Day 20 - Meteor Crater, Arizona

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Today I decided to visit the famous Meteor Crater of Arizona.

It would also be my final night here, so I packed my things and checked out. I set the GPS for Winslow, and got ready for another self-driving tour.

Winslow was going to be after the turn-off to the Meteor Crater, so I just used the GPS to head the right way out of Flagstaff. It took even less than an hour to get to the impact site.

It was a very interesting site. A great, big crater. But this was just a small one, in comparison to others around the world. I saw the meteorite on display at the center's museum, quite a heavy looking thing, composed mainly of iron and nickel. Space rocks are fascinating. Then again, Earth is also a space rock, isn't it? Well, you know what I mean.

I went on a walking tour partly around the rim of the crater, and got some different viewpoints. I always wondered what the weird white thing was down in the middle at the crater's floor. It wasn't a building of any kind, but a shaft leading down, with fencing around it. I used the mounted telescope to take a good look. There was also a large water tank down there. Nowadays, only scientists are allowed to go to the bottom - it is a restricted area.

I enjoyed the tour. The gift shop had many cool things as well. There was also a Subway shop. You know me, I love Subway. So I got myself a delicious roasted chicken and ranch sub for lunch.

It was then a drive back to Flagstaff. I was unsure of what I was going to do from this point onwards. I had two friends I wanted to meet - one who resides in Phoenix, and the other, in Albuquerque. It didn't work out with the latter, but I tried to work out how I was going to meet the former. I was running low on options - eventually I decided to book a hostel for Las Vegas and just head there tomorrow, and if I happen to be able to meet those friends, I'll make sure I do it.

I just drove my hired car around, getting a hang of the road rules. I went to Walmart to buy a cable for my camera, and noted that there were guns for sale in the store. Cool.

For the rest of the night, I sat at Starbucks, used the free Wi-Fi, and waited for my bus which would leave for Vegas at 1:15am.

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