In the land of the Navajo

We made our second trip to Horseshoe Bend this morning after getting some breakfast. The lighting was better this time, though the crowds were not. As odd as it may sound, I'm beginning to hate summer trips. Everything is overcrowded, and I feel like we are being taken advantage of because there are such crowds at everything. Priced are high. Service is low. It's all pretty basic if you ask me. Anyway, it was a relatively short drive to Monument Valley albeit confusing in terms of states, time zones, and radio stations.

We crossed in and out of Utah multiple times. We also struggled to find a good radio station. For being in the middle of nowhere, we had no difficulty picking up 100 stations. They were all scratchy at best, but at one point we were somehow picking up a radio station from Bend, Oregon. That is over 900 miles away. I don't understand. When we got to Monument Valley, we checked in to the View Hotel. Unsurprisingly, it has a good view from the balcony.

It was grossly overpriced, but worth it I suppose. When one is a captive audience, and there's really only one hotel by the park, one doesn't really have a choice. We were going to drive the valley view road, which is an unpaved road encircling the main formations, we were informed that the road was closed . . . unless you were on a tour. So it wasn't really closed, just closed for people who wanted to do it for less than $75 per person. The Navajo ranger told us that she would be gone at 630pm and therefore wouldn't be able to turn people away, so we could come back at that time.

That gave us about four hours to kill, so we drove to Mexican Hat across the border in Utah. It wasn't anything to write home about, but something to do. I don't think it looked very Mexican hat-like if you ask me. This is presumably why you can no longer buy alcohol on Navajo land. After getting dinner at the one restaurant at the one hotel, we drove our Nissan Sentra to the unpaved road.

Despite the original lady going home, she was replaced by a far more annoying guy in a truck telling us the road was closed. Five minutes later, he left, so we thought about his instructions for a second and started driving down the road. We went about 1/2 a mile down. It wasn't any worse than other unpaved roads I've been on, but when there's money to be made . . . While we would have liked to continue, it was clear that regular folks weren't being welcomed. The tour trucks were giving us the stink eye even though other cars were driving the road as well.

We were able to at least get a little bit closer to the mittens. With the road closed, and the hiking trails closed, there is really just one view we could get. After we returned to the hotel, we settled in by the balcony, watched the colors change over the mittens as the sun went down and hope to get some good pictures of the stars when they come out.

The Perils of Being Basic

There are somewhere in the vicinity of 30 daily nonstop flights between LAX and Las Vegas. And as someone who attempts to go standby, one would think the odds were good. They were not, despite it being a Wednesday. There were an average of 15-20 standbys for any given flight. I didn't really want to chance it, so I used my discount to get a confirmed seat for Nicole and myself on a United flight. It was $36, which seemed like a good deal until we realized we had purchased a basic economy ticket, a new class of service that United is testing out. Nobody really seems to be on the same page as to what it entails. The TSA agent stopped me and wouldn't let me go to the TSA pre-check line with Nicole because mine said "Basic" at the top (and also TSA Pre-check, but apparently that didn't matter). The TSA employee told me I had to talk to a check-in agent to pay for my bag or some nonsense. I wasn't really in a calm mood after the TSA lady yelled out, "You basic!" Nicole was just as confused as me since she was allowed to go through with essentially the exact same ticket. So, why is TSA now getting involved with United check-in policies?

Clearly something is being lost in communicating the proper procedures, and that's what I said to the TSA lady after I eventually convinced her that I did not have to check in with someone else. Then at the gate, I was given the once over about my camera bag. My camera bag! It's like the size of a lunch box. She also made Nicole check her bag, which was about half the size of most of the other bags that were allowed in the overhead bins. Now I would normally stay out of an airline's business since I myself am an employee, but not today. I paid for those shitty tickets, so if United has any sense after all of their PR problems of this year, they will not try and emulate Spirit, the worst-rated airline in the country. The ticket may be cheap, but it comes at great cost.

I was in a fighting mood when we got to Vegas and I basically got ripped off on the one-way car rental. There was a hidden mileage fee. I mistakenly assumed all rentals had unlimited mileage. I guess that's my fault for being basic. The reason we were in Vegas is because I had promised I would take Nicole to see the Backstreet Boys perform. In retrospect, I probably sounded shady to my parents et al when I simply said, "Nicole and I have an event in Las Vegas." We did not get married at a drive-thru wedding chapel.

You see, it's very uncool to admit that I was going to see the Backstreet Boys. I do have to admit that some of their music is catchy, however. On nights when BSB aren't performing, Britney Spears has a residency. What year is it? When we woke up the following morning (completely sober) we made it a point to get out of Vegas as soon as possible. We got on the road and drove for over four hours until we got to Page, Arizona.

We made a brief pit stop in St George, Utah for lunch and didn't stop again until reaching Glen Canyon Dam just outside Page. There's nothing really in Page; it's just a jumping off point for other excursions. Antelope Canyon, the famous slot canyon with shafts of light coming through from above is booked solid, as is the "wave." It doesn't help that we are here at peak season. We went to see horseshoe bend, but we arrived late afternoon when the sun was directly in front of us. And while the dozens of tourists around us didn't seem to care, I told Nicole that we would have to come back tomorrow morning.

You see, this may look fine to most, but not to me. The detail in the rocks is completely lost and the sky is blown out. Unacceptable, obviously. Hopefully tomorrow involves less driving and more adventures.