Time for Navajo

Mancos, the discovery of the trip. Oh how I love thee and thy breakfasts Mancos. JB and I get up early to investigate if the bakery cafe is open and it is. Glorious early morning slanting sunshine. We eat and John meets the Western hatmakers over coffee. Back at the motel students rouse and we walk them round the town, stopping off at the hatmakers. Two great guys give us a long talk and demonstration of how to make stetsons, etc. General view on Mancos and the motel is double plus. We leave and drive South down 491 and stop at the Ute Mt casino - not much there. Long, classic drive through NM down into the Navajo reservation and Window Rock. We leave the highway for a rural detour and climb through the snowline yet again, down into the town. We stop at the cemetery above the town which we saw very briefly last year. It subdues us - the expanse of tattered Stars and Stripes of the dead veterans especially. In town the museum is open, but has no knowledge of us, despite the faxes, emails and even the letter I sent to them... so we look round on our own, sans a guide.  Good exhibitions, especially the current one of Navajo photography which impresses us all and makes me think about the role of the museum for the community here. Then to the motel - all rooms good - and a seminar outside in the sun. We arrange to meet with the Navajo owner Romero Brown, but business keeps him away. No matter, we reschedule for tomorrow, before we visit the tribal HQ. And then to Williams...