It was hot in there though not unbearably so, but it was windy. And dusty. We'd have the windows down, then spot a dust cloud ahead and shout "Windows up!!" Once or twice we were caught by surprise and everything in the car got coated with the fine red powder.
About halfway through the loop, we realized we couldn't see the monuments very clearly. We realized it was raining between here and there. We realized the rain was coming towards us. Again.
We realized that maybe we should leave now -- before there was a cloudburst over us that would solidify the red dust that coated us into some sort of ancient tribal concrete and there we would be: a new attraction in your tour guides ladies and gentlemen... Number 11 on your maps: "Tourist Trap".
We started jamming up the road -- jumping ruts, flying over potholes, skimming over dust fields and getting long, bumpy running starts so we could make it up the hills without having to stop and risk getting stuck in the mud. The rain kept falling, the lightning and thunder kept warning, and all the monuments kept waiting. Lucy was squealing from the back seat -- she thought our car had turned into a roller-coaster. Jason called out "We're four-wheeling now!" Barbara was doing some serious driving and we all had a blast.
Giant steps are what we take walking on the moon
I hope my legs don't break walking on the moon
We made it up the last (and steepest) hill and parked at the top watching the lightning hit the monuments. We tried to catch a picture of a strike, but Nature had decided we'd seen enough and the gusts of rain and wet red powder all over us convinced us it was time to leave Monument Valley. We came out and back to the main highway and realized we had no plans for where we would stay that night, nor any more plans at all. We'd seen just about everything we had set out to see and now we had no idea where we were going. Fortunately none of us cared -- we had an adrenalin rush from the manic drive through the Valley and we were riding a cosmic groove from being near so many ancient and holy places. We couldn't top what we'd seen already, so why try?
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Roll out, roll out for the mystery tour
The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away
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