Day 8: "That'll be the day"

We left Lake Powell this morning and began the drive to Monument Valley. Our first stop was Wal-Mart. Strange how I never shop at W-M at home and then on the RV trip we are there about every 3-4 days – “one stop shopping” says it all.

We made a stop at Navajo National Monument. Lunch-PBJ at a picnic table. We had a pretty good rainstorm while we were parked.

The boys put on Dry Ducks and played Frisbee in the rain.

After lunch we saw a short film, hiked about 1 mile to see an alcove where ancient Indians set up canyon dwellings.

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We arrived at Goudling’s Campground in Monument Valley around 5. Settled in.
We caught a shuttle bus about 6:50pm from the RV park down to Goulding’s Trading Post Area. We had dinner in the lodge. Yummy!!! Frybread Tacos. A new favorite food.

This was the view out the window while we were eating dinner.

After dinner we went to the “Earth Spirit” Theatre to see “Among the Monuments” a documentary about Harry and his wife, “Mike”, Goulding. They founded this trading post before the depression. When times got tough during the Depression Years other trading post s were forced to close. Harry Goulding got the idea to contact John Ford, the movie producer. Ford was impressed with the scenery and hired the young, John Wayne, to make westerns in the area. This action saved this area. Many native people were hired as extras.

After this documentary we watched “The Searchers”, a John Wayne movie filmed in Monument Valley. It was interesting to see them riding past the rock structures that were right outside the door.

The movie ended around 11pm. We caught the shuttle back to the RV Park. The boys were wishing they had made out their beds because they were tired. Ewwwww!!!! What’s that SMELL??? We were hit with an icky odor when we opened the RV door. We assumed it was sewer. But when Preston went to open the back closet to get out his bedding ….UGH!!!! It smelled like vomit in that closet. What was it??? We began unloading everything from that closet-blankets, sheets, towels, backpack. Backpack!!!! What is that in the backpack??? It was the milk bottle from Circus Circus breakfast – 7 days ago!!! It had exploded in the heat. You can imagine the smell. Once we got the offending backpack outside I scoured the closet. Ray took things outside and rinsed and washed them.

It occurs to me that my blog 2 years ago was much funnier. I now know why. So many things went wrong on that trip. This was our first major oops, and it was fairly minor.