Shiprock

On my way to Monument Valley I had passed Shiprock. The air was not very clear at all that day, so I could not take a representative picture. The next day as I passed it again on my way to the airport I noticed that the view was much better, but my mind was on other things...things like "hurry up"

There are really no ways to get close to it and take good pictures but it is a wonderful sight. It is particularly wonderful to watch it "grow" as you approach it. First a tiny oddity in the landscape and then a full-blown volcanic monument.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park

To sort of get back into the flow of things.
Before Malaysia, and before my first attempt at going to Monument Valley I was in Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
It is a very neat place, very interesting for its ruins, petroglyphs but also for its great landscape. The worse and the best side of Chaco is that the road to it is SO dreadful (at least the few 11 miles or so - I can't remember now) that its is not as busy as such a site would be anywhere else.

Here are some of the highlights for me...and as usual no explanations.

Chaco is at the centre of a radiating ancient road network. When the roads encounter cliffs they built stairs....
In the photo below you can barely see them.

Here is a close up of the same photo

Same stairs seen from the top, so where you would have to catch them if you were going down

 You couldn't pay me to go either up or down on those stairs.

For me though the real highlight was the famous Supernova rock painting. If you have read any first year astronomy textbook you must have seen a picture of it. It was great to see it "in real life" to see where it was and see it in its surroundings.

Whether or not it does really represent a supernova or not is something else. I can't help but be a skeptic. But it was great to see it and to puzzle about it while looking at it.

Humming Birds

Ok, now I am really blogging out of sequence. Just the same here are some photos from today.

There are so many humming birds around that i can hear them flying around (I can't hear the flying, but I can here the little sound they make as their "call").
From where I am right now, and as you can deduce from the pictures I can hear the humming birds and smell the pines. It is wonderful.
I am heading North..... quite a few miles to go. Right now the road ahead of me is closed during working hours (so 8:30am to 12:30pm and them 1:30pm to 6:30pm) so tomorrow the plan is to get up early and pass the closed area (about an hour from here I am told).

The Dog Who Fooled Me Into Giving Her a Ride is Now Famous

I may not have blogged about it but last summer driving the MacKenzie Highway I ended up picking up a dog who looked lost and I took her to Hay River and from there a bit of an adventure followed. With the helps of my friends from Hay River we eventually found out who she belonged to and returned her.
When I picked her up she had a name tag with a phone number which was answered by a young girl who knew nothing about a dog, any dog. So when I returned her I mentioned that really she needed a new tag. A while later I saw Charlie again, this time she actually was at home and I was visiting for other reasons, and her name tag said something to the effect of "I live at mile xxx of the MacKenzie Highway, please don't pick me up" and the relevant phone number and I thought that it was both funny and very appropriate.
But now Charlie is gone missing and has made it to the BBC News.

Charlie is a good dog and I hope she finds her way home soon. Her tag did say "Do not pick me up"

And regardless of what the comments say on the news site her owner is a good owner, just Charlie is a free spirit who does like to ride in the front seat (as the article says) and she cannot be kept at home all the time. This dog lives up north in the bush. It would be a crime to keep her all the time on leash.
And if you are wondering, yes, I am the person who took her to Hay River.....she played me. I was convinced that she was lost. And because she is a little bit on the "fat" side (clearly not a starving dog) I thought that she did not belong in the bush........goes to show! she belongs in the bush with her good owner.

Avoid LAX Airport at all Costs

I am back in North America. I will try to catch up with posts and post some photos.

But in the mean time my one piece of advice is AVOID Los Angeles airport (known as LAX) if at all possible. It has to be the worse airport of its size on the planet.
Truly, honestly avoid LAX if you can help it.

Major Plan Change, Off to Malaysia

I woke up in Cortez Colorado this morning ready to make my way to Monument Valley but decided to check my email one more time before leaving the campsite. This is when I found out that really I needed to go to Malaysia where an extra pair of hand is needed. I am not going to explain but an extra pair of hand IS needed.
And thanks to the wonder of technology, I bought a plane ticket, found storage for the camper while I am gone etc etc, drove the 400+kilometers to the nearest town with an airport etc. Busy day.

