10-09-08 Thursday (Go Wash Your Hands!)

As I took Dasher for his walk, I spotted a Praying Mantis on a rock. I went back to the RV, grabbed Jim (he walked himself) and the camera (I carried it), and returned to the rock. I snapped a couple of photos. I was excited for finding one. It's been 20 or so years since I've seen them, back when I lived in New York. Yes, ladies, I know the female eats the male after mating. It has always seemed to me that any woman who possessed such knowledge, is very happy to share that tidbit.

Later another Praying Mantis was hanging out on our area rug outside. Of course I snapped a photo of it as well.

On our way to the Aztec Ruins National Monument, we stopped at the front desk and chit-chatted again with Adell, one of the owners. We asked her a ton of questions about how they got into doing this and what not. Her and her brother, along with spouses purchased this place several years ago, with no knowledge of this business other than they been camping before. She's such an interesting woman to talk to who had no problem sharing her knowledge. To answer Pearl's question, the oil well on the property is pretty quiet. Adell's home sit next to it and they don't hear it.

We stopped at a Subway for lunch and took this interesting photo of a Starbucks. This would read, "Proof Starbuck's over expanded".

The Aztec Ruins were interesting. They were very similar, just a smaller scale, to the Chaco Ruins we had seen earlier this week.

The picture above and below are the insides to the round building a couple of photos above. Yeah, I'm almost confusing myself on the wording. The storyboard said this was a recreation. There was a "push me" type of button that Jim pushed which piped in Indian chanting. It was kinda eerie.

OK, he was just for fun.

I know the video below is a little strange but I couldn't resist. I went to the restroom which featured a waterless urinal. Jim and I have seen these before. It boasts about saving blah blah gallons per year of fresh water, etc, etc, etc. The sink was another story. It spewed out water as if powered by Niagra, BUT only in short spurts. I couldn't keep the damn thing on for more than 2 seconds at a time. As I TRIED washing my hands, then the hand dryer which just about hovered above the sink, was more than happy to help Niagra to get my pants wet.

Unrelated, out of boredom, I decided to surf the Internet for a while (it is well past 3pm, so toilet scrubbing was no longer feasible). On MSNBC's news site was a tribute of sorts to a Decade of Internet Superstars and then subtitled "Here's what happened when their 15 minutes of fame ended". If you're an Internet junkie, it's worth the visit. Click here.

I've been told we may have no cell/internet access late tomorrow once we arrive in Arizona. We'll be in a desolate place, Jacob Lake. We'll be staying at the closest to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, full-service RV park, we could, called Kaibab RV park. Check the link at the left sidebar for the online calendar/itinerary. Kaibab's phone number is 928-643-7804.