May 17

Well, 500 miles today.  A very nice trip in the morning, temperatures in the 60s, great scenery. Started from Moab a little before 7:30, went through Cortez, Colorado on my way to Shiprock, New Mexico and the Navajo Reservation.  There, massive disappointment awaited, but first things first.  Crossing into Colorado from Utah was uneventful until Cortez.  Cortez seems to have a great many liquor stores for the size of the town.  My favorite was the worst looking one that advertised, "Liquor, Adult gag gifts and magazines."  Liquor and porn.  I don't think we're in Utah anymore, Toto.

I was really looking forward to getting Navajo fry bread in Shiprock.  Every little Navajo diner has it. The trick is finding a Navajo diner.  There was McDonalds Taco Bell, Sonic - but not little diner that I ever found.  So there is a sign for the next town, Little Water.  Well, Little Water has little water and little of anything else.  So it went, mile after mile, all the way to Gallup, where I was also disappointed.  I ate a salad for dinner last night, a small bowl of cereal and some fruit for brekkus at 6:30.  I was saving calories in the calorie bank.  And for what!  THERE WAS NO FRY BREAD!  I am bitter.  So at about 1:30 I had another Subway sandwich.  My 3d in 4 days.  That fourth day?  I skipped lunch.  Screw it!  I'm having Mexican food for dinner.

By lunch I'd been fighting a serious quartering wind.  In fact, there was a minor dust storm on the res.  As I was heading south, the wind was coming from the west.  When I turned east, it didn't take long for the wind to start coming from the south.  What the hell is up with that?  The temps started rising, too.  By the time I hit Santa Rosa, NM, where I'd pretty much determined to stop anyway, the temp jumped in short order to 94.  I took this as a sign The Lord wanted me to stop.  So I did.

A few road weirdness:  I saw several philosophical road signs, all in NM.  They read, "Gusty Winds  May Exist."  Well, thanks.  Diamond trolls may also exist, and copper elves.  Give me an idea of the probabilities here.  Another happy strange thing was the personalized license plate on a car being towed by a larger vehicle, "Entwife."  Thought I'd come across a real Lord of the Rings fan until I mentioned it to my daughter.  Seems grass, dope, pot, weed now goes by "tree" so potheads call themselves Ents.  That may not have been a literary license plate at all.

A picture from the archives, for I took no pictures today.

Observation:  Western expanses always have a haze.  I think it is getting worse.  Years ago, I spoke with a ranger in the Grand Canyon about this.  He said the canyon was getting air pollution from LA.  Now I think we get a lot from China.  I am serious.

There is no winner today.  None of the camper names were worthy.

The interesting country is all but gone.  I hit Texas tomorrow.