After departing Holbrook this morning our journey west took us into Geronimo, Joseph City and then into the famous Winslow just so we could "Take It Easy" and drive by the "Standing on the Corner" statue dedicated to the classic Eagles song "Take It Easy". A mural painted on a fire gutted building behind the statue depicts a "girl in a flatbed ford," as if reflected in a shop window. Winslow has two, one way streets for the main drag and to witness the above we had to retrace the east bound portion before stopping to photograph an old motel on the north side of town for posterity reasons.
Further west we stopped at Meteor City to snap a quick image of the "Worlds Longest Map of Route 66" and then headed further west to the actual meteor crater to see the results of the impact, which left a huge hole in the desert. The crater itself is one mile across, 570 feet deep, and three miles in circumference. The crater was created from an object hitting the earth at 45,000 miles an hour at impact.
Our next side trip took us north up to Grand Canyon National Park. Beginning about 70 million years ago give or take a decade or two, heat and pressure generated by two colliding tectonic plates induced mountain building in Western North America. An area known as the Colorado Plateau was raised more than 10,000 feet but was spared most of the deformation and alteration associated with the uplifting of strata. The high plateau, so critical to Grand Canyon's story, is a geological puzzle that researchers still seek to understand. The balance of the day found John and I photographing this grand geological showcase with such a dazzling variety of colorful rock layers, impressive buttes and shadowed side canyons.
This evening we departed The Grand Canyon at dusk and enjoyed a nighttime eighty mile an hour trip with John riding on my heel on his Harley to Williams where we eventually found hard to get accommodations. I generally refrain from nighttime riding as it can be difficult to read the road surface and the danger from wildlife wandering onto the roads is greater too, however tonight was such a thrill with wide open road and no traffic. Our $19.00 per night rooms cost us $89.00 each which we gladly forked over as the balance of the city was booked solid. Our prestigious rooms looked good at night however morning brought a different perspective. Today we travelled 433 kilometers of which 120 kilometers was east to west. Our progress continues steady but slow. Stay tuned.
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| World`s Longest Map of Route 66 |
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| Meteor Crater |
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| Grand Canyon |
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| Abandoned Motel in Winslow Arizona |
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