Our first stop was to get gas. Josh was very adamant about needing to use the facilities at the gas station and I only had half a tank, so I figured we might as well. Plus this gas station happened to be situated right on top of the third continental divide we have crossed this trip, so this break in the drive would give Toto something to take a picture of that wasn’t through a bug splattered windshield.
Interstate 40 replaced part of the old Route 66. Old Route 66 went from Chicago to Santa Barbara. I-40 meets it in Oklahoma east of OKC. So while we were on I-40 we were on Route 66, which is fun. “Get your kicks on Route 66” right? We do!!
The first REAL stop on Toto’s list was the petrified forest just outside of Holbrook, AZ. Like the White Sands assumption we made, Josh and I assumed that this was not going to be one of the most exciting excursions we had ever been on. This time we were closer to being right. I have seen petrified forests before. When I was like 12. Didn’t overly enjoy them then, still don’t. I mean sure, the process of wood turning into rock is slightly interesting, but looking at pieced of this wood-rock on the ground in the middle of the desert is not really on top of my list of things to do on vacation. But Toto wanted to do it, so we did it and we didn’t really complain much. The petrified forest offers a 28 mile long drive through their park that has different viewpoints and little spots to see some neat stuff. At one point, there was a rock pit with a bunch of petroglyphs on them. Over 650 petroglyphs. It was pretty sick (the good kind of sick). There were a few other stops in the petrified forest, but we pretty much booked it out of there as we had a few other stops to make and it was already pushing four in the afternoon.
One good thing about going to the petrified forest, was that on the way back we passed through Holbrook, AZ instead of bypassing it on the freeway (the exit to the forest is on state highway 180, not on the freeway) we had to travel through the town. While on our way back to the freeway we discovered something: a wigwam hotel with teepees you can stay in. It looked just like the cone hotel in Cars that Sally runs. Toto jumped out of the car (I was driving) and took a ton of pictures for Zack.
If you get of I-40 Westbound at the very first exit for Winslow, AZ the first thing you will see is a memorial for the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. That is what welcomes you into their town. The metal “sculpture” in this little garden is actually two pieces of twisted and rested metal from the World Trade Center itself. It was dedicated exactly one year after the attacks, and boasts the motto “United we stand”. The garden is not very big, but it is powerful just to drive by.
Other than that, Winslow is a very small and lighthearted town. If you like The Eagles, then you have probably heard the song “Take it Easy” sung by Glenn Fry. If not, the second verse goes something like this: “Well I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see, it’s a girl my lord in a flatbed ford slowing down to take a look at me, come on baby, don’t say maybe, I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me, we may lose and we may win but we will never be here again, so open up I’m climbin’ in, take it easy.” Well you can imagine that a tiny little town in the middle of the desert in Arizona on a dried up stretch of old Route 66 could probably appreciate the publicity that a song by a major group like The Eagles could give them. Ten years ago when Josh and I were little (ok he was 10 and I was 13) we did a big loop in the South West. One of our stops was Flagstaff, so we decided to drive over to Winslow because of the song. We expected it to be tiny and dusty and not a lot to do there but we were going to go stand on a corner there just for bragging rights. Well when we got there, we discovered that the “city” had built a little corner up with a bronze musician with his guitar (he looked nothing like Glenn Fry, though I have heard someone say that it is supposed to be Don Henley and I veto that because it looks nothing like him either), and on the wall of the building behind him is a painting of windows with the reflection of a girl in a flatbed ford, it was AWESOME!! We had a blast. I have ALWAYS been a big Eagles fan, so even at 13 it was super sweet to go there and see that. Well since we were going to drive right past Winslow, we knew we had to stop. We were surprised again. They actually have a flatbed ford now sitting next to the corner with the statue! I was so excited. I was going to get to be the “girl in the flat bed ford” from the song for a minute or two! Well, not exactly, the cab to the truck was locked, but I got to stand in the back of it. So I was still TECHNICALLY in the ford. We, of course, had to buy souvenirs here. I had been eye-balling a Route 66 sweatshirt at the petrified forest gift shop, but thought I could find something better in Winslow, and boy did I! I got a shot glass, a sweatshirt (that says both “Take it Easy” and Route 66 on it), a t-shirt, a window decal for my car, and a couple of post cards. I made out like a bandit. I think I spent less than $75. We had a blast, again.
Winslow is about 60 miles from Flagstaff. We hit Flagstaff about an hour and a half before sunset, and Toto was in a right panic about getting up to the Grand Canyon before the sun went down. Here is another memory from my childhood: the same trip that we went to Winslow when we were kinds, we also went to the Grand Canyon. We got there right at sunset. Toto was not super thrilled about this back then (this is before the age of the digital camera, at least the decent ones) so she could not get the kind of pictures she had wanted to take. I was not all that thrilled by it back then, but I think that is because you have to be older to really appreciate it. Dad had always said things to us like “It’s just a big hole in the ground.” Toto HATED it when he did that. Well when we got there, we all went out to the viewpoint, Toto took as many pictures as she possibly could, then we turned around, and Josh was gone. Toto and Dad freaked out. They went nuts looking for him. We finally found him back at the truck, in the bed of it just waiting for us. “It’s just a big hole in the ground” he said to us when questioned why he had left. Toto was furious. So on our way up to the Grand Canyon the other day, Josh and I kept saying things like “I don’t know what the big deal is all about, it’s just a big hole in the ground” just to poke fun at her. We got to the canyon right before sunset, so Toto got some good pictures, though she was irritated that it was the same time of day as last time. She informed us we might be venturing back that way the next day from our lodgings in Page, AZ. We did however lose Josh again. This time, it was because someone had to use the rest room, and the rest of us didn’t feel like going back quite yet. We ended up walking the road back to the parking lot (there is a bunch of construction so you have to walk way out of the way to get to the view points) and wondering where he was. Right as I was reaching for my phone to call him, he called me. I asked him where he was, he informed me he was walking along a road. I told him I was too! A little red car had just passed me, so I told him to be on the look out for one (trying to determine if he was behind us on the road or in front of us). He saw a silver one. I told him to hold the phone away from his head and yell really loudly, and I thought I heard him (not through the phone) when he did. I laughed and said “this is like playing Marco Polo, but with a cell phone.” So, I told him that there was a red Dodge Ram pickup with a canopy and double head lights passing me, and he said he saw it a few moments later. So I yelled “JOSH!!!” really loudly, and I heard him yell “HI!!” back. So we found him (darn it!). Then we piled in the car and headed toward our destination that night (Page, AZ).
Now usually, I do not sleep in the car, but we had gotten up early remember, and we had done a ton of stuff, so I was tired. I ended up dozing in and out in the two plus hours to our hotel in Page. Once we got there, we unloaded, found our room, and crashed. It was nearly one in the morning.
License Plates Seen
Oregon (not our own)
Playlist
Boston
Heart
Jason Aldean
Josh Gracin
Mark Broussard
Taylor Swift
Lonestar
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