We spent the morning peacefully and lazily and didn’t head out until after 11am. I had only recently learned that the bulk of John Hughes movies had been filmed in the Chicago area. Sixteen Candles has always been one of my all-time favorite movies and in fact, it is Jamie’s very favorite movie. So I thought it would be fun to spend some time and track down a few of the location that were used in the film. The fact that the film is about a birthday and the fact this it was actually my birthday was a bit of a bonus.

Our first stop was about fifteen miles east of the motel. We drove to Evanston, Illinois, which is a town on the coast of Lake Michigan and then from there we would gradually work our way north, with each successive town about ten minutes for the last. Here in Evanston, we found what was probably the most important of all of the locations, the home of Sixteen Candles character Samantha Baker and her family.

This was a fun stop, as a young girl who lived in the house and her friend came outside and were hitting around a volleyball. I had hoped to actually lay in the yard to pose where Long Duk Dong had, but I felt reticent to do this without permission. The girl just thought it was funny, so of course she was quite okay with it.

Frame grab of the Baker residence in Sixteen Candles

Me in front of the house today

Jamie sees the location from her favorite movie

Screen grab of Dong lying in the front yard drunk

The tree is now gone, so I was a little bit off – in more ways than one

Pushing it

Dong, Grandpa is talking to you!

Jamie tries her hand at acting

Goofing around at the Baker house had helped us work up a bit of an appetite and it just so happens that there was a great restaurant that had been featured on the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives episode Burgers in the area. The place was called Hackney’s and they served up some mighty fine food. I had the inside-out burger (with the cheese and bacon cooked on the inside of the burger) on a pretzel bun. We also ordered a 1/4-size order of the brick of onion rings. Unbeknownst to us, all burgers were half price since there was a Chicago Bears game going on, so this was a great bonus. After we ate, we checked out the outdoor seating area and Jamie played inside the little kids house for a few minutes.

DD&D #27: Hackney’s in Glenview, Illinois

The restaurant was located in a residential neighborhood. It almost looked like it was in someone’s backyard

Jamie raises her Hofbrau

Delicious birthday dining with a beautiful girl

Jamie makes a new friend in the Hackney’s play house. His Dad would be rushing over shortly after we started taking his picture.

Feeling nice and full, we resumed our movie locations trek. The next stop was from a different, yet perhaps even more popular John Hughes movie, Home Alone. Although we were not quite as big of fans of that film, it was certainly cool to see the McCallister house that figures so prominently in the plot of the film. This was located in the town of Winnetka. When we pulled up, there was a man just getting ready to leave, so we waited until he drove off before we took our photos.

The McCallister house as seen in Home Alone

The Home Alone house today

We were soon back on the Sixteen Candles trek when we found the Glencoe Union Church in the town of Glencoe. This was a great location that can be seen prominently near the end of the film when Sam’s sister gets married and Jake shows up to claim Samantha. The pictures of us jumping (as seen at the top of the posting and below) are representative of the scene with Sam’s sister Ginny when, while high on muscle relaxers, tries to catch the rice thrown by the wedding guests in her mouth.

Ginny jumps for the rice during the final moments of Sixteen Candles

Jamie similarly jumps for the rice – which isn’t actually there anymore

Me on holy location

Jake and Samantha and the happy ending

Me, ruining the ending

Jamie and I also finally figured out to which  ’big lake’ Dong Duk Dong was referring as he’s describing the fate of Grandpa’s car. After we left the church, we happened by the Glencoe Beach. It proved to irresistible not to stop, so we parked and walked down onto the sand and the pier (and found a restroom). We weren’t expecting any sort of beach on this trip, but it was a lovely welcome site.

On the pier at Glencoe Beach

Our final stop of the day was the home of Jake Ryan – again, a main character in Sixteen Candles. This location, located in Highland Park, was probably the worst of the locations, simply because the house was located so far off of the road. The garage that was also featured prominently was much closer to the road, so proved to provide better photo ops. For the third time this day, the owner of the house came out as we were finishing up with our pictures. She walked from the house to the garage, but like the others, she said nothing to us.

