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| Hello New Mexico! |
If yesterday was a Sunday drive, today was a walk in the
park. An easy peasy drive through three states ending up at the Twin Arrows
Resort and Casino. As I write this Joan is making a reparations payment to the
Navajo Nation at the slot machines. I am back in the room writing this and
watching a really, really incredible Rose Bowl.
But today started in Amarillo at 39 degrees and ended in
Flagstaff at 39 degrees. At times the temps soared into the low 40s but quickly
retreated to the 30s. Also notable today is that Joan took the wheel for the
third straight day and she did a really great job of driving and I did a great
job of napping.
I must say though that Joan has an interesting driving
manner. I rarely get to drive as a passenger with her so the last three days
have been very instructive. For one thing, she talks to every car (OK, almost
every car) that passes her. The conversations go something like this:
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| A dusting of snow and snow capped mountains behind |
“Move over sweet cheeks.”
“Move it GMC.” And my favorite so far, “Little white truck you better
keep your speed up, I don’t want to play games with you.” All this while understanding that none of
them can hear her.
Somewhere along the road in New Mexico I spotted a perched
hawk that was dealing with an angry crow that was basically hopping up and down
on the hawk’s head. I imagined that the hawk was telling the crow: “Listen
crow, I’m trying to find some tasty little mouse and you are simply distracting
me with the idiot harassment. Let’s do this crow. Let me find the mouse and I’ll
leave you the scraps to pick up later because that’s what you do best.” Hey, if Joan can talk to cars I can dream up
imaginary conversations between birds.
The entire day today was driven on I-40 with a speed limit
of 75 mph. The miles really roll by at that speed and on those occasional times
when the speed limit drops to 65 mph though a city it feels like you are
walking. And even at 75 mph, most drivers in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona view
speed .limits more like speed suggestions. We got passed more times that a
Matthew Stafford football game.
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| Joan driving, sometimes she even opens her eyes |
We saw some snow on the ground from an overnight passing
storm but the weather today could not have been more perfect for driving. The
light cloud cover made my sunglasses unnecessary, which I appreciate because I’m
not a fan of wearing them.
The Navajos are some of my favorite people. We have spent a
lot of time touring and visiting the Navajo Reservation in past years. I
recalled today a conversation I had with a Navajo guide we hired to show us
through Monument Valley two years ago.
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| The "Do Not Enter" sign has nothing to do with the Arizona sign |
After we had become comfortable with Sam (his name was much
longer and harder to pronounce so that was the name he asked us to call him) I
asked him what Native Americans prefer outsiders to call them. “We call
ourselves Indians, so that is good with us, as long as you are respectful.” Later I asked him about the whole Washington
Redskins controversy and he said it was a non-issue to most of his people. He
pointed out that a Navajo high school had adopted the “Redskins” name and many
of the tribe members wore Redskins logo jackets. Joan and I witnessed this more
than once. Just an observation that I recalled today while not driving.
Well tomorrow we pick up the trailer and head down the hill
(7,000 feet of hill) to Tucson for our winter getaway. I probably won’t post
tomorrow, but look for something this weekend. A big shout out to our friend
Greg who was kind enough to stop by our house and check the front door to make
sure I had locked it on the way out. I did.
Mileage out: 61973
Mileage in: 62560
Time out: 8:08 a.m. (CST)
Time in: 3:26 p.m. (MST)
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