Our day started out quite early, seeing as we froze our butts off at night, tossed and turned and then heard those early birds loud and clear in the morning. We packed up the truck (thank you, Eagle Scout Brad) and headed on out.
First stop, Continental Divide, where Grace picked up a splinter that haunted her for a few days.
And then we cross into Arizona – good bye, New Mexico!
Next stop, Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park (ah, thank you, America the Beautiful park pass).
The girls scavenged for petrified wood, but were very good and didn’t keep a single bit!
Next stop, Winslow, Arizona. We couldn’t drive Route 66 without stopping here. Duh. This place is interesting: that wall back there? It’s just a wall. I mean like there’s no building behind that wall.At the curbside is a red, flatbed Ford. Other than a 5 & Dime kind of place on the other corner, there doesn’t seem to be too much in Winslow. It does look like they’re making it a little snazzier with cute lampposts and stuff, though.
Yet another stop: Meteor Crater. This was really pretty awesome. The crater itself is large enough to hold 20 concurrent football games along with 2,000,000 cheering spectators. The remaining chunk of meteor, on the other hand, is kinda little. Show you how fast that sucker was going when it hit and broke up (50,000 mph!).
The wind up there was totally cranking. Honestly, I’m surprised they don’t appear to have any incidences of people blowing off the edge. Seriously – it’s nuts.
OK, now it’s on through a WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING until we finally got to Flagstaff, Arizona. There was something I liked about that city, although we really only stopped at Wendy’s. The Wendy’s guy, Kyle, was really nice and funny and he suggested we should go ahead and drive through Sedona, even though it would be a little out of the way. GREAT decision. The drive there from Flagstaff was gorgeous. It reminded both Brad and me of the drive up River Road from I-95 heading to New Hope. There were twists and turns, green trees, green plants, steep drops, trees overhanging the road, houses for sale by Sotheby’, of course, the scenery here was a smidge more dramatic than the Delaware Valley. You would drive around a curve and come face to face with massive red hills instead of meandering, shallow river water.
The town of Sedona even reminded me of home, except it’s about twice the size of New Hope. There are lots of cool stores selling jewelry and art, trinkets and antiques.
Then on we drove, through more nothing Arizona (why everyone doesn’t live in Flagstaff, I don’t know) where we baked when we had to stop for food (109 degrees. Oh yeah, dry heat – really, it felt fine. NOT) and finally entered California and got to San Diego exhausted and punchy.
