January 20, 2020 Botanical Garden

Today, we decided to go to see the Botanical Gardens.  It was a wonderful, warm day and it was a good thing that we got there early because the parking lot was getting full.  Although the gardens were not in full bloom, there was still plenty to see and learn about.

Fishhook Barrel Cactus

One of the many varieties of the Cholla Plant. 

The Baha Fairy Duster.

Saguaro Cactus  They can grow over 40 feet tall and could weigh as much as a ton.

Things that you might have never known.

Twisted Cactus.  Tom is getting better at remembering the names of the many varieties of Cactus plants

Organ Pipe Cactus

Near the Entrance to the gardens, there were some Chihuly pieces of art that almost looked like real plants.

This was the top of one of the cactus plants.  It was the only one that we saw that had this shape at the top.

We spoke to one of the employees at the gardens and mentioned Maine's Botanical Gardens and she said that she had seen lats of pictures.  One of the people that worked in Phoenix, now works for the gardens in Maine.

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie

January 19, 2020 Meteor Crater and Winslow AZ

Hi everyone.  We had a great day today
We visited the site of the Meteor Crater in Arizona.  It is the site of a meteor impact that left a crater about 4000 feet across and occurred about 50,000 years ago.
Tom knew about this crater many years ago and had a book with a picture of the crater in it.  Knowing that we were going to be travelling along I-40 he put a visit to the site in his plans.
The site now belongs to the Barringer family and is run privately.

The Holsinger meteorite is the largest discovered fragment of the meteorite that created Meteor Crater and it is exhibited in the crater visitor center.  

We wanted to take a guided tour of the rim which started at 10:15 after a short film.  The day was very clear and the temperature was a little crisp when we started. 

The depth of the crater is about 500 feet.  The meteor was thought to collide with the Earth at around 70 degrees from vertical

Daniel Barringer, who was the first to believe that this was an impact crater caused by a collision with a meteorite. He wanted to find the meteorite, and spent many years digging to find it. His efforts stopped in 1929. The actual meteorite was not found.  The largest piece in existence was actually found outside of the crater and weighed 1409 pounds.

At one time, the public was allowed to hiked down to the crater floor but now is not allowed.  The trail around the rim is paved but not all the way around.

A panoramic view of the crater.

The shiny object on the crater floor is an 8 foot section of a plane's wing.

For more about the story, visit the web site.  Plane Crash in meteor crater.

When Barringer was trying to find the meteorite back in the late 20's,  Dynamite was frequently used. Because there were common lightening strikes in the area, they decided to dig a tunnel to store the dynamite.

On the way out, we got Grammie in the open window.  In the background are the San Francisco Mountains.  They are not near SF but were along the route for pilots to fly there.

Grammie got to meet the leader of the band in Winslow, Arizona.  Not really, but we were not going to miss a photo opportunity.

In the middle of the intersection is a big painted Route 66 sign which is also known as I-40

And on the opposite corner is the well known corner in Winslow Arizona made so by the song Take it Easy.  Tom found the girl driving that Flatbed Ford.

This corner is a popular place to meet friends while taking a picture, or having your picture taken.  Surprising how many of them have been to Maine.

The truck is a fixture on the corner.

Saturday evening, we had dinner at BoJo's just down the street.  Our server was Mary who was a little spitfire that kind of reminded Tom of his mother.  She was over 80 but very sharp. She wanted to know our names and where we from.  When the next customers came in, she would introduce us as Alice and Tom from Maine...loud enough for all to hear.

Winslow is certainly a welcoming town.

The main street in town AKA 2nd street, Route 66 and I-40 is lined with older buildings and shops that rely on the tourists that go through town.

After seeing the Meteor Crater and Winslow, we headed South down Route 87 until we reached Phoenix.  Tom was glad to have the 6 speed transmission in the van to be able to downshift to save on the brakes.  Along the way we went from almost 7300 feet to about 1080 feet all the while going around curves.  The day started out around freezing and ended up around 74 in Phoenix.

