15. Petrified Forest Monument Photo Album
hello everyone,
we hope you're all doing well ...... we are well into the groove of travelling in our van and visiting so many cool places....and the Petrified Forest is another example. Last night we stayed in a hotel... a much needed stay I must say. We were running out of clothes and gettin' a little run down, peter and i got the sniffles .....perhaps a cold was looming...so sleeping in a bed was very welcome, in addition to getting our laundry done.
Next morning we set off to the National Monument.....man oh man did we have a tough driving day. not only were we driving over mountains to get to the other side we encountered inclement weather...from rain....no wait it's sleet....no way!!! it's snow....at 8000 feet on top of a mountain...wowwww seriously...... we left Montreal because of snow.!!!! anyway we drove slowly and came into a town town called Pie Town....well of course we needed to stop and check out the pies...well after a $7 (USD) piece of pie....we hit the road again...and it was mediocre at best!!!
Well we finally arrived at the monument....we thought we were gonna see some petrified wood here and there...nooooooo....we drove a 28 mile route right through the park and saw many beautiful sites....my personal favorite was the painted desert....the way it works is to drive along and stop your car at specified lookouts and voila...feast your eyes on the immense beauty before you. We enjoyed our day more than we thought, even though the weather did not cooperate with us cuz we were freezing.....we got snowed on and the wind howled and blew us around repeatedly. The Blue Mesa was also spectacular.
After several hours making our way through the park we headed for our next campsite at Homolovi Ruins State Park. When we arrived it was cold and windy so we decided to head into Winslow to prepare and shop for the next three days. Before heading to Walmart we looked for a place for Peter to "stand on the corner" after all we were in Winslow, Arizona. After driving on Rt. 66 for a few kilometers we stumbled on a sign that listed some of Winslow's landmarks including "Standin' on the Corner" Park. There was a mural and two statues honoring the song along with the standard gift shop. A steady stream of people arrived took pictures and left while Eagles music played from across the street.
After shopping we returned to the campsite in the dark only to find someone in our reserved spot. It was dark and when we confronted the woman who claimed she had arrived late and had not seen the reserved sign. We went to speak to the camp host, he said we could take another site or he could make her move. We had calmed down a bit and decided just to take another site, so we drove over and told the woman to stay where she was. The next morning we met a couple from Venice, Florida who had converted a van ( Bobb and Trish) and were travelling around the way we were. Bobb's van was a little better equipped than ours, he had everything. We slept well and had a good shower so all's well.... Tomorrow we head for the Grand Canyon and Mary's birthday.
fyi the lovely family we met at breakfast were super nice....Alexandre from France and Shawna his wife along with cooper and Zoe...they live in Phoenix ...loved chattin with them and exchangin' phone numbers....hopefully we'll see them in Montreal one day!
