YCGL - Tuesday-Wednesday, March 14-15, 2023 - Whoa is Me! - Updated

 I'm ON!  With a computer connection!  That works!  For a while.  I sat in the Registration Office at Gouldings Trading Post and Hotel for an hour and a half after we got back from our Monument Valley tour at 7:00 pm while I was downloading pictures from my phone (309) and then going through them to select some that I wanted to post .  Only I did it on my chromebook.  When I got back to the trailer to work on it, I found that I couldn't copy the pictures on the chromebook directly.  It had to go through an internet connection, which the KOA didn't have.   

So far, I have been in one campground with working internet  (in Kingman, AZ, where I ended up after leaving Las Vegas after the Men's Conference Title game).  Last night, 

"Whoa is me" was written three days ago (I think) after a day of little things that were bugs, but that i could still laugh at.  Most of it things like going back and forth between the truck and the trailer three times because I forgot something, picked up something else, and had to go back again.  Gotta laugh.  Oh yeah, I was cold in the trailer, so I decided to have a cup of tea.  I had the Constant Comment tea bags, I heated up the water on the stove, but went looking for a tea cup.  I didn't pack one.  OK, stack two plastic cups around each other to be a thermos of sorts.  And a teaspoon of sugar, except I didn't pack any sugar.  Now, I've got to be a little proud that I went 14 days before I realized I didn't have sugar.  Or that I still have three of the six cokes I started with, and not beer (except at the Haufbrauhaus)  or wine or spirits,  So, hold back, "Whoa" is me.

I spent two days in Navajo National Monument.  I think I wrote about the painting "Snowfall Over Betatakin" by Clifford Bryclea that we have in the kitchen/dining room/office. Betatakin is one of the best preserved Navajo cliffhouses in the southwest and is one of three cliff dwellings at Navajo National Monument.  It was created in 1909 to protect it from thieves, like the US government, universities and colleges, treasure hunters and the like.  

Betatakin is located on the south facing wall of a canyon.  The visitor center and the view point are located on the south wall.  The photos are shot across the valley where you can see a line of trees along the stream.  

The village is located up into the alcove.  The inhabitants raised crops in the stream valley and hunted, and traded.  Artifacts found there include sea shells from the Pacific and feathers of birds from Central America.  
Approximately 100-125 people lived here at any given time between 1267 and 1300 CE.  It had about 120 rooms, of which 80 remain.  

Only occupied for about 30 years, it is believed it was abandoned due to increased drought and the unsustainable farming.  There is also a legend that two clans may have fought each other and driven one of the clans out.  Whatever, by about 1300, no one lived there.  But they left supplies there, corn, seeds, other vegetables, so there would be something there if they came back.  

Below is the painting that Sally and I bought in Santa Fe in 1979 on a camping trip with my mom and dad in our VW Dasher and a 13 foot Casita trailer.  (It was another adventure and another story!)

When you compare the picture and the painting, you can see it is a little different viewpoint, but the structures on the right correspond pretty well.  

I spent two nights there.  In the afternoon of the day after walking to the viewpoint, I took my bike out for a spin.  The monument is located within the Navajo reservation, so you are restricted to stay on the paths or road.  I wouldn't feel comfortable riding on the path (only one of three was not covered with snow) so I took off out the sole road into the monument.   I had ridden for a while and I wanted to see where I was.  I was on highway AZ564.  After working for over a minute, this is what Google Map looked like.  The scale at the bottom shows 5 miles/10 kilometers.  When I say I'm in the middle of nowhere, I'm not kidding!  And that is with one bar of LTE.  

I left Navajo National Monument on the 15th in the rain.  Luckily, I had hooked up the trailer the evening before so I didn't have to be out in the wet and cold for long before taking off.  To Monument Valley!  

Aghaa' Lani - El Capitan, 

This is a volcanic cone located between Keyenta, AZ and Monument Valley, UT.  It is one of those landmarks in Navajo country, like Shiprock, NM or Spider Woman in Canyon de Chelly, AZ.  Cars are continually parked on the side of the road to take pictures of it.  As I was driving passed it, I couldn't remember the name.  The next morning (the 16th), I ran into the caretaker at the campground who was Navajo and asked him.  He replied, "It is Aghaa' Lani in Navajo but the Spaniards called it El Capitan.  It's name means 'Place of the Hair'.  After a big hunt, the people would bring their hides to the base of the mountain and prepare them.  They would scrap off the meat on the inside and scrap off the hair on the outside.  And they would leave the hair as a offering to the gods."  

I asked him to repeat the name, "Aghaa' Lani."  I tried, and he shook his head.  "Aghaa' Lani."  I tried again, and he shook his head.  "You are saying 'Agaa', it's "Aghaa' ".  I tried again.  We finally went back and forth about ten times and he finally shook his head, waved his arms and walked away...

I tried.  I really did.  There was just something lacking in my tongue.  I'll have to ask a vocal/language specialist about it....who knows Navajo.  

One last, the Burger King in Keyenta has a display about the Navajo Code Talkers from World War II.  That display kind of started the recognition of the Code Talkers in the early 2000's. It’s not big, but these are the “local boys made good.”  And knowing the way they have been treated over the many years...  And the patriotism they displayed.  It tears your heart. I stop whenever I drive through.  

To wrap up Wednesday, I arrived at the Monument Valley KOA, the most expensive RV park I have ever stayed in, and was informed that the router was hit four days ago by hail and they have no idea when someone will come out and work on it.  It has been unbelievable.  (When I pulled out of my campsite Friday morning and dropped off the garbage, the guy who was ahead of me when I registered informed me that they had just gotten the internet working this morning, right before checkout!)