One observation about the Navajo is they are penny wise and dollar foolish. They need more people to go to business school because they suck at running businesses. I saw this in Flagstaff, Santa Fe, Page, and now again in Monument Valley. They hold you up at a gate for $5, or charge you $5 for a mandatory tour guide, or try to sell you Indian jewelry or Indian artifacts. They have a captive audience where they could make 10 times what they do just for satisfying some basic human needs without charging an entry fee. They build new buildings and then dedicate much of it to little rooms open on one side where they sell artifacts on tables the same way they do by the side of the road. I got side tracked let me move on.
On the way home we got about 20 miles from the valley outside a little town called Kayenta, Arizona and saw a native American lady hitch hiking. Huli and I looked at each other and thought why not. This would give us an opportunity to learn a little something about this person and tell her a little something about ourselves. Huli was holding Sydney anyway so there was room in the back seat for our new "friend". After Latisha, a Navajo Indian, was in the car for five minutes Huli and I looked at each other and mentally telegraphed WTF were we thinking? When you look up Indian on the hooch in the dictionary I think Latisha's picture also comes up with it. It just so happens she was going to Page so we had 100 miles to talk. She had four different crying episodes about her five kids who no longer live with her (the court took them away). After getting over one of her crying episodes she ask us about smoking pot. I told her I did when I was young but didn't for many years until after I retired. I explained to her that while I was working I would tell people when I retire I was going to drink beer, smoke pot, and drive a motorhome down the road. Well for the first two plus years we were pulling a fifth wheel instead of driving a motorhome. She then asked if we had any rolling papers to which we said no, then she asked about a pipe, or an empty pop can. We said no, no, and no, not with us in our car. Yet she wonders why she lost her kids. After three more crying episodes about her mom, step dad, two husbands and five kids, totaling her car which had zero insurance, we were finally back in Page. She told us so many stories she couldn't keep them straight and only half of them could be true. She was a mess. She said she hitch hikes to Page and back to her home town two to three times per week. While in Page she stays in a house where she rents a room for $100 per month.
Here are the pictures for today it was kind of dusty at the Monument Valley. Tomorrow is Huli's birthday. We are going to do some hiking around some rock formations around Page and go out for dinner. The route 89 detour kind of screwed us up visiting certain sites from Page like the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We may still be able to do that from Cedar City, Utah.
You frequently see horses by the road with no fences.
