Grants, NM - Flagstaff, ArizonJul 30, 2010
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Painted Dessert
Chris
| What a night!!! Woke up at 1am with the wind gusting and blowing I was once again looking for Toto!!! The wind was blowing the canopy and was causing the whole camper to shake. We finally had to get up and put the camper down. Around 2 I heard a car drive slowly through the camp ground. I got spooked and all I could think of was Freddy Kruger coming for a visit. Of course I wanted to be a good hostess so stayed up waiting!! A little tired today. Took a drive through Grants. It is like a ghost town, again everything closed up. It was also our coolest day. 11am and only 68!! We're not used to this!!! And then raindrops. That we are used to. However, they usually only last 10 minutes or so. Walked around the town of Gallup and were asked by a latino man if we wanted to buy an extension cord. Guess that's what he managed to "acquire" last night. We said we didn't need an extension cord so asked if we needed crocheted coasters. Nope, don't need those either. We continued our walk and was then unsure if the camper would be in the same shape it was when we left. Was Mr. Latino "acquiring??? There was some amazing native artwork, pottery and jewellery. Too bad the camper is full and the bank empty. Stopped in a Mexican restaurant and ordered a taco - $5.00. It was huge and more like a Mexican pizza. Delicious, but huge! While there I went to the little girls room and found myself in quite a dilema. There was a can beside the "watercloset" (toilet) that said KOTEX. OMG......what do I do with Tampax???? Stopped for gas and we need to learn "Mexican" time. The guy in front of us got gas, washed his windows, washed his front lights, all very slowly, and then had a chin wag with some ladies standing off to the side. No hurry. New Mexico time must be like Laura time - no concept what so ever!!! We arrived in Arizona around 2pm and 80 degrees. First stop was the Painted Dessert. It's a dessert that is red from the minerals, iron deposits etc. Something you can't imagine till you see it. We went for a bit of a hike and stopped to seak to a forest ranger. She was telling us about the petroglyphs there and we were telling her about ours. She had heard of them but hadn't seen them. We got talking about camping and apparently she goes to Algonquin every 2 years. Next was the petrified forest. It looks like a bunch of old logs but when you get up close, they aren't like logs. They are colored red, yellow, orange and blue and are like rock. I don't remember learning about this in school but Chris figures that might have been one of the lessons I spent in the girls washroom smoking and playing eurchre. I did get an A+ in euchre!!! For those of you who also got an A+ in euchre, the cause of the logs to petrify was when volcanic mountains erupted toppling the trees and covering them with volcanic ash. Over time river and lake water covered them and they washed to the floodplains. The minerals from the mud, silt and silica from the volcanic ash leached into the wood, scaring the bejesus out of them and they turned to stone!!! We then went wandering through some old towns and I found Chris standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona. Then what a sight I saw, a girl oh lord, in a flatbed ford slowed down to take a look at him. I wished him all the best, took the credit cards and went shopping. It was a very nostalgic place to be though - music playing and old cars lining the streets. Everything including a flatbed ford! We were going to stop to see the crater created from a meteorite but Chris wouldn't pay $24.00 to see a hole in the ground. He promised me he would dig me my own when we get home. Woo Hoo! Set up camp in Flagstaff in the rain, had a quick dinner and off to bed. Grand Canyon tomorrow!!! |
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