The Jake Ryan house, all dressed up for the big party

The same house today

Anthony Michael Hall pulls out of Jake’s garage

That very same garage

It was just after 3pm when we left Highland Park. Being somewhat north of Chicago, our ride home took about six hours. We were originally going to stop at Steer In (the DD&D restaurant in Indianapolis where Jason and I had stopped during our visit a month prior), but since we were so full and were a little bit behind schedule, we opted to just get our meal at Subway. We got back to my place a little before 10pm, watched an episode of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (A Ball of Tinfoil), and went fast to sleep. Jamie left the next morning and I returned to work as normal.

There were a few additional happenings the following week pertaining to my birthday, the least of which occurred on Monday the 3rd when I got my drivers license renewed. Since somehow they had missed my birthday at work, they made up for it on Tuesday the 4th, when they decorated my office in an array of balloons and streamers and such. I celebrated by having my lunch at Blue Ash Chili that afternoon.

40th birthday decor in my office

On Wednesday, October 5, Mom took me out for my birthday dinner at Hibachi Grill. Grandpa Murphy, Bev & Ed, Susan, Karen & Joe and their kids, Darlene, Zac & Nicole, and Ashleigh and Silas all joined us. We had a good meal and Mom brought along a Bill Knapps chocolate birthday cake that reminded me of old times. She also gave me some body lotion since she knew how much I liked the ones she was giving out at Indian Lake. It ended up being particularly special that my Grandpa was there, as we were afforded one last chance for a five-generation photo.

Gosh, Grandpa is getting old

Seeing Silas always makes my day

Five generations of Chinese food lovers. This was the last picture of Grandpa Murphy.

Proudly and excitedly displaying my Bill Knapps cake

Making wishes that probably won’t come true

Smiling Silas punctuates the day once again

After dinner that night, I stopped over at Kristy and Sly’s house to see their new baby girl Krislyn. It was fun to also see Jake and Katherine, who were in town visiting.

With the adorable new baby Krislyn

I can’t think of any way I’d rather have spent my 40th birthday. The beginnings of my 41th year on earth had begun in grand style and I was enjoying every minute of it. I’d have one trip left to take this year, and then things would take a bit of a turn for me.

2011 will continue on the west coast…

We got there about 8:45am and took our photos of the outside and the famous sign, featured prominently in the show’s lead-in. The interior was similar to the set that you see on TV, but was actually quite a bit larger. The name had remained Mel’s while the show was in production, but it was eventually changed to Pat’s Family Restaurant. Recently though, the diner has embraced its roots and the name is now Mel’s Diner again – and showcases many references to the show inside. But as much as I wanted it to happen, no waitress told Bob to ‘kiss her grits’.

The Mel’s Diner sign as seen on the TV series Alice

The Mel’s Diner sign today

Exterior of the diner

They are now embracing their past with appropriate menus and autographed photos of the cast members adorning the walls

I should have gotten grits, but the eggs, hash browns, and corn beef hash

As you can see, the diner looked very similar to the one on the show

After the hearty meal, we headed over to Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. We got there around 10am in order to take a tour of the facilities. This would be the 12th baseball park that I have visited. The tour wasn’t scheduled to begin until 10:30am, so I had about a half-hour to stand around and stare at an amazing Rube Goldberg style contraption whereby several balls made their way through mazes and tunnels and all sorts of fun stuff.

Arrival at Chase Field

Under the standard ballpark bat structure

Rube Goldberg would have been proud

Eventually we entered the park, under the strict direction of our tour guide Walt. Walt was there to make sure that we didn’t wander off from the group. Walt had us photographed when we first entered and Walt kept constant surveillance on us. If any of us roamed off a step or two, Walt made sure that we were corralled back into the group. I’m not sure why there was such strict and ridiculous security at this ballpark, but it made it difficult to get many fun and silly photos after the group had walked away. After all, the Diamondbacks weren’t even around. They were in Denver playing the Rockies at Coors Field, which would be the next baseball park that I would visit.

The first thing I found inside. I’m like a magnet to the Mickey.

