NEWS?

Last night, I  received a comment from Barbara Bald that newspaper coverage of the Canyon de Chelly accident was practically non-existent. So, right. And, if you don’t know the story, JUST MAKE IT UP!!!
We talked to a person in the park yesterday who told us a Gallup Paper had the accident as a tour bus that went over the rim and landed upright. Totally bizarre.
And, that another news paper claimed two people were killed and that Dr. Crowe was staying in Sedona before his canyon tour. All of this is heresay, of course.  I used to work for a newspaper and I can truthfully say, our paper never made up news.
The little independent newspaper, the Navajo Times contacted Jim yesterday and there will be an article in that paper, but he did not consent to an interview. He told Cindy, the whole story is in the blog.  He gave permission for her to use any of the information and pictures in it. The editor, Cindy,  was gone during the event and that was why she had not reported on the accident before this week.
Even crazier, there are rumors that the driver was drunk. UNTRUE. That he just drove it over the ledge and jumped out and saved himself. UNTRUE.  Again, bizarre. Where does such mean stuff come from?  The driver, Davidson, has made about a thousand trips into that canyon over many years; experienced and professional. There is no communication between the canvas cab of the truck and the passengers in the back.  He stopped and got out of the truck in order to speak to us when we got to a specific site. He could not warn us of his sudden steering problem, for instance. Besides, it happened in five seconds.
This morning, we got an on-line copy of the phoenixnewstimes that is accurate about the accident. You can read it at this link: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2012/06/canyon_de_chelly_fatal_tour-tr.php
Yesterday, we went to town, did the laundry, shopped for groceries and spent the afternoon reading outside in a cool breeze.  I can’t remember when I spent a day and didn’t take a picture.  So, I’ll take your advice, Barbara, and post more of the canyon pictures. Bless you, I think I needed a reprieve.
And, also, surprisingly, Jim and I received news from Essya Nabbali, one of the victims in the October 2011 bicycle accident with an update of  their case.  (My Blog  entry Black Monday at
http://wp.me/pDCku-2vx )
No word about their personal lives pending litigation, just the results of the trial:

Neal Francis Lawson III, born 1950, Coos Bay, was convicted April 26 of two counts of assault by use of a dangerous weapon, and reckless driving. For the first assault, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail, three years’ probation and pay $50,829 restitution plus compensatory fine of $50,000 to Martha McLean. For the second, he was sentenced to 90 days and to pay $78,827.20 restitution plus compensatory fine of $75,000 to Essya Nabbali. His drivers license was suspended five years for both. For reckless driving, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years’ probation. All jail time is to be served concurrently.

And, Oops!  I mis-remembered Martha’s last name as Wright instead of McClean when I referred to that piece earlier.  I hope to shout I’m not perfect.  And this has been a stressful time.  I’ll go back and correct it.

BikePortland.org  website has a long dialogue about that incident, if you are interested.

Now, some soothing pictures:

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This little valley with the green trees looks so inviting.

The canyon is 600 feet deep here and I like to try to get the feeling in the photo that you are looking down into the abyss. I was much more careful when walking out to this edge just because of the accident. It makes no rational sense. Just the body trying to protect itself, I guess.

We found many spots on this rim where catch basins form to hold  water.  I expect this whole area looks different in the winter. The trail is marked by the cairns.

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I took this through a drain hole in the overlook.

These are all from the South Rim that I didn’t publish yesterday.  Here is the link to an album from the North Rim  if you are interested in a slideshow:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/2012525NorthRimCnyDeChelly?authkey=Gv1sRgCPKsxozb3_L5zgE

WALKING IN BEAUTY

Its been hot in the park.  We are both feeling much better, but not exactly up to par.  We decided to try the South Rim overlooks figuring getting out and about will hasten healing and leave us with the canyons beauty as our last memory.

The White House  of the ancients, sits among sandstone colored buildings. The Anasazi left no clues  why this building should be white. Maybe it is special, like our own White House.  We had planned to take the two-mile hike in to where ever it leads,  but we weren’t up to that, yesterday.

The South Rim Canyons are deep and for those who feel any vertigo, it is probably not the place to visit.

As I looked, I wished I was down on the canyon floor finishing that tour we started in that marvelous truck where you had 360 degree views. It was a wonderful sight-seeing vehicle and I’d do it again if  I could, despite the accident.

I love the monolithic rocks that just seem to rise from the canyon floor like sentinels.

