Holbrook, Arizona

This is a small town on the original Route 66.  It is also 20 miles from the entrance to Petrified Forest National Park.  In addition to the the fossils of some very large reptiles, the town has some very nicely fossilized kitsch.  Apparently a guy named John Lassiter was inspired by the town.  He created a Pixar movie called Cars based upon that inspiration.

I learned about the Petrified Forest by watching cartoons as a kid.  I think it was a Yogi the Bear cartoon that introduced the concept.  As I recall, Yogi swings an axe which ricochets off the tree and sets up a violent, harmonic resonance in Yogi.  The view then pans to a sign saying Petrified Tree.

It was profoundly moving to walk among the fossilized remains of the 200 million year old trees which predate the age of dinosaurs.  This was during the days of Pangaea, when present day Alabama was equatorial.  The presentation is so good that you can see the growth rings, the texture of the bark, and broken limbs.  200 million years.  What does that even mean?  How privileged we are to be here!  

Today we drove into Flagstaff.  We were here a couple of years back when we came out with Maggie to the Grand Canyon.  The weather is beautiful.  The rain has moved on.  We are still expecting another day of high winds.  We can shelter in Flagstaff's coffee shops, bars and restaurants before heading back to camp tonight.  Tomorrow we will be driving to the highly urbanized Scottsdale.  We've been invited to stay with a former work colleague, Dr. Joyce Tokar and her husband David.  The are living "off the grid" and I'm excited to see there home and how they are set up.  After that, on to Tucson for an eight day stay.  I've not gotten as many miles on the bike as I had planned for, and Tucson, and Mount Lemon, should offer me a chance at redemption..