The Last Week I - Halloween

We finished everything up in St. George on October 26th, packed up our car, and headed to Morgan to stay a few days with Mom. We took her to church on the 27th, bought some new suits at the Men's Wearhouse on the 28th, and left for Springville to spend Halloween on the 30th. It is always fun these days to see all of the kids decked out in their costumes and the Springville gang does it as well as anyone.

Hermione Dover

The School Outfits (Ethan Had a Later Wardrobe Change) 

Helping With the School Treats

Mummy Cupcakes

Grant "Buzz" Lightyear

The Babe & Loda

Ethan Switches to a Fearsome Thor

The Wright Kids Join In

The Babe & Chicken Cord on Blue

Visas In

They arrived on October 21, the deadline day for making the November 4th MTC group - WE ARE IN! And so the scramble began to get all of the little things done that we had let go with all of the uncertainly over our visas. Things all of a sudden became definite.

Red Rock Hike In Zion's NP

KR went to northern Utah to help out in Springville and came back with her brother, Rick, and his daughter, Jessica, as they wanted to do some red-rock hiking. They invited KR to join them on their outing on the 19th. An ideal temperature and clear blue skies created the perfect conditions for a hike. She also got to use, for the first time, the awesome new backpack I bought for her. She was smitten within minutes by the beauty of the canyons with their unique formations. They even got to see a herd of mountain goats up close and personal.

New Mexico VI - Back to St. George

We expected to make great time from Farmington across Arizona. The plan was to listen to Conference on the radio (and football games between sessions), then catch the Priesthood Session at home. Well, we didn't account for the 8:00 a.m. Navajo parade in Shiprock! We saw the whole thing as we inched along the two-lane road for an hour. They had blocked off the other two lanes for the parade. I do believe the entire Navajo Nation was there. Some of the floats were interesting, as you can see (lots of saddles and deer heads).

Like the way I framed Shiprock in the fence gate? Did you know Shiprock is a monadnock? It's Navajo name is Tse Bit'a'i (rock with wings or winged rock). It is prohibited by the Navajo Nation to climb it, although many try.

We were in need of a diversion to stay awake and near Teec Nos Pos, we noticed this small LDS Church house. It was beautifully kept and painted. Next to it was a trailer, presumably used by missionaries. We noticed a man pulling up some plants from a garden and engaged him in a conversation. He was a "gardening missionary" from Idaho and was leaving the next day for home, his mission completed. He has been helping with a project to introduce drip gardens among the Navajos and the program has been quite successful.

We listened to Conference as we tooled across Arizona. Just before dropping down into Kayenta, we stopped at the monolith lineup on the fringe of Monument Valley to take a picture, and managed to be listening to Pres. Uchtdorf's "Join With Us" talk as we looked at this vista.

Kayenta In the Distance

Rah rah for satellite radio. We caught the whole afternoon session as we went up through Page, back to Kanab, down to Fredonia, right to Hurricane and home.

New Mexico V - Back to St. George

While in Taos, we discovered that KR left a bag in our hotel room in Albuquerque containing some library books and videos. That meant we had to return to St. George via Albuquerque. There are not a lot of ways to get to St. George from Taos, so it didn't really matter that much. However, I did want to see the famous Rio Grande Gorge (and bridge crossing it), so we returned to Santa Fe on the "high road". You know when you see a world-class spot, and this is one. The gorge cuts deeply through a flat plain and you can see it from a distance, but it does not look that impressive until you cross over it.

Red Hot Chili Peppers at the
Gorge Crossing (On the Right on Red Truck, Not
In Blue Fleece)

The Gorge and Bridge

The Rio Grande

Our intent was to make it home to St. George as quickly as possible. But we did see and experience a few things that are worthy of note. One that was very interesting was a cluster of homes near Taos constructed using Earthship Biotecture principles. These are off-the-grid passive solar houses made of natural and recycled materials (glass bottles, tires, etc.). They are built to use solar energy in various forms and wind power. As we drove along the road, we noticed there were not electrical wires connected to the homes. We felt like we were on Tatooine.

Water Heating Towers

Further on down the road is Tres Peidras and I told KR there must be three rocks somewhere around there. Sure enough, as we approached it we could see three large rock formations sticking up. We took a sharp turn south at "Three Rocks" and eventually joined the Rio Grande at Espanola. They built a Santa Fe bypass road and we made quick work of getting around the traffic there. Somewhere between Santa Fe and Albuquerque we saw a sign whiz by that had "Mormon" on it. We got off at the next exit and found a forlorn marker commemorating the passage of the Mormon Battalion along that route on their way to California. Interesting.

We made it to Albuquerque in good time and got the forgotten package. We then backtracked up I-25 to Bernalillo and took 44 across the wastelands of northwest New Mexico via Cuba to Farmington, where we planned to spend the night. What beautiful, desolate, wonderful country. We had a hard time finding a room (at least a reasonably priced one), as we discovered the Northern Navajo Nation Fair was going on in nearby Shiprock. Had dinner at Fuddruckers. I love hamburgers. Call me Wimpy (if you don't know who that is, look it up).

New Mexico IV - Taos

We set out for Taos on the morning of the 3rd, a beautiful fall day. At Espanola, we hit the Rio Grande again and followed it upstream on Route 68. Lots of river rafting going on. As we rounded the corner at Embudo, a colorful blur caught our eyes and we pulled over. Welcome to the Classical Gas Museum, free of charge, thank you. If you like old gas stations, this is your place!

Some Damn Fine Stuff (Reference
Intentionally Vague)

The Flamingo Grotto

Some Damn Fine Stuff, Part II

Taos is interesting. It oozes artsy. Smaller than I thought. Taosans aren't into mowing lawns or pulling weeds. You just let things grow like they would in the Garden of Eden. Wait......were there weeds in the Garden of Eden? No buildings over two stories and no piece of art for less than $5,000.00. I don't think I saw one that I would consider buying. Clean streets. No plan for traffic flow - the light at the main intersection downtown backed up traffic for blocks all day. Artists painting on the sidewalks - fun for a day.

We did like the tour of Kit Carson's home. They had a nice video about his life and some pretty cool memorabilia (his guns, for example). I have read several books about Kit, so this visit was right up my alley.

Kit Carson Home

Taos Boardwalk