Smokey and the Bandit
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2011
1
8
12
Trip End
Aug 03, 2011
Taos, New Mexico
Monday, July 25, 2011
The light is amazing - it bounces off the mountains surrounding the plateau. Its at 7000 ft so I guess that helps keep the air quality incredibly pure and clear. Across the plateau there are when you look closely mounds that we thought were original Navajo dwellings but in fact they are the roofs of 'earthships' are particular type of ecohouse that are built down into the ground to conserve energy keep heat out in the summer and the cold in the winter. Though its hot this time of year (though only 84 degrees or so here so cool compared to where we've been) its a skiing resort in the winter.
We've spent the last couple of days driving here from Las Vegas - still reeling from that experience and cursing American drivers who are so slow, can't use indicators and undertake from the right - more about that later. The car has satellite radio which means we've been switching from Nashville to Memphis stations to get our Elvis fix - live from Graceland no less if that isn't a contradiction. It also gives us the BBC world service view of the world.
We visited the Grand Canyon - at the risk of stating the obvious its bloody deep and simply huge, we didn't do any of the hikes as they involved going down which has the negative effect of having to come back up in the heat. Quite breathtaking if it weren't for the tourists. To drive to the Northern rim of the canyon which is quieter would have taken literally 3 hours, so we didn't.
We stayed in a pretty basic motel to see Monument Valley in the valley. Once we checked in we had the slightly mad idea of dashing to MV to see the buttes at twilight which of course meant they didn't photograph terribly well. We should have gone earlier but I confess we ended up watching a (really bad) Jennifer Aniston movie - a first and a last for me. Monument Valley is kind of the opposite of the Canyon in terms of what went down then there were rocks which stuck up and were even more stunning, think Marlboro adverts. There was a track which was only open to 4x4s and pick ups because it was too inhospitable for normal cars. So guess what we drove some of it - predictable I guess, didn't wreck the car but now both the outside and interior have a thin film of red dust throughout.
The drive to Taos literally took all day and was very tedious. I'll very quickly confess to a minor bit of excitement which involved us being pursued down Interstate 64 by a sheriff's car and being pulled over for speeding. Uniformed officer by the name of Sheriff Blackhorse who was of Navajo decent, rather scary with dark glasses and a holstered gun to hand. A speeding fine of $91 later and we were on our way, guess we've been lucky till now and yes I'll confess it was me driving. I've had to be honest as Mr G was threatening to hack this blog to correct any misconception I may give about who was responsible. We now have to workout how to purchase a money check to pay up before we leave the country - would be nice to get back in again!
Anyway love Taos - fantastic galleries and weaving/yarn shops selling hand dyed wools - have indulged that passion with some serious shopping. Oh and did I mention we found a premium outlet mall on our way out of Las Vegas - plastic now seriously melting and not just from the heat outside! Slight difficulty is that I'm now going to have to wear cowboy boots and shearling jacket back on the flight as they're not going to fit in my luggage.
