Day 321: Gruff Before Bluff

Even though I am now home, I am still going to tell you about my holiday in a blow-by-blow, day-to-day format. This is an entirely selfish attempt to log what I did before the Alzheimer's kicks in. Enjoy!

Apple has their Siri. Our GPS was actually a Samsung Note adapted into a guidance system, a (defunct) international phone call centre, a wifi hotspot and one other Twister-coloured function button for which I can't, for the life of me, now remember the actual function it performed. So we called her Samsung Siri. She sent us into the middle of the desert. Literally. In the technology version of 'be careful what you wish for', asking for directions simply to 'Monument Valley' takes you to the geographical centre of such said location. The geographical centre of Monument Valley is not the Monument Valley National Park Visitor's Centre (oddly), but the dusty bottom of a valley floor accessed via progressively deteriorating dirt tracks. Have I ever told you why I like maps? It was an adventure though. And proof that God, or whoever it is that is organising all this mess I like to call my life, doesn't approve of using nature as a bathroom. You can guess at which point in the long gap between facilities the one and only other vehicle who maybe had a Samsung Siri directing them turned up in the middle of nowhere to drive past us. Lesson learned: use the wifi hotspot to get a specific address and Samsung Siri will take you right there. Regret: no more random adventures.

List_Addict               Irene

I'm rather fond of my own company. I don't annoy myself as much as most other pople annoy me, I generally tend to agree with most of my own opinions and I share a fairly similar moral, political, religious and supernatural belief system with myself. We get along. This insular little relationship gets more necessary for me as I age. Poor V——. I have to say that I may have had more, and more extreme, 'reactions' to lack of alone time this holiday than I have had on holidays to date. I was particularly grumpy today. Do you ever find yourself grumpier than normal on a holiday? Besides no alone time, lack of toilets time, can't decide what to do time, another serious detriment to a holiday is expectations. We plan holidays, we look forward to them, we get ideas of what may happen, which then develope into things we think will definitely happen. And then, like a fully loaded truck sliding on icy roads towards you, reality hits. And you forget to enjoy yourself as much as you can, regardless of what is happening. You forget that compared to normal life, this is heaven, even if it isn't exactly the way you hoped it would be. The silver lining is that when you do get home again, all this stuff is insignificant, and nostalgia imbues the whole holiday with wonder. So it all turns out okay in the end. These were the expectation I had that didn't quite come to fruition: cheap but amazing vintage clothing in thrift stores; stopping in small towns with great personalities and diners; going slow; taking stunning photos of detail; not being on freeways. So the combination of all these sorts of triggers meant that the main thing I did at the Monument Valley Visitor's Centre was storm around trying to walk off a heavy, heavy funk filled with unreasonable and unexplainable rage. I did also see some amazing scenery and get Wesley a Sheriff's badge and deputise him. So it wasn't a total loss.

The moon is full and it pops out, enormous, over all the amazing rock formations scattered around here. We stayed the night in the cutest hotel in a place called Bluff. Gretchen's Inn is becoming a distant memory.

Clockwise from top: the classic Monument Valley photograph, sunsets in the mirror are closer than they appear; Monument Valley Sheriff

The Outfit
Top: Op-shopped
Jeans: Target
Scarf: Op-shopped
Sunnies: Gifted, Oroton
Boots: Dr Martens


Photographer de Jour: V——


Who wore it better?

Getting linky today with:

stillbeingmolly






Comments

  1. The reality is a Holiday just can't last forever, however our memories of them can. I would do it all again in the blink of an eye List Addict and try and take all The "NOWNESS" in. Thank you for a wonderful time we shared.

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  2. It is so true that you have all these incredulous expectations of what your holiday should be like and if by some chance it doesn't live up to them you are utterly crushed and annoyed knowing how much money you dropped on something that didn't fulfill all your wishes.

    I am glad you are able to look back with fond memories already. Those photos are gorgeous and hilarious.

    bisous
    Suzanne

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