where's mexican hat?

is that a place? yes it is, in southern utah, just north of monument valley. this is where we are staying tonight. the san juan inn and trading post. it's old, at least the original building, and it sits on the banks of the san juan river, which actually has a lot of water in it. it's very nice, and we have a river view 2nd floor unit. this is really a small town though. i mean maybe 200 people live here. there's some bikers and some other tourists staying here, even a french couple. i heard them ask for a "rrrhhoooommm", like peter sellers in one of the clouseau movies.


Canyon de Chelly video

so here's the day: started out in chinle az, with a visit to canyon de chelly. it was very photogenic, like a mini grand canyon. you're looking at it from above. lots of sun, good pix, no way to post them from here, sorry.

then we hit the road for monument valley. this place was one of the main reasons i wanted to do this trip, to see this place. i had that big picture of it in my office in red bank and then in piscataway. don't know why really, but i was always taken with the photographs of it. the ride up was good, maybe 100 miles or so from chinle. top down, nice enough day. but the wind today is really strong, blowing up the valley from the south, 30 mph gusts at least, felt like we were being pushed along in the car. lots of tumbleweed stuck up against fences along the road. wild flowers are making a comeback for the last day or so. it was a while since we'd seen any quantity of flowers. today we had bunches of purple and orange on the side of the road. the yellow broom (i think it is) is just about ready to burst into flower, like we had tons of it in california. the grasses, just fields of low grasses, moving in unison with the wind, like Gaia's cilia pushing us along, digesting us. and again, the big open spaces with 180 degrees of sky in any direction. long long straight streches of road, laid out in front of us, reaching to the horizon at times. cruising along at 70-75.


Monument Valley video

so as we head into monument valley and these huge red monoliths begin to appear, we've got the top down, the wind is roaring, stronger than it's been all day; the big high top darker clouds have been building all day on the horizon. i put bruce live 75-85 on the cd player, thunder road, blasting in the car, singing along, playing it really loud just to hear it over the wind. you with me? then the road turns a bit and now we're turned sideways to the wind, and it's getting even crazier, 2 hands on the wheel kind of driving, so the wind doesn't push me across the lane into that truck that's coming down the road at 75 mph. then, second song on that side: adam raised a cain. WOW!! it was a perfect fit to the elemental forces we were experiencing. the wind and bruce both screaming, he's singing about murder and bad blood, the most elemental hobbesian side of human nature, in perfect harmony with nature unleashing her forces upon us, the human intruders into her stony, desolate red world, where wind and rain rule. halfway through the song i'm thinking what an amazing time i'm having with this unplanned confluence of natural and musical forces, when bang, bang, bang, huge raindrops start pelting the windshield. i pull over to the side and quickly raise the top so we don't get drenched. we had to submit to nature and button up tight. what an amazing 10-15 minute span though. i hope i was able to convey the feeling of it all, just a little bit.

so mexican hat, great name, not sure why it's called that. but even in this very tiny town in utah, they have internet access. i'm glad al gore invented it. so i see us eating supper in this place. i think it's the only choice. whiskey and cigars after supper, overlooking the river, or on our balcony if it rains again. oh, i forgot to say: when we got into the middle of all the famous red monuments, there was no sun, and picture taking there was a bust. so i think we're going to come back tomorrow morning (it's 20 miles south of here) and try to take some pix in the morning light. it would be a shame to leave here without some decent photos of the place i wanted to see the most.

ok that's it for now. bye, love you, miss you. a week from tomorrow!