Writer's Grove
Book & Beer Tour Day 1
I know this is supposed to be the COLORADO Book & Beer Tour, but I haven’t actually gotten out of Arizona yet. That’s because I needed to do some research for book four (may we all get there someday). That book, if the gods smile upon me, will be called TRICKED, and it will take place in three places: Flagstaff, Tuba City, and Kayenta. So that’s where I stopped today, and I’m typing this in a Kayenta hotel room with a very loud French couple next door. They sound angry but I can’t be sure.
If you bought the ebook version of Hounded, then you got to read the bonus short story called “Kaibab Unbound,” the conflict of which begins in my favorite coffee joint in DA WORLD, Macy’s European Coffee House. I took a quick snap of it before we went to lunch (and for all of these, you can click to enlarge):
Lunch was across the street at Beaver Street Brewery, because there needed to be some beer on this day of the tour, and dang if they don’t have some excellent stuff there. They have some incredible food, too. Check out this Green Goddess salad with salmon on top:
The beer we had was called Lumberyard Raspberry Ale. Incredibly clean and refreshing and NOT syrupy or hypersweet like many fruit beers can be. It’s a subtle thing, and a very high standard for Colorado to meet or beat. In honor of Oberon, I ordered the Brewer’s Platter for lunch, which has two German bratwurst and a spicy sausage served with beer mustard, mashed potatoes and cinnamon apples. Nomnomnom:
After Flagstaff we drove up to Tuba City to scout out the location where SOMEBODY DIES. I can’t show you that location. What I will show you instead is this beautiful horse that escaped from a corral and was trotting along the mesa with a couple of cowboys in pursuit about a hundred yards behind him:
From there we drove up to this mesa just outside of Kayenta that has some simply beautiful sandstone formations to it. It’s called Tyéndé Mesa. (If you want to say that right, it’s tee YEH in DEH, capped syllables stressed.) This will be where the bulk of TRICKED will take place. I took a photo from the other side of Highway 160 to give you an idea of how dramatic the rocks are:
What you can’t see from this picture is the road that skirts the bottom edge of it, and all the hidden gullies and washes down there. There are oases back there. Springs seep out of the rocks, creating these little unexpected patches of green where people take care of sheep. I shit thee not. Here is proof, from a picture taken about six miles along one of the craziest roads I have ever driven in my life:
BLAM! KER-BIFF! Doesn’t this landscape knock you out? In the background you see sandstone. SOLID ROCK. In the foreground, grass grows in very sandy soil and supports a herd of sheep and a cute little sheep dog! The shepherd was on a horse outside the frame. This whole little field is below the “street level” you saw in the previous picture. That rock you see in the background is also right behind us; we’re in a wee canyon here and this is how the Navajo have been getting along—sheep and a few goats do just fine in these sheltered narrow canyons that most of us don’t even know are there. I have some more pictures of this sort of thing—and I planned to post them, too, honest!—but the wifi here is so damn slow it’s taking forever and I want to sleeeeep. Forgive me!
Tomorrow I’ll be in Colorado for sure—Durango!!! Come back for more!
