Humbled by Visions

If ever there was a time in my life where I felt both humbled and privileged to be able to be some where, then this is probably it.

There is an aura about Monument valley and a strange sense of some kind of greater power in everything that you look at-- well of course nature itself was part of that greater power when it created these strange monoliths millions of years ago.

As we drove in to the Valley there is a sign for Valley of the gods and you can understand why when all around it appears as if the Gods are sitting on the top of groups rocks that form a kind of circle--and this is before we got to the main Monuments.

Knowing that the Navajo Indians, were very much into the spiritual aspects of this very harsh world that they managed to live in for thousands of years, is quite awe inspiring, because trust me that the temperature was reasonable yesterday in dry heat at around 90 degrees.

There are may more photos on the Profile which you can get to by clicking on the "view full Profile" at the bottom of the brief profile on the right hand side of the blog page.

We were talking as a group yesterday about some of the places that we have been to over the more recent 10 to 12 years, and there are some really outstanding ones , especially when thinking about when we were both still raising children and then to think of visiting in real life places such as this where we had only ever seen the likes of Monument valley in Adverts, in books or magazines and of course in the movies.

Talking of which, we stopped for lunch at a place called Goulding's Lodge--everything is Goulding's for a couple of square miles including hotel, gas station and general store, trading post and airport and centre of attraction-- for me anyway--is a hut that was used in the movie called " She Wore a Yellow Ribbon " in which John Wayne starred as a 7th Cavalry Captain - Nathan Brittles--a guy nearing retirement. It was one of the first westerns I ever saw.

 My Hero

And of course they used the whole of this area for filming in as have many hundreds of other movies.

Now -- some of you may not have someone quite like my Lynda when it comes to having a knack of finding somewhere to shop--even in a desert, but she managed to find a couple of places for a Bargain. Ok so they are on the side of the road and the Navajo are pretty renowned for their hand crafted jewellery, but still !

We also stopped on the way back to Bluff, at a Trading Post that certainly looked interesting for different reasons for different people. For Lynda and Ann it was to look around the trading post shop, for Rod it was the valley and river below with the motel on the side of the cliff face and for me it was the viaduct bridge over the San Juan River-- its a construction kind of thing you know.

So we got back at mid afternoon with temperatures around 90+ so it had to be the pool , which while not having much in the way of pool furniture , at least the pool was outside. The Motel is called Recapture Lodge, just in case some may pass by--you might want to remember to avoid or to get a cheap deal with an outside pool--it has been ok. Loads of French though,, they seam to multiply here over night.

BTW, I'm the fat boy on the right---Lynda says that when we are on our own we will go on a diet --I just keep having to remind her that we are in America so the chances are pretty slim---well, they would be pretty slim with me anywhere.

To wrap up a really good day, we went to dinner at a really good restaurant in Bluff called the Cottonwood steakhouse -- see below---

Just to remind everyone about the portions, the photo below shows the rack of ribs that Rod and Ann shared for their dinner--

 

 

 

So that's how we ended the day and now we are on the road again we drive this morning to Durango for lunch and then drive up to Montrose in Colorado to stay for a couple of days.

 

Carefree people.