Sunday morning, our travelers first returned to the Movie Set Museum. The owner had suggested we return in the daylight when we first met him the night before.The “museum” part of the Trading Post is out back and is a rather eclectic combination of actual movie-related buildings and props and old-time items. It seems that some of those old-time props have also been later used in movies!
The principal items to be viewed were from the Clint Eastwood film, The Outlaw Josey Wales. There are several others, too, but some of the more recent structures were for a Kenny Loggins music video and then a recent film now called The Attic Door (we hadn't heard of it).
We left (and yes, to those keeping track, we do tend to jump back and forth between first and third person! Thanks heavens we aren't being graded for this; and no college students will be plagiarizing if they want a good grade!) Kanab and headed back into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We crossed the border at Page, Arizona. This town is at the southern end of Lake Powell/Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
The rest of the day was spent driving across Native American territory. Of course, the largest reservation in the Four Corners area is that of the Navajo Nation. We followed Highway 89 south and turned east toward Tuba City. From there we drove Hwy. 264 across the Hopi Indian Reservation, turned north on 191 and ended up at Chinle, Arizona for the night. More about that later.
We discovered that Tuba City is on the north side of the highway, and a community called Moenkopi is on the south side. Tuba City is Navajo and the south side is Hopi. There is a large truck stop at the corner where we turned. Because we were looking for information about upcoming possible campsites, we stopped in.
While checking out the variety of businesses (the whole establishment is larger than Shannon's Petro 2; it has the truck stop, a fast-food restaurant, and three small craft shops), we began talking to the owner of one of the small shops. His name is James Surveyer and he shared much history and lore with us about the Hopi and the Navajo. He is a member of the Hopi tribe.
Contrary to some tribes that allow members who have smaller amounts of the tribe's “blood”, the Hopi only allow tribal members if they are full-blood or half-blood. Despite the fact that James is a business owner, he said the Navajo are more entrepreneurial and the Hopi place more importance in their relationship with the land and maintaining that important link.
We enjoyed our conversation with James and wish him well with his shop. We also ended up purchasing several items from him!
There were not really any campgrounds on the rest of our route. Even the campground at Canyon de Chelly at Chinle didn't have electricity for our C-Paps. We decided to splurge and stay there at Canyon de Chelly (a National Monument) at the Thunderbird Lodge.
They sell Tony Hillerman audiobooks and also some used books and tapes in the lobby of the office there. We purchased a used tape of Hillerman's Hunting Badger to listen to the next few days while we were in “Hillerman Country”. Anyone who reads Hillerman's books has probably already recognized the Tuba City references. It has been fun listening to this while we drive; we've gone through other oft-mentioned communities like Chinle, Window Rock, and Gallup. It's fun to picture the action better after driving through Utah and Arizona for the last week.
When we approached Chinle, there were bright lights shining in the sky. We discovered that it was the Central Navajo Fair, including an annual rodeo, carnival, and traditional dances. After checking in to the Lodge, we returned to attend the Fair. Unfortunately, it was just ending. We walked around and watched the carnival folk begin tearing down their booths and that was interesting. One vendor was also having a sale on left-over corn dogs, so Chris bought one.
Tomorrow's plans are to tour the Canyon somehow. Then we will begin a leisurely drive toward Roswell, New Mexico, before returning to Kansas.
No comments:
Post a Comment