So tomorrow morning I am flying to Kuala Lumpur.
Now the only problem is getting to the airport because I am in a campground out of town (where the camper will be stored) and my cell phone stopped working so calling a cab is now gone to the world of "difficult". Funny isn't it. There are no more pay phones to be had so having sorted out everything else I am stuck at finding a way to make a call tomorrow morning early....too early to have the office of the campground open and too early to ask another camper. Well, by tomorrow morning my cell may work again.

Also I have to pack, but that's not major.

The Roulotte of my Dreams

When I was a kid, and when I first realized that I was going to stop working, both times, the dream was to have a "roulotte" (no idea what the word is in English, goes to show how old the dream is for me because there isn't very many concepts or objects that I first think about in french).
Between Big Bend and Three Rivers I stopped at Balmorhea State Park (and this time it was warm enough that I could swim in the warm springs) and I saw the roulottte of my dreams.

When I was a kid the dream was not practical enough to include a particular way of pulling it. But as a first gut reaction when I was in Jo'burg facing retirement I wanted a little cart like that one (even the shape is exactly right) but smaller and a donkey to pull it.
It is a gypsies dream, it comes from my grand father.

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

While in Texas I went back to Big Bend National Park for a few days. I meant to hit a few more places in Texas but as I was heading north strong winds started and would not stop. I mean really strong winds. Driving against the wind my fuel consumptions was about 50% higher than usual...this kind of wind.

So I ended up back in New Mexico and this time I went to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. I spent a week there and it was wonderful.
There are 21 thousand petroglyphs so there was a lot of exploring to do.
Here are some of my favourites:
there area ll kinds of weird and wonderful creatures

this one (below) I think is so sweet. It makes me think of an illustration for a kids story. Something about the little creature (who reminds me of Piglet) holding a branch to the sun while his friend the mountain goat watches. I love this petroglyph.

Quite a few bird representations.

Famous sad face.

An animal with antlers above a very common circular design. There are a lot of circular design petroglyphs.

Another one which makes me think of illustration for a story.

This one is quite special I think, and judging from the lack of footprints around it not very often visited.

Stark Museum of Art in Orange Texas

After a couple of weeks in Louisiana I basically turned around and started traveling west. I re-entered Texas on the interstate even though I seldom travel on interstates. And so went to the Stark Museum of Art in Orange Texas.
I was blown away. I strongly recommend The Stark Museum of Art if you are at all into art from the early days of whites in America.

They have an fabulous collection. Apparently they have the best collection of Paul Kane's work in the world. Here is one of the famous Paul Kane painting:

But most of all for me they had a few of the portrait of the American Indian chiefs who went to Washington. those portraits were commissioned by the US government in a moment a great insight when somebody realized the value of such thing. You see those portrait in all books dealing with the subject. I had seen them many times and never hoped to see they "in the flesh".
This was unfortunately the start of the REAL bad problems with my camera so I have limited photos and they are not that great. A lot of those photos were lost too.

When I was there they had an exhibition of Navajo rugs.

Armadillos

Wow, I am really not blogging a lot these days....and I am blogging totally out of sequence. I actually don't like blogging out of sequence so I probably will mostly skip a all bunch of stuff I did.

However let me just post one more thing about Louisiana: Armadillos.
I went to two or three (can't recall) state parks in Louisiana and I saw loads of armadillos. They are really quite cool creatures. It is hard to see their faces because their nose is always half buried in leaves as they are hunting for worms and bugs and when their face is up it is because they are running away from you.

If you want to see a lot of armadillos go to Chicot State Park in Louisiana. It truly is a great state park and the state arboretum being part of it makes it even better. In fact even if you don't particularly want to see armadillos but are in Louisiana I recommend Chicot state park.

I have never before posted a movie and I tried here but my connection here is not good enough. I'll try again when I am somewhere with a good connection because I shot with my camera a very short little movie of an armadillo.
OK, I think it is loaded.

I have had camera problems and I realized while trying to find my armadillo pictures that hundreds of photos were lost somehow.