All y'all,

My Louisiana friend said y'all when speaking directly to me alone one day about 25 years ago and i stopped him. "If I alone, one person, am "y'all. Then how do you address a group of people", i asked? "All y'all" he smiled and replied. That's for free ...

Monument Valley is wonderful. You have to go here. I hiked up the side of one of those giant 'monuments' and watched the sun set. Then i sat outside on the deck of the hotel for two hours and watched the stars overtake the valley below. Unbelievable. Total relaxation. Out on the deck, in the dark after the sun set, which i watched from the side of the mountain, bats buzzing around, Navajo whistle music playing in the background, moonless night but the stars and the Milky Way Galaxy are so bright you can still see the valley and the shadows of the monuments, just sweet. The lights from the hotel attracted bugs, lots of bugs, which brought the bats. At first they made me nervous a bit but after a while they were cool. Swooping through blind as a bat, eating bugs, i appreciated the excellence with which these blind creatures can swoop through the sky and eat a bug right out of the air just like that? Amazing. It was a feast for the bats, a massacre for the bugs. Then i remembered that there are no mosquito's in the dessert. It was so sweet watching them and the sky and the stars and the valley. Monument Valley was so captivating all day just amazing but after the sun set and the stars came they were brilliant! I've never seen so many. It was a moonless night so the sky was dark. Unbelievable.

Early, just after sunset the deck was full. Then people left. Then people would come and go. Most of the night i was alone out there. I sat there until about 1. Loved it. That's when i decided i was relaxed. I'd see some people come out and sit down and look and then go after about 5 minutes. I thought, amazing sight you may never see again, wonderful place set up for looking at it once in a lifetime opportunity and you only have 5 minutes for it? Then i thought, i must be relaxed, this must be what its like.

Here are pics of the hike up the side of this 'monument' next to he hotel.

I sat behind this little wall and smoked a cigar and watched the sun set. These are pics from the top. You can see the hotel down below in one of them.

Here are some pictures of Monument Valley.