Quist World Tour

I’m sitting for my last evening in the volunteer room/church room at Zuni school, and with the windows open we hear lots of dogs barking, fireworks, and a turkey gobbling. I can see lightning in the distance, but I don’t think we’ll get the rain here. Earlier we heard drumming because the ceremonial dancing continued today. We did a lot of driving again today to see Canyon de Chelly National Monument. It’s a fair distance from Zuni, but it’s quite beautiful. Like the Grand Canyon, only smaller, and free. Most visitors take the 2 rim roads and stop at the overlooks. That’s how we did it. We didn’t hit every overlook, but we saw a number of them. There are two other options. One is a 2.5 mile hike to see a specific portion of the canyon. You are in direct sunlight the entire hike, and today it hit about 92 degrees, so that plan was vetoed by a couple of our passengers. The only other way to go into the canyon, other than the one hiking trail, is to be part of a tour that is off...

A few minutes ago, I said “it’s eerie how quiet you are.” That broke the spell, the silence that had overcome the entire party for the last three hours. Three hours!! I thought maybe they’d finally run out of things to say, but that is not the case. They are off and running again. One thing that has really impressed me today is the open nature of the people we’ve encountered. First thing this morning, the Zuni school custodian, Sam, noticed us sitting down to breakfast in the gathering space, so he took his cup of coffee and sat with us. Sam has worked for the school for around 45 years, and he was also a student at the school when he was young, so he is as familiar with it as anyone. The building we are in is only three years old, and it doubles as the church worship space (in fact, my air mattress is in the sanctuary). They are in the process of adding on a gym, playground, and a chapel, which explains the loud sounds of concrete work first thing in the morning! Sam told m...

Are we there yet? Incredibly, that is not a question I have heard on this trip. Except from me of course—the driver is always read to get there. I think, for the most part, my passengers are pretty happy to kick back, read, talk, or listen to music. Especially since we dropped Allison in Colorado and got rid of one of the suitcases. The sleeping bags have taken up residence in the front passenger seat—they are bigger than Allison. Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts and then think someone is sleeping there, but it’s just a pile of sleeping bags! Today was another driving day. We left Taos in the morning, late as usual, and drove to Santa Fe. I was a little sad to leave Taos, partly because there was more to do and partly because the place we rented was great for hanging out. We stopped in Santa Fe for only an hour and a half, just to look around, a way to break up the day. Santa Fe has a beautiful main plaza, and the shops are amazing. The prices are also amazing, in a different...