The Commissioner’s Trophy for the Diamondbacks 2001 victory

Sneaking away from Walt for a quick pic of the ball field

The tour was almost an hour and a half, although I felt like we didn’t see as many areas as we normally do on ballpark tours. We checked out the swimming pool (from above) that is located in right-center field, one of the suites, the visiting team’s clubhouse (and saw a short film about the home team’s clubhouse), and the visiting team’s dugout. We didn’t even get close enough to the field for me to pose in my patented ‘I’m going to step on the grass’ pose. It was about noon when we finished up our tour.

Walt

So far, only one home run ball has been hit into the pool. I would have thrown something in if Walt hadn’t been watching.

Tomfoolery while Walt was distracted

Walt made everyone sit up straight and tall in the suite seats. The boy in the green shirt reminded me of Creed.

You see that line going from home plate to the pitcher’s mound? This strip, known as the ‘keyhole’, was common in older parks, but will only be found in two of them today.

Okay, I really did get yelled out by Walt for walking ten paces away from the group to pose for a picture in the Visitors Clubhouse

Great day for a ball game – as taken from the Visitors Dugout

 The next four hours of our trip were comprised of driving across Arizona in the blazing heat that reached 100 degrees. It was hard to believe that we were in the snows of Utah just days earlier. We beat the heat by stopping at a Dairy Queen for a milkshake.

A milkshake interlude in hot and dry Arizona

Bob had agreed to take me considerably out of the way of our path back to San Bernardino to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona – which was right on the border of California. After seeing the current London Bridge a year earlier, I was curious whatever had become of the bridge of lore – the one sang about in the nursery rhyme London Bridge Is Falling Down. Well, there are many theories as to what bridge was being referred to in that song, but it most certainly wasn’t the one in Lake Havasu City either. This one had spanned the River Thames in London from 1831-1967. It was purchased with the notion of transporting it – marked brick by marked brick – to Lake Havasu as a tourist attraction.

Apparently it worked. Not only were Bob and I silly enough to travel so far out of the way to see it, but it is actually the second most visited tourist attraction (after the Grand Canyon) in Arizona. When we got there, we found it. It was still a bridge. We drove over it. We stood next to it. And we walked on it. Then we were done with our road trip adventures.

Bob excitedly drives over the London Bridge

I am pleased to just be a passenger

That’s the London Bridge, local tourist attraction

And in case, you didn’t believe me before…

Getting a little bit of exercise by walking twenty paces over the bridge. What would Walt have thought?

It took about four hours to get from Lake Havasu to the city of San Bernardino where Bob lived. We did make a pit stop at Peggy Sue’s in Yermo, just to browse for a bit. It was about 8:30 when we arrived in town. Now famished and ready for our traditional sushi, we first tried Miyagi Sushi – but there were huge crowds there, so we moved on to Sushi Mac for their lesser all-you-can-eat buffet. It was good sushi, but not as good as Miyagi typically was. Bob waited for nearly a half hour for one particular roll before they told him that they were out of them. Nevertheless, it was sushi and it was a great way to end our road trip.

Sushi madness. Bob’s disgusted look came about because his sushi roll was falling apart and he tried in vain to get the waitress to wait on taking the photo. I opted for the much easier scallop.

We went back to Bob’s house and stayed up chatting much later than we should have. Although the road trip itself was over, we had a very full day planned for Saturday and it would begin in the wee hours of the morning.

My vacation will conclude with one last day in California…

After our tour guide D-O-N had made us a nice hearty hamburger lunch, we loaded back up in the jeep and headed into Monument Valley territory. Thankfully it had warmed up a bit by noon, so this nearly-one-hour trek wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I sunk into my hooded sweatshirt and bore the journey.

When we arrived, we first checked out the familiar sites of West (or Left) Mitten, East or (Right) Mitten, and Merrick Butte. These sites will be immediately recognizable to those who have seen such films as The Searchers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Stagecoach, or even more recent favorites such as National Lampoon’s Vacation, Forrest Gump, or Back to the Future Part III. Over the two and a half hours we explored this region.

