So we did a little wandering around the area before heading back down into Durango for the night. We got up the next morning, got some coffee (not for me) and lit out for home. It was going to be another long travel day, but at this point, we're getting used to them. Before we left town, we wanted to smash some pennies on the D&SNGRR tracks, so we went to the upper end of town just in time for the train to come along:
Success. We're ready to go now.
We get down into Kayenta on the Navajo Reservation and stop at the Burger King in town. This Burger King houses the largest Navajo Code Talkers Museum in the United States. Kind of sad that their massive contribution to the war effort is enshrined in a fast food joint, but I guess being housed here will get it more recognition than anywhere else in the area.
I don't think this would be a good place to stop for fuel:
Anyone up for another Superfund Site??
This is the Tuba City Uranium Mill Site. During the nuclear race of the 50's, to satisfy the government's insatiable need for uranium, a mill site was erected here to mill the uranium ore from mines in the Navajo Nation. As usual, the site was left a contaminated mess. We were literally on top of it before I realized what it was (why the pics look so bad). I realized what it was as we were passing, grabbed the camera and shot wildly in the direction. I knew the site was up here somewhere, but I actually thought it was in a different place a few miles from here but also didn't realize a remediation process had been started (actually "finished" in 1990).
The black stuff is a "containment" layer. Contain radioactivity, eh?? I wonder how well THAT works....
The foundations are from what used to be worker housing.
The site is a large source of groundwater contamination and has a treatment facility on site for that as well. Treating groundwater for radiation contamination, eh?? I can't imagine that is going to end well. Ugh. This is just bad all-the-way-around. You can bet that back in the day, workers were not provided any personal protective equipment whether it be in the mines, transportation, or in the mill. They couldn't have lasted long after their employment ran out. Then the ball gets spiked on them again when the mine dumps and mill tailings contaminate their lands and water for the next million (give or take a few thousand) or so years. It's a bad scene any way you look at it. It is kind of an incurable situation. The damage is done, but the price will be paid for a long, long time. This problem is not relegated solely to Navajo lands either. The scene is played out pretty much wherever uranium was mined or milled whether it was on Navajo or private lands.
Kind of a downer on a great vacation I guess, but I bet most people have no idea how we got the uranium that powered our ships and armed our missiles (like the one a few posts back). Kind of brings the whole nuclear thing full-circle I guess.
A little further down the road we are back in the beauty of the Navajo Nation with some colors that make my ridiculously orange Suburban seem more camouflaged than normal:
That looks like a lot of rain over there:
Yep, that's the direction we are going, too. Holy cow, did it ever rain. There was so much rain on the road it was literally a river flowing down the road ruts. Crazy.:
Good thing I changed those wiper blades a few thousand miles ago in Butte Montana. Speaking of repairs in Butte, those wiper blades ended up being the only repair I did the entire trip. The only tools I needed for anything was the Leatherman Wave that always occupies space on my belt. My wife's glasses needed to be tightened up somewhere in Wyoming and once again, I used my Leatherman with it's tiny phillips screwdriver to tighten the hinge screw that was loose. I could have gone on the 4450 mile trip with just my Leatherman and been completely stocked for any occurrence that arose. Of course, I could never actually DO that, but in hind sight I could have. I actually never, even accidentally, touched the tool bag that I carried along on the trip.
So, 4450 miles eh?? Yep, 4450 miles door to door. I forget the exact number of gallons used, but it worked out to just barely under 19mpg. Something like 18.975?? That is pretty good considering how many days we spent at 80mph with headwinds, crosswinds, but seemingly no tail wind. Imagine that, no tail winds?? So, crosswinds you say?? Oh yeah, we had crosswinds. Montana and Wyoming have professional grade crosswinds. Crosswinds that would have destroyed any amount driving stamina I could muster--before my steering mods. Yeah, the steering mods. They were a whole bunch of time and even more money and worth EVERY penny and second of time invested. The truck handled like a dream. The grass lining the roads was laid over flat on the road with crosswind, and the truck drove straight as an arrow. No sawing at the wheel, nothing. Absolutely beautiful. I never would have guessed the improvements would have been so monumental, but they were--and much appreciated at that. No driver fatigue from constantly correcting the direction of the truck, no dealing with sketchy handling when getting passed or passing a large truck. It was fantastic. We had some real long travel days that would have been absolutely miserable in its prior configuration.
So in the end it was nine states, 4450 miles and fifteen days (fourteen if counted by hours). We averaged approximately 13.24mph for every hour we were away from home. Pretty impressive considering how many days we didn't travel very far (that is also not counting the time we spent in Pueblo because my buddy Bill was driving us around in his truck).
All-in-all it was a fantastic trip. In hind sight I would have modified the original itinerary and hit Grand Teton first, then Yellowstone, then Glacier, but if we had done that we would have missed some of the experiences we had because of the route we took, so I'll leave that for next time. Other than that, I really don't think I'd change anything. We got to see a huge chunk of this great land and had a great time doing it. It doesn't get much better than that.
Ill leave this vacation with a parting shot of our glove box door:
I hope you all enjoyed the ride!!