Rock on Wood

October 1, 2012

We really didn’t have anything big planned today, get groceries, get truck washed, stuff like that.  Well, we looked at some info about Holbrook and found it had quite an Old West past, complete with gunfights, etc.  In the 1886 there were 26 gunfight related deaths in a town of only 250.  So we went to a museum in the Courthouse to learn more. There is a street here named Bucket of Blood Ave, named after a gunfight in a saloon where 2 Mexicans were shot.  Someone said it looked like somebody spilled a bucket of blood; hence the name of the steet. The place got cleaned up after electing Sheriff Commodore Perry Owen.

Also Route 66 goes through town, actually it makes a turn, supposedly the only 90 degree turn in the whole route.  The cool thing though was the WigWam Hotel.  This is commonly shown in most any video about Route 66.  It is still open, and you can still rent a teepee for the night.

Wow 3 weeks on the road.  Time is flying by.   Tomorrow we leave for the Grand Canyon, doubt if we’ll find WiFi, so this may be the last post for a few days.  

September 30, 2012

Today we visited the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks.  These parks lie on either side of I-40, the Desert to the north, and the Forest to the south. Combined they are part of the Colorado Plateau formed millions of years ago.  The Painted Desert derived its name from the badland type mesas that show different colors of sediment within the up-croppings.  The Petrified Forest has more of these same mesas and colors, however it also contains areas where wood was buried in a tropical sea formed 225 million years ago.

The wood soaked up a high silica containing slurry.  Arizona at this time was near the equator.  As the continents shifted and the ocean receded, the silica and other minerals soaked into the wood, hardened (petrified) the wood.  All the wood and logs lie on their sides, although we have read there are stumps within the park, but are not visible in the public areas.  The “wood” became exposed as wind and water eroded the softer clay covering the wood, as well as small granite rocks once on the sea and river bottoms.

Petrified wood is about 80% as hard as diamond.  It is amazing in that it looks just like wood on the outside, but it’s actually stone.  The inside may have multiple colors depending on the minerals adsorbed.  Red, blue, purple, yellow; or it may just be brown like the original wood; depending on how porous the wood was when it sunk and what other minerals were present in the silica.

For years people have been removing “samples” from the park area, which was the driver for making it a National Park.  To the tune of tons per month!  They are serious about not taking it, as they question you as you leave, and may inspect your vehicle.  If caught, they will arrest you and fine you a minimum of $325.  In the long run, it is cheaper to buy the stuff, although it is tempting.

We have tried to select a few pictures to give you a flavor of these parks if you have never visited.  If you have, you know no pictures do it justice.  You just cannot capture this beauty in pictures.

Painted Desert

Petrified Forest

We haven’t talked much about the weather. Well it has been perfect, mid 80s in the daytime, and 50s at night.  We actually run a little heater in the morning to warm up the place a bit.  Our next stop is the Grand Canyon which is getting down into the mid 30s at night.  We may need that 2^nd heater.  The rig has been working flawlessly, getting 9 to 11 mpg towing and 16 – 18 mpg running free.  It is really dirty though, our goal today is to find a car wash in Holbrook.