4/7/2011

            Guess what? The weather forecast said that it would rain a little bit, but, instead it rained all night. Also, Mom almost got the car stuck from an accidental picture taking pull off…she drove off the road onto an unpaved pull-off, and didn’t realize it was REALLY soft dirt/sand. Big Red had a HARD time getting any traction to get back on the road! We mostly sat in the car because we were going to Canyon De Chelly National Monument. [MH]  We could have gotten here faster but we thought we were going to go to Mesa Verde. We changed our minds because we heard that Canyon De Chelly was beautiful.  The ranger told us to go a certain route, and it took is the scenic way, but up and over a high pass (9000 ft) which was covered with SNOW!  We heard the government shut down might include all national parks and monuments and may start at midnight on Friday night! We are trying to go to the monuments and parks before they close! We really want to get to Mesa Verde[ZH].  I didn’t sleep much last night.  The pitter-patter of the “thunder-showers” was a steady downpour all night.  I was worried about getting out on the notorious 20 miles of slick dirt road from Chaco, back to the highway.  Luckily, they have had a really dry winter, and all the rain was sucked into the ground in a manner of hours.  Big Red had very little problems negotiating the road.  For all those interested, it was determined that the transmission in the cold mornings needs to warm up to be able to distribute the fluid to the gears for Big Red to engage into gear.  So far that has held true!!!!  (We also started complimenting Big Red more, and he seems to respond in kind!) {KS}