Monument Valley is a twenty minute drive from our lodging in Kayenta, so we checked it out.  At the visitor center we got some literature that boasted how it has been the setting for many classic films, "including Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, and Back to the Future III."  Really?  BTTF III is a classic?   The film was flawed on several levels, beginning with the idea that one hundred years ago Hill Valley was in Monument Valley.  And the time-space continuum was exploited differently than in the first two volumes.  Maybe director Zemickis was trying to incorporate advances in string theory into the franchise, or maybe studio meddling led to the contradictions.  I don't know.  I just think that our park service shouldn't play so fast and loose with the term "classic."  Not with my tax money.

The park charges $5 a head, and this gives you the right to drive an 18 mile loop through the monuments on a dirt road.  Which we did.  And it's a miracle that we didn't leave our transmission out there hanging on a jagged piece of sandstone.  Parts of the drive were like a Land Rover commercial, and they give you no warnings about that before you start.  I saw some Japanese tourists in their rented Mercury Montego laughing like they were on a ride at Disneyland, but this was real world stuff.  Some chump is going to buy that car from Hertz and wonder what happened when all four wheels shoot off as he is going down the 405.  

Back on Highway 160, heading towards Four Corners, Bubbles took the wheel.  Soon we were on the wrong road, Highway 64 heading East into New Mexico instead of Northeast into Colorado.  It took us a while to realize her mistake, but instead of doubling back we decided to ride 64 into Shiprock, New Mexico and then turn north towards Cortez. Colorado.  Shiprock, of course, made me think of the Flintstones episode with the singer named Dash Riprock.  I tried to explain this to Bubbles, but she is not well versed in Flinstonology, and she was still trying to figure how to blame me for her bad driving.  

The drive from Cortez east to Durango was as scenic as it gets.  We saw alpine mountains and rolling green farmland, while driving through brief thunderstorms mixed with bright bursts of sunlight.  And plenty of rainbows.  Checked into the Caboose Inn.

Epiphany- They made me read a Robert Frost poem in high school about  him coming to a fork in the road and taking the path less traveled, blah blah blah.  I don't remember much about that poem, except how he mentioned "way leading to way..."  The teacher tried to spell it out, as you must with meat headed high school kids.  Your whole life can change when you take one path, because that leads to other forks and other paths and finally you're miles away from where you would be if you made a different decision at the first fork.  But isn't life more like what happened to us?  Bubbles took one path, but we knew where we wanted to go, so we adjusted and veered back toward our goal.  No big deal.  I'm not saying Robert Frost was a boob.  But maybe Yogi Berra's take is more instructive, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."  
 
Beef Jerky - Tillamook County - regular flavor.  A very good jerky, nice taste with just the right among of sponginess.  Tried to get Bubbles opinion, but after spitting out yesterday's jerky, she claims she won't eat anymore jerky.  Ever.  We shall see.