Red Rocks in the Winter!

Praying Hands

We didn't find John Wayne here, but we surely felt traces of his ghost.

Even though I lived in Arizona for about 3 1/2 years (you'll hear more about that later) I had never visited some of the most beautiful parts of the state. I was able to fill in some major gaps on our Excellent Adventure.

Mileage: (I WILL put this in when we get to California!)

States: 36 ... THREE MORE .... Colorado, Utah and Arizona added to the 33 from the last post. Four corners was a GREAT way to add states

Saturday, January 16

This day didn't start out at all well. It was cold in Bloomington, New Mexico, up in the northwest corner near Farmington. As I mentioned in the last post, we had explored the Aztec Ruins (misnamed as no Aztecs were ever really there it is thought), and had a quiet evening. Gary had noticed that the sun had melted some snow, and the ground was a little soft and moist (not quite muddy) when he parked Buster. Well it definitely got down to freezing overnight, probably 25 degrees, and the next morning when we went to leave, he found the jacks (the supporting posts that descend from the motorhome to help level it) had frozen into the ground and wouldn't come up. I think he first tried chipping at them with a long screw driver, but ultimately resorted to coming in, boiling water, and throwing that on them. After about 30 minutes of effort, we were thawed from the earth, and ready to go. In town, we found a fuel station and pulled up to the pump. Again, after playing with the nozzle, etc., finally the attendant came out and confirmed that that pump wasn't working. There was no sign. Gary drove around to the other side of the of the station, and initiated using still another pump for the car. He went into the station convenience store to leave his credit card, as requested, and someone came up and used his pump .... and the gas was charged to his card! Man ... it was a frustrating morning.

As we got going, our predominant impression was, yes, we are in the high desert in the middle of winter. Lots of snow on the ground, though the roads were fortunately clear. And we knew it would stay cold .... less than 36 degrees at night, so we filled out propone tank .... our best heat source in those temperatures.

I had been to Four Corners before with my parents, and I thought it as more of a National Monument or something, but it's just a round cement marker with the flags of the four states mounted there. And then there are concessions with wares from each of the four states: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. They weren't all completely staffed and operational on this January day, but we shopped around anyway. We bought silver earrings in New Mexico and a silver disc (pendant) divided into four quadrants with UT, CO, NM, and AZ lettered on it purchased in Utah. We bought a sand painting with images from the four states depicted (the image of Kokapeli for Utah, mountains for Colorado, red rocks for Arizona, and a yucca plant for New Mexico) in Arizona and then we bought arrowheads in Colorado.

As we are focused on trying to travel to all lower 48 states, it was really fun to get 3 new states so easily!

We continued north and west on the wintry day which remained slightly overcast. While it didn't look like it was going to snow, and that wasn't in the forecast which we had checked very carefully, it remained at about 34 degrees for most of the day. It actually added to the eery beauty of this very interesting and inspirational area.

We really enjoyed the day, putting on a few miles,

I think around 280, on our circular route through Four Corners and through Monument Valley. We got fuel in Kayenta and on a walk over to a Navajo store I literally got stuck in the mud. I had to step out of my shoes, pull them up with my hands, and walk to the store in my stocking feet. Also, unfortunately, I had chosen this day to wear my winter white cotton cashmere pants ..... THREE washings to get the mud out!!!

Then we made our way to Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona on the Navajo reservation. I had called ahead and they assured me that one loop of the campground was open. We pulled in at dusk, and found the open loop ..... but we were the only campers there. There were no services (it was a no-fee campground) and we felt quite the intrepid ones turning out the lights in such silence all under our own power: generator for electricity and propane for heat.

Sunday, January 17

Sunday morning was a beautiful, bright day, and we thought Canyon de Chelly was simply inspiring. Archeological evidence shows that people have lived in these canyons for nearly 5,000 years, longer than anyone has lived on the Colorado plateau, and 3,000 years before Christ. The canyon walls afforded shelter and images on the canyon walls tell their stories. These ancestors of the Pueblo and Hopi Indians were called Anasazi: a Navajo word meaning ancient ones. The Hopi and other tribes spent summers in the canyon, hunting and farming. And most recently the Navajo arrived. At the mouth of the canyon, near Chinle, the walls are only 30 feet high, but deeper into the canyon they rise 1,000 feet above the floor.

You can see the mouth of the canyon in this first photo, and get a feel for the vegetation.

Then, if you look closely, you can see dwellings in the walls:

This last image is of Spider Rock. It is named for Spider Woman, a Navajo woman who scolds little children. She is said to live on the top of Spider Rock, and naughty children are flown up there by elders who are watching from the walls of the canyon. The sun-bleached area on the top of Spider Rock are said to be the bones of the naughtiest children!

We had a lovely winter morning driving along the south rim of Canyon de Chelly, and stopped at the ranger station before we left. In the lobby, a gentleman, Frank , was selling silver jewelry including a lovely teardrop pendant that was a native glass design on one side, and was the silver sculpted image of a mother holding an infant on the other side. He told us he uses the mother and child image in reference to his mother whose picture was taken while holding her older son on the floor of Canyon de Chelly by Ansel Adams in 1942. He has a copy of an Ansel Adams book with the photo in it. And then he has another picture of his mother holding the book in the same spot 50 years later, in 1992 at the age of 90+. He gave me a copy of this picture and wrote the story on the back. I've put the picture here.

It's very cool .... and the pendant is very pretty. I'll have to have Gary take a picture of me wearing it.

We returned to the campground to see our solitary Buster!

We travelled on down Arizona 191 to the Hubbel Trading Post ... a hub for years for trading of local corn, weavings, baskets, etc. Today they have llamas at the Trading Post.

