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| At this point there was plenty of green forest |
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| Some very spectacular scenery going through the mountains |
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| Miles of hair pin turns , some times at only 25 or 35 mile per hour speed limits |
How wood gets petrified
Petrified wood is created when a living tree falls into a stream, it gets caught and gets buried under sand and mud . Through time it gets buried deeper and deeper under the mud. It gets cut of from oxygen and ceases rotting. Silica in the ground water infiltrates the wood and through a chemical reaction replaces the organic mater with quartz crystals and minerals. The log is petrified. Subsequent erosion of the surrounding rock re-exposes the petrified log. Continued erosion undercuts the log causing it to crack into segments . This wood is thousands of years old. |
| This area was once semi arid grassland and forest, during the Triassic period. At that time it was approximately 10 degrees north of the equator, near present day Costa Rico. As the super continent Pangea broke apart it drifted north . Some 218 million years later, this area is at 35 degrees north latitude. The Colorado plateau lifted slowly over millions of years raising this park to almost one mile above sea level. That is why the park is arid today. |
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| There is a cabin that has been reconstructed from Petrified wood in the park and we were in need of a good hike as we have been lacking exercise in the last week . It was much simpler than I expected but it was just to show what kind of buildings had been constructed in that time period. The window was put in the reconstructed building so visitors could see inside |
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| There were no doors in these buildings, only openings from the top. A ladder was used to climb up on the out side and another to come down into the building. |
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| Based upon the archeological digs the house would have been of the design in the picture and built between between 1050 and 1300 . A thousand years ago. |
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| over he thousands of years , after the logs have become petrified , and turned to stone rather than wood, the pressure from the all the layers of earth above them breaks them into pieces. Wind and water over the centuries has uncovered them again. |
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| The colors are created by the different minerals that got absorbed into the wood. |
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| Theses pieces are taken and cut into slices and polished to make beautiful table tops etc. |
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| This log was over 100 feet long |
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| A typical scene |
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| a close up shot from the picture above |
We took a down day, to just relax and get caught up un a few things. We walked downtown along Navajo drive, the main street and the along old Route 66. Most of the towns along Route 66 are really run down with many empty buildings. I find it amazing that interstate 40 was built to replace Route 66 about 60 years ago and these towns have never recovered.
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| This hotel along route 66 has about 20 or so wigwams that you can rent for the night. The yard is full of old interesting cars from the 50 's and 60's. Behind the wigwams there is a 2 story conventional motel |
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| In front of each wigwam there is an old car parked. This camper was my favorite. |
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| Typical run down old building along the street. |
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| At one time this would have been a thriving business , but now it is clos as well. |
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| The logs along the front of this building are petrified wood |
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| Taking a break on our walk |
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| The only modern buildings in the downtown were the hardware store and the grocery store. |
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| With a population of 5000 and only one grocery store, they can afford a nice building. |
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| Sign outside of the McDonalds. Minimum wage went to $12.80 per hour from $12.15 on January 1st. They must have difficulty hiring here as well as this town doesn't have any large employers, and would have a lower than average income as compared to most cities. |
We found a place to empty our tanks at a Maverik Gas station . They offer this service at no charge to RVs but unfortunately because it is still below freezing most nights, they don't have the water turned on yet. After a bit of searching we found a water tap at the city hall than was winterized and working. Hopefully we will be in a warmer area by the time we need our next fill.
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| The park is 28 miles from north to south . We drove through the park all the way to the north end to get an overview and then started to work our way back. |
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The Painted Desert Inn was built in the 1920 to serve as a hotel along Route 66, to day it has been restored and serves as the visitors center. It has long and interesting history Click on this link for the whole story Painted Desert Inn |
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| This is the area that the Inn overlooks. Pictures really cannot do justice to the beauty of this landscape |
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| We hiked along the rim of this area as they do not let anyone walk through the valley |
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| Rio Puerco is the site of a Pueblo that contained maybe 100 rooms and as many as 200 people. It was inhabited between AD 1250 and 1380. Archaeologists have only excavated about 1/3 of the site. |
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| Some of the walls that have been uncovered |
It was a cold night in Amarillo Texas. It was -13 when we left Amarillo and a couple of times there was a small sprinkle of snow coming down. The water pipes froze in the Gypsy Wagon but by 10 o'clock the temperature had gone up to + 12 on a bright and sunny day. The speed limit is 75 on Highway 40, but we kept it just below 70 mph so we made great time .
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| Amarillo to Holbrook |
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| Texas beef at its best, mostly black Angus, One might think the herds would be in the hundreds but they are generally pretty small, The land is so poor and desert like that they would not support many head of cattle per acre. |
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| As soon as you enter in New Mexico the terrain changes from flat and rolling to mountainous. |
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| The landscape takes on the look of the Grand Canyon , and Sedona areas with the many layers of different colored rocks. Very spectacular. The white in the picture is snow that is still there |
When we stopped for coffee we spotted a tire shop next door to the McDonalds and they were kind enough to let us fill our fresh water tank from their garden hose. While filling the tank I chatted with the owner and asked him how everything was including what was happening with the virus. The told me last year was really bad and he lost a few of his friends to the virus but now they were learning how to live with it and to take some precautions to help stop the spread. The best part was when he told me that he takes a small amount , maybe a 1/4 teaspoon of ivermectin to keep the virus away. This was the horse de wormer that Donald Trump was promoting along with his hydroxychloroquine.
Most employees wear masks when serving customers but very few of the customers wear masks. Most establishments have a sign at the door that states the federal position on masks. If you are not vaccinated you must wear masks, if you are vaccinated you are not required. No one checks. Since non vaccinated people generally do not want to wear masks, it ends up with almost no one wearing one.
Oklahoma is mostly rolling and rather poor quality land so most of it is used for cattle ranching in this area, and a bit of cotton near the Oklahoma , Texas border. Texas produces over 40 % of all the cotton grown in the USA.
Where ever they have cattle grazing they have dug ponds, may be an acre or two in size to water the cattle. They are man made and seem out of place as the land around them appears to very dry.
Bit of snow cover similar to home in Michigan and Ohio and then pretty bare the rest of the way. It got up to plus 3 at one point and around -6 last night.
We stopped just out side of St Louis for the night at a Home Depot.
Big day tomorrow, hopefully Amarillo Texas tomorrow and Holbrook AZ on Thursday. Then it is slow down time
Arizona , and Baja California Mexico here we come!!!!!
We got off to a bit of a late start as our lithium batteries in the coach were dead. You have to keep them above -15 to prevent damage , which I had done with a heat lamp in the battery compartment. ( Left over from the chicken days) . The other issue is that the batteries will not accept a charge below -6. We used the batteries all day yesterday when we were packing. It was-16 when we were ready to leave . The leveling system hydraulic pumps were down so we were stuck. The generator would not start with out the battery as it would have supplied electricity to the system. After about an hour with the truck engine running to warm the place up there was enough energy to start the generator which made every thing work. Motor homes are not insulated or made for -16 weather. At the end of the day it was a good experience for the future.
We finally got away on a cold crisp day with perfect driving conditions at 9:00am , we never even took the cruise off, set at 105 klm all the way through Toronto on the 401 until Erin Mills where we lost about 3 minutes due to construction. Arrived at the Caesar Windsor Casino at 5:30 .
We stay here before crossing the border because they provide free over night parking and in the cold weather we appreciate that they give us free electricity as well. Just us a couple of Teslas in this parking area.
