Day Twenty Three

Got up late and spent some time using the Jacuzzi in our room. There was no breakfast included with the room, so we eventually packed up, checked out and went for breakfast at Denny's. On the way we nipped to a street corner just down the road from the hotel where we saw this.

Taking it easy

This has been put in place by the city purely as a tourist destination. The song 'Take It Easy' by The Eagles has the line 'Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona', so they have finally decided to cash in. It is actually very good. The mural on the wall is all painted, there are no windows. You can see a reflection of the flat bed red truck being driven by a blonde that is also in the lyrics. The irony is that neither of the two men who wrote the song had ever been to Winslow.

Anyway we carried on to Denny's and as ever with the chain, the food was fine, the service was terribly slow.

We fuelled up and then headed east for a change. We drove towards a massive thunderstorm which happened to be hanging around our destination.

We ended up at the Petrified Forest National Park.

http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm

To describe it in a quick and simple fashion, millions of years ago trees fell down, got covered with water enriched with volcanic minerals, they gradually replaced the cells of the trees, leaving tree shaped coloured rock. You drive through the park and can stop at points to see things.

A big log...er....rock

It is quite fascinating to see all the colours of rock trapped in tree shapes. There are other things to see as well. Petroglyphs (Rock carvings) and ruins from 600-800 years ago as well as the painted desert.

Say what you see

We left the forest and headed back west, past Winslow and then stopped off again. This time we stopped to see another famous site, Meteor Crater. Formed about 50,000 years ago by an estimated 150 metre wide meteorite the crater is 3/4 mile wide and 550 feet deep. We watched a film and looked at the museum before heading out to see the crater itself.

Big hole

There were lots of annoying French people there. They seemed to follow us about. Got annoying. We stayed for a good while before setting off towards the next hotel.

Our journey along I40 took us past another thing we wanted to see, the iconic Twin Arrows Trading Post. It is situated on Route 66 and was a major attraction back in the day, but when the Interstate took over it gradually lost business. It has been abandoned since the late 1990s and the arrows had all but disappeared, but in 2009 they were replaced. It is another Forrest Gump tick for us, as it was used as a location during the running scenes, specifically the one where he wipes his face on the yellow t-shirt.

Run, Forrest, Run

We carried on west, passing our old friend, Flagstaff, before dropping south towards our target of Sedona. I'm not sure what I expected to see on the route but it certainly wasn't the steep drop down in between cliffs that eventually took us to the town. There were hairpin bends and everything.

Rocky Road

Eventually we made it to our destination http://www.orchardsinn.com/ in Sedona. It was dark by the time we arrived, so tomorrow I will include a photo of the view from our room. Sedona seems a very pleasant, picturesque town. Ann tells me it is a very expensive place.

Ate the final remains of food from our stay at Pagosa for tea, cheese rolls, crisps and cookies. Waste not, want not as they say.

Now watching more films as I type this. Tonight it has been Armageddon and The Dark Knight.

Not sure what we will do tomorrow, but there are plenty of options.

Hole Watch - Large

Arrows seen - 2

States Visited - 17