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There are no Coincidences

We are preparing for Mexico and want to clean out and ship some items home. As we pass through Prescott, Arizona (running from the snow, again) we decide to grab some boxes so we can pack the items while at our next camp. Well, that’s when the problems start. The post office doesn’t have any flat rate boxes of the right size, the UPS store has boxes, but they wanted $19.95! For a box! At this point we are starting to get a little stressed…how hard can it be to find a box?

Finally, we head to Fedex, which happens to be a tiny counter in the local grocery store, and they don’t have boxes either. But, the lady at the counter directed us to Lisa in the booze portion of the store, and we finally find a few scrap boxes! So, after a couple of hours of stress, and driving around we finally have boxes!

Now, to the point of the story.

We walk out with our boxes, and see a couple of overland rigs parked near the Wee Rover. On the side of one of the Jeeps is “The Road Chose Me” and the guy coming towards us is someone that we have been following online for a number of years as he travelled to South America and Africa! Dan Grec! We have a nice chat for a while with him and two other travelers, Jen and Jared.

So, what are the chances of meeting a fellow Overlander, that we have followed for a number of years, in a tiny store in rural Arizona? Our day went from, “How can it be sooo hard to find a stupid box?” to “It’s a good thing we couldn’t find the box, or we would have missed meeting them!”

Funny how things work out, if we just get out of the way!

Update: We get to a FedEx in the next town, after carefully packing our items to ship home, only to find out you can’t ship items in an alcohol box (somethjng about special licenses). The nice people at the FedEx repacked our boxes inside a larger box and they are now on their way home to snowy Vermont.

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12:1 to Yuma!

The cold has finally forced us to cry uncle! We looked back at our log and it has been almost 8 weeks with the nights in the teens and twenties. We are far enough south in Arizona that the days are getting nice enough, but the nights are still cold and long, and the snow keeps chasing us! I think the Universe is trying to tell us something?

So after consulting with the Wee Rover, we have decided to cross from Yuma, Arizona into Baja for a few months of beaches and snorkeling!

We have sent in our paperwork for our visas (FMMs), and bought Mexican car insurance and World Nomads travel health insurance. We are starting to go over our maps, guides and iOverlander.

Exciting, scary, and we are really looking forward to it.

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Rocks that aren’t Red!

Inside the Petrified Forest National Park is the Blue Mesa, an area of blue and lavender rocks that are mind blowingly beautiful. If you ever come this way, take the time to wander the steep one-mile trail down amongst the rocks and chunks of petrified wood, or at least visit the overlook (not recommended during the hot summer months!)

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Petrified Swamp Wood in Arizona?

Imagine trees, that look like rocks, that grew and died millions of years ago while North America was still attached to Africa…that is the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Hot, humid, lush, green, dinosaurs…not words you associate with Arizona, but 225 million years ago, this was the environment today’s petrified trees lived in, right here in present day Arizona (except for the tiny fact that Arizona, and the rest of our continent, was actually over near Africa, you know Pangea and all that).

Picture of park brochure summarizing the process.
Park security
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Traversing the Navajo Nation

The 4 corners region of CO, AZ, UT, and NM is the heart of the Navajo Nation, and it is where we have been travelling the last few weeks. It is a land of rugged beauty, amazing rock formations, kind people and depressing views of a proud people who are in many ways still recovering from past injustices. We were the minority in this region, welcomed visitors to another culture and way of life.

Today, our route took us to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de shay) just inside the Arizona border with New Mexico. The canyon was spectacularly beautiful with remains of cliff dwellings, and green fields of farming on the canyon floor, including a John Deere tractor plowing a miniature field way below us.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks to view the canyon and cliff dwellings. Both overlooks were empty except for a single vehicle at each. At the first we met Douglas Yazzie; painter, grandfather, boxing champ, and historian. We spent almost an hour listening to stories, and the history of the canyon. Douglas was an amazing impromptu tour guide and his paintings were beautiful so we couldn’t resist breaking our rules about ‘acquiring stuff’ and bought two.

At the next overlook we met Lathan, and he was just the opposite of Douglas. A quiet gifted young man who came to the overlook to sell his wares in an effort to help his mother make ends meet. He was so sincere about trying to give us our money back because he couldn’t make change, that we told him to keep the extra. In exchange, he made us take a dreamcatcher to bring the Wee Rover and us good luck in our travels.

Beautiful country, really nice people and some nice mementos of an area we enjoyed traveling through. We will definitely make our way back here some day.

Douglas Yazzie can be found online if you are interested in purchasing beautiful watercolors.
A very talented young man trying to make a living. We enjoyed talking with him and supporting his artwork. We will display these pieces in our home when we return.
The curved alcoves are home to cliff dwelling ruins.
A closer look at the ruins in one of the alcoves.
Modern day farming next to cliff ruins.
I know…more red rocks…but aren’t they beautiful!
A perfect ending to a wonderful day.
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Swooping Back North

The southwest is filled with ancient ruins of the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called Anasazi). The remains date back hundreds if not thousands of years and are being careful restored, maintained or cared for by the government and/or Native American peoples.

The weather gave us a window of opportunity to swing east and north to visit many of these sites around the Four Corners Region. (No snow chasing us at the moment, balmy 60’s during the day and 20’s at night…we can do that.)

The first area we encountered was a small, off the beaten path, place called Navajo National Monument near Kayenta, Arizona. Knowing nothing about this site, we debated detouring the 10 miles to visit. Once again we decided why not, we were very glad we did. We absolutely love these smaller parks.

The site gave us our first glimpse of amazing structures built almost a thousand years ago. They were permanently occupied from around 1250 to 1300 AD at which time the Ancestral Puebloans departed for the south and west leaving sealed rooms filled with corn. Why did they leave? Were they planning to return?

Yea, I know…
We just can’t help ourselves 😜