Friday, we awoke to a chilly morning, cool, with frost still on the windshield. The LaQuinta Inn breakfast included scrambled eggs, mystery (sausage?) patties and biscuits & gravy, we loaded up and were on the road around 9:30, onto I-40 headed toward Winslow, Arizona. Just a few miles past the Arizona - New Mexico border we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park; this seeming as good a reason as any for why we remembered to bring our Lifetime U.S. Parks pass and passbook for adding stamps.
The Petrified Forest National Park is about 340 square miles in the center of the Painted Desert area which encompasses some 7,500 square miles. The National Park itself covers 340 square miles and straddles the I-40. The historic Route 66 once ran through the park and was a major route bringing visitors. Inside the park there is a 26 mile driving loop with pull-outs offering some of the most stunning scenery in the entire southwest U.S. There are two visitor centers and a High Desert Museum. On our visit, there was very little traffic and few visitors. We drove the loop, browsed the visitors centers, utilized the restrooms, and stopped at a picnic area for a lunch on our stash of sandwiches and chips. The weather was perfect, clear, a comfortable 70ยบ F and sunny. We can enthusiastically recommend taking a few hours, at a minimum, to drive the loop if one is in this neighborhood. The area was originally a huge forested area with water and rivers, likened to the Amazon Basin in size and scope. The petrified logs scattered all over the grounds are stunning; only the threat of arrest and prison time kept us from throwing a few logs into the back of the RAV 4 to take home and plant in our own rock garden. When you first drive through the entry and present your park pass, the Ranger tells you to enjoy your visit, then stares you in the eye and says, “Don’t pick up the rocks!” We are law abiding citizens, although the temptation was great. After leaving the park, one of the first things you see is a huge store and yard selling huge pieces of petrified logs. Evidently, petrified logs are not uncommon.
We continued back onto the Interstate towards our short term destination of Winslow, AZ. The goal was to use this stop as a jumping off point to get on the picturesque drive following the Mogollon Rim area, skipping the heavy semi-truck traffic and enjoying the wonderful scenery. We climbed along this two-lane highway, again with light traffic, up to 6,600 feet in altitude, then down through the Coconino National Forest, eventually arriving at Camp Verde and rejoining the I-17 for our final punch down south towards our goal of Anthem Arizona and our friend Dell.
We arrived in Anthem around 4:30 to spend a few days in rest. A primary purpose of this trip was to visit Dell, who we missed last fall; at the time, as we were readying ourselves last fall to leave Tucson and hop the Greyhound to Phoenix, Dell phoned us to say that Karen had collapsed and was being rushed to the hospital. We elected to short circuit our visit and reschedule our flight home. Karen died less than a week later - a loss we are still processing.
The current weekend is also Dell’s birthday, so we are here to visit with our friend, reminisce and to celebrate his 79th! As always, the accommodations are wonderful and on our first night Dell ordered in some of the best pizza we have ever devoured. We enjoyed a cocktail, visited for a bit, watched the news, and then retired for the evening. Next morning, we awoke to WAR! The “supreme leader” of the U.S.via a video at 2:30 AM, announced that we bombed Iran and by the end of the morning it was announced that Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader was killed.
As the purpose of this blog is not politics, we will try to avoid a lot of comment, although most of our readers well know our views. Enough on this. We will continue our visit and try to stick our heads under the southwest sand.
Saturday we spent watching the news until Dell finally convinced us to get off our fat asses and do something so we went to a Rock and Gem Show here in Anthem, hoping someone was selling some largish petrified wood but apparently that is not too popular in hot, rocky areas. We drove around the Anthem area, which is really quite beautiful and diverse, looking at possible smaller homes for Dell as he loves the area but wants to downsize. When we returned to his current casa, we sat on the patio enjoying the weather with our cocktails. Dell then outdid himself with grilled steaks, baked potatoes and salad which he managed to conjure up within 30 minutes! And it was so good. And the perfect end to a relaxing day.
