The Orange Ninja and Friends: Navajo Nation

Day 9
Gallup, NM to Flagstaff, AZ

Northern New Mexico and Arizona continued to amaze us today. The land out here is beautiful and very enticing. It definitely isn’t the desert that I imagined where Wiley Coyote crafted his always ill-fated plans. We had some time in the morning to explore Gallup and stopped by a couple of the local trading posts. The trading posts still have the barter system in effect where a lot of the local Indians either come and trade their art for items or sell it to the stores for resale. One of the oldest trading posts in Gallup is Richardson Trading Co. that was opened in 1908. I ended up purchasing two kashina dolls that I’ll post pictures of when I unpack them tomorrow. One is a broadface figure, and the other is a long-haired kashina. We had great help from Larry Fulbright at the store, who was a wealth of information about not only the symbolism, but also about the artists and sites of origin. We also found out from him that there is resurgence in the youth contining the traditions of the elders, and their pieces invoke a certain essence of youthfulness and flair that can be seen especially in the hand woven rugs. After our mini art history lesson, we headed to Fort Defiance, which straddles the NM/AZ border to check out the IHS clinic. The hospital is a brand new facility and is state of the art, and looked like a great place to work. We continued on to the Petrified Forrest Nat’l Park where not only is this park home to petrified trees (which just look like brown stones), but it was also on the fringe of the painted desert that was full of striations of different hues of earth all formed from natural causes…the photos we have don’t do the place justice. We ended up back on Route 66 for a few miles after the park, and once again it was like we stepped back in time. We passed by the wigwam motel that was full of classic cadillacs, trucks, and hotrods, and we could instantly see how Pixar was inspired to create the movie Cars. An hour later we were in Flagstaff, which was another hidden gem on our travels. This place was full of culture, good food, and one creepy hotel. We pulled into our hotel the Monte Vista (more on it later) and walked around town looking for a place to eat. As many of you know by now, we like to eat local food, and Diablo Burger was no exception. Diablo Burger’s ingredients all come from within 40 miles of Flagstaff, and they are all “magical.” The burgers were cooked perfectly, and the frites were seasoned delicately with a touch of salt and rosemary. DB’s owner, Derek, was also very friendly coming out to talk with us for a few minutes, even though he was initially attracted to Napoleon exuding all of his cuteness. If you are in town I would highly recommend paying them a visit. Stuffed, we walked around downtown to the ampitheater, which tonight happened to be full of Salsa dancers, but may be used for local bands or movies depending on the night. We contemplated hopping in the mix, but decided we would both get cramps from the feveriously fast dance moves and just headed back to the Monte Vista for the night. The hotel was one of the first hotels in Flagstaff and was the popular choice of such Hollywood Legends as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Debbie Reynolds. A scene from Casablanca was also filmed there, but the greatest draw for the hotel is the ghosts. Now if you know me, you know I hate scary things, Nikki on the other hand is the opposite, so she did some investigating by way of the internet, and found out that the two most haunted rooms in the hotel were across the hall and adjacent to us. The room across the hall, 302, is fabled to have a women seen staring at the occupants sitting in the lone rocking chair in the comer, while the room adjacent to us, 305, is said to have ghosts who suffocate male occupants of the room. We’ll see how well I sleep tonight. Nikki, on the other hand, is waiting in anticipation for the bellboy ghost to come knocking on our door asking for “room service.”