Zombies and Graffiti

This past week Dave and I took a whirlwind trip down to Arizona to meet our newest little grand-baby and to jump on the trampoline and take trips to McDonalds and amusement parks and have sleepless sleepovers with the older grandies. It's a wild ride hanging out with little people. You know how "they" say raising children is for the young and brave. That may be true, but to hang out with grandchildren for any length of time you sure better be young at heart and have guts of steel. And a bladder of steel too for that matter. The trampoline thing....I'm so grateful my grandmother taught me about Kegel exercises decades ago.

We have an annual Park Service Pass that we have more than got our money's worth out of. It expires the end of this month and so we determined to visit some more parks/monuments we'd yet to see. First stop was Canyonlands National Park, Utah. We arrived there in the middle of the day, thus missing the quintessential sunrise through the Mesa Arch. We were lucky that it is still so early in the season and we only saw at most five other hikers near the arch. It is truly awe-inspiring no matter what time of day.

Next time I'm determined to get that sunrise shot!

So incredibly quiet and still on this day. It was almost the same feeling we had in the Redwood Forest.

Getting so caught up in the feeling of this place, I lost track of time and put us behind our goal of reaching Monument Valley before sunset. We stayed the night in Page, Arizona and ate at our favorite Mexican food place El Tapatio. (I beg them every time we visit to pretty please open up a place in Salt Lake City. Deelish! The next day we headed to The Valley of the Sun. Dave typically drives and I am in charge of the play-list. And though we work full-time together, it's a great time to be trapped in the car and talk about non-work-related things. I love taking Highway 89 instead of the Interstate. Though the threat of wild-life crossing the road is real, the scenery is incredible and to us, worth the slower and slightly more treacherous pace.

If I hadn't seen what I saw within about five seconds we might have missed it, but I whipped my head toward Dave, "Did you SEE that old motel with all the graffiti on it just now?!"...."No...but we can check it out on our way back". Okay. I made him promise to let's not forget so I could get some cool pics of it.

A short few days of whirlwind visits with grandbabies, grandkids, parents; hearts re-fueled, we headed back north. This time we'd be sure to time things to see Monument Valley this time taking the more scenic route through Sedona/Oak Creek Canyon. As we headed toward Page, I asked Dave to keep his eyes peeled for that motel so I could lean my head back to rest for a bit.

My mind drifted to another motel out in the middle of nowhere. One that our young family had stayed at when our van broke down about twenty miles outside of Baker, California. Ya know....the tiny city with the huge thermometer commemorating the fact that it had once been recorded to be as hot as 134 degrees. So me, the five boys and their dad, the van humming along just fine to take us all to Disneyland, when the engine made an awful snapping sound. One flip-cell phone that could make a barely enough cell tower service to make a few phone calls to get a tow-truck to our location. We asked the tow-truck driver if he knew any mechanics in town. "Only one mechanic in this town....ya'll hike your boys into the back of my truck and I'll drive you to the mechanic." Only ONE mechanic?! It made sense....I don't think there was even a stop-light. The town looked empty. We pulled up to the mechanics lot. He greeted us with a warm tooth-less smile. His two pit-bulls barking and baring their teeth through the windows of an old RV he told us he lived in on-site. We asked him if there were any motels in "town". He thought there might be one still open. We'd have to walk with our suitcases and go find out.

Luckily the boys have always packed light. Just a small back-pack each. My large suitcase was thankfully on rollers. as was their dad's large duffel bag. The seven of us formed a single line and walked along the two-lane highway that led to the other end of town. The first motel. Closed. Walked a little further.....another motel, "Availability". It even had a pool! An empty pool. There were no cars parked in the parking lot. There was just one employee in the small office. He ran our credit card and handed us a key.

We entered the room. It was straight out of a B-Movie horror show. The boys could use the toilet standing up. I decided I could wait until the next day. We were all so completely exhausted from the heat. There were two queen beds. The two older boys slept with their dad on one bed and I shared the other with the three younger. I'm not sure what was the planning of having some sort of ac/cooler unit mounted on the ceiling above my bed, but I do recall staring at it most of the night waiting for it to shake loose and fall on us, thus killing us all. That is, unless the zombies entered our room from the second door that opened straight from our room to the great unfenced outdoors didn't get us first. I couldn't even bear to brush my teeth in the bathroom sink. I would have felt cleaner in a tent with an outhouse. The next morning, we checked before check-out time. We waited on the curb with our luggage for news of the monetary damage for the van repair. Most expensive over-night stay in California we've ever had. We hitched a ride with a census worker that happened to drive by and must have had pity on our rag-tag group. She dropped us off at the Sub-Way sandwich shop where we waited for the repairs to be finished. I'm thinking her job in Baker must have not taken her too long and she had a few spare minutes. People are good in this world!

"Allyson, look, we're almost there!" Dave pointed out my side of the windshield. Sure enough. There was that old motel! A couple of other cars were driving slowly through the old abandoned parking lot checking out the art-work as well. This place was begging to have photos taken.

Sometimes weeds are sorta pretty!

Surreal. I had the strangest mix of emotions. The rooms had the glass all broken in, furniture still in place but torn apart, trash and weeds and broken glass everywhere, And yet, all this incredibly beautiful artwork. I was at once exhilarated and a bit frightened. I got my fill of pictures and we still needed to get to our other destinations. We snapped our seatbelts back into place and hit the road again.

For now the drive through Monument Valley is closed. I felt like this photo best described my feelings. A bit shut out.

Next stop was Moab. We barely made it before sun-down and plan to go back soon to take the hike up to "Delicate Arch".

Best travel/hiking/life partner ever!

Having babies. Taking trips to Disneyland even though money is so tight but you want to make memories for your children. Staying in motels that your older/wiser self most likely wouldn't. Yes, these things are for the young. But having an adventurous heart and mind are not age-specific. Staying in a good hotel on the other hand? I'll take the room that doesn't have the cooler mounted on the ceiling above the bed. I'm not super picky.

#travel

#moabutah

#monumentvalley

#canyonlandsutah