening he was to perform a
puberty ceremony for the family of a young Navajo girl, starting at ten at night and going until daylight tomorrow morning. His grandfather was a code talker in the Pacific in WW II. His family still owns land in the canyon.So we had three thrilling hours of chatter, viewing, and adventure in the flowing canyon waters. What had seemed like a long shot tour turned out to be a real treat. Tomorrow we will drive the north rim of the canyon and then head over to Monument Valley, another Navajo enterprise, then head north in Utah and the city of Moab, home of the Arches National Park.
After a nice breadfast at our Canyon de Chelly Holiday Inn (with about 30 tourists from the Netherlands) we did a quick auto tour of the Canyon's North Rim. Then we headed west across some beautiful lan
dscape. At Hwy 191 we went south to the Navajo National Monument. It was a good choice, they focus on the Anasazi ruins there, the forerunners of the later Navajo people. Learned that the Anazasi later became the Hopi people.Then we retraced about fifty miles going north and went through the Monument Valley, also i
n Navajo land. These are awesome gigantic, red rock formations that appear all around you. Hard to drive and take pictures at the same time. From the north end of the Valley we turned northwest to head for the Natural Bridges Nat. Monument, but on the way we had to drive up a thousand foot cliff. 
As we approached it we couldn't see any way that the road would work it’s way to the top, but we (really) kept going. At the base the sign said something about no trucks, grave roadway for a mile or so, and a number of hairpin switchbacks. Well, not knowing exactly what that meant we continued on. Fortunately there were few cars to meet us. Lots of smart people out here. Anyway going up was certainly better than driving down. Advice to future travelers who come this way? Go north! Even as we drove up we often couldn't see where the road would take us ahead. At one point about 80% up the cliff we stopped to get a view and pictures of the road below. Bonnie bravely said she wouldn't or couldn't get out of the car. Later at the Natural Bridges Nat. Mon. we found out the name of this "road to the sky"; it is Moki Dugway. It was built in the sixties to shorten the daily commute of uranium miners in this area.We finally arrived at the Nat. Bridges Mon. and they are unique and different in that the stone is gray, not red like everything in the area, due to the fact that this layer of bedrock was much older that the red rock from later eras. We drove out to two of the largest arches.
From there it was, "let's head for Moab" time and we did. We went through a funny cloud layer in high country that looked like a snow storm but it didn't materialize too much, just a few drops of rain. So now it's time for the pool and dinner. In the pool we met and chatted with two couples from France, an older couple plus their daughter and her husband. They were very gracious. The younger ones were conversant in English. Tomorrow we will stop at Arches Nat. Mon. and then head for Glenwood Springs and a dip in their highly acclaimed hot mineral pool.
Earlier on Monday we left Moab, a combination of the Dells, and other outdoor adventure gathering places to visit the nearby Arches National Mon. It is an awesome place with over 2000 red rock arches of all sizes. We auto toured
for about two hours and then drove the winding highway 128 along side the Colorado until we reached I-70 about 70 miles to the northeast.So we continued our trek home via the scenic route through western Colorado. By the way, Denver had an inch of snow yesterday and Vail pass about 8 inches, so we hope that is all melted by the time we pass through later tomorrow morning.
We spent the night at the Glenwood Spgs Hotel on the west slope of the Rockies. Th
e city is sandwiched between mountains and barely a few blocks wide, sharing the valley with the confluence of the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers. But the town's noteworthy feature is its hot springs which exit the earth at 122 degrees. The hotel features the largest pool in the world at 405 feet long and 100 feet wide and is regulated to 92 degrees for creature comfort. However they have a "smaller pool" (100 feet long) that serves as a huge hot tub at 104 degrees. So the hundreds, actually thousands, of people have plenty of room to sit and soak or walk. The waters are loaded with natural minerals that are claimed to be therapuatic. The Ute Indians were well aware of these hot springs and introduced gold prospectors to them in the early 1800's There is a dominating snow-covered mountain just to the east , the 12,953-foot Mount Sopris, our first real view of the majestic Rockies.Today we head for our friends the Stratmeyers in Berthoud CO near Loveland, north of Denver. We hope to stop in Vail on the way and then the Denver museum of history.
Our visit to Denver and it’s Colorado Museum of History was fun. It is quite new and in the bustling downtown area and well worth a visit. We exited Denver just minutes before the onset of the afternoon rush hour and made it to quiet Berthoud where we met the Carol and Dick at the coffee house. Soon we were climbing into the flatirons to their mountainside home complete with gorgeous views. After dinner and conversation we found the guest bed a welcome option. In the morning after breadfast we bid good-byes to the Stratmeyers and head for home via eastern Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa on I-80, making one last overnight in Des Moines.
We arrived home Thursday, April 30 about 2 o'clock. After picking up our mail and a couple grocery essentials, we busily unpacked the car and began the process of settling in here at SteepleView. It's good to be home. We will be receiving callers (in-person, phone, and texters) as well as accepting invitations to grandkids events and the like. We are so grateful that we were able to finally make this scenic trip and enjoy good weather along the way.
