Advertisement
Published: June 18th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Meteor Crater
The Best Preserved Meteor Crater on Earth! We slept in Sunday, Father’s Day, morning. When we awakened, Kenny prepared great omelettes and biscuits in the Coach and afterward we took off for Meteor Crater. It’s claim to fame is that it is the best preserved meteor crater in the entire world, primarily because of the very small amount of water/ precipitation it is exposed to in the desert of Arizona.
The Crater was created 50,000 years ago when a meteor hit it at 26,000 miles per hour. The Crater is 4000 feet across and was originally 700 feet deep. It is now about 550 feet deep due to some filling in. The meteor weighed several hundred thousand tons when it hit with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT! Our Tour Guide pointed out that if you put the Washington Monument in the bottom of the Crater the top would be aligned with the top of the Crater. Wow, what a sight!
After a quick rest in the Couch, we took off for the small town of Winslow, AZ. As we pointed out before, it’s claim to fame is the lyric “ I was standing on the corner in
Kenny Checks out the Crater
Notice his Sports Camera attached to his hat! Winslow, AZ, what a fine sight to see” from the classic Eagles song “ Take it Easy”. What a great old Route 66 town!
On the main old 66 Drag, there is a tribute to the song complete with a “ Standing on the Corner” shop with all kinds of Eagles/ Route 66 Souvenirs and Paraphernalia. My favorite was an original poster advertising The Eagles in concert in 1979. There is also a mural on an old building across from the shop with a sculpture of a man complete with guitar standing on the corner in front of it And a flatbed Ford. Awesome!
Our other favorite discovery in Winslow is the La Posada Hotel. The Hotel was designed by Mary Colter, perhaps the greatest architect in the Southwest and built in 1930. Even though Ms. Colter designed many of the buildings at the Grand Canyon, it is said that La Posada was her favorite project.
The Hotel was considered the Oasis in the desert and was the last and the most elegant Fred Harvey hotels built by the Santa Fe railroad. Mr. Harvey introduced linen, silverware, china and impeccable service
and was so famous, MGM made a movie about the legendary waitresses that worked at his establishments, called The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland.
The hotel was closed, gutted and turned into offices for the Santa Fe railroad in 1959. It set vacant for 30 years thereafter and was saved from destruction by Allen Affeldt and his wife, Tina Mion, in 1997 who lovingly restored the hotel one room at a time. The hotel and gardens are beautiful and well worth a trip to Winslow. Also, the art of Tina Mion graces the walls of the hotel everywhere as well as the Mion Museum within the hotel.
The icing on the cake at La Pasoda was a late lunch at their four star restaurant in the gorgeous Turquoise Room. What a wonderful adventure!
After spending several hours in Winslow, we returned to our RV camp and rode our bikes as the gorgeous sun was setting. Such a beautiful evening and we even saw an antelope on the country road where we were riding. He sauntered across the road in front of us with not a care in the world. We know
how he feels.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.283s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.1629s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Fern Hill
non-member comment
Standing on thr Corner
Love reading about your adventures. Keep me posted.