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.  She was a good sport walking along the Crater rim tour while it was cold, and also trying to wear out the brakes in the Van while being on the passenger side going down Route 87.

January 18, 2020 Petrified Forest

Hi everyone.  On this Saturday we left Albuquerque and traveled to the Petrified Forest National Park.  The same area also includes the Painted Desert area which is in much display through the beginning of the park.  The Visitor's Center had a short video of the park as well as some samples to be seen in the park.

This piece of Petrified Rock is about 18 inches across and the surface is smoothed to a flat surface.

The Painted Desert  is home to some of the nation’s most memorable formations and features, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, and sunlight, all combined to create the Painted Desert. Deposits of clay and sandstone, stacked in layers, reflects the sun to produce a colorful appearance.

One theme that was stressed through the visit is that the land is ever changing due to the above events.

The Painted Desert Inn was at one time an active place for people to stay when visiting the park.  The rooms were very tiny.  Guests are no longer allowed to stay.

This picture around one of the doors shows what the original building looked like.

The many layers seen here actually represent different ages of time that, when doing some digging may represent 10's of thousands of years difference in the time of formation.

This feature known as Newspaper Rock contains Petroglyphs, some as much as 2000 years old.

Petrified wood is a fossil. It forms when plant material is buried by sediment and protected from decay due to oxygen and organisms. Then, groundwater rich in dissolved solids flows through the sediment, replacing the original plant material with silica, calcite, pyrite, or another inorganic material such as opal.  Much of the area in the area was covered with water which helped to create those conditions.

A look at a cross section of petrified wood reveals the different colors created by the content of the minerals.

Grammie, next to a fairly long length of petrified tree.

This shows the effect of flooding that is powerful enough to move not pieces of wood, but rather pieces of Petrified Wood. 

We had an opportunity to walk down a path in a section called the Blue Mesa. 

This is an explanation for the picture above.  The surface is actually soft.

Currently there are 2 parts of the park that are not accessible using the North entrance.  

They are the Crystal Forest and the Jasper Forest.

One thing that may seem a little odd is that there really aren't any tall trees that would make up a forest.  This was actually covered by water that led to the petrification.

Grammie enjoyed her walk through the "Forest"

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie's travels.

Jan 16 and 17 2020 Putting on the miles.

There are some days when you are building up seat time in the van, that your mind begins to wander,  Not today.  We just hauled out the camera and took a few select pictures to share.

As we were riding through Hollis Oklahoma, we noticed there was a farmer that also had some spare time on his hands.  Grammie just couldn't hold back the urge to be friendly.

It wasn't any more than 15 miles later, we were now in Texas, and there were a lot of cattle in pens just standing around wondering what to do with their free time.

Tom noticed that the road signs looked a little bit strange so we pulled over for a closer look.  That morning, we had decided not to go straight west to Amarillo because there was freezing rain expected in the forecast.  We cancelled that reservation and made in at Cannon AFB, just over the border into Texas.  The freezing rain had already been through and the temperature was just above freezing and the roads were not slippery.

What ever happened to Billy the Kid.  Billy, AKA William Bonney was an Old West outlaw who had killed 8 men before he was finally shot by the Sheriff Garrett.....or at least that is one of the stories going around.

 

Things you didn't know about Billy the Kid.  Link---  Billy the Kid History 

Someone with a sense of humor left a couple of live ammo on his tombstone.

 

Before Billy was 21, he became history.

While in the Fort Sumner Cemetery, we noticed another tombstone.  Lucien Maxwell was at one time, the largest land holder in the US.  Who knew.  If you knock on peoples doors, or read tombstones, you learn something.

Where's Grammie...she's always making friends.

To finish the days ride, we ended up at Kirtland AFB.  The final few miles were through the Sandia mountains.  If you were looking ahead, would you be looking at clouds, or fog.

If someone told you that you were about 6000 feet up, would that change your answer?

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.