The Rod and the Ring: Colorado to Arizona

August 17

We awoke with the sun and watched the distant mountains catch the first golden rays of the new day. As we were getting our act together the golf cart came by, driven by a KOA staff member. I mentioned the wasp nest. In the relative cool of the morning the wasps were still motionless as I carefully tugged my cord out of the socket. The staff person took out a can of insecticide and sprayed a massive dose of it on the papery wasp nest inside the utility box. A single wasp still managed to fly away safely. We drove away softly crunching the white gravel under our tires, then turned onto the blacktop and headed to the place where four states meet at one point.

We had hardly used the air conditioner the past number of days since climbing up to Sedona from Phoenix. Without the air conditioner being an issue, driving the van was a pleasant enough experience. We were used to all the problems and handling them was becoming second nature by now. However, crossing the corner of Colorado and reaching the Four Corners Monument involved a lot of heat outside and need of the air-conditioner inside. To top it all off, Colorado was repairing long segments of this last remaining stretch of road and we sat waiting for "flagmen" (some were women) to let us continue. We got hot in the process. Even M&Ms don't tolerate this much heat well. I discovered that M&Ms don't melt, but they do sweat (oil) just as we sweat (water).

Finally, we reached the monument. This involved entering New Mexico (again) for less than a mile, then driving up to the monument, paying a small fee, and choosing the state of our choice to park our vehicle in. We drove through Colorado and parked in Utah, but most people just parked in the first available spot in New Mexico. Later, at the end of our visit we passed through Arizona, re-entered New Mexico to leave the monument, and drove back to Colorado so we could take the road several miles back that would get us into Utah. It's not at all confusing while you're doing it.

In the very center of this monument is a metal disc criss-crossed at right angles by two deeply incised grooves. Each quadrant of this disc lies in a separate state. The circular floor this disc is set in has more symbols and lines and words, but this disc is the focus of all activity here. People come from all over the world to perform antics and pose creatively on or in the air above this disc, while someone else snaps their picture for posterity. Razelle and I were no exception. I set "no-evil", our stuffed toy monkey, on top of the disc and arranged his limbs to be in each of the four states. Then I pressed my thumb into the very center of the disc. The criss-crossed grooves made four dimples in my thumb. I announced to all present that all four states had made an impression on me at once. They groaned appropriately, in unison. Razelle had to be more resourceful. She set up her tri-pod over the quadruple point (three does go into four, after all) and found a way to sit above all four states at once. She paused there as several of the other photographers took her picture for their own albums.

I cruised counterclockwise around all the vendor's booths, each set up in a different state. As I approached the northeastern booth, the vendor cheerily called out, "Welcome to Colorado," his way of adding mirth to this magical corner of the world. Razelle wasn't as enamored of the place as he or I were. She waited in the shade until I got this geographical moment out of my system, then we moved on.

We drove back into Colorado, as I said, then turned toward Utah. We followed the San Juan River valley as it deepened and cut dramatically through redder and redder rock formations. This region of Utah is the most breathtakingly picturesque part of the entire United States. One absolutely MUST see this area once in their lifetime. I have now had the privilege to have seen it twice, and to have shared it with Razelle this time.

There is a rock formation, along the San Juan River in this part of Utah, called Mexican Hat; it looks like a sombrero balanced on a pinnacle. The town of Mexican Hat, Utah gets its name from this formation. I had to hurry through here in 1993, but I'd always hoped I could just stop here at the café by the river, put up my feet and sip a cold beverage. Razelle and I did just that this time. Be careful what you wish for.... We had more than just cold drinks, we had a meal here. I ordered a large vegetable salad. The dressing was thick with mayonnaise. It wouldn't go through my ring. I was in a lot of distress. I needed to rectify this by tossing the salad up but the restroom was being cleaned and I couldn't go in there. This was the worst experience I've had with my ring during the entire trip. Eventually everything sorted itself out and I was able to drink lemonade and get passed my gastric impasse. It wasn't how I had hoped to remember the café in Mexican Hat, but it is how I will remember it from now on.

The next important objective of the day was Monument Valley. The entrance road starts in Utah, but ends in Arizona. The view here is so often featured in commercials, movies and posters that when you pose with these monuments behind you in your photo it looks like you have actually posed in front of such a poster instead of the real thing. It was very hot here, and, because it was the middle of the day, the monuments weren't as vivid as I remembered them when I had visited later in the day in 1993. Still, I'm glad I got to show them to Razelle. The sun was too much for her here, though, so we didn't stay long.

My last objective of the day was to get as near as possible to the Grand Canyon's southeastern entrance before it was too late in the day to travel. Tuba City, Arizona was my first candidate for a place to sleep, but Cameron was even closer to the Grand Canyon and reachable before dark. There were a lot of visitors at Monument Valley and license plates from all over the US. I was keenly aware that all of these were my competitors for lodging tonight.

The lodge and RV park at Cameron were already full when I got there. I was given a phone number for the Anasazi Motel, eight miles away. I called. They had rooms but wouldn't reserve one for me. I followed the directions I was given and almost gave up believing there was anything out that way when the knot of "civilization" called Gray Mountain, Arizona, appeared ahead of us on the highway in an otherwise desolate landscape. We found the parking lot packed with huge trucks, all of the same kind, all used to haul material for road construction. They barely left a passage for me to park my dwarfed little van (by comparison) in their midst. I was told there were four rooms left and given the keys to all four rooms. I checked them all out and settled on the one room that had a single large bed in it. Good that I had. It cost less because of the bed count (one versus two in the other rooms). The room was "cooled" by a desert cooler rather than an air-conditioner, but given enough time, the room eventually became bearably cooler. We were able to get to sleep eventually. Funny how the same heat drains you of all energy during the day and makes it hard to stay awake, yet, at night, it keeps you from falling asleep. We eventually became drowsy enough in our bed to be carried off to slumber by our fatigue.

It had been another full day. We'd done it justice.

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RAZELLE'S PHOTOS OF TODAY