Advertisement
Santa Fe Flora
These wavy things were on a bush outside our hotel. We woke up to a sunny day, without a clue of the evil that would present itself in a short time. Blissfully unaware, Mom and I headed to the deluxe continental breakfast. They weren’t lying, it was
deluxe. There were waffle makers and biscuits & gravy. The only thing missing was skim milk. Had to choke down the 2%! (MISSING)Blech!
Dressed and ready to go (including my Target argyle flip-flops), I headed out to load the car (notice a trend here?). I was nearly done, taking one of the last loads out, when I went down. Hard.
It seems that there was a chunk of pavement missing where I stepped. My foot rolled onto my ankle, and into the hole, and I landed smack on my knees. Somehow I kept enough composure to keep from swearing (there were kids in the nearby pool). Surveying the damage, both knees were covered in brown parking lot crud (a lovely oily mixture) and my left foot, the one that rolled, was bleeding where my previously beloved flip-flops took a chunk out of it. I picked up all the stuff I dropped, hobbled to the car to put it in, and then headed
Santa Fe Flora 2
Flowers from the same bush. Can you figure out what's not quite right? back to the room. Of course, on the way I stopped to take a couple pictures of a lovely bush outside the building. Crazy, I know, but I figure I was in shock.
Once inside we began the cleanup process. The crud, which I first thought was just dirt, took several rounds of soap to completely remove. Once the brown was gone I saw that I had two perfectly skinned knees. Good thing I was planning on wearing shorts for the next few days! Then, I moved to my foot. It looked bad; bleeding, with a spot in the middle that didn’t quite look right. In fact, it was that spot that made Mom want to take me to the hospital. Being the trooper (and/or idiot) that I am, I washed it off, used an antiseptic wipe and Neosporin, put on a band-aid and we were on our way.
Today’s plan, injury or not, was to drive to Williams, AZ by way of the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest and Holbrook, AZ. Thankfully, I had a bit of a drive to let my foot settle down, especially since Mom took over the driving for most of the day.
Flip-Flop Injury
The foot. It looks much better in this pic than it did when it happened. We stopped at a truck stop in AZ for some food. Bad idea. Mom ordered a grilled chicken salad and I ordered the blueberry pie. Literally more than half an hour after placing our order and being asked at least twice how everything was we still sat at the table with just our glasses of water. Finally, the server informed us that the grilled chicken started out frozen and therefore took a while. What the hell? Advanced warning, people! So, Mom changed her order to grilled cheese and our food came out less than 10 minutes later. The pie looked good and I took a bite. It tasted kind of odd, but it was a “better for you” pie, with no added sugar and a reduced fat crust, so I figured it wouldn’t taste normal. I took a couple more bites and then I finally placed the funny taste: mold. I looked closer at the pie and there was a tiny spot of blue-green fuzz. Oy. Needless to say, the pie went back and Mom’s sandwich was free.
Anyway, we headed on to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. It was absolutely
gorgeous. Unfortunately, the batteries in both
Painted Desert
This is the red portion of the painted desert. It also turns blue and white in places. of our digital cameras decided to crap out within 10 minutes of each other, so most of those pictures are on a disposable camera that we haven’t developed yet. It was really stunning, though. The colors and formations of the Painted Desert were amazing. The petroglyphs closer to the Petrified Forest were really cool. The best part was walking around the “Giant Logs” trail near the south end of the park and seeing the variety of colors and shapes in the petrified wood. Hopefully the film pics come out alright.
After the park, Mom and I headed to Holbrook for a little Italian restaurant that one of my old teachers recommended. It was surprising to see this little place out in the middle of a small town once deemed too tough for women or churches. Her food was great, but mine was just ok (I guess I expect more from lasagna).
We finally pulled in to Williams long after dark, checked into our room and crashed. Tomorrow: Grand Canyon!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0528s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb