10/17/09

Today has been a bad one. It started with the motel in Gallup being one of the worst ones I have stayed inn ever. The curtains didnt shut out light, the walls were paper thin, and the whole room shook whenever someone walked past in the hall. Once I got up I decided to get my oil changed before heading to the petrified forest. After the visiting jiffy lube my cruise control wouldn't work. It worked fine the night before, but apparently getting the oil changed and having a tail light bulb replaced shorted the cruise control out. After driving back to Gallup to have it checked at the Jiffy lube they told me to go to Pep boys to get it checked out further. After a $100 diagnostic check a pep boys apparently the cruise control needs to be replaced, to the tune of 600 or 700 bucks, and it can only be fixed at a dealership. Since the dealership in Gallup was closed, and there is no dealership in Chinle I have to shop around and find a place to get it replaced in Flagstaff next weekend or in SLC when I fly home for interview day. Hopefully this will be a short and painless process. I was pretty messed up by this because I am so far from civilization. The closest real town is Flagstaff which is 3 hours away and I am never going back to Gallup. Both times I have left there feeling like shit. This whole experience was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I have had a very bad week getting used to the altitude, the dryness, the time, and this new hospital. The prospect of having to drive 3000 miles to home by myself without cruise control really put me over the edge. On the ride back to Chinle I was able go get control of myself. I stopped in window rock at the code talkers memorial and the actual window rock. It was a pretty surreal sight that kind of put things back in perspective. On the way home I also stopped at Hubbells trading post, which was not as impressive as I thought it would be. I didnt realize that this place was a functional trading post with most of the space taken up by groceries and camping supplies. Some of the rugs and jewlery that they had were nice, but were way out of my price range.

While I regret missing the petrified forest I am looking forward to hiking Canyon de Chelly tomorrow. I also found that Church's Chicken in town has WiFi and hopefully I will be able to mooch it for the bears game tomorrow and other times throughout the week.
-O