The Indian Country Drive

Monday seems to have become my day of adventure. I awoke and called Phoebe. Said I was up for an adventure and if she and Jake (her dog) were game. She said sure. Told her I would be there in an hour. I stopped at the Shell upon arriving in her town and bought two cokes and two pieces of beef jerky. I pulled up at her place and stupidly left my door open. Jake loves opens doors so he jumped right into the vehicle. And then I turned around to find Jake sharing my beek jerky with Jenna. Should that have been a sign? This would be an adventure of firsts.

We headed further south. It was now noon and probably 100 degrees. What were we thinking? So we missed the turn I wanted and cruised this dirt road into nowhere except to a blacktop road. It was really weird. So we followed it. And then it ended so we followed it the other way. And it ended, but it ended where it was going to take a 50 point turn to get turned around. I made the turn and started forward to a hole and kind of high centered the vehicle. We missed the opportunity for a photo because we were both in 'oh fuck' mode. This would be the first time I have had the Rocket in four-wheel drive. And she pulled her weight. We got her out eventually. Sorry no photo of that.

We did finally head up the CR Road and found the other side of the blacktop road. The dogs were dying so we were hoping for water. We found a small green probably infectious water and they laid down to cool off. We attempted to find more but as the mud got thicker, we bagged the idea. Actually, we pretty much bagged the entire hiking day. We went down to the San Juan River and spent the next two hours in next deep river water soaking in our bras and underwear. The dogs were loving it. We were getting exercise working against the current.

After the soak, we headed on the backroads to some Indian Ruins. It was mostly driving and short hikes out to the ruins. Jake and Jenna did a lot rabbit chasing. Not sure about Jake, but Jenna has slept most of the day and is walking really slow.

During our tour, we ran into some Texans. They were talkers. Well he was a talker. The female realized we didn't like talking and kept telling him to come on, come on, but he kept talking. We ditched them finally, but only because we missed one of the ruins.

We were heading what we were hoping was towards home, but it just didn't seem right. I mean we were heading west as we should have been, but it was a dirt road. I told Phoebe I would stop this truck coming towards us and ask him. The cowboy on the cell phone said we needed to turn around and head back 6 miles to Pleasant. We finally made it to Pleasant. We were tired and hungry and it was late. The sign to home said 35 miles. It was about 820pm and we needed to make dinner.

We made the diner and had a great meal. We were two of four customers. The waitress asked where we were from and we told her. Then the other customers said my town name wrong as so many visitors do. The waitress asked how to say it properly. Then he said they had been riding ATVs in our town earlier that day. And that ended our conversation somewhat. He later said "I noticed you frowned when I said ATVs". I said "I am about protecting the desert not destroying it." Thankfully they finally left and we had the place to ourselves to eat in peace.

Most of the photos are here, but here are a few....