Lunch out and more sights to see

September 20 - I was too tired to take a shower last night and get all the sand from every orifice of my body.  My shoes were full and my scalp and my ears!  Once we had breakfast I got in the shower and boy, did it feel good!  Bill washed the RV window and with all the wind and blowing sand we couldn’t see out very clearly.

After doing the windows, Bill took a nap and I worked on my journal and all of the photos we took today.  Then we left to have lunch out at the Olde Bridge Bar and Grille.  It’s literally on the water’s edge at the bridge on the San Juan.  Bill had a Navajo Burger, which was a large fry bread cut in half and each half had a burger with the trimmings on it and there was a side of fries.  He brought half home!  I had a Navajo Taco which wasn’t nearly as big but was pretty tasty!

We checked out the Trading Post next door and they had some beautiful rugs made by local Navajo but the least expensive one we looked at was $1,100.  If I found the perfect colors

Mexican Hat

and design I might be willing to negotiate – a lot!

Just south of Mexican Hat is the stone pillar for which the town is named.  Today was much clearer so I got a better photo of it.  I can’t believe all the wind here hasn’t blown the top off the hat!

A few miles further south is the road to Goosenecks State Park.  It’s a few miles in and a bit curvy and up and down, but on the way you see some beautiful huge mesas.  It’s $5 to get into the park, which really isn’t much as far as facilities.  Several dry camping spots with covered picnic tables and fire pits and a vault toilet, and a parking and day use area with a vault toilet.

BUT, you’re not there for those things, you come to see the goosenecks engraved deep into the mesa where the San Juan  River River flows.  It’s spectacular!  The water looks green from the top and believe me you are a long way from the river!  It was VERY windy today and I was being super careful not to get too close to the edge of the overlook and lose my balance to the wind.  It’s a long

My panorama of Goosenecks

tumbling fall and then – ker-plunk, you’d drown if the fall didn’t kill you!  It’s truly an amazing sight!

We found out that the boat launch is behind our campground and the road is beside us so once we got back we drove down to see what it’s all about.  The people launching are supposed to fill out a registration form stating the date,

Unique stripping in the mountain

number in the party, number of days you will be gone.  They go as far as 30 miles and we guess this is so if they don’t come back on time someone will go look for them.  There were 2 groups returning we think.  They sure take a lot of gear!

Once we got home I made some Chocolate Bombs to take for Carole’s birthday tomorrow.  Bryan drove down to Tucson to get her today and he will take her back the day we leave.  They never come to Tucson any more to visit so for them to all be together this is what it takes!  After getting the bombs in the fridge, I started on making a batch of caramel corn.  I was a neglectful friend and forgot to make it before Mike and Darlene came this summer.  So I finally found the time to do it and have it boxed to go to the post office tomorrow.  Dar, be on the look out for it!!

We couldn’t have dinner until it was out of the convection oven so I couldn’t heat up our leftovers until then.  I managed to clean a few items out of the fridge and since we have Styrofoam containers from last night and today we are good to go for lunch on the road tomorrow.  I think we have about 250 miles tomorrow, so that’s not bad!

Time to get today’s photos in order to put in the post!