The camp is right under Left Mitten in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Right Mitten and Merrick Butte as seen in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Right Mitten and Merrick Butte as seen in The Searchers

Left Mitten, Right Mitten, and Merrick Butte as seen in Stagecoach

Left Mitten, Right Mitten, and Merrick Butte

Our tour guide barely uttered a word about the films that were made here, and having not seen most of them in some time, it wasn’t until after the tour that I was able to match up these buttes with the same ones used in the movies. Of course, after understanding the lay of the land, I couldn’t help but to laugh when seeing how hundreds of miles were represented in this one area. Watching them, you will note that they travel past the same monuments over and over again.

Among the scenic buttes and mesas were John Ford’s Point, the Three Sisters, The Thumb, The Cube, Totem Pole & Yei Bi Chai, Big Hogan, Moccasin Arch, and Echo Cave Ruin. I’ll mostly let the pictures below do the talking. But naturally, photos can’t really begin to express the lush scenery that we were witnessing. God’s hand did some mighty work here.

Beautiful western terrain: two buttes and a butt

As seen in The Searchers, here is John Wayne running alongside the rock structure that would become known as John Ford’s Point

Although the protruding rock is unmistakable, the background scenery shows that my photo was taken from a different angle. The butte seen at the far left of the screen capture is the same one on the right side of my photo.

Another great shot at John Ford’s Point, this time with a Navajo Indian on horseback.

The Navajo see Chevy Chase ranting through the desert in National Lampoon’s Vacation and declare “what an asshole”

Turning the opposite way on John Ford’s Point, the Three Sisters formation is visible – also clearly seen in the screen capture from National Lampoon’s Vacation

In the background of the screen capture from The Searchers can be seen Big Indian, Brigham’s Tomb, King on His Throne, Castle Butte, and Bear and Rabbit 

Many of the same buttes can also be seen in this image from National Lampoon’s Vacation

Although taken from a different angle, some of the buttes seen in the above screen captures can be seen in this shot from John Ford’s Point. Note Castle and Bear and Rabbit on the far right. Anyone want to venture a guess why I’m holding my arm here?

Under the Thumb

Climbing amongst the rocks allowed this naturally framed photo of Yei Bi Chai and Totem Pole

Under a Navajo American flag

Fun with The Cube

The posse in The Searchers travels along the sand dunes with Yei Bi Chai and Totem Pole as the backdrop

In typical Navajo fashion, Don stopped our vehicle, put out our step ladder, and started walking without saying a word. After traipsing through lots of sand, we arrived here – at one of the most beautiful spots in all Monument Valley.

After peeing at the sand dunes, I was in desperate need for water

Little man in the Echo Cave Ruin

Larger man at Moccasin Arch

More heiroglyphics amongst the ruins – again, as always, dating to about 1300 A.D.

As we neared the end of our journey around 3:30, Don took us to a traditional Navajo dwelling area. Here there were hogans and outbuildings that were mostly only there for the tourists’ benefit. It was in similar hogans that many Navajo once lived, but the Navajo woman whom we were meeting here actually lived in a more modern dwelling and only came out to the hogan to greet the guests.

Susie enters the hogan

Susie Yazzie was a 92-year old Navajo matriarch with five children, 24 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, and 16 great-great-grandchildren. Her trade was weaving, but reportedly she had also worked in bit parts in most of the John Ford films that were made in Monument Valley. She didn’t have much to say, but she did grab the lady that was in our group and braided her hair. I gave her a couple of bucks and posed for a few pictures with her, both inside and outside the hogan. It was a nice way to cap off the tour.

Susie Yazzie still has what it takes to weave a mean blanket

With Susie outside of her hogan

As we departed the area, I took one more shot of Left Mitten

Our group arrived back at Goulding’s Lodge at around 4:30 that afternoon. Bob and I then explored the Trading Post Museum on the property. The Trading Post itself was part of the home of the Goulding family that lived on the location. Part of it is a museum, part of it a souviner shop, and the upstairs part restored to resemble the living quarters of the Goulding family as it was in the late 1940′s and early 50′s. Out back is the family’s vegetable storage shed, which was used as the personal quarters of Cavalry Captian Nathan Brittle (played by John Wayne) in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

John Wayne and his cabin as seen in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

The same cabin today

The museum pays tribute to the films of Monument Valley

Our lodging provided a good look at the Stagecoach, Bear and Rabbit,  Castle, and Big Indian buttes. In the foreground is a memorial to the former lodge owners, married couple Harry and Leone “Mike” Goulding.

