We ate breakfast at their fabulous outdoor uncovered wagon. It really was neat. They had it all decked out with an outdoor grill. We should have taken a picture, but it was early and we wanted to eat and get on the road.
We arrived at the Petrified Forest pretty early.
We stopped at the Ranger station and gift shop. They have informative maps and samples of petrified wood and different rocks we could touch and pick up. They have a Junior Ranger program for the kids. All they have to do is fill out some pages in a little booklet and at the other end of the forest a Ranger will swear you in, sign your certificate, and give you your badge. Tabitha wanted to do it, and I decided Michael should do it as well.
We headed out to see the beautiful scenery.
This was our first stop. Isn't it beautiful? There are a lot of these little side road places to stop to take pictures and get different views of the forest. This stop happened to have steps going down to it. The whole area was paved with pebbles. As we headed up the steps, a Mexican family was walking by. This apparently freaked Kimie out, because she took off like a bolt of lightning, only to be stopped by my lack of coordination. I didn't lift my flip flop clad foot high enough to make the steps and the big toe on my left foot caught the pebbled steps straight on. I went down with a thud. So I'm laying across the steps, face down, not moving. "Are you okay?" I don't even know who said it. All I knew was I could feel my heart beating through my toe. Somebody took the leash out of my hand. Somebody helped my stand up. I decided to stand on my foot to see how bad it was. It was very squishy under my toe. "I'm bleeding. I need to clean it up to see how bad it is." By the time I hobbled over to the RV, Kimie was a nervous wreck. Not only had the people freaked her out, she got choked at the end of the leash when I fell, and then was scooped off to the RV. We doctored my toe, (it wasn't broken, but the nail had been shoved back into the skin) put a finger bandage on it, and headed to the next stop.
Now, the reason I mentioned this family was Mexican was because every stop from here forward, they would talk in Spanish. We knew they all spoke English because they were asking about me when I fell. At the first stop they were talking and giggling. Tabitha knew enough to understand they were laughing about my bandage. Isn't that rude? Anyway, here are some of the beautiful pictures.
The kids are looking at petroglyphs in the rocks here. The next picture shows some in the rocks.
This concludes the tour of the Petrified Forest. Of course, we did have to stop by the Ranger station on the way out so the kids could get their Junior Ranger certificates and badges.
The picture is blurry because the RV was moving down the road.
We are now headed to the Grand Canyon by way of the Meteor Crater. Here is a little lesson about the Meteor Crater:
"Today, this best-preserved and first-proven meteorite impact site is nearly a mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference, and over 550 feet deep, as tall as a 60-story building! The vast floor of the Crater is large enough to accommodate 20 football games being played simultaneously as over two million fans watch from the sloping walls of the impact site! You will take an exhilarating step into space as you experience the magnitude of this awe inspiring crater from the observation decks overhanging its depths. The topographical terrain of Meteor Crater so closely resembles that of the Earth's Moon and other Planets, NASA designated it as an official training site for the Apollo Astronauts, and it has been the setting for the movie "Star Man" and numerous documentaires."
It was very windy and we were surrounded by a rain storm when we arrived at the Meteor Crater. We left the dogs in the RV for their own protection. That wind could have swooped them into the crater!
Shirley and I are standing on the path that leads down to the observation decks.
In this picture, we are headed down to one of the lower observation decks from the main building.
Charlie took Tabitha and Michael up to the highest observation deck.
Behind the rocks where Tabitha and Michael are standing, is the 550 foot drop of the Meteor Crater. I didn't go up there, however I did freak out when I saw this picture and the fact that there was no railing up there to protect my kids!!
That little pink spot down there is me. Charlie took this picture from the top observation deck. I'm standing on one of the lower observation decks. They have several high powered scopes on this level pointing to various sites.
Although this is not a flattering picture for Charlie, it does show the scopes and their references.
Charlie and Tabitha ventured down to the lowest observation deck.
Actual Apollo Test Capsule.
This is a brick wall at the exit to the Meteor Crater. They have made it appear to have a picture frame in the middle of the wall. I liked it, so I took this picture.
They have an informative video in a movie room at the Meteor Crater. It is included in the cost of entrance, so we decided to go. Michael was being nice to his dad and saved him a seat next to him. As soon as Charlie went to sit down, Michael let go of the seat and Charlie was sitting on the floor! They were in the row in front of us and we had a perfect shot at what happened! Of course, Michael was devastated and we were all laughing!
With damage to my toe and now Charlie's bottom, we decided not to push our luck with the RV. Meteor Crater had an RV park a little ways down the road, so that's where we decided to stay for the night.
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