And, these strange purple tufts that sit like caps on pudding.  It is obvious that this rock was at one time liquid some unknown millions of years ago.

The South Rim had rock climbing areas before you get to the edge of the canyon.  Normally I’d be all over them, enjoying views from every point. They are beautiful in their own right.

The trail at one overlook was marked with cairn rocks. I added a couple rocks to increase the height, as others have done.  Not this particular one, though.

This rock was defaced by grafitti, but the colors are breathtaking.

The famous Spider Rock is so named because in Navajo culture, the Spider Woman is the God of weaving.  To them it must have resembled a weaving. It is  a beautiful twin structure in a very busy and colorful valley.

On a closer view it is possible to see the lines resembling  a woven rug, perhaps.

These lichen covered rocks on the edge have an unbelievable number of colors.

We received a note (posted) from Anita, the woman I spoke about who drove the two hundred miles to Flagstaff the day after the accident to be there for her friend Margaret. She is healing as we all are. And, for the sake of accuracy, we reported to the Sheriff’s Department and the Special Investigator that the nut from the tie rod bolt had been turned in to them. Frank Shearer informed us that the women from his party found the nut, but he advised them to leave it where they found it so the Sheriff’s Department could investigate without them having disturbed its location. Again, it is easy to “mis-hear” and spread inaccuracies.  Thank you for that correction, Frank.   None of us will forget this horrible accident, but I hope everyone will also remember the beauty of Canyon de Chelly and walk in beauty.

LOOKING FORWARD TO MOVING ON.

I finally got the ambition to vacuum up all that dust I wrote about yesterday without too much discomfort.  And, yesterday we were visited by a special investigator with the National Parks, sort of the FBI of the national parks.  We gave another taped account of the accident.  It  makes you wish they’d just share information. She said she would ask the Sheriff’s Department for a copy of their tape. I woke up with sand in the corner of my eyes, as I have every morning since the accident. I  thought about what I saw going down that hill and I realized for the first time that I had to have closed my eyes until the tumble and rumble stopped.  Significant of nothing.
I got a message from Vicky and Jeff that Sophie Zagar is in a rehabilitation center in Prescott where she will undergo extensive rehabilitation.  She was obviously in the most pain during those long  hours and it was so hard for everyone, because there was nothing we could do.  Sophie, you have no idea how glad we are to  know that you are  getting the care you need  and have your  loving  family around you.
Despite the heat, we had a nice breeze yesterday, and after dinner, we took a slow stroll around the park. It felt good to get out and walk and feel normal.  We met a full-time RVer named Pauline. She said she was so bereft when her only child moved with her grandchildren to New Zealand, she decided to hit the road. That was five years ago.  She joined the singles group, the LOWs, which stands for Loners On Wheels.  She now knows some of the same characters that Jim does with his nearly 17 years on the road. He belonged to the WINs, Wandering Individuals Network, and the two groups often meet and interact.  I’m admiring of women who have it together enough to be adventurers on their own and tackle life constantly on the move. It is an addicting lifestyle.
Our plan is to leave the park on Tuesday morning. We still have all those mundane chores.  Monday laundromat and shopping. Some mail to get out. And today, I’m going to finish our visit to the South Rim so I  leave this park with a positive and beauty in my  memory.  Jim is also ready to do that, though he declined yesterday.  We still both nap every day.
I keep a picture file of the last two year’s adventures on my computer. That way I can always look back at the fun times we had and feel joy.

Lunch at the Elephant Bar Palm Desert, California.

Netting Salmon on the Swinnomish  Reservation,  La Connor, Washington.

Hiking the Superstition Mountains,  Apache Junction,  Arizona.

Watching the Cabalgata in Columbus,  New Mexico.

The balloon ride with Fergie and company at Red Rock Park,  New Mexico.

Meeting the tattooed artist in Bisbee, Arizona.
Life is good.