Bob and I then left the hotel to go to dinner at the Navajo Tribal Park across the street. Since we had paid for a tour on the Navajo lands, we didn’t have to pay to get in. We had our meal at the View Hotel restaurant, the ‘view’ referring to the amazing scenery that could be seen from the hotel, one area dubbed John Wayne’s Point – as it is said that this was his favorite place to enjoy the Monument Valley scenery. In honor of our early meeting, I ordered the Susie Yazzie Navajo taco, served up on Navajo frybread.

 At the entrance to the Navajo lands

From the terrace at The View restaurant, this area known as John Wayne’s Point

Dining in the The Veiw – with Left Mitten outside our window

Sundown in Monument Valley

We made it back to the hotel for the 8pm screening of The Searchers on DVD in the Movie Room (which incidentally had been built as the mess hall for the crew of The Harvey Girls when parts of it were filmed here in 1945). I’m not sure if it would have been cooler to watch the film before the tour or after the tour, but I quite enjoyed seeing the exact locations that we had just seen live, reflected back to us on the screen as they were in 1955.

After the film ended and Bob and I continued our debate as to why John Wayne grabbed his arm at the end of the film, we hit the sack – ready for the next leg of our adventure that would take us further into the heart of Arizona.

The road trip will continue at the Grand Canyon…

We arrived in Monument Valley at about 2:20pm on the afternoon of Monday, March 28, 2011, after about a 3-hour car trip from Moab. Bob set the mood by putting on some John Wayne soundtrack music as we drove. The place that we were staying was a quaint little motel complex called Goulding’s Lodge, nestled amidst the monoliths of Monument Valley. We checked in and then checked out our room and an amazing view of the most popular and familiar monoliths found in the area.  

The view from the balcony of our lodge

Bob and I didn’t stick around admiring the scenery for too long, as we had another nearby site on our agenda. Although when looking on a map, it didn’t seem like it’d be too far away, it took about 90 minutes for us to drive to Four Corners, which is the only place in the United States where four states intersect: New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Although the location of the monument has often been disputed, the Supreme Court maintains that this site is the legal boundary of the four states.

My first time in New Mexico, even if I did only visit its corner

The entrance to the Four Corners Monument

The monument – which was initially surveyed in 1861 and first marked with the first permanent marker in 1912 – is the third such monument to rest on this location, having just been re-built in 2010. I naturally did the standard tourist poses, gyrating every which way withing the four states. After all, if you’re going to drive out to this remote location and pay a fee to the Navajo nation that owns the land - all in the name of seeing this giant plaque on the ground, you may as well have fun with it. And you also may as well have a frybread taco – which I did. I dined on part of this in Utah and part of it in the car in New Mexico.

Crawling through four states

Four Corner Twister

Overview of the monument, with the clear state markings

Pals in every state

Grabbing a frybread taco in Utah – and making it last through four states. This joke never gets old.

Bob and me and a couple of Indian weenies

After our drive back to our motel, we convened in the lodge Dining Room for dinner at 7:15 . Bob had a friend and former student named Thomas living in the area. He and his wife Lorraine and kids Lelani, Jeron, and Max met up with and joined us. Bob treated everyone and I quite enjoyed my Fiesta Steak and Navajo Frybread. Max in particular was quite a hoot and gave Bob the funniest look I’ve ever seen as he accepted lettuce from him.

Dinner with Jeron, Lelani, Lorraine, Max, Thomas, and Bob

Bob’s new iPhone was a source of constant entertainment for me throughout the week – in this case, showing Jeron photos of Bob sleeping from this here website.

The irrepressible Max

We got to bed at a decent hour that night so that we could get up early and be fresh for the tour of Monument Valley that would be departing on Tuesday morning. It was rather costly, but it was a long tour in an open-air jeep capable of climbing the treacherous sand terrains that would last from 9am – 5pm. We were hardly concerned that the license plate on our vehicle was 666 LED.

