May 13-18, 2019 Meteor Crater, Arizona

We are both still sick as dogs with nasty colds. Been laying around coughing and blowing our noses. The weather has been beautiful 70-low 80's, sunny. Sometimes I go out and lay in my lawn chair and cough and blow my nose.

Have not been missing sunset tho. Sunset last night and sunset tonight. 

Another of tonight. Seems kind of whimsical-a dancing cloud. I finished this cute little basket today. The center is a white polished beach rock. I used black dyed needles and white threat. The beads are glass. It is 7 x 2 inches. 

The clouds set up perfect for sunset, but there must be too many at the horizon, this is all we got tonight. I must be getting better, today I discovered that the RV park is in the middle of a huge field of purple phacelia. 

Sunset in the phacelia. While I was out there the security guard from the RV park came out and told me guests are not allowed out there. The owners don't want people picking up pieces of the meteor. He was very nice and pointed out where I could walk around.There are also lots of other flowers too. Desert stars, globe mallow, prickly pear, evening primrose and a yellow flower. It has been really windy so it is hard to get the flowers to hold still so I can take their photos. 

Moon on the flagpole behind the bus and sunset.

We returned to the land of the living today! We drove to Winslow, Arizona to check it out. First John took me to lunch at the Relic Road brewing company. Ends up it is not a brewery yet, they are waiting for some city approval, but they have all Arizona craft beer. Here is John with big IPA. We stopped at the Standing on the Corner Park, commeratiing the song 'Taking it Easy' written by Jackson Browne and famously recorded by the Eagles.

This is the Falling Meteor sculpture in beautiful downtown historic Winslow. Our next stop was the La Posada. It was the last and most elegant of the great Fred Harvey Hotels built in 1930 by the Santa Fe Railroad. It was designed by Mary Coulter-perhaps the greatest architect of the Southwest-as a fabulous hacienda. Coulter is famous for her magnificent buildings at the Grand Canyon, but La Posada is her favorite. When route 66 was bypassed and people quit riding trains  La Posada closed in 1957. In 1960 the Sante Fe railway gutted it and turned into offices. In 1993 they the railways moved out. They were going to tear it down, but in 1997 it was bought and has been restored. 

Some of the inside of La Posada. It is very beautiful. 

John took this of me at the garden gate of La Posada. Welcome to Winslow, it is on historic Route 66. On the way into Winslow we passed Meteor City. Looks like a close curio shop. It has a geodesic dome with a mohawk. 

Both the Standing on a corner park and La Posada are route 66 attractions. On tow other corners of the same intersection are the Standing on the Corner gift shops. The worlds smallest church is on route 66, and the batman house. Sunset tonight looked like the recreations of the meteor landing we saw at the crater.  

The almost full moon rose red through the clouds tonight.

May 9-12, 2019 Meteor Crater, Arizona

We are now parked at the Meteor Crater RV park, just outside of the Meteor Crater National Landmark.

It has been in the low 60's, cloudy and raining most of the day. Great day to lay inside and read. I am reading this great Stephen King book called Doctor Sleep. The bad guys are a bunch of old geezers driving around the country in RVs. I couldn't pass it up. Here is the bus at the Meteor Crater RV Park and our view. the view will be nicer when it is not raining. It is a nice park, sites are big, trees , picnic tables. Seems pretty quiet. This is a T shirt for sale in the gift shop with an alien in a spaceship pulling a trailer. Also in the park is the Gypsy Palace. I also worked on the current masterpiece. It has some either turquoise or blue magnetite beads in the center, set in resin. Some glass beads I stitched around it. It is close to being done with the stitching. I have to decide what kind of beads to put around the edge still.

We went to see the Meteor Crater today. The Crater itself was, well a big  meteor crater. The museum was very well done. excellent movie about the crater. The crater, visitors center and some of the view points. 

John in the meteor crater. They don't let you walk into it, but they have a nice thing in museum-take a photo of yourself in the crater! background. John with the biggest piece of the meteor they found. Most of it vaporized on contact or broke apart and flew for miles. The heat and force of the impact turned some of the surrounding rocks into diamonds. 

Signs along the road in. This one said Speed limit for motor vehicles 50 mph. Meteors 26,000. There was a simulation of the meteor landing, called put yourself at ground zero. They are getting ready to open a 4D experience the impact- but it is not open yet. John with a training space capsule. They trained astronauts here since the crater is similar to the moon landscape. They had a huge gift shop, everything from models of space vehicles, Kachinas, T shirts, pieces of meteor  and lots of rocks and minerals. Today was a lovely partly sunny day. Both of us are sick with a bad cold so we just laid around coughing. The bus at the Meteor Crater RV park near sunset. 

