Thanksgiving in Flagstaff!

After the small roadtrip, it was time for another project - this one would only be 3 days as Thankgiving was approaching and no one wanted to work that. I was to head back out to the familar Wupatki National Monument but this time on a different project - Pueblo Stabilization whereby we were to help with keeping the many Native American pueblo remains (dotted around the area) in an OK state. However, on arriving at the site no project partner was waiting for us and a phonecall later we learnt that nor would they be coming. The other Wupatki crew set to do some extra fencing work in the area were in the same situation. After cursing ACE's organisation skills, or lack thereof, we waited to hear what we were to do for the next three days. As it turned out, instead of working (as there was no work) we would become tourists instead. So we visited some of the bigger pueblo remains such as Wokoki, before crossing into the Navajo Indian Reservation lands - the biggest in the U.S. We parked near a fenced area and when asked why it was fenced off, "ATG" - our old fencing supervisor with the long hair, and beard, told us it was an old Navajo graveyard, which was fine until you realised that meant old Indian burial ground. ATG showed us a collection of petroglyphs (rock art) left by the ancient puebloans when they lived in the area in 700 AD. We saw rock engravings of people, supernatural creatures, animals and birds - they were amazing. ATG said no one apart from Navajo people, a few clued-up locals and park rangers knew of the collection and so ACE volunteers are perhaps the only internationals to ever see them - which was really humbling and so I thought I'd definitely get a picture of these - except on close inspection of my camara I'd left my SD card out. It was so typical, of all the projects to not have a camara on! By 4pm we were at the campsite, tents up and cooking beef buritos for dinner. The clear night and desert landscape meant the night was absolutely freezing - my little bag thermonmeter read at minus 4 at 5am when I got up. It was very hard to leave the sleeping bag!

The next day we visited Sunset Crater, the site of a volcanic eruption 1000 years ago. We had a little walk around the lava trail before heading up a nearby park fence line to do a tiny bit of work, basically looking for overhanging trees, snapped wire and fallen trees on the fence to repair at a later date. But it was really pretty surroundings. After venturing back up to Sunset Crater visitor centre to have a talk with a park ranger, we drove more into the Coconino National Forest area to walk up Strawberryhill Crater. I don't know why it was called this but nearby was Deadman Wash. When we asked why it was called Deadman Wash, ATG simply said because a man died in it. Apparently there's loads of places called something similar and at this one a man's horse got stuck so he had to shot it, then realising he was out the middle of no where with no horse he then shot himself. Makes sense.

That night was bloody freezing. I'd helped cooked Tuna Mac n' Cheese with a strange and suspicious cheese product that was bright yellow, felt like rubber and did not need to be refridgerated. But it turned out OK. I woke up several times that night, finding it colder and colder, and by 4.30am I'd given up trying to sleep altogether. When I got up, I found the water in my 2 litre and 1.5 litre water bottles had both frozen. Luckily having become accustomed to the freezing nights I'd taken to placing some things in the sleeping bag with me...my head torch, mp3 player, Nintendo DSi, alarm clock, work clothes for the next day, several tissues, and a small bottle of water - which stayed thankfully upfrozen so I wasn't completely without drinking water.

There was just time for a few more stops to see a few more pueblo remains and a sink hole, before making ourway back to Flagstaff. I couldn't be bothered to go to the crew dinner that night so instead some of us from Cedar House decided to make the night walk up to the Lowell Observatory just outside the downtown area. This was where Pluto was first discovered and they had a multimedia show for visitors as well as lots of telescopes set up to look through. I had a look at Jupiter and some of its moons, the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2.5million lights away or put another way - what I was looking at through the telescope was how our closest other galaxy looked 2.5 million years ago. Lastly I went to see their big telescope for a close up of the moon - that freaked me out the most! You could see so much detail - like craters and mountains (made from impacts that escape erosion as there's no rain or wind to act upon it). It was a really interesting place.

The next day was thanksgiving. Me and a few others (all Europeans) headed out to the local supermarket to pick up some food for making our own roast Thanksgiving dinner. With most people still on 8 day projects all the houses were pretty empty and so those in the other ACE house - Cisco house, were to come to ours for dinner, and we'd have dessert back at theirs - so there was a little pressure to make a good meal and enough of it. We decided to go for a big chicken instead of a small expensive turkey, however we then discovered its giblets were not in a convenient bag tucked inside - no they were attached inside, and so was the neck. Having done biology I decided I could tackle the chicken - but really I wanted to make sure everything was removed and cleaned thoroughly before basting. Soon our little chicken was stuffed and in the oven. It came with a great little invention - a pop up thermonmeter that's poked in the chicken and pops up when the chicken is done. Amazing. There was plenty of food and for once we had a TV so we watched some American Football, followed by Home Alone, and Uncle Buck. I was so happy to see a TV I could have cried...but I didn't as that would be a little weird.

Next on to Cisco House (a half hour walk in the cold night air - I was regreting the plan), they had put together 5 desserts including choloate brownies, a swedish chocolate cake, lemon pie, chocolate cream pie, cookies, with coolwhip and icecream. I was in heaven until 2 hours later when my stomach hated me.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without shopping sales, and the day after thanksgiving is a tradition of sales, so much so that its called, "Black Friday" (- not sure why, really?!). But it sounded good so me and a housemate got up at 5.30am to get the bus to teh mall at 6am. It was crazy shopping before teh sun was up but there was so many people there that it didn't seem weird. It was an experience to embrace, plus I managed to get my Christmas shopping done, plus lots of goodies for myself - including designer rainboots to compensate for my melted boots no longer being waterproof. Very essential.