..... Following on from Grand Canyon, we did get a room for the evening in Tsegi, 12 miles outside of Kayenta, where we originally planned to stay. It was an Native Indian run Motel called the Anasazi Inn and believe it or not it was full of Native Indians. We ate at the diner attached to the motel mainly because we were starving and it was the closest, but also because there was nowhere else to go, ( not that either of us had the inclination to find anywhere else if there was somewhere). We both had the authentic Indian cuisine of a grilled cheese sandwich,( if I remember rightly, Kate pushed the boat out and had ham aswell) and retired to our room, where we would stay until the 10am checkout the next day. Luckily, there was a clock in our room because unlike its neighbours 12 miles down the road, Tsegi worked on daylight savings. So we were 1hr ahead and they would have been banging our door down in the morning to kick us out if we hadn't have known,(unluckily, we had an hour less sleep, but when your in bed by 9pm, I don't suppose it matters).

Next morning, much to our dismay, it would not have mattered that we didn't know the exact time, because at 7 something am, the rain came a pouring right on to the lovely tin roof above us and there was no way we were sleeping through that. So up and out, we made our journey to Monument Valley, Kate's friend Dave had suggested this, so we had re arranged our route to accomodate. We paid $5 to do the self drive tour, which was probably not the best idea we ever had. Poor Kate learned very quickly how to drive a slalem course complete with ditches,rocks, mud and dust and therefore drove 15mph for 17 miles. The monuments were worth it, they were very imposing and grand and named very aptly by the Indians, for example, the Elephant Butte really did look like an elephants head, ( head not butt, thats another name for a monument, which is another name for a large rock formation).

Next on our list to do, was continue driving to the Four Coners, (a monument, as us Brits know a monument to be, where Arizona, meets Utah, New Mexico and Colorado). This was about a 2.5hrs drive from Monument Valley but a must do for any tourist. It was very quiet when we arrived but we did our very touristy thing and stood in all for states at the same time and had our photo taken. The aim was to go to Cortez/ Durango from there, so we could say we stayed one night in Colorado, but as it was only 3pm when we got there, we decided to carry on with the knowledge that at least we'd been there, ( as well as Utah, New Mexico and Arizona in the same day). We decided to lodge in New Mexico for the evening in a place called Farmington, checking in at Motel 6 and eating at Dennys, the chains we had grown to know and love.....