Road trip planning… again.

The road trip is taking over my thoughts… as it seems to so often.

I am negotiating at work... someone needs to cover my section... I need to have staff scheduled...

A road trip means a vehicle... The Escape (a car) needs work… it’s now 8 years old… with 196,000 miles. It continues to be the most trouble free car I have ever owned… Last year I had most of the hoses and belts and water pump replaced… this year there is more work needed… I suspect an engine mount has failed… and the check engine light came on Monday… Now the car is having trouble finding its idle… I will turn it over to the mechanic next week… for them to do their magic and deplete the bank account.

Back to the plan… The plan is coming together… again, this year, the target is southern Utah and northern Arizona… the land of the Anasazi, the old ones… builders of cliff dwellings…

This trip will be different a significant way… usually my road trips are solo adventures… I am comfortable being alone at times… but this will not be… a close friend… a friend for close to 50 years… the best man at our wedding… a person who I haven’t spent time with for some years will be along… Our last adventure was a Yosemite backpacking trip about 1984… 26 years ago. This trip will be a reunion as well as an adventure…

Richard is fluent in the culture of the area… he likes Navajo tacos… He likes to camp… In the past he collected Navajo rugs. He is also fluent in the works of Monty Python and Groucho Marks…

This time I head south first to Pasadena… to pick up Richard… to spend the night… then east through Zion, to Kanab… to spend the night in a motel… from there we go on to Navajo National Monument… we have a reservation for the Keet Seel hike… 16 miles plus round trip… We are old farts… Some years ago 16 miles would be an afternoon hike… Probably not anymore. The Keet Seel hike is the core target for the trip… The entire trip is built around the hike… Trips always have core target, a theme… last year it was Mesa Verde… The year before it was following Clara Patterson around Yellowstone… the core or theme is not rational… but it is a target around which a trip evolves…

The National Park service suggests making the trip an overnight… camping at the ruins. They also require you carry a gallon of water a day… a gallon is 8 lbs… two gallons is 16 lbs… with a sleeping bag, a stove and some fuel, and two lbs of food you are carrying a 30 lb pack… Instead we will sprint in and out… with 15 lb day packs…

We will camp a second night at Navajo National Monument, then drive to Mexican Hat Utah, through John Ford’s Monument Valley… to Mexican Hat, for the night, then beyond to explore ruins and petrogyps and sites along the San Juan River, then back for dinner at the Swinging Steak and a motel with a shower… (The occasional shower is more important when you get old... )

The next day we will continue along Comb Ridge and Cedar Mesa… we will try to find Wetherill’s Cave 7… the holy grail of Anasazi sites… I think I know where it is…
The day will end camping, probably at Natural Bridges National Park… then via Hall’s Ferry across Lake Meade, and up the dirt track called Burr’s Trail for Bryce National Park for a last night of camping before heading fast for LA.

Again, I have most of the gear needed… I only am looking for a new cot… I have three in the rafters… one is OK, two pretty far gone… we need two… I have a lantern with a case, and a second but need a case for it. I will set up a new dry box for this trip… of course, I need some stove fuel, and some tie down rope… of course I will need ice and food, but those are supplies…

This trip will be about the photos… more than most… I will take the two Nikon digitals… but I will also take a couple of Canon F-1’s and my last two rolls of Kodachrome… “They give us those nice bright colors, They give us the greens of summers, Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah”… with a couple of rolls of B&W… all will be good.

We will explore unknown ruins… We will take pictures… We will drink beer, wine, and whiskey… we will sit by fires… we will stare at the stars in the sky…