A Fool's Progress: Blown in Arizona

I dont care who you are having a 20-50mph wind blasting across yourport beam all day long will whipe you out. And that is how it went today. This will be short as I am dead on my feet. The bike spent the whole day at a "set on the side stand" angle for 400 miles.

I did still feel the wonder of traveling through some of the most beautiful country I have seen yet. The land in New Mexico, Arizona and southern Utah is a sensory overload. Slit canyons. Wind blasted buttes and mesas. It is just too much to take in. This is old land and it feels old. The cracks and ridges in the rock and sand look like an old man's hands, displaying a life of hard work and play.

The navaho people I met were wonderfully open people. When I got headed to Shiprock, I stopped for gas. I barely had the bike shut off when a fellow was telling me good ways to go. I didnt hear much because I was wondering about the hundreds of small scars tattoing his hands and arms, like he had been arm wrestling barbed wire. Then later a lovely navaho woman pointed me at Page and a couple back routes that turned out to be spectacular. I missed the grand canyon and the famous navaho mesa everyone has seen pictures of. I did try to stop at the 4 corners monument. But they were charging an entry fee. And the whole place is an indian bazaar. I didnt care to pay money just to show up and snap a picture and then leave. I got close enough to count it.

I also learned that deer arent such a problem on the reservation...dogs are. Everywhere. They dont chase bikes, that costs energy they dont want to use. But they do wander the streets as if they were immune to the physics of a moving vehicle.

One thought that crossed my mind yesterday and was reinforced today: litter. What the hell. I remember a feller talking about the Iraq shindig. He said "I remember when 'supporting the troops' meant saving scrap metal or not driving or buying bonds. This time it seems to mean consuming as much as possible" So what popped in my pea brain was all of this litter and that contrasted with all these "American Pride" stickers and proclamations. Oh really? If you are so proud of it, why do you shit all over it? And dont deny it. Everytime you bring this up, the other people will all shake thier heads in agreement...but someone is doing it....who? I dont care. Just pack your crap and put it in the trash properly. Damn it makes me sick.