Native Americans and Burma-shave!

What?!?

Sunday 5/21

I forgot to tell you, in my last post, one of the most important things about the skywalk. It is on the Hualapai (pronounced who-wala’-pay) Indian reservation. There was much controversy about building a tourist attraction on this sacred ground. At the skywalk, there are replicas of the sweat lodges, tipis and hogan houses.

I really love how the Native American culture respects nature. They only use wood that comes from trees that were not struck by lightning. They feel that if a tree is struck by lightning, it has lost its spirit and purpose. The doors of the hogans also faced eastward, so that they could always be reminded of the blessings of a new day dawning. There were native Haualapai chanting and singing as we walked around the area that told of some of their history.

Guano point was one of the skywalk shuttle stops where, in the 40s to the 60s, they would harvest the bat guano and sell it for fertilizer and make up! When Dad’s in the 50s told their teenage daughters to get that makeup sh@# off their face they meant it… literally!

We also found out that the lovely orange flowers along the roads and dotting the hillsides are called Globemallow. The Haualapai translate this as “sore-eye flower”. The leaves and stems have tiny hairs on them and if you touch you eye, it’s painful and causes an infection. The shuttle bus driver told us she picked a whole bouquet and ended up at urgent care. She then found out what the Native Americans call it!

As we leave Meadview, we are surrounded by Joshua trees, forests of them everywhere. They seem smaller and a bit more bushy than the ones in the National Park.
The manager/owner of the RV park told us to take a side road instead of going all the way to rt 93. It was a two lane paved side road that is surrounded by mountains 360°. Simply astounding! We traveled through flat plains of farmland leading up to the surrounding mountains.

We often think of the early settlers, and what they must’ve thought when they come across these mountains, Grand Canyon, the Rockies, no wonder they settled in middle America to farm! There were free range, cattle and cattle guards on the road every few miles. The Globemallow orange flowers were prolific up on the hillside.

After gassing up in Kingman, we turned onto the Historic Route 66. In The 50s and 60s it was called “the mother road”. Families would cruise down the highway listening to rock and roll!

We came across some entertaining red signs along Route 66 so I did a Google search…

“From the 1920s to the early 1960s, Burma-Shave signs entertained generations of Americans with what writer Frank Rowsome Jr. called “the verse by the side of the road.”

Burma-Shave signs were red with white lettering. Each of the small roadside signs had a line of poetry, and each sign was placed about 100 feet apart so that the poems could be read in sequence by passing motorists. The final sign was the Burma-Shave name touting its “brushless shaving cream.” Burma-Shave signs said that men who used the product could score with women who wanted a clean-shaven man: “His face was smooth/ And cool as ice/ And oh Louise!/ He smelled so nice.” Facial hair could never snare a lady fair, according to Burma-Shave: “With glamor girls/ You’ll never click/ Bewhiskered/ Like a/ Bolshevik.””

Very Entertaining! We saw several including: “if you don’t know / who’s signs we are/ you haven’t driven / very far” ; “30 days /has September /April, June / and the speed offender” and the one that made me laugh out loud…“Don’t lose /your head /to save a minute /you need your head/Your brains are in!”😂

After turning off Route 66 we came onto a horribly bouncy, pothole ridden interstate 40. After bouncing awhile, the road got better. At noon we came up and down the mountains through pine tree forest! Haven’t seen them for a while. Here are some pictures from this travel day.

In the third picture, the rocks seemed pink and coral and the reflection on the clouds made the clouds look pink.

Monday 5/22

We slept in a bit today, yesterday was a particularly long travel day and the auto-levelers didn’t work when we got to Page, AZ campground. Not good, especially when you have 2 weary drivers. From here on out, all but 1 day is under 300 miles, some under 100 👍. When I planned the trip I was being kind to us in estimating the miles for the travel days near then end of this adventure… of course not realizing we would be driving separately… but a good planning strategy!

We headed out to Lake Powell to explore the area today. This is Wahweap Native American territory. We took Harley and walked on the docks of the Marina. Beautiful day! Breezy and not hot 😊. We drove around the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the dam and checked out the campground there. Seemed like every site was reserved in the campground but many had full hook ups… for future reference!

We stopped at The Dam Bar and Grille for apps before heading back to the RV. Nice dog friendly outdoor patio. We chilled at the campground and Paul suggested we do some rock climbing to see the sunset… sure!?
We climbed up the red rock cliffs by the campground to see the sunset!

The campground is on the left of the sunset picture.
Tomorrow is Antelope Canyon, in Navajo country. Get ready for some amazing pictures!