DAY 8-- A Picture is worth a thousand words

I'm a day behind in blogging due to internet issues with the older hotels but I can't really even describe the beauty and enormity of the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park so you will more pictures than words.

We left Gallup and the El Rancho and headed for Arizona.  Most of the route 66 pavement has been destroyed here so had to go most of the way by interstate but it wasn't far.  Sonny asked me at breakfast if we were on schedule and I told him we don't have a schedule.  He said but are we were you thought we should be.  Again I said I don't have a plan for where we should be.  Life is the journey, not the destination!!!!! 

On that note, we spent 6 or7 hours in the National Park and hiked all the trails which totalled about 5 miles. 

The petrified wood is from trees 25 million years old that were knocked down and buried in water then mud and the minerals in the water soaked into the wood and reacted chemically to turn it into rock.  It was then buried under much more mud and has become exposed as the land changed many years ago. The drive started through the painted desert then ended in the Petrified Forest.

a lizard in the bush

THE PAINTED DESERT INN

THIS WAS MADE FROM PETRIFIED WOOD AND THEN REFURBISHED IN THE 30'S.  THEY EXPOSED SOME OF THE ROCK FOR DISPLAY.  Sonny's displaying his new TShirt for the Petrified Forest

the route 66 ran through the park along these telephone poles.  All signs of the road are gone now but this was a popular stop on the route.

I DID NOT TAKE A SOUVENIR ROCK FROM THE PARK!!!  I am leaving them behind responsibly for my grandchild to see when they go there.  One ton of rock is stolen from the park EACH MONTH!

ancient petroglyphs

We had a wonderful lunch of peanut butter and strawberry jelly and a beer.  While there we met a couple from Bloomington that said they were going to move out here so were checking it all out.  He wanted to do a route 66 trip and she promised they would next year after talking to us.  We also met a couple from Floyd's Knob Indiana where our son in law, Kevin is from but they did not know them.

This was an Indian ruin that was made from pieces of petrified wood

After a day of beautiful weather we drove into Holbrook to check in our only reservation, The Wigwam Motel, Room 9.  It is cool!! It was only $57 plus tax

the lobby of the WigWam

Had to do laundry tonight so Sonny took care of that so I could go to McDonalds to use their free WiFi to get caught up.  This was the first motel that did not have WiFi but a couple didn't have a good connection.