Saturday December 25, 2010. Walking up to the car rental desk at Kansas City airport, I laid the contract on the counter. The attendant asked for our flight number. Looking it up, he calmly informed us that due to a blizzard on the east coast, nothing was flying in or out of any of the New York City airports. I asked if he could find out how long this would continue. Placing another call, he informed us that it would be five or six days before we could get seats on another flight. No guarantee, but maybe next Thursday or Friday. He also informed us that a massive winter storm was brewing on the Pacific coast. There had been snowfall in Los Angeles for the first time in many years. Kathie looked at me and asked, “How far is it from here to Monument Valley?” Trying to compose a quick, coherent answer, I calculated the distance, potential delays, and the challenges of returning in time to catch our return flight, then gave her my answer. “Let’s go”.

Crossing the Missouri River back into Kansas, we picked up the Santa Fe Trail, shadowing US Route 50 beyond Emporia. Along the roadside, wagon-ruts could still be seen, carved into the rolling prairie. Following a late lunch in Dodge City, we spent the night in Garden City. After breakfast we crossed into Colorado, calling at the ruins of the WW2-era Amache Japanese-American internment camp before pausing in La Junta for lunch, and a visit to Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site. Passing Spanish Peaks and La Veta Pass, we pressed on across the San Luis Valley. As we retired for the night at a hotel in Durango, we learned that Wolf Creek Pass, which we had traversed just hours before was again buried in snow.
Rising before dawn we descended past Mesa Verde in our approach to the Four Corners area. A rosy point of light to the south, the pinnacle of Ship Rock soared above the vast grey expanse below. Famished, we stopped for breakfast at Kayenta–known locally as “K-town”. Two elderly Navaho men sat by the window, enjoying their breakfast. Apart from them, we were the only customers. Switching back and forth between English and Dine, a radio announcer unpacked the weather report and tribal news. Our server was polite but diffident. Locals had long ago gotten used to belagana (Americanos) passing through en route to Monument Valley.Half an hour after paying our check we arrived Goulding’s Lodge, the guest-ranch and hotel used by John Ford as his base-camp in filming many of his westerns. Famous for its spectacular chessboard of tall sandstone buttes, it became synonymous with the cinematic west. Left to right: Brigham’s Tomb, King-in-his-Throne, Stagecoach, and Bear-and-Rabbit. Needless to say, the Diné have other names for these formations. This page-spread was delineated upon our arrival.