Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

(Pictured: Gooseneck State Park, Southern Utah)We pulled out of Lisa and Joe’s humble abode in Pagosa Springs, Colorado on Sunday morning awaiting a solid drive back into New Mexico to pick up our broken down station wagon. The wagon was located about an hour east of Albuquerque at a remote service station in “Wagon Wheel”, New Mexico. From my guess, the only thing in Wagon Wheel was that lonesome service station. We quickly snatched the car up from our very friendly mechanic (he did not screw us, which was nice). From there our goal was to shoot north west to the Four Corners region where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet. This part of the country is smack dab in the middle of “Navajo Nation”.

Pictured: The Mini Van was very excited to see the return of a very healthy Volvo station wagon. On the first day we spent about 10 hours in the car and crashed at a hotel in the middle of nowhere Farmington, New Mexico. The hotel we stayed at that night was supposed to be Triple AAA rated. It should have been triple FFF rated (yeah I know, it is a bad joke). The toilet was a piece of shit. Also, you could not turn the light on in the bathroom without also turning on another light ( which had power comparable to the sun at high noon in the summer) that was in the actual bedroom. Thus, we were all awaken when anyone else choose to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. It happened twice. I tried to use the facilities during the middle of the night while leaving the light “off”. However, my attempt at being courteous to my sleeping compadres was futile as I accidentally got some pee all over the floor and my sock. NO BUENO! Nonetheless, our resilient crew made the best of the dismal hotel room and carried on. And yes, I changed my sock.
We hit Four Corners the next morning(Pictured). It was about as interesting as you would expect a place to be where four states meet. (Insert sarcastic tone here) At one point I was standing in New Mexico and Colorado. At the same time Jess was in New Mexico and Dave was in Arizona. It was downright sensational! Either that, or it was a pretty boring tourist trap.

Taking the advice of Joe and Lisa, we went to Muley Point (Pictured), a huge mesa which overlooks Goosenecks State Park and Monument Valley. The San Juan river (the same river that ran next to the hot springs by their house in Pagosa Springs) cuts deep into the earth forming vast canyons. I still cannot get over the deserts of the Southwest. I cannot wait to go back.

After chilling at Muley Point for a while, we rode through Monument Valley (Pictured). It was just about dusk and Benny and I were driving together in the van. Benny had not listened to much Pink Floyd up to that point. This eerie, interesting place with giant rocks “seemingly placed” in the middle of the desert seemed like a perfect time to throw “Dark Side of the Moon” on the iPod. It was extremely cool. The album started as we came upon the start of the formations and ended as we left. If only we had a copy of the Wizard of Oz handy.

That night we ate at a truck stop in northern Arizona on our way to the Grand Canyon. Little did we know that the highlight of the entire trip was right around the corner.

To be continued…

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Notes:

(Pictured: Benny making fun of the way I stand in pictures in front of landmarks)
> I have a goal of having over 250 (currently I have 158) subscriptions before I leave for Africa one month from today. If you like the blog, sign up by putting your email address in the box on the right hand side of the page (you will have to confirm the subscription through another email that will be sent to you). Subscribers are eligible to win prizes. I will shortly be giving away another prize/prizes as soon as I figure out what to give away. Throw me a comment if you have any good ideas. Maybe I could give away travel books? I am currently reading “Dark Star Safari” by Paul Theroux. It is a fascinatingly tale of a guy traveling from Cairo to Capetown, the route that I will be starting one month from today. Or, should I try to get more backpacks. What would you like to win? I do not know.

> If you enjoy reading about the desert I highly recommend reading DFDE friends Rikki and Chris’ blog at Traveling12feet.com .

These guys simply love the deserts of the United States (and they take better pix than I do).

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