The first half of the tour mostly centered around an area known as Mystery Valley – so named because Navajo tribes had vanished from the area without so much as a trace. This area is located in the southeast region of Monument Valley just over the Arizona border. Being part of the Navajo tribal lands, Mystery Valley is only accessible to the public when on a tour with a Navajo guide. There was a man and wife on our tour with us, and I first mistook them for folks running the tour. They made it abundantly clear that they were not.

 Setting out on a chilly Utah morning

 Even Bob bundles up, no matter how silly it looks

Not long into the trip, I was wishing that Don would lower the plastic windows over the open-air jeep

As we passed into Arizona, we could see the familiar buttes

For the first couple of hours – which by the way, were pretty darn cold – our jeep took us over some very sandy and rough terrain out amidst the tumbleweeds. We would periodically see grazing cows and sheep, rock structures, all of whichour guide Don (or as he explained it, D-O-N) seemed to have names for, Navajo dwellings – which were always a mile or more apart from each other, cave dwellings within the walls of the giant rocks, hieroglyphics that dated back 1300 years, giant arches, and big rocks that we could climb.

Famous buttes as seen from afar: King on His Throne, Stagecoach, Bear and Rabbit, Castle, and Big Indian

This is King Kong: laying down on his back, head on the left, big belly in the middle

Fred and Barney

In fact an hour into the tour, I got to climb my first rock. It’s difficult to see in the picture – or even explain – but the slant on the rock walls was just flat enough that you could walk up it sideways. Before I knew it, I was a the top of a giant mountain-like rock, looking down at Little Bob, and not the paper one on a stick.

Bob, as seen from the top of my rock

D-O-N and me, on top of the rock

“I was up there”

Ancient heiroglyphics that apparently date back to 1300 A.D.

There was another smaller giant rock that I was able to climb as well. This one led to a hallowed out room that I was able to climb into and get a picture from. I’m such a monkey.

Climbing another rock. The next photo would be taken from inside that whole seen to the immediate right of me.

From my hole in the rock, the stunning view – and Bob – below

The first leg of this tour lasted until about 11:30am, at which time D-O-N dropped us off and drove away, advising us to follow a path after we had looked around amply. We located him eventually to find him cooking our lunch on the grill. The hamburgers were so tasty that I volunteered to eat the extra one. In true cowboy spirit, I even drank a cup of the hot, grilled coffee. I saved my oranges for later.

Some local Navajo cows, roaming free through Mystery Valley

If you’re going to make an arch, this is the way to do it

Some Navajo ruins from about 1300 A.D. Apparently everything is from this period. The sign both protects the artifacts and our souls, which will possibly get stolen by local spirits guarding the area.

Making B-U-R-G-E-R-S with D-O-N

Some delightful burgers and coffee with a good friend in a fabulous place

We had nearly an hour trek into the heart of central Monument Valley, where we’d get to explore some of the more familiar monoliths. We’ll take a look at these next time, along with some screen grabs from the movies that made this area famous.

Monument Valley will continue…

Overlooking the Escalante River basin and the ‘view from the head of the rocks’

One other stop we made about 100 minutes into the journey was a view of two geologic formations known as the Chinle, which is spread over five states, and Windgate Sandstone, which is spread over four. If I know more about geology, I could explain the significance of these formations and the intricate way in which they were formed. For the layman such as myself, let’s just say that they were awful purty. Nearby was the cool Fruita Schoolhouse, which had been built and organized by Mormon settlers in 1896. Eight grade levels were taught in this building for 45 years.

The Chinle Formation and Windgate Sandstone

Hanging out at the Fruita Schoolhouse. Puts me in the mood for an apple.

Our final destination of the evening was the city of Moab. After fearing that we were going to run out of gas amidst the mountian ranges, we safely arrived at our lodging for the night, the Red Cliffs Adventure Lodge, at about 7:40pm. The name could not have been more appropriate, as even though I had envisioned us finally finding civilization and getting a phone reception, we were literally surrounded by giant red cliffs and mountains.

The red cliffs of Moab, on the road to our lodgings

The Colorado River makes for great scenery and an eqully great place to pee

Evening arrival at the Red Cliffs Lodge, after four hours in the car

Bob had tried to get some information on a tour that would take us to movie locations in the area. Such flicks as Once Upon a Time in the West, Rio Grande, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Thelma and Louise, and in computer generated form, Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace, were partially filmed here. We had the desk clerk leave a message with the guide that would be the one to take us on the tour, but we never heard back. Thus we didn’t have any formal tour at all in the area, instead just basking in the surroundings and our very comfortable River King mini-suite.

