North to Navajo Country

Sun-Mon, Oct 22-23…

Sunday morning I was just a bit under the weather. I’d planned on church, but it didn’t happen. Later we did slip out for breakfast at Miz Zip’s, a modest holdover from the glory days on Rte 66. Good pancakes, and even better pie (we took a slice of apple home and shared it after supper). Excellent! Skimmed through the Sunday paper, solved the Jumble puzzle, saved the crossword, and recycled all the rest. Greg took care of MH maintenance while I did some blog work. Took a few campground walks and read another 20 or so pages in Exodus. (I’m also doing a 90-day BofM read.)

Miss Zip's is the brown building just under the lower right edge of the sign.
Not terribly impressive on the outside, but still a grande dame. 

Monday morning we’re off to Glen Canyon Dam in Page, AZ. Lots of sandstone cliffs along the way. The first sight as we neared Page was the coal-powered Navajo Generating Station puffing giant columns of white smoke into the sky - an image very much at odds with the surrounding natural elements. Later we learned the plant is scheduled to close in 2019. (Needless to say, those who voted for Trump based on his "bring back coal" promises are not pleased.) The impact on the region could be devastating. In addition to payments that help fund the Navajo central government and 100+ local entities), the power plant and coal mine employ roughly 725 people, more than 90 percent of them Native American. We're camped at the local Elks, just a block off Lake Powell Blvd.

Miles & miles of rock.

Just about everywhere we drove
near Page, we saw these chimneys.

Once the MH was safely parked, we visited the John Wesley Powell Visitor Center and learned all the local must-dos from the very helpful volunteer. Then we headed out to Horseshoe Bend, an iconic loop in the Colorado River. My photo is only so-so (and I wasn’t terribly impressed with most of the ones online), so I’m adding a professional shot that offers an expanded view.

[airpano.com] 

← My photo. Too many shadows to see the river properly.  We're standing 1,000 feet above the water.

BlogThoughts...  When we turned off the highway into town (Lake Powell Blvd), we drove past Seventh Day Adventist, Episcopal, & Lutheran churches before turning right towards the Elks Lodge. I thought it was unusual that so many churches would be adjacent. After supper, I walked back to the boulevard, turned right, and passed an LDS building, then United Methodist (with Jehovah's Witness directly behind. Crossing a side street, I walked past the United Church of Christ, Church of the Nazarene, and Baptist buildings. Nine churches along the curve of Lake Powell Blvd. Intentional? (How could it not be?)  And where's the Catholic Church (which I thought might be the largest). The next day we discovered it - on the boulevard, but requiring a left turn off the highway.