Bees!

After blowing through states 3 & 4 at a clip the first couple days, we spent the better part of Sunday in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle on Monday. We spent the next two nights in New Mexico, then left Rt 66 in Gallup (after buying another iPod to replace the one that went bouncing down I-40 somewhere in Texas.)

 

We took the Devil's Highway north, but it's no longer designated US 666 because it freaked some people out, and it cost them a fortune in highway marker signs. But it sounds so much more exciting than saying we took US 491, doesn't it?

 

At Four Corners, we did the four-states-at-once thing, and noticed a swarm of bees at the garbage can. We then clipped the corner of Colorado (no, we're not bringing you any weed) and arrived at the Utah border, where 2 young Austrian girls with the same name took our "Welcome To" photo, and were giddy to have us take their picture in front of our dusty Harleys. We stopped for gas up the road, and couldn't get near any garbage can to ditch our water bottle because of all the bees. Utah's state highway markers, like our Keystone shapes, and Kansas' sunflowers (and Jersey's sorry-assed white circles,) are beehives. Utah, in fact, is the Beehive State. Guess that ain't no bull.

 

 

We are in Monument Valley now, at the San Juan Inn on the riverbank in Mexican Hat,  and the landscape is simply indescribable. A couple quick thoughts before we head out for more:

 

-We've been in some really neat hotels, but the cell & internet service service has sucked.  Page back to these posts, and we'll have some really cool pix up.

-The sun is RUTHLESS out here. Even though we've been really fortunate with weather so far (no twisters through Tornado Alley!) and it's actually cool in the mornings and comfortable in the shade, that sun will wilt you with sheer force. And there ain't no shade out here.

-We ran into the same girls at dinner here at the hotel last night. They're actually going to be in San Francisco the same time as us in 1-1/2 weeks.

-I'm pretty sure there are more Europeans out here than in Europe right now.

-We said before that we appreciate and respect all people, and it's not fair to generalize,  but the Chinese are by far the worst. And the shopkeepers agree. They're bitter, inconsiderate, and pushy. We do have a deeper respect for the Native American today.

-We're running into other people over and over, too. We've passed the same two couples on full dressers three times now. We know this because one of the couples wear the cool Captain America helmets that I love. Kinda hard to miss them.

OK time to pack up and head back out into the desert. We're winging it tonight; all we know is it will be somewhere in Arizona back on 66.