2010 Monument Valley Unplanned, Unorganized, Fly?? Drive- in

Each year a bunch of Kolb Pilots either drive or fly in to Monument Valley to fly and shoot bulls. It is unplanned and unorganized and a general good time to put faces to email senders. Since we as a group are scattered all over the US and even the UK and down under as well, it is very hard for some to attend, but all would like to, and do so when they can. It is generally held the weekend after Mother's Day as the weather is at its best at least as far as temperatures. Well, the only thing that stays the same is that every thing changes. This year it was the wind. Here at the house and I guess almost every where else, the wind has been unrelenting. It finally caught up to us at the fly-in.

Karen likes to go as her Sister and Niece make the drive down from Colorado to meet her. They have a good time catching up on family gossip. Mici, Karen's niece, was taken for a flight by John Hauck and has been hooked ever since. She looks forward to the trip all year long.

It all started when John Hauck crashed his Mountain bike and mangled his leg a week before his departure date. He is doing ok and will be well enough to make his fall trip here to the Rock House.

Then the weather reared its ugly head, with winds that were impressive to say the least. Another one of the guy's had planned to fly in with his Firestar from Brownsville Texas. We are still not sure how he had his problem, but he damaged a wingtip at St. John's Airport in Arizona, and had to trailer home. The only two planes that actually flew in were a Rans and a Sonic. Unfortunately the last I heard they were going to be spending a bit more time than they planned before the weather breaks enough for them to fly home.

Six actual Kolb pilots drove in, but the wind came up with a passion and promised to continue through Monday. We had already spent a pretty miserable night on Thursday. I had only brought inflatable mattresses and mine would not hold air. A victim of  the Goathead plant apparently. I tried to sleep in the car, leaving Karen with the tent. I finally got to sleep sometime in the early, early morning. Karen woke me up at 4 AM to tell me she couldn't sleep and wanted to change places with me. :-/.

Friday we drove into Kayenta, a Navajo town, about 22 miles from MV, with the idea of buying another mattress. The True Value store finally opened and I bought a full sized Coleman mattress. The only size available. We took a few pictures on the way. The scenery is spectacular, and the condition of the native peoples are still sad. I bought a Navajo paper and there were two suicides of young people on the front page. One from alcohol poisoning and the other from hanging.

Karen's sister, Pat and niece, Mici showed up in the early afternoon. As usual they brought a bunch of food and we all gathered to eat. The wind started to blow, hard! The fine red dust of Monument Valley looks a bit like Paprika, but unfortunately does not taste the same. Slow eaters did not fare well. I am not sure how hard the wind blew, but it was interesting to say the least. The tent kept banging Karen on the head as the wind would flatten it on the big gusts. Mike and Jan Marker left to go back home, Boyd and Becky Young decided to see if they could find their son, who was camping in Moab. We decided that we (Karen ) didn't want to spend another night in the wind, so we all packed up and hit the road north looking for a motel with a shower.

We found one in Monticello Utah, an hour north of MV. After a shower we went to a local resturant, and then a drive to do a bit of sight seeing. We chose Newspaper Rock as being within our time frame. I am always fascinated by the local floral and fauna and of course in this part of the country, the scenery. The scenery did not dissapoint, but there seems to be little in the way of wildlife. I am sure a detailed examination would reveal more, but there is still very little in the way of a prey base or those who would use one.

The next morning we got up and on the road by 6 AM and managed to get home at 7:45 PM, driving 745 miles. The dogs were very happy to see us and get to sleep in the house. It had snowed and blown while we were gone.