SO MANY LIVES AFFECTED

I read over all of  the messages, and some new ones,  and had another cry this morning. I guess it is cathartic.  It has helped Jim to be able to vent and talk through his experience over and over. He has struggled with guilt feelings about Dr. Crowe’s death, thinking that if he hadn’t shouted “We’re going over”, maybe he wouldn’t have jumped.  On the other hand, maybe it helped save others worse trauma to have been warned, he also reasons.  There is no answer I tell him, and no one can make rational sense of  what they did during an event that lasted about five seconds and forever changed all of our lives.
I laughed at him yesterday as he wanted all of his bruises and mine, photographed.  Yesterday he went back to the clinic.  They wrapped his chest tightly and explained to him that he had held onto the chair leg so tightly, that the power of the wreck really wrenched and tore that muscle and that is why he is in so much pain. Every move, breath and burp.   He slept really well for the first time last night. It doesn’t matter how severe your injuries are, the emotional trauma can be debilitating, as we all know.
I keep thinking of Sara Dailey’s words,  Walk In Beauty. They resonate constantly in my mind and I try to keep them foremost. Also the words of Carolyn, Richard’s sister, “…we look through a glass darkly…”   How true, and then we must move on.
I also heard from Stuart Koch, the father of a young officer with the Sheriff’s Department, Zach Koch, who loaded my pictures from the canyon and the accident into his hard drive, two days back.  We gave a lengthy recorded statement as well. Stuart, from Chicago,  said he was so proud of his son and seeing the pictures gave him a perspective of what his work entails at times. (Pretty gritty.)  Zach spent time with Mrs. Crowe and was very much affected by the families trauma, as well.  Being in law enforcement does not make you immune to suffering.
I’m getting restless and feeling  kind of trapped in our tin can.  Many of  you know we are in a motor home in the camp ground for Canyon de Chelly.  As travel bloggers, we are used to getting out and doing things.   We discussed maybe driving  the South Rim overlook that we had to quit because the wind nearly blew us  off the ridge. That happened the day before the accident. In fact, I took pictures of the dust that seeped into the motor home even with the windows closed that day.

This is the window closest to the dinette table. I drew my finger through the dust on the table before taking the photo.  Of course, I wiped the table but the window sills throughout are heavy with dust.

This photo is of the bedroom window sill, again with my finger run through the dust.  I’m hoping today I have the energy to haul out the vacuum and get rid of most of it. The road of life is a dusty one,  Jim keeps telling me.
Because the accident has kept us here, we had our mail rerouted from our expected destination in Durango, Colorado. I drove to town, and Jim got his new credit card after it was skimmed. And I finally got my absentee ballot for California. The time was short, I marked my ballot, put it in an express mail envelope and went to send it and I had driven to town without my wallet and didn’t have a dime to pay for it.  It was late in the day. I drove back and tossed it on the dashboard. The first time I have ever missed voting in an election since I was old enough to vote.
A lot of firsts happened to us this week, the least of which are the small irritations like missing my vote.  Last night, I loaded all but one of the accident pictures into an album if you have the need to look at them.  You can see them at this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/2012530AccidentOnlyPics?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHCv9eqzd2jQQ

THE BEAUTY OF THE CANYON

I took many beautiful pictures on the way into the  canyon.  It seems to take longer to do anything these days. I find I need a nap in the afternoon,  so  most of them are raw and un-cropped.  We are healing and feeling better each day. But Megan’s note about how rumors fly in a community prompted me to also give this information.  The nut that dropped from the tie rod bolt was found on the road above the accident and turned into the Sheriff’s Department.

Jim considered driving into the canyon for this tour with his four-wheel drive Bronco.  Very soon, looking at the  deep sands to navigate, he was glad we decided to take the tour.

Majestic solitary pinnacles sit on the canyon floor.

Our guide showed us fascinating petroglyphs drawn by the ancient Anasazi.

These photos can be double clicked to get a better look at them.

Explanations not needed. As Sara Dailey from the Chinle Clinic told me, “Walk in beauty.”

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On the road, there were places where the canyon walls are over your head.

I enjoyed sitting behind the driver and looking through his window as we bounced along.

He stopped for the horses to cross in front of us.

This rock edifice reminded me of a man leaning up against a rock.

Where I sat, I could peer over the edge of the truck and see the wheels churning through a muddy low spot.

Majestic. I was stunned to learn that some locals have never been in the canyon.

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Sometimes the rocks are caramel color.

The awesome big picture.

Our guide explained the color variations come from the various minerals that are in the rock.

Coming from a more populated state, it is delicious to watch these horses running free and wild.

Though I took several pictures of the Mummy Cave, this is the last photo I took. The tour stops here for a lunch break  before starting our return trip.  (This album does not have the accident photos.)   To see the rest of my pictures in a full screen slide show, click on the link below:
https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/20122528CanyonAccident?authkey=Gv1sRgCJCz2byYv5a1Xg