{"id":3703,"date":"2015-05-18T10:15:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=3703"},"modified":"2015-05-18T10:15:47","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:15:47","slug":"classified-mission-to-monument-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=3703","title":{"rendered":"Classified Mission To Monument Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 16-17, 2015*<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am on a confidential two week mission; if the narration seems brief and a little incomplete, that’s because it is.<\/p>\n

I was met in the ghetto of Long Beach on Saturday morning to begin a seven hour drive to Flagstaff, Arizona.<\/p>\n

The first leg of my mission was to make it to Monument Valley, Utah.<\/p>\n

\"Stagecoach
\nThe first movie to use Monument Valley as a location was Stagecoach, filmed in 1938.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since then, dozens of films have been made in the valley<\/a>, or featured in part.<\/p>\n

And yes, there is a lot more to Monument Valley<\/a> than just a movie location.<\/p>\n

\"Gas
\nThe price of gas in California, near the Arizona boarder.<\/p>\n

\"World's
\nWe passed the world’s biggest golf ball.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a long drive – not for a trucker, but for me.<\/p>\n

We spent the night at a Hotel in Flagstaff, AZ.<\/p>\n

There, I was told of the location of several sealed envelopes for various contingencies including hospitalization, vegetative state and death.<\/p>\n

I hope the journey ends with those envelopes still sealed and not in my possession. <\/p>\n

After a night’s rest, the journey continued for another three hours to Monument Valley.<\/p>\n

\"Gas
\nThe price of gas in Arizona – Note to self, buy gas in Arizona before crossing back in to California.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a journey over a two-lane, two-way highway – a lights-on all the way, daylight journey.<\/p>\n

\"On
\nMe outside of Monument Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

Right before we got to the “Monument Valley Welcome Center,” we crossed in to Utah.<\/p>\n

$20 was paid to the Navajo Nation to cross in to the Indian Reservation.<\/p>\n

WARNING: There is NO alcohol (a.k.a. Fire Water) sold on the Indian Reservation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I couldn’t tell if real Indians worked on the reservation, or if they were Mexicans dressed as Indians.<\/p>\n

\"Me
\nMe at Monument Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Please
\nYes, you can get dusty there – I guess bathing in their restrooms has been a problem.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Monument
\nMonument Valley from the Hotel.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Me
\n\"John
\nIs there much difference between me and John Wayne, except he stood seven inches taller than me and smoked five packs of cigarettes a day?<\/em><\/p>\n

The drive back to Flagstaff, AZ seemed a lot shorter than the drive out.<\/p>\n

The one thing that was not factored into this leg of the trip?<\/p>\n

Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet elevation – that presented some undisclosed problems.<\/p>\n

Onto the second leg of the journey today.<\/p>\n

More to come…<\/p>\n

*Post delayed due to security and other reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 16-17, 2015* I am on a confidential two week mission; if the narration seems brief and a little incomplete, that’s because it is. I was met in the ghetto of Long Beach on Saturday morning to begin a seven hour drive to Flagstaff, Arizona. The first leg of my mission was to make it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,13,9,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3703"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3725,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3703\/revisions\/3725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}