We had one final thing we wanted to see, just east of Holbrook off of Interstate 40: The Painted Desert and The Petrified Forest. But they are pretty strict that you need to be in your car heading toward an exit by 5 pm, and we got there about 4:15. So we decided to see what we could see, go on over to Holbrook and stay all night, and then come back and finish the next morning. So that's what we did. The lighting was good to get some feel for The Painted Desert. These layers of color are attributed to mineral content and different rates at which the sediments were laid down. Iron, aluminum and manganese oxides are some of the compounds found here. And the visual impact of these sediments is exquisitely brought out by the unique desert light. Here are a couple of images we saw:

Monday, January 18

We knew we had to get through the Arizona White Mountains by mid-day, as there was a prediction for a giant snow storm in another day or so. So we returned to The Petrified Forest and saw some more of the amazing things there on Monday morning. Tall conifers grew along the banks of the many streams that crossed the floodplain. Climate change, volcanic eruption and swollen streams carried them to adjacent floodplains where there were buried by a mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash. This sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the trees decay. Silica-lade groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.

There are many beautiful examples of this in the Petrified Forest National Park. On the left is Jasper Forest where erosion of a high rocky bluff left hundreds of petrified logs once encased in the bluff strewn across this valley below.

(Liz is obviously having a good time wearing her Texas cowboy hat!)

We encountered a really nice ranger in the Petrified Forest Ranger station who, I think, felt compelled to educate a school child who was obviously not in

school. He convinced her to try to acquire the Jr. Ranger patch and badge for this site ..... something we are now learning is available at many National Parks

though you need to ask about it apparently. She had a short workbook to complete with questions about what could be learned from the exhibits and in the

park. I would say it took her about 20 minutes to find all the answers, and there were only certain pages she had to do as a 9 year old. There were less advanced

and more advanced pages for younger and older children. This particular ranger then spent another 15 minutes (it was a slow day in the Petrified Forest!) and

finally awarded her a certificate, patch and badge for her jacket. She loved it, and wants us to try to remind her to do this when we get to our next National Park.

We went back to Holbrook after a stop at the store that seemed to sell the most petrified wood souvenirs and bought some very handsome petrified wood

book ends. Gary had noticed a small problem that morning: one of the cables that connects Buster to Bella so that the brake lights work in the car had come

unattached, skidded along the road, and lost the plug. So we either needed a new cable or to rewire the plug. This didn't seem like something easy to accomplish

in Holbrook, but again, as our adventure karma would have it, a store named Auto Safety House (!) was right across from the RV park. The

gentleman in there wasn't very busy. He didn't have another cable, but did have the right plug, and rewired it for Gary in 10 minutes. Great! (We tipped him!)

So we got on our way to Tuscon. We were to go through Show-Low and Greer, and as you can see were flirting with some kind of weather. The next day they got two

feet of snow! But the drive down the Salt River Canyon was beautiful (and steep and a tiny bit scary in the motorhome!) But Gary once again did a masterful job navigating Buster down to the valley below.

We arrived in Tuscon and followed the excellent

instructions of our friend, David Walker, to their home in Saddlebrooke. I had met David in 1990 when he first came to Mayo Clinic in our Executive Health Program. At that time we asked people to not only list their prior surgeries, but the name of the surgeon (in the Mayo Brother's days, they knew a lot of surgeons!), and where it had been performed. David listed "Tonsillectomy, Dr. Abbott, Ontario, CA, 1939." My grandfather, Frank Abbott, was a general practitioner in Ontario in those years, practicing with his older son Norman and my father, Kenneth, before Kenneth came to Rochester for neurosurgical training. Indeed, my grandfather, Frank Abbott, had delivered Mr. Walker, and we think my father may have taken out his tonsils! Well, at that time David and his talented wife Barbara (who has also become my delightful patient) were the owners, publishers and editors of the Emporia (KS) Gazette, a Pulitzer prize winning paper owned originally by Barbara's father. David went home, and wrote a wonderful editorial about meeting his doctor's granddaughter, and wrote something to the effect: "Her grandfather brought me into the world, and I'm going to count on her to keep me in this world." It's the best story!

Barbara and David had graciously invited us to stay with them, and we had a wonderful time.

Tuesday, January 19

One of the first things we wanted to visit was Kartchner Caverns, a "young" cave we had been told about by Jan Berghoff. Reminiscent of Carlsbad, it was discovered about 30 years ago, but kept a secret until all could be arranged to protect it. The discoverers worked with the Arizona legislature to declare it a state protected site, and then developed access with special doors, etc, to protect it. It is very warm and humid, and is still wet, with actively forming stalagmites and stalactites. Again, as my pictures weren't good in the cave, are a couple of photos of post cards (the Liz League technique!)

We were happy to go to High Falutin', an upscale cowboy place the Walker's recommended. You can see our little carnivore had a great time with the ribs!

The next day was largely a down day. We focused on school and acquiring a new computer. I had a wonderful time at the Apple Store in Tuscon and got all set up ... you are seeing the benefits of my new laptop and systems as you read! Gary was a little under the weather, so we had a quiet afternoon and evening. Liz had the best time with Barbara and David on their golf cart.

We had another lovely dinner together (Barbara is a wonderful cook!) and then took off on Thursday morning, January 21st for Scottsdale. I founded the Preventive Medicine department at Mayo Clinic Arizona in 1987, worked there for 3 1/2 years, and then returned to Rochester. I was really looking forward to seeing how everything had changed, seeing some good friends, and continuing to share with Gary and Liz some of my own Arizona experiences.

On to Phoenix!

Julie, Gary and Liz