Back in the Saddle Again

June 8 - Day 24
Tuba City, AZ
Written By Viking

(This is a delayed blog entry, having been written this Wednesday. Our day became very rushed and the posting was abandoned for a few days. Lord willing there will be a small deluge of posts in the coming days.)

So. New Mexico was intended to be a one day trip. We spent 6 days there instead, but made our departure yesterday afternoon. This altitude, the wind, and our weight has slowed down our travel quite a bit, though. We covered over 360 miles yesterday, but it took us nearly 18 hours, stops included.

We left Albuquerque bright and early Tuesday morning with Harriet and the as of yet unnamed new scooter. I have a name picked out, but she has to prove herself before she earns it. Rev and I both really enjoyed our time in Albuquerque with Doug and Lavonne. All of the blessings surrounding the scooter were great, but at night I would think about how crazy it is that we are spending three nights in the home of a family we just met. That is a special blessing in and of itself.

We made our way north, climbing to an altitude of 7,000 feet. Gas stations are few and far between, and it wasn't until yesterday that one of us ran out gas. Fortunately, as Harriet died we were pulling into a gas station, so Rev only needed to push her about 30 feet. I like that.

God also protected Rev and I from several other potentially bad situations such as avoiding several bad accidents. We also had a nice gentleman throw a beer bottle at us from his car (yes, from his car) but the bottle bounced in front of my tire and harmlessly into the ditch. Not sure what his motive was, but praise the Lord for uncharacteristically sturdy glass.

Last night we spent the night at a free campsite near the Navajo National Monument. The soil was very soft, and the tent stakes went into the ground like a hot knife through butter. We have sometimes needed to use rocks to hammer them in, so this blessing did not go unnoticed.

The next morning we walked a little ways to see some Anasazi Indian ruins. This was a cliff-dwelling set back in a canyon wall. We didn't have time to go up close, but it was very interesting to see. As a big fan of history it was neat to see buildings that were utilized almost 1,000 years ago.

At lunch time I decided to sculpt my taco salad into a surprisingly accurate replica of the Indian ruins. We cannot load pictures onto our blog from our ipad, otherwise I would definitely share with you one of my finest artistic achievements. I must thank Rev for the resources needed to replicate the buildings and greenery (french fries and garnish). If you follow our Facebook page, you can look forward to that, I suppose..

The next few days should be consumed by exploring the Grand Canyon, which I am very-much looking forward to. I have never seen the Grand Canyon before, and I am thrilled to experience it with Rev, who has hiked over 300 miles in the canyon.