Breakfast was not offered at our hotel so we made a quick exit with plans to get a late breakfast on the road. We waved goodbye to Moab and headed toward Arizona. 
It was already in the 70s at 7:30am so we knew we were in for a hot one. For much of the ride, the clouds kept the temperature down. We could see a lot of virga and some monsoon clouds forming.
Soon we were in Arizona.
We headed toward Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. This is the scene in the movie “Forest Gump” in which he finally stopped running. 
As we got closer, we were dwarfed by the enormity of the landscape. 
We stopped for breakfast in Kayenta and carried on through the Navajo territory.
The temperature rose to 104 degrees so we stopped to wet our cooling vests. Tom helped a family from Paris, France with their overheated rental car. Then, feeling much cooler with good karma on our side, we continued on. After Monument Valley we began to climb the Kaibito Plateau, one of the first steps in the Grand Staircase.
We recharged our vests after crossing the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. 
It was quite hazy due to numerous wildfires. So our view of Vermillion Cliffs (another step in the Grand Staircase) wasn’t as clear as we had hoped.
We came very close to the Crystal Fire which was over the ridge near the Grand Canyon. 
We rose to over 7,000 feet in elevation and welcomed the cooler 85 degree temperature. We stopped in Jacob Lake for a rest. 
Forty miles later, we were in Kanab, Utah. The town is known as Utah’s Little Hollywood because of the many movies filmed here, mostly Westerns. The Western Legends festival was going on so we took a walk to investigate. Tom got super excited about a John Deere tractor on display and asked the owner many questions.
We had dinner at the Iron Horse Saloon, a very authentic spot which made us stand out like the Californians we are with our shorts and baseball caps – not Wrangler jeans and cowboy hats. We met a couple while we were waiting to be seated and somehow in the course of conversation, discovered that the woman was Cornish. Again, small world. Cathy thinks her Cornish grandfather has been on this journey with us.
During dinner, they had live music, sort of. Sometimes the performer lip synced to canned music but when he did sing, he had a nice voice.
After dinner we tried in vain to find ice cream. Instead, we went back to take a picture of the John Deere tractor known as the Johnny Popper. The owner asked Tom if he wanted to drive it… duh!
He had a great time and a huge grin on his face as he returned. Then, after much convincing, Cathy took it for a spin!
So now Cathy is officially a geek.
Tomorrow we head to Tonopah in Nevada to spend our last night on the road. It will be mostly desert and about getting closer to home. Maybe there will be some good barns – or maybe even some John Deere tractors!
Monkeybutt Chronicles 