We had dinner that night in the lodge at the Cowboy Grill, where I enjoyed some sun-dried tomato penne. Then Bob and I explored the Red Cliffs Lodge Museum, that featured photos and displays of Hollywood’s history in Moab. In fact, sets had been constructed for Rio Grande in the open field right outside the back of our suite.

A hearty meal in the Cowboy Grill. Bob ate none of those vegetables on his plate.

The inside of the Red Cliffs Lodge Museum - and movie memorablia on the walls

With a standee of John Wayne inside the museum. He’s the one on the right.

Bob and I set out early the next morning, both wishing we had had more time to enjoy the Red Cliffs lodge and Moab in general, but we had to press on to keep on schedule. Since we didn’t get a formal tour of the area, we decided to instead visit the Arches National Park, which was located just outside of Moab. We did take a few nice photos at the lodge before we left, and Bob got to be a true cowboy when a departing motorist lost his camera tripod out of the back of his car. Bob swooped in and was the hero of the day, darting out into the street to return the lost tripod to its owner.

Bob patiently waits for me to get ready to depart Moab on Monday morning

The area outside our room’s back door – where John Wayne’s cabin from Rio Grande was located

The corral and beautiful mountain scenery in front of our cabins

More corrals and moutains and where we lodged, in between

Departing the lodge, getting a photo at the entrance

Cowboy Bob crosses a busy street to return a lost tripod

As always, there were other fun locations to see along the way, including the Negro Bill Trailhead, which led into Negro Bill Canyon. The name had been wisely changed from its original title, Nigger Bill Canyon. Less than 30 minutes from our lodge, we arrived at the Arches National Park at 9am on that Monday morning, March 28.

The trailhead into Negro Bill Canyon

At the entrances to Arches National Park

The first portion of our journey was via car to the most easily accessible of the geological structures, which included the Tower of Babel, The Organ, The Three Gossips, The Courthouse Towers, and Balanced Rock. We stopped at several and took some nice photos.

Amongst the Courthouse Towers, with the Tower of Babel and The Organ side-by-side on the left

Great view of the sun rising over the La Sal Mountains

The Tower of Bable made me speechless

Wobbly with the Balanced Rock – which stands 128 feet tall

The second half of our stay at Arches was the Devil’s Garden area, which was not accessible via motorcar. We parked at the entrance to the area and set out hiking on foot. I had wanted to hike at least as far as the Landscape Arch, which is the longest of the arches in the park. The trail once went under the arch, but in 1991 had been declared 0ff-limits to tourists after a 60-foot-long slab of rock peeled away from the arch and fell to the ground.

A bit of amateur rock climbing near the entrance to Devil’s Garden

The hike was about a mile and a half, including many ups and downs over the hills. Bob’s knee was bothering him, so he petered out and began to head back – even though he wasn’t all that far from the arch. I pressed on alone, got my picture, turned back, and caught up to Bob and we walked back.

Setting out toward the Landscape Arch via the Devil’s Garden trail

Bob brings up the rear as we make our way toward the Landscape Arch

In the end, only I reached our destination: the incredible Landscape Arch

Overall, we had spent about 2 hours and 45 minutes at Arches, which was not nearly enough time by any stretch of the imagination. My big regret was that we didn’t see Delicate Arch, which is one of the most famous in the world, seen on Utah’s license plates and a postage stamp commemorating Utah’s centennial celebration. Oh well, something for next time.

As if we hadn’t had enough arches, we saw another good one about 30 minutes outside the park along Route 191: the Wilson Arch - so named after Joe Wilson who once had a cabin nearby. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to have an arched named after you.

One more final arch, and then we shall move on…

Bob and I had considered visiting Canyonlands National Park – which was also near Moab, but time just didn’t permit. That is, if we wanted to have ample time to really explore Monument Valley, which was one of the main reasons for the entire trip.

Our road trip will continue…