Friday June 10, 2011
The Good: We are in Pipe Springs, AZ at the Kaibab Piute Indian Reservation where we are 1 of 3 people camping in the entire place. Full hook-ups for $10.00 per night. Gas here is $3.64 per gallon. What's not to love about the American Indian?! We give them BEADS for Manhattan and they give us cheap camping and gasoline!
The Bad: Around 8pm (about the time I was going to take a shower) the water ceased to flow….here in Pipe Springs ….which is really pretty ironic since the entire concept of the Pipe Springs National Monument and Kaibab Reservation is the co-mingling of cultures of the Mormon settlers, the Federal Government, and the Piute Indians figuring out how to share the water from the springs and live peacefully together. Obviously they decided not to share it with us this evening however. People from the Reservation were out here working hard to restore the flow….and we now have a trickle…but not enough for a shower. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow. I guess we should have travelled with a full tank!
The Ugly: On our way down here this morning from Jacob Lake on the narrow winding Hwy 67 a semi trailer truck was going too fast …he was a few minutes ahead of us …we were 5 cars behind him…and he didn't make one of the curves. He rolled and burst into flames. Help was a long ways away and by the time the fire/medics/marshalls/state police/rangers (all hands on deck) arrived the truck was just mangled burned metal and they just had to work on keeping the fire from spreading through the Kaibab National Forest. The ambulance did not have it's lights/siren on. Enough said. I said a prayer for him and for his family and then thanked God that we had stayed a few minutes later in the campground talking to the camp hosts about their Grandson who was returning from his LDS Mission in Oregon in September. A few minutes earlier and we could have been involved. The police managed to get us all off the hill safely after some time and here we are.
After a tour of Pipe Springs Fort we headed to Colorado City. If you aren't familiar with the area…..well it's a bit different. You really should Google it but here's a teaser: Large homes with high walls (like compounds) and all of the women and female children are dressed in the same style of long dresses (homemade) and leggings. Only the color changed on these "uniforms".All of the women wear their hair in the same style of a poof in front and a long braid down the back. They had "Sherry's Beauty Salon" in town but it was closed down and out of business. Duh. The few homes that did not have the compound- like walls all had the shades drawn on every window. There were cars and horses living in harmony on the streets. Young boys (maybe 10 yrs old) driving John Deere tractors down the streets of town. Big community garden, a dairy, a corral, a Radio Shack (yep) a co-op market and no infrastructure as the roads were in terrible shape. (Horses, cars, Tractors….maybe that's the reason). Polygamy may be illegal but it is alive and well in Colorado City. Colorado City….5000 residents. Established in 1985. That's what the sign said. Bill was astounded as he had no idea where I was taking him….or what it was like..or maybe he was just astounded at the thought that someone would actually WANT more than one wife……
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