Extremely Hot and Incredibly Slow

Here are a few photos from the Famous! Historic!  El Rancho Hotel last night in Gallup.  I love over-the-top stuff.  I don't like hunting or decapitated animals, but "more moosehead" seems to describe perfectly the type of decor that amuses me no end. The El Rancho is definitely a "more moosehead" kind of place.

We had the Paulette Goddard room, a few doors down from the Katherine Hepburn. Had a debate about whether any of the touted movie stars actually stayed at the hotel; I vote no. I mean, anyone can put up pictures of movie stars and let you draw your own conclusions about their association with the property. I could do that myself. In fact, I think I will. Oh, the picture of Nathan Fillion in the hall?  I'm not supposed to talk about it.

We got up this morning and took a slow mosey back onto the road, headed back to Flagstaff and our gentle meander home. Stopped in Winslow to have lunch at the lovely La Posada.  Disappointed that they were not serving their incredible Green Chile Potato Gratin, but I did nab the recipe out of a cookbook they sell on the way out the door.  Like spies - "you memorize the first five ingredients, I'll get the last five." John ordered his first Navajo taco and liked it very much.

The sky is bigger here. I don't get it either,

but it's true.

The current dashboard decor (I have promised to remove it 

at the end of the trip.)  Petrified wood from Holbrook, a

shell from the Colorado River at Needles, and two rocks

that look sort of like the ones at Bisti, except those

are illegal to take.

We stopped by the Homolovi ruins, but at 100 degrees neither one of us felt like hiking out into the desert, so we chose to drive on into Flagstaff and check into the HoJo a little early. On the way, we dropped by a More Moosehead Kitsch Trading Post (and whose idea do you think that was?)

I love me my funk and kitsch, but it's nice to take a less-moosehead break once in a while, too. Working AC!  Pool AND spa!  Laundry room!  Wireless!  Television! It takes so little to make us happy. A timely HoJo is a thing of beauty.  Laundry's in the dryer as I write.  Later, we're going out for ice cream (real ice cream downtown, not a Sonic this time.)

Tomorrow:  Jerome, and maybe a brief drive into Sedona to see the famous chapel. I should rename the trip journal Relics, Relatives, and Religion.  (Actually, I thought Relics might cover that part, too.)  John says it will be hard for anything to top Bisti!