New Mexico and Arizona

After stocking up on groceries in Albuquerque, we headed west to Acoma Pueblo, which claims to be the oldest continually occupied town in North America. The Acoma is one of several related tribes in New Mexico, and occupied a Mesa top starting in the 1600's as protection from the Spanish. Nevertheless, their community was held hostage for 80 years and the tribe members were slaves to the Spanish.











Our guide claimed that this occupation is the reason Acoma men have facial hair, unlike most Native Americans. Will was a little flipped out by the entire tour, despite not understanding the implications of that statement. The Acoma have many restrictions on photos, so I mostly have photos of buildings and Will from the Mesa top.











Acoma was not easy to find! There were no signs on the road, and we started out on the wrong road after leaving the interstate. The brochure on the tour only had a sketchy map, and we wandered around for a while before figuring out how to get to the cultural center where the tour started.

After Acoma, we visited El Mapais and El Morro National Monuments. El Morro is one of the oldest U.S. National Monuments, as it was declared by Teddy Roosevelt in 1908. Monument status protects etchings from ancient natives, Spanish conquistadors, and California-bound emigrees from the 1800's.

Will and I took a 2.5 mile hike to the top of the bluffs that included the inscriptions. Will started out pretty uninterested, until I pulled out the camcorder I recently found in the car and asked him to narrate a video about the history of the site.











Surprisingly, the entire hike was devoid of any discussions about either Star Wars or the new Lego sets due out August first.

We camped at El Morro. The photo below shows the monument from the top of the bluff, with the campground over to the right in the shade.











It is a 9 site campground, and 8 sites eventually filled. We are still pretty much on Eastern Time, which is great when camping, as we were in the tent at sunset and up again at dawn. It wasn't an easy night's sleep, though, as it rained very hard on us with nerby lightning and loud thunder. We stayed dry, but we stuffed a soaked tent into the car in the morning.

We were gone early, and I made a series of mistakes on the road today. When we left, we were going to camp tonight in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. But skies still threatened, so I decided to go west and hope for a better weather forecast and more time in the Grand Canyon. I came on this revelation too late to avoid Gallup, New Mexico, however, and the signs to the interstate were poorly marked delaying our progress. I decided to take old Route 66 into Arizona - another mistake - the road disappeared about 6 miles west of town nowhere near any access to the interstate.

We eventually found our way to Petrified Forest National Park, where we checked out the fossilized logs and marveled at the Painted Desert.







Then we saw yet another Route 66 town, this time with a teepee motel (supposedly the inspiration for the Cozy Cone motel in Pixar's movie, Cars. So this photo is for Teddy, the biggest Cars fan we know, anywhere.)






From here, the skies darkened (you can see the clouds building up over the teepees), and by the time we were in Flagstaff, I was inquiring about hotel rooms in the rain. I just tried one place, which was full and the desk person acted like I was her hundredth inquiry that afternoon. Then I had the bright idea to head further west to Williams because they have a ton of motel rooms. Unfortunately, they don't appear to have many good ones, and I could not get 3G access to research rooms. (Arizona appears not to believe in Daylight Savings or cell access. On the bright side, I have yet to be stopped by the police and asked to prove my national residency. But I will be in the state until Tuesday.) And Williams has a big rodeo going on this weekend, which has a lot of incredibly dirty folks wandering around the town and filling up the motels.

So, after striking out at the first place in Williams, we found ourselves somewhat happy (happiness definitely much higher for the younger member of our party) to have an overpriced Holiday Inn room. So I sit here typing while it rains outside and Will watches Home Alone 2 on the tube, set to bug me to go to the indoor pool just as soon as the movie he has seen twenty times is over. A tent hangs over our shower curtain.

Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon, and a night at the Bright Angel Lodge. It is literally on the rim of the Canyon, costs half what we are paying tonight, and has the added benefit of no room TVs or indoor pools. Instead of TV, we'll have one of the world's greatest views outside of our room. Guess who will be happier then?

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Location:Williams,United States