from chinle arizona

where's that? it's right outside the entrance to canyon de chelly park. from what i've seen, it looks like fabulous scenery and anasazi ruins. that's for tomorrow morning. today we left taos nm via interstates for about 150 miles to make faster time. then we went off 40 and onto state 53, a scenic route, to el morro monument. it's a big set of mallos, not unlike some other things we've seen. ate lunch at the ancient ones cafe in morro nm. buffalo burgers, yum.

great lyric from a country music song:
"she put him out, like the burning tip of a midnight cigarette".
i just thought that was a great image.

since taos, we went to santa fe for 2 nights. saw some old churches on the way from taos, only about 60 miles. one of the churches had a lot of crutches hanging there, because it has some dirt that is miraculous there. i guess you rub it on you or something and it 's supposed to cure you. i figured i need a miracle to get thin, so i ate a little of it. it wasn't bad actually. i don't know how long it's supposed to take, but i'm still fat, and hungry several times a day....


Santa Fe video

santa fe is a nice old town, the downtown part is pretty small and contained. i found that two symbols of new mexico are the color turquoise and dried braided red chile peppers. they're everywhere.

went up to taos pueblo to visit it, but there was a cop blocking the road into the pueblo. so we asked him what was going on and he said the pueblo was closed until tomorrow, they are doing some kind of ceremonies or something. so we didn't get to see it. but i mean, the indians, you know we gave them all this land with nothing on it but nice scenery, and they don't want white people to come to their village. what's that all about, oh we're having a ceremony, have to keep the white folks out. after we gave them all this land and let them put gambling casinos everywhere. jeez!

the only good thing about tuesday was that we didn't have to worry about getting stuck in any forest fires. it rained almost all day. it was very depressing driving throughthe rain and low clouds so you couldn't see what was supposed to be beautiful mtns. the low point of the trip so far for me. passed 6000 miles on tuesday too. took my picture next to the continental divide sign next to the road. but it was a little muddy. i don't think i've had that much mud on my shoes since i was about 8 years old. what a mess.

wednesday was alot better, top off the car again,did some local sightseeing around santa fe. i wrrote about all the roadside shrines we've been seeing, well in nm they are major projects. they really are little shrines on the side of the road. it got me looking at the skid marks on the road again, and just imagining the accidents that caused the skids. pretty scary, especially when the skid marks are coming into your lane from the other side. then i started noticing the marks on trees off the side of the road, where they would be missing big chunks of bark, and there would be a big white spot on the tree. and then i realized that most of these trees were located on curves, where the tangent of an automobile leaving the road would have hit. some of these marks were like 20-30 feet off the road. that was scary too. the possibilities were just horrendous.

so today, thursday, was another very nice day, a little warmer too. topless again, lots of sunshine. there is nothing more enjoyable than driving down these roads where you can see forever out in front of you, and the sky is enormous, and the clouds are just works of art. and you have some great music on the player. and the wind is just blowing in your face and the sun is warming your brow...that's what this is all about for me.

so as we left nm and came back to arizona this afternoo, those huge wide-open spaces returned too. i mean we saw lots of wide open spaces almost everywhere we've been, but out here in the sw desert, man it just goes on forever.

i put about 30-40 new pictures up on http://howlinatthemoon.buzznet.com
so check 'em out. 8 days and i'm home can't wait. love you miss you.