California Bound - Day 6 - Albuquerque to Flagstaff, AZ

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We drove over the Rio Grande River and waved good by to the brown, red, and green adobe style houses in Albequerque, New Mexico. The road away from Albequerque is arrow straight. Since it was basically Rt. 40 all the way, Homer had little to say.

We almost had another run in with another tumble-weed, but this one brought me enlightenment. The tumbleweed is misunderstood. They're quite blind, and just roll through their lives doing the best they can. There they are tumbling down the road, minding their own business, when WHAM a car or a truck hits them! I think we should all treat this innocent life-form with respect. They should be allowed to life their lives in peace, so we must treat them with kindness. We MUST approach all tumbleweeds as "catch and release;' this is the only way they can have any quality of life.

Soon we drove onto Route 66 to the Petrified Forest. There is evidence that people lived in that area more than 10,000 years ago. There are over 600 Native American sites in the park, but all natives were gone by 1500 when the Spanish showed up. Earlier natives used the petrified wood as hunting instruments and building material.

in the mid 1800's camels were introduced to the painted desert--but the rocks and clay tore up the feet best suited for sand. And the Petrified Forest is not really a desert--it's the largest in-tact grassland in the southwest. But I guess no one told the guy with the camels.

The park was full of trails where petrified logs were thrown about like pick-up sticks. There were also some petrified logs just barely peeking out from the eroded soil. I tried to imagine our fore folks riding in a wagon over the bumpy terraine. It had to be arduous because you can't exactly MOVE a petrified log, and they didn't have hydraulics--how DID they get to California? Thank God, we're in a car.

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Photos

Petrified Forest
Tim sits like a bump on a Petrified Log.

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
The vast grassland...

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
At one of the lookout points

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
A sweet little girl offered to take our picture together AND told us we could look through the view-finder, instead of trying to see the screen ;-)

Petrified Forest
Used to be the petrified wood was thick, but in the late 1800's and early 1900's people picked them up by the wagon load....

Petrified Forest
Field of petrified wood

Comments

[Kristi]

!!!
Thanks for painting such a great picture...maybe tonight I will have some great dreams!!! Have fun!!