Rewind

Where was I?

Oh yes I was telling you about this past Thursday when they were going to bulldoze my house and then my friend told me he was an alien just before they blew up my planet and....

Oh no wait that's not me. Thats the book we are reading.

Right, Prescott....

After teaching Carrie's swing dance club some lindy hop I have decided that I only want to teach dance to engineers, physics, and other science-minded people. Not only did they laugh at all of my physics/Newton jokes, they complete understand words like linear, momentum, instantaneous, and vector. I makes teaching dance sooooo much easier.

We slept in Carrie's dorm room, having more than 18 inches of free space between you and the ceiling while you sleep is a luxury that I am sure most people take for granted.

Prescott actually has an E85 station, which is the first time one of our destinations has also been a refill site. About half an hour of "misguided" driving around down town Prescott has us stumbling upon that station. Being lost and finding it proved much easier than that directions I figured out. A short fill up of E85 and then back to Carrie's. I forgot my camera. But it all worked out, we got to say good bye (we where sleeping when Carrie went to class) and IM with Betsy, Carrie's Mom. Off to Sedona.

158 turns in 12 miles is what a t-shirt in the turon town of Jerome. What they left off of the shirt was 4000 ft of climbing too. Jerome is an old mining town between Prescott and Sedona, up a large windy road which was an artist town, but now is a tourist trap. We got, gave Pam a brake and walked around. Back in Pam and quite a bit of coasting on the back side brings us into Sedona.

Very pretty, but all we can think about is the New Frontier, a health food store {hippie grocer}, in Sedona. We did a little shopping, ate some hummus, which if you know us well is a staple in our diet but has been missing from this trip, and hung out in a coffee shop for a while. Which is funny, because neither one of us drinks coffee. We found on the internet that a Jazz band was playing. Having a dance fever brought on by last night's dancing in Prescott we decided to do some Lindy-bombing {it when you go swing dance at a place that usually is not a swing dance venue}. A bit of mis-direction and we finally find ourselves at the bistro, but alas it is closed for the season. Oh, well, off to the closest National forest to park and sleep.

Morning brings a nice run, much needed for the lack of exercise is building, and some groats with gogi berries.

Our travel plans have changed, seeing how adverse weather conditions exist throughout most of our path. We nix UT, WY, and MT and instead head to CO. This route change causes several problems.

Missing the Hoover Dam
Missing the Grand Canyon
Missing Zion
Missing dancing in Salt Lake City
Missing Glacier National Park
Missing the Grand Tetons

But most importantly and extra 150 miles between e85 stations. The solution...dilution of course. Since I would rather run on 50% E85 than 100% gas, this new route forces us to get some gas and blend with our ethanol. Which is already 15% gas, but who's counting.

We left Sedona and saw some awesome rock formations just outside of sedona and then drove through Oak Creek Canyon, quite awesome. Stopping at a view point, we met a Native American who was educating on the counterfeit "Indian" Jewelry market and told us what to ask.

Through Flagstaff and north west to four corners. Not far from the Flagstaff we see a sign indicating the close proximity of the Grand Canyon, which we thought we were going to miss. A short detour to see a giant hole in the ground.

I thought the GC was in the middle of the flat desert, but apparently its in a mountain range that has a lot of bushes and rolling hills. We went and took pictures then drove a few miles out of the park and into national forest for quinoa pasta, Hitchhiker's Guide and sleep.

Did anyone know that the GC was cold?? Very cold. Frost on the windows, and frozen water in our dirty dishes. We arose and drove back into the park to see the canyon in the morning light and go up in a watch tower which was closed the previous evening. I also washed dishes in the bathroom. We took some more pictures and ate some cereal and headed to the Four Corners.

We drove through the Navajo Nation got half a tank of gas on top of our half tank of E85 and saw some cool desert.

Arriving at the Four Corner 9 minutes after is closed, along with a dozen other people, was quite frustrating, but funny and quite apropos. Taking a wrong turn out of the Monument takes us back in to AZ then we turned around and went into NM and shortly entered CO. The next hour or so of driving had the sole purpose to take us out of the Ute Reservation. Both of us had no qualms sleeping in a Walmart parking lot or pulling off the side of the road on federal lands, but pulling off in Reservation just felt wrong. The first town we came to was Cortez, CO. We ate dinner in the parking lot of a laundromat and drove out of town to a state park to sleep next to a "No overnight camping" sign.

Yesterday was a driving day for sure.

Today we found a Natural Food store for the best dried mango I have ever eaten and a library for some free internet.

We do not know what is next for our plan, save the fact that we are 180 miles from the closest E85 station and have 120 miles worth of fuel. Looks like we need a little more gas.

Thoughts on cold weather:
Always have an extra down comforter.
Don't dump your pasta water. Put it in bottles to keep you warm at night.
There is snow on the ground here!!!!!