My husband Alex and I make an annual pilgrimage to the Navajo Nation. We go in September or October when the weather is the best. Since I don’t travel without my two dogs, we end up driving (which works well anyway). Our last trip, we rented a big yellow Hummer and hit the road.
It took us about fifteen hours to get to Gallup, New Mexico, which we made our home base for the next days. Gallup is an interesting place. More Navajos than whites are there. The Hotel we stay in “El Rancho” has a marvelous lobby and a fascinating history. It’s where all the old time actors stayed when they made Westerns. We have stayed in the Ronald Regan suite a couple of times. The hotel is owned and run by Navajos. It’s a sight to see!
On our last trip, we took our friend Nelson with us. Nelson is a great guy and loves travel. He’s been everywhere but I don’t think he knew what to expect on this trip. We take the Indian Roads on the Rez (mostly unpaved), and frequently get hopelessly lost. It’s part of the fun. Alex usually makes a real effort to hook up with family members who live there. A lot of these folks don’t have phones, and if they do, he doesn’t have the numbers. No problem.
When we find the tiny Reservation town where Aunt Betsy or Uncle Roy live, we go to the Chapter House and ask about these people. We usually get “I think they live over on XYZ Street,” followed by “No, that’s wrong, they’re on ABC Street,” followed by, “Didn’t they move to Oklahoma?” The people are delightful and very helpful.
The Navajos hardly raised an eyebrow at the obviously Navajo man with his blond wife and their gringo friend in the big yellow Humvee. Coming out of the Chapter House, we noticed two small boys. They youngest looked about four, and he was being tended to by his brother, who may have been five but surely no older than six. They were both staring at the Hummer and at us in open amazement. When they noticed us looking at them, they ducked behind a tree and hid.
We drove up the road and tried to find the first suggested address. We pulled up outside a house and Alex went up to talk to the people who lived there. This was not the residence of his family member, but the person told him she thought they lived on CDF Street. Alex thanked her and returned to the car. We saw a Navajo Tribal police car drive by and decided that we would ask “Law and Order” for information. (Law and Order is Navajo for the police.) When Alex returned to the car again, I noticed the two boys from the Chapter House, ducking behind a parked car. They must have taken a short cut because we had driven a couple of miles. Either that, or these were some fast little Navajo guys.
Alex said the cop had suggested another address to check as well. He wasn’t sure, but he thought it could be the people Alex was looking for. We first went to the second recommenced at the Chapter House place because it was closer. We drove up, parked, and let Alex go to the door. I might mention that many of the houses have dogs, a lot of them! It wasn’t unusual to see five or six dogs sleeping on the front porch of the houses. Alex would walk through the canine welcoming committee and knocked. No answer. Not home.
I looked around and there were the two boys again. I couldn’t not believe that they could track us so easily. When I pointed them out again to Alex, he called out to them, “Hey guys! Do you know the people who live here?” The little one popped his thumb out of his mouth and said, “They went to Gallup.” and stuck his thumb back in his mouth. When Alex thanked him politely, the thumb came out again and he responded, “They took the jeep.”
