Arrival Tsaile

By mid afternoon I decided I'd drive to Tsaile today. Having told her earlier that I might wait till tomorrow to get to my "spring home," I called Louise at work about 3:30. Her co-worker told me she had taken leave and gone to Chinle to her daughter's. As long as I had cell phone reception, I tried several times to reach Louise at home or on her cell phone or mobile phone. By the time I got to Tsaile, there was no reception with my phone, so I went into the Fina station and got a lot of quarters to make calls. I drove back and forth between the college, Louise's home, and the Fina station. I took some more photos and really like the one at sunset of the hogan at the college. As it got dark, knowing I had no cell phone, I didn't want to just hang out in the area. I kept trying to reach Louise and by about 6pm decided to call (from the Fina station) about staying at the Holiday Inn. That arranged, I left one more message on Louise's home phone to tell her I'd be in Chinle. I drove the 30 plus miles to Chinle and checked in. As I got to the room to freshen up before going to the hotel restaurant, the phone rang. It was Louise and her daughter. There was a family emergency today and that was why Louise left work and had to go to the Chinle hospital. She left in such a hurry that she forgot her cell phone. Bless Louise. Mostly, the reason she went back to Tsaile was to see if I did drive up today rather than tomorrow. Even though she was in the middle of a personal family crisis, she and her daughter were worried about me and glad to know I'd decided to come to the Holiday Inn. They were going to pick up another family member and head back to Chinle hospital. I told her to call anytime overnight if I can help at all, and offered to share this hotel room if anyone from her family wants to come here.
Of course, I hope and pray for healing in the Litzin family. I expect to see Louise tomorrow and hopefully get settled in at her home.