Arizona Road Trip (4): Sedona to Chinle, Long and Scary(!)

The drive to Chilne in the northeastern part of the state was scary, long and exhausting. If the car had been broken, I would have been in the world of shit, particularly after Flagstaff. From Sedona to Flagstaff I was on the same Inter-State highway (I-17) and kept myself to the rightest(!) possible. Having the previous experience now(!) and being day, it was much easier to drive. 

I had a short stop at Flagstaff to go to restroom at a Mobil gas station and huge liqueur store. Then drove east and then north and northeast started. Roads were so remote and empty that you could drive for minutes without seeing a single car. No service and only Native people houses on the land as it is all Navajo Nation Reservation. I was scared to death about gasoline as the gauge was showing half-empty (One might want to say half-full!) until I reached this place called Burnside and bought more than 3 gallons of gasoline (that's how they measure) from this Chevron gas station. 

From there it was easier because I had gas and I was on a major road, US State 191. Native dwellings all at both sides of the road could be seen. Mostly run down. Cows and horses scattered all over seem to be one of a few businesses that the Navajo people are involved with. No sign of planting something, no agriculture maybe due to weather or soil. Wonder what they ate 1000 years ago when there was no supermarket to go to. There was also a Burger King adjacent to the gas station and a few other businesses all ran by Natives and customers both Natives and passengers from different states who were going to Chilne or further up north in the state. It was also a meeting point for the people who were going to New Mexico in further east. 

I stopped at this gas station right before turning towards east in Flagstaff to use the restroom. It was not believable the number of different alcoholic beverages they had and the variety of them. It is the same with the supermarkets. Wonder that is why Americans drink much although not sure who drinks more: Americans or Canadians but I do no that nowhere in Canada alcohol is as available as the US. Gas Stations are provided by different companies and each have a different price. There's a Sinclair across from the street that you can see its sing in the photo. None of them operate in Canada

I ordered a cup of Joe from this Burger King place that I just described. There was a Native man, probably around 280 Lbs. and I'm not making fun of him but seemed that ordering coffee was out of ordinary at that corner of the state but he accepted my order very politely and went to the back with a cup while had one finger almost in it(!) and came back with the coffee after a few seconds! I wanted to throw it out and believe me I guess I was charger close to $2 for that coffee but drank it! 

(Photo, top: I like this photo and all of the photos I have taken from Arizona. Who says desert is not beautiful? Stranagly-shaped rocks, cliffs and mountains, birds, animals and other creatures. All of both sides of the road almost everywhere I was to in Arizona was separated by a barbed wire fence meaning it was a private property, unless it was a national park or a national forest. This private property as explained above belongs to Navajo Nation, the Native Americans who have been living in the Arizona for generations. You can see the fence at the right side of the picture and a few of their homes in distance at the same side. I didn't know what their reaction would have been, had I taken a picture from their property from a close distance. Probably would have not been so good. I didn't want to be shot so I refrained from doing that and limited myseld to shots similar to the above)