Mama Told Me There'd Be Days Like This

We said good-bye to Glenwood, NM yesterday and visited both Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. They both can be seen by driving the same road. We hit the Painted Desert just near sunset. Technical difficulties are preventing me from uploading some great pics Kathy took of that scene, maybe I can try again another day. We crawled into Chambers, Az along I-40 looking for a place to park our trailer for the night. A kindly motel manager at the Chieftan Inn let us keep our rig in the parking lot overnight, then he even gave us free coffee the next morning. But after that we discovered we had a flat tire on the trailer. It was a good time to learn about our Roadside Assistance coverage. After a phone call, a little more than an hour later a repair vehicle showed up to change it for us, then we were on our way. We stopped at Hubbell's Trading Post on our way to Canyon DeChelly during a fierce wind storm. Then it got worse as we drove to the canyon, visibility almost hit zero as we limped along. We got to C.D. and realized we didn't want to be in the wind anymore or even try to camp, so we are holed up in a Holiday Inn outside the park. The hot shower felt good but both our truck and trailer will need a bath tomorrow as dust got into them. There is no way to keep the dust out when it gets this bad. We had seen warnings of dust storms before, but we finally believe that they can happen. Also, I had the pleasure of calling the IRS this morning, that before we discovered the flat tire. My tax submission had been rejected because I didn't include my AGI from 2007. Apparently if you e-file you need that, but I was able to get that from the helpful IRS person. Sorry to have bothered them on the busiest tax day of the year, but that seems to be taken care of, I hope. We met a friendly couple from Phoenix who had dinner with us and told us about the guided tour they had of C.D. (in the dust storm) that day. They are off to Monument Valley next, we may run into them again as that is on our itinerary. It is pretty desolate here, although the town of Chinle has some amenties. We are also trying to learn about the Navajo culture, they live a hard life but have a long and rich tradition which we hope to get a better sense of.