Petrified Forest National Park, Holbrook, Arizona

Here’s another item on my Bucket List, ever since I saw Norah G. wearing a beautiful tee shirt from there years ago.  I wanted one of those shirts, but alas, they didn’t have them anymore.

 

Driving through Holbrook we saw some cute dinosaur statues.

 

We also saw a lot of petrified wood for sale along the road.  Glad we saw them there as the next day when we drove through the park, we didn’t see much in the open fields.

        

The literature from the park states that there is actually more petrified wood outside of the park than in.  There are 12 tons of petrified wood taken out of the park each year, even though it is illegal and brings heavy fines.  Plus there is a curse that if you do take any from inside the park you will be plagued with bad luck and the park receives testaments to that fact.  People say they have lost their jobs and even had houses burn that they feel happened because they took a piece of petrified wood from inside the park. The rangers say they have even received packages containing a piece of petrified wood with a letter of apology, saying they are sorry, hoping that would end their bad luck.

We met up with Marcia and Joe J. at Crystal Gift Shop outside of Holbrook.  They have a few nice boondocking sites with covered picnic tables….for free.  They are pull throughs so even motor homes fit easily.  The gift shop itself is very nice as is the other one across the street, both with the same owner.  The RV sites across the street have electricity for $10.75 a night if that is desired. 

Around the area are lots of large petrified wood samples. They even have a few cement teepees for the kids to play in.  It was good to be able to look at these pieces up close

Saturday we followed Marcia and Joe and drove through the park and the Painted Desert….very impressive.

As we were leaving the area we came across part of the original Route 66.  There was an old 1936 Studebaker sitting on the side of the road and a line of telephone poles that sat next to the original road.  Kinda neat to see.

Here’s my parting shot of “prettiness”

We stopped and had lunch with Marcia and Joe at a Travel Center along I-40, then waved goodbye when they stopped at a nearby casino.  We continued on to Albuquerque and spent the night at Route 66 Casino. 

Remember, you are loved.

Winslow, Arizona

This is an item on my Bucket List….seeing “The Corner in Winslow, Arizona,” sang in the Eagles song.  I don’t know why, just one of those things.  I was sooo looking forward to it.

Driving north through Arizona was a altitude challenge…man, that is quite a climb!  Sun City is about 1,200 feet and we climbed up to 6,600 feet….down to 5,000…back up…like a roller coaster ride. Don’t like those 6% grades.

Once we got to Winslow I realized it was on Route 66, news to me.

So Jim and I HAD to take the pose at that infamous corner

    

(Click on the photo of Jim….and notice what Poncho was doing)….oops!

We were a little disappointed that there wasn’t much more to Winslow.  I did hit one of the souvenir stores for postcards, but outside of this pretty mural, we didn’t see much else driving around.

We were going to spend the night at the Elks Club, which was suppose to have RV sites with electric….not!  Plus I wasn’t getting good vibes about the place, so we moved on towards Petrified Forest National Park, about 30 miles up the road.  Plus Joe and Marcia J. text saying they were already there waiting for us.  Onward we went.

Remember, you are loved.