LOCATION
Gallup, Fort Defiance, Ouray, and Telluride while on contract in Fort Defiance Arizona (staying in Gallup, NM)
CAIRN TRAVELER VLOG || EP39
My second to last large block of time off before finishing the contract here in Arizona and I spend it with friends. I got to visit the Gallup Flea Market, participate in a butchering and Navajo Feast Day, and pitch in for some roof work. I then head up to Colorado to share my favorites of the Ouray, Telluride, and the Million Dollar Highway with some friends.
Be creative and find your adventure this week!! ✌️😎
With only a few week left in Arizona, I wanted to dedicate at least a week to spending the time with some of my best friends here.
Much as you will (normally in pre-covid times) find plentiful roadside venders in this area of country, most towns have a weekend flee-market and Gallup is no different. I got to visit our local weekend market with my friend Jennifer to find aisles upon aisles of white tents selling turquoise and silver jewelry, dyed blankets, arts, crafts, produce, spices, herbs, native medicines, snow cones, slushies, Navajo Tacos (soft tacos using fry bread), and much more.
The day after this, I went with Jennifer to visit her friend and pick up a sheep for butchering. I will say I found most of this process out of my element and area of experience but I think it’s valuable and enlarging to experience the local culture. We led the sheep out of it’s pen, laid it over on it’s side, bound it’s feet, and by the bound feet hauled it into the back of the pickup truck where it lay and doubtless bounced around a bit as we traveled another 45 minutes north to Jennifer’s mother’s home.
I found myself moved as Jennifer prayed a short blessing in the Christian tradition over the sheep, thanking God for this gift of sustenance and honoring the sacrifice of this life. And then the deed was done quickly with a slash across the throat and body was strung up from a tree to drain. I lent some of my knives to the endeavor and the ladies made quick work of removing the hide and then getting to work on separating the cuts of meat. Some neighbor ladies joined in the work and their deft hands made quick work of the animal and every piece was used in some way.
While the ladies kept working and a rack of ribs sizzled away on the fire pit, the guys (including myself) started work on re-roofing one of the houses, both removing all of the old shingling and then spreading roofing paper and new rolled shingling material. Once the house roofing was done, we all sat down to a beautiful Navajo feast day with the fire-roasted lamb, corn, fry bread, and many other tasty dishes.
My trip up through the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado was so memorable that I wanted to share it with some of my best friends here so the next item for the week was to pick up Jennifer in Window Rock and then head up to Durango to pick up my friends Jason and Jackie. We piled in my truck and headed to Ouray. I got to share several short but rewarding hikes with them - Lower Cascade Falls and Lower and Upper Box Canyon Falls. We ended the day by heading up to Telluride for a short but peaceful walk by the river and then a nice dinner at 221 South Oak.
More photography from this and other trips is available both on Instagram and here on the CAIRN Traveler Gallery Page (both color and in the Western Shadows Galley in black and white).
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PRODUCTION NOTES
Cameras: Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max with DJI OM 4 Gimbal, Canon EOS R5 with Canon RF 24-70mm Lens and Peak Design Carbon Fiber Tripod, DJI Mavic 2 Pro, GoPro Hero 7 Black
Audio: RODE VideoMic PRO+, RODE Wireless GO, Apple AirPods Pro, and Device Native Mics
Editing: Adobe Premier Pro (Creative Cloud)
Music: Epidemic Sound, MUSICBED, Soundstripe, YouTube Music Library
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