It's about a 140 mile drive from Canyonlands to Monument Valley and, once again, a drastic change of topography. After exploring deep canyons and valleys, we are now seeing these tall rock structures called buttes. Buttes are a fine example of years of erosion, and the word comes from the French, meaning "small hill". These formations are anything but small (even compared to the Eiffel Tower!)

We woke up (too) early to go for a hike around several of the buttes in MV, and stumbled around in the dark for the first half hour . After it got light enough to find the trail, we were amazed how red the steep hills looked as the sun came up. They looked like they were on fire! It was kinda eerie knowing we were on Navajo land, especially after reading some of the folklore; you could almost feel the spirits watching us pale faces admiring these worshiped grounds that we had dared to tread on and hike thru.

After our hike we grabbed some breakfast and headed off to one of our favorite national parks, the Grand Canyon. It took about 6 hours (and going through a couple speed traps) to get from MV to the east end of the GC, and we arrived at our campsite around noon. I immediately hit the Bright Angel Trail that leads down to the bottom of the canyon, to try and meet up with the Stotka klan (friends of ours from Washington), who were hiking up after a stay with their family at Phantom Ranch (a camp at the bottom of the canyon). I hiked down a couple miles but could not find them anywhere - the reason, I found out later ... they were hiking up the next day! Guess the Hurwitz event planner got the days mixed up. Oh well.

After a nice dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge, Bob (who has extensive Boy Scout experience) made a roaring fire so we could finish off the rest of our s'mores. We stayed up pretty late for us old folks and went to sleep listening to the wolves howling. We awoke early and, with the recent toasting still in my system, decided to whip up some English muffins in the toaster for breakfast so that we wouldn't have a lot to clean up. I had one small problem cleaning up, tho'... the toaster wouldn't budge! I don't remember it being attached or anything so, in my best Incredible Hulk impersonation, I pulled harder and yanked it off - complete with an attached piece of wallpaper the size of a quarter! I guess the heat of the toaster had welded it onto the wall. Houston, we have a problem... this brand new motorhome doesn't look so new anymore. By this time, my significant other is hotter than the toaster itself, and I said to her, "Let's get going - I'll think of something" . As I'm driving home I'm thinking to myself, "How in the heck am I gonna fix this?", but what comes out of my mouth is, "I'll be able to fix it.... no problem!"

Well, we arrived home in one piece and unloaded the beast. I got to work immediately on the wall and was able to take a patch from way under the sink, and splice it in so you could hardly notice. Yay!! I just need to wipe off some of the glue around it so, being male, I think lacquer thinner should work just fine... and it did... taking off all the glue, as well as the pattern on the wallpaper. Now I'm staring at a pure white spot, about 4" in diameter, the perfect definition of a "snowball effect". So, I do what any man would do - I lock all the doors to the motorhome so the wife can't come in and see my screw up. Ok, time to put the thinking hat (aka the dunce cap) on... I see a warning sticker explaining "How to Use the Stove Safely" that has been installed on the counter. I think, "A better place for that sticker would be right over my blunder" (at least people could read the warning that way), so I carefully remove the sticker and it happens to fit perfectly over my mishap... it was meant to be! The next morning, we drove the motorhome back to it's final rental place and it passed inspection with flying colors.

Well, this is the end of our latest saga. Like all of our travels, it comes with a lot of great memories, a few good laughs and a little stress. Thank you so much for all of your kind comments, and for taking time to read about our travels. We thoroughly enjoy when we read about yours. So long for now!