Day 17 was a leisurely drive across the desert, crossing the Arizona state line (no hassles from the man) and getting just a little closer to home. We decided to make a couple of stops along the way, because yesterday's drive was pretty boring. Oh, I forgot to mention a really good restaurant in Albuquerque last night. If you want some good food and are on the west side of Albuquerque, try
Marisco's Altamar; very popular with the locals.
We visited the small, but impressive
Petrified Forest National Park for a picnic lunch, probably the last of our trip, since we finally used up all of the peanut butter and jelly we've been toting around for 2 weeks. Finally, we can have a proper roadtrip lunch - McDonald's! The scenery in the Park was really beautiful, and it finally was not bakingly hot.
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| obligatory photo to prove we were there |
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| The Painted Desert, by Manet |
Blythe went a little shutter-happy along I-40 in Arizona, capturing many local landmarks. Please note all the dinosaur statues below, they are a fairly common site.
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| Roadside Arizona, No. 1 |
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| Roadside Arizona, No. 2 |
We had to stop at the
Meteor Crater, outside Winslow, AZ, because how could you possibly pass up the world's best preserved impact crater?!? I'd wanted to stop there when I drove cross country in 1998, when we moved from New York to LA, but it was my last day on the road and I really just wanted to get it done. So we visited today and my, they have a lovely racket going on there- $38 for the three of us to get in! We got a good look at an impressive hole in the ground, but it's still just a hole.
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| walking to the top of the Crater rim |
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| Meteor Crater - large enough to hold 20 football games on the crater floor... |
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| and hold 2 million spectators to watch them |
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| are we there yet? |
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| An interesting window on the high desert |
Tomorrow we will be home! We decided to cut Hoover Dam out of the itinerary, the extra miles and time to take the dam tour with a dam guide were too much for the final day. We'll be glad to see our house, with our housesitters Lisa and Steven, and to sleep in our own beds at long last. Talk to you later!