 Sunset- we finally got to see the San Francisco peaks, they have been under clouds most of the time.  More sunset. 

Sunny and 70's today. We hauled our  sick selves up and drove out to see Grand Falls. It is on the Navajo reservation. Here is mile 0 on the reservation. This informational sign shows what Grand Falls looks like when it is flowing. Must be at sunset. I guess that it is muddy when it runs. Apparently it only flows when there is a big snow melt or a monsoon rain.

This is what it looked like today. Very pretty. It was caused by lava flow blocking the river so the river had to cut a new channel around the flow. The canyon is black lava on one side and red sandstone on the other.  The San Francisco peaks from the falls.  

Lava and red sandstone.  Sunset was spectacular tonight. In this shot there is a weird arch in the clouds over the San Francisco Peaks.  

Sunset later on and sunset behind us highlighting the virga. 

May 6-8, 2019 Tusayan-Flagstaff, Arizona

High of 66, partly sunny and windy.  I spent most of the day in my lawn chair working on beads for the basket. Then a pedicure for both of us and dinner outside watching sunset. Lovely day.

The beads and basket so far. No clouds at sunset, so just a warm glow on the horizon. 

It rained a bit this am. Then it steamed off the roads. Cactus or Pines, it's AZ vacation time drive safely. We are now in Flagstaff. I went to college here at NAU. We are here to stock up and go to Sunset Crater and Wupatki. At the RV park,  Marriage saving Valet RV parking available, inquire within. Age restricted park, no one under 55, no smoking and no ornery campers. At the restrooms, Men to the left because Women are always Right! We are JH RV park.  Nice commercial park, quiet, we have trees and a picnic table. Very quiet place.  

John spent much of the day working on the heater. Back and forth to parts store and on the phone with the manufacturer. Been that kind of week. The water pump sounds like it has a clogged filter, the front slide creeps out on it's own, we have a hydraulic fluid leak and the flammable gas detector keeps going off- John thought it was a faulty detector until the heater quit working.  Time to go in for maintenance. Today we went to Sunset Crater. They don't let you walk on the crater, just on some nice scenic trails around it. This raven was all puffed up, drying off after the rain.

John's camo coat will work here with these spring green aspens on the A'a trail.  A'a is from the Hawaiian word for stony rough lava. A view of Sunset Crater over the A'a.  

Red cinders are from the interaction of sulfuric acid with the lava. another view of Sunset crater from the Lava flow trail.  

This 'squeeze up' is molten lava that oozes through a crack in a solid lava shell. A view of the San Francisco Peaks. They are also volcano formed. They are a beautiful view over Flagstaff. 

This painting represents the Hopi legend associated with the eruption of the Sunset Crater. A twisted ponderosa pine. They are smaller on the lava flows because the soil is less fertile. They also twist in the wind. This is a cave that has a grill over it. My only memory of Sunset Crater from when I went to college here was going there and going into ice caves. I wonder if this was one. Scared me to death because I am so claustrophobic. A scarlet gilia blooming in the cinders. A view of the Painted Desert in the distance as we drive to Wupatki.

Wupatki is the ruins of an ancient pueblo. It was three stories high with a tower. This is a view of another part of it with a large community circle. There is also a ball court 

Wupatki was built on top of  and around a large rock formations. You can see the existing  rocks in some of the walls. Some walls dip in places.  

More views of the pueblo built around the rocks.  

Crooked lines in some of the walls. The pitted rock is caused by wind blowing dust and acid rain. The square opening is a 'blow hole'. It is an opening to a large cavern under the area. The air blows in or out, depending on the pressure outside the cave. Stone wall built under a piece of layered existing rock.  

John in the community circle and the ball court. It has been raining on and off all day. Big storm approaching as we leave Wupatki.  

This is the Citadel Pueblo. Unlike Wupatki it was not restored. The walls were stabilized and nothing more. It is built to the edges of the large rock outcropping. It also had three stories when it was inhabited.  The top part of the photo is looking up at it from below where it just looks like a pile of rocks. The bottom part is from the inside looking at standing wall. It poured rain when we got up there, so we had to run down. On the drive out there was a double rainbow. 

Phacelia flowers, little yellow flowers growing in the cinders, pine cones and dried pine needles on the black cinders, and an Apache plume bloom. A single yellow princes plume, and some bushes of princes plume. A red cinder cone.