It's hard remembering yesterday...

...after today... But yesterday was Friday and must cover that first... We rose early to enjoy the delights of Blanding... Laundromat... Which took much longer than we would have preferred, but now we have clothes again, so that is good. 

Then it was doubling back a bit to the scenic route to Monument Valley we planned to take earlier... Which didn't seem that scenic until we came around a corner on a shrubby plain and there was warning about unsealed road and slopes and corners... And then we found ourselves on the edge of this...

                                            

Note that is taken from passenger window, and that is the edge of the road, and no there is no barrier... We stopped the viewing point for a better look, at this -

                                        

Note the road curving back on itself going down the cliff... Once at the bottom we turned off on the dirt track you can see heading off to the left off the main road, into the Valley of the Gods... The Challenger did a bit of off-roading to get to these... 

After that little diversion it was back on the main road, looking at Navajo jewellery stalls along the way, then some more of these... 

                                 

Then we started making best speed for Arizona and the north lip of the Grand Canyon... We knew we would be pushing it to have enough daylight, so lunch was NOS energy drink and jerky (serious... I never drink energy drinks but since it is impossible to find decent coffee in America and even more so to find ice coffee or milk coffee, I have found myself drinking mostly Monster Energy canned energy coffee rubbish in big cans, which only vaguely tastes like coffee...) from there we didn't stop for much... Apart from a cool bridge... Actually two... 

                    

Until finally we made it to the turnoff to the north rim with just enough time to spare... and discovered that Grand Canyon National Park north is closed until May 15. Dicks. 

At this point we got stuck behind a bunch if geriatric accountants and dentists on a flipping Harley bike riding tour (reference South Park episode on Harley riders), along with their support van (how badass is that, being followed by a van with your luggage and a warning sign on the back) who held us up all the way down the mountain, riding like they were on mobility scooters, and too bunched up to pass safely one at a time but too spread out to be able to pass as a group... I would have merrily sent them flying one by one off the edge of the hill if I could have...

With dark catching up and no place to stay sorted we bypassed a couple of decidedly average places nearby and tried for the next town, called Kanab... Which blessedly turned out to be a quite charming if slightly artificial little touristy town sent up to serve all the outdoorsy types who flock to the region... We found a nice little retro motel, ate some fairly awful Pizza Hut (stuffed crust... Just say no... I ate like a pound of pseudo-cheese), and then retired from the rather chilly evening... TV news told of a storm coming, and major heavy rain warnings not far away, plus high risk of tornados in neighbouring states... Then we watched a doco on huge flooding a year or two ago just up the road (you may remember all the oft-repeated TV shots of new houses falling into the river, which ate massive amounts of the banks away and swallowed whole neighbourhoods).. 'Lucky we are heading west' we thought.... And then...