# Travel Log - Arizona



## Son_of_Perdition (Jul 13, 2014)

*DISCLAIMER*:  I mean to offend no one and any dislikes posted are my perception and memories of what I've seen.  Here is my 4th review. 

*Arizona* - I was thinking that I have entered AZ from every angle and along every side of the state.  My first entrance was in 1955 coming from southern California crossing over at Yuma on the SW corner.  I can remember that we had no air in our 52 Pontiac or my dad refused to use it.  It was 103 in the shade.  The only place we could find relief was in a Safeway store.  I have also entered the state from El Paso on the SE corner.  Four corners in the NE and over Boulder dam on the NW.  It's an interesting state.  Likes:  Lake Havasu - London Bridge, Kingman (Andy Devine's hometown), Sedona (never did get a buzzing in my head though), Oak Creek Canyon (didn't care for the access from the north - too steep), Tombstone (remember my love of Westerns), Pipe organ cacti, Montezuma's castle, the Dinosaur tracks near Tuba City, Sunset Crater volcano, the Native American ruins dotted all over the state. Four Corners eating 'indian' fry bread, Route 66 stops, Flagstaff, the desert, Prescott, Painted Desert and the Petrified Forrest, there was a large tourist stop north of Flagstaff I think was called Cameron's (sp) very first class.  Dislikes:  THE HEAT! and a really, really bad experience at a restuarant somewhere between El, Paso and Tucson.  We had just spent an interesting night at a converted car wash/motel (yep the floor still slopped to the center of the room and the bathroom door was cut on the slant at the bottom to follow the floor, the 3 beds were lined up along one side and the block walls were painted yellow). Next morning we got a lesson in how to scam tourists and ended up thinking we were pretty lucky just getting out.  Poor people have poor ways. 

On a trip from Page to Prescott when we stopped at Cameron's (?).  I politely asked a Navajo waitress about her culture, she told me they don't like the name Navajo they prefer the name Diné (The People) she said that the name Navajo was Spanish for 'thief'.  In my Utah hometown there was a large government run complex that housed stictly Navajo's for Native American re-education, it was a former prisoner of war hospital built during WWII. The Gov turned it into a school at the end of war.  We had thousands of the students assimulating into our populace.  I had several NA friends during my youth in the 50's where I learned about 'Code Talkers' long before most Americans, I remember the discrimnation shown by my 'Mormon' neighbors.  My first experience with hate.  They had a rich heritage and the government was trying to take it away, very sad to think of it now.

We had traveled to the southern border to watch my son graduate from an Army school at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista and also to help him move his family to Ft. Carson, CO.  While there we traveled to Nogales, Mexico and Tombstone.  Visited the OK Corral, Boot Hill and other attractions.  I still am amazed that Wyatt Earp and brothers were always depicted as wearing black, I believe the proper attaire would be shorts, sandles and tank tops and have a gun caddy following me if I had lived back then.  By-crappy it was HOT!  It was in August though.

We took a trip to Lake Havasu and London Bridge the Monday after Spring Break in April.  Just missed the million or so college kids but not their litter, got a chance to drive across the bridge.  Couldn't afford the expensive high end plastic souvenirs.  The most interesting side trip was finding the 'Dinosaur Tracks' near Yuba City.  We decided to chance a stop.  We pulled up to a tent/fry bread/jewelry lined dusty field guided to park and tour by a NA.  He told us to take a bottle of water along.  We walked along the swept path discovering tracks and petrified poop.  It was a real treat and very interesting.  At the end he said he usually gets a small token of appreciation, I asked what was the going rate and he said $20, I handed it to him and felt that it was the best money I had spent in a long time.


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## hollydolly (Jul 13, 2014)

Great blog S-O_P but I must just tell you that Navajo does not and never has meant Thief or anything near it in Spanish!! Your waitress was very wrong!!

The word Navajo is a derivative by the Spanish of Navahu'hu a native Indian word meaning wide or river bottom fields!


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## Son_of_Perdition (Jul 13, 2014)

hollydolly said:


> Great blog S-O_P but I must just tell you that Navajo does not and never has meant Thief or anything near it in Spanish!! Your waitress was very wrong!!
> 
> The word Navajo is a derivative by the Spanish of Navahu'hu a native Indian word meaning wide or river bottom fields!



You are probably right, I'm not arguing.  I have heard several different meanings but the consenus fact seems to be that they prefer other names rather than Navajo.   On a side note the NA guide at the tracks got ruffled when I asked him if he was Navajo.  He corrected me very fast stating he was Hopi.  Oops!


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## hollydolly (Jul 13, 2014)

lol, however little did both of those people know that they created a memory for you that would go on to be an interesting tale for people around the world and that is kinda cool..


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## Ina (Jul 13, 2014)

I enjoyed your story Son_of_Perdition!! :wave:


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## JustBonee (Jul 13, 2014)

Lived in the Phoenix, Scottsdale  area for several years.  Loved the life in the desert. 

My favorite memories of the lifestyle there were certain times of the year when you could  get up in the morning,   pick grapefruit and oranges from the trees in the morning... take a swim in the pool, then get in the van and drive up toward Flagstaff,  and gather a bunch of snow and bring it home and the kids could make a snowman.  Did that a few different times ..just  so we could tell the relatives back in the northeast about it. 

Could see snow capped mountains from our house.  
Sand storms and large tumbleweeds coming across the roads was always interesting. 
Cotton fields were everywhere.
Hubby's best friend at work was a Hopi Indian ... very un-indian in every way .. only was when it came to Indian benefits for his family. Really was a good guy though .. we liked their family.


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## Mrs. Robinson (Jul 13, 2014)

Son_of_Perdition said:


> We had traveled to the southern border to watch my son graduate from an Army school at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista



Hubby was stationed at Fort Huachuca back in 1967!


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## rkunsaw (Jul 13, 2014)

One of my favorite drives anywhere is highway 89 between Prescott and Congress. I liked Montezuma's well and the grand canyon.


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## Son_of_Perdition (Jul 13, 2014)

rkunsaw said:


> One of my favorite drives anywhere is highway 89 between Prescott and Congress. I liked Montezuma's well and the grand canyon.


I've driven the entire length from Canada to Mexico on mostly 89 there  were a few minor re-routes but it is a very interesting route.  There is something like 8 national parks and has a rich western history attached to it.  I had a now defunct web site hi-lighting my travels with photos, stories and historical events (can't locate them right now, too OCD, cleaning my files and such, I think I have them somewhere in my closet on a CD).   You need to drive through Jerome, AZ after asking yourself, 'I wonder how they get up there.'

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