Well, its hard coming up with something catchy for every post, Ill work on it. Maybe I can start these out with something about politics or religion to draw you in then leave you hanging at the end realizing I got you! :-) Trump, Biden, Pelosi... AOC... Gamestop.... Ok, got your attention? Now on to important stuff.
We left Phoenix on Saturday morning. We ended up sending back 1 monitor and 1 stand each the day prior along with a couple other things we felt we didn't need. I managed to pack too many pairs of pants and not enough underwear. Its always stressful leaving a place, you never know what you might forget. I managed to forget my boots in Vegas, left a Chromecast at the Hotel at the Grand Canyon, oh boy what are we going to forget in Phoenix. Ill tell you, Krystal left a whole glass worth of margarita mix in the fridge, for shame.
We left the driveway and hit the Dutch Bros right up the road. This was the largest Dutch Bros Ive encountered. The story from the employee was that they have 14 people on shift at any time and at shift change that turns into 28 people. Dutch Bros is very popular in Phoenix.
After placing our order at the coffee shop we headed to fuel up. The first fuel station didn't take credit (gotta get those points) and so we headed down the road in search of a different place. The first destination was a Native American Craft Fair in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix. We had 60 miles till empty so we weren't in hurry. Tempe was only 20 miles or so. Following the GPS we are waiting for the coffee to cool enough to drink and watching for acceptable priced diesel. As we bumble along being stupid tourists with Oregon plates we catch a yellow light that turns red wwwaaayyy sooner than anticipated. As I try bringing the Audi to a stop I hear a suitcase in the back that feels the need to come forward and enjoy the party. It bounces off the back seat on end A and then does a front flip like an Olympic medalist determined to spill my coffee and smacks my coffee with end B causing a coffee explosion all over the center console and dash... which it did with 10s across the board. There was standing liquid on all the buttons that control the Nav, Media, Radio, and on board systems. We pulled over at a gas station and did our best to dry everything out, but honestly we have some sticky buttons, but they all still work. We filled up and headed to the Craft Fair.
The craft fair is held at the Talking Stick Open Air Pavilion. We arrived about 1.5 hours after the festivities started. There were people from the Havasupai, Gila River, and Navajo tribes. We looked at the items for sale, spent some money, and enjoyed authentic native drumming and singing as well as traditional Native American Dancing. I was familiar with the Shawl and Jingle dress dances, but I got to see a dance I hadn't seen. It was a basket dance of some sort. This is the reason we travel, to experience these new cultural activities. We received a recommendation to visit Ship Rock in Navajo Nation, but unfortunately it was a fair distance out of the way so we didn't get to see it. Research show its sticks out of the ground some 2000ft, I can only image the grandeur and will have to put this on my to do list. We said our goodbyes, inspired by the activity and coordination meant to support tribal members and spread awareness and headed to the next stop which was Meteor Crater, AZ.
On the way we encountered a ridiculous amount of between Phoenix, AZ and Flagstaff, AZ... it extended our drive by an hour. We were afraid we might miss the window to see the crater, but fortunately we made it just before 3pm and that gave us about an hour to see all the activities and sights. The "Meteor Crater"(this is its real name, creative right?) was created by what you would suspect. The meteor hit the Arizona desert 50,000 years ago and created a crater 560ft deep from crater rim to bottom, but the rim stands 148ft above the surrounding area making it approximately 410ft below the elevation so to speak, if you took the rise of the crater walls out of the equation. Either way, its a BFC. The person accedited with discovering the crater thought it was a volcanic formation. It wasnt until the early 1900s that it was determined to be a meteor crater, which led to drilling an exploration for what they thought would result in the discovery of a massive meteor made of iron and nickel. Modern science shows that the meteor was only actually about 80ft wide and mostly disintegrated before and during impact. After digging a shaft 200 ft into the earth they eventually hit groundwater and gave up. They did drill subsequent test holes, but as stated previously there wasn't really anything to find. The 80ft across meteor was scattered across a 90+ mile radius surrounding the site and there was no quick fortune to be made. It became a tourist attraction in recent years and being the most well preserved impact site on earth is still heavily studied.
We were able to get a sufficient amount of exposure within the hour and hit the open road again. We had watched the first Disney Cars Movie and a show called Abandoned, which both paid tribute to Route 66 prior to leaving AZ. After leaving the crater our next stops were to see some of the history on Route 66 to see some of the inspiration for the shows we watched. We drove through Winslow and then into Holbrook. Holbrook is home to the Wigwam Motel, which is the direct inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel in Cars. The kids enjoyed seeing this and we stopped to take lots of pictures. The night was rounded out with a terrible room at Howard Johnson Inn and amazing company. The hot tub and the pool were open, so we let the kids swim. Krystal and I soaked away the stress in the hot tub. We ended up meeting a family of Hopi Native Americans. I learned about the tradition of the Kachina. The short version is that there are Kachina that represent different spirits and in January they come and visit the marked homes and give the blessing of a strong home, both structurally and spiritually. When we left the hot tub to turn in for the night they shared a blessing in their native language for safe travels. This is a culture that should be treasured and preserved. Again, an experience like this is why I am thankful to be on this journey. We all tucked in and prepared for the next day which would be the Petrified Forest National Park and crossing into New Mexico.
To Be Continued....