Petrified Forest National Park and driving to Flagstaff

 Most of yesterday and half of today looked like this.

But somewhere before Albuquerque the scenery began to change…and then revert to flat and boring. Good thing I was knitting to pass the time. 

 

Steve’s sister used to teach at Thoreau Junior High. We lived in Brazil at the time and never made it out to see her there. I-40 passes right by Thoreau, so we got off and followed the signs. “Go toward the red rocks,” Patty told us. And sure enough, there it was--with a police car outside to enforce the no-entry-after-school-hours rule. (Sorry, Patty; this was as close as I could get.)

 

We stopped for lunch in Gallup, the nearest town when Patty was teaching here. El Rancho was another local experience. Like our Boomerang diner yesterday, it was on US Route 66. I kept thinking of my friend Stephanie Landsem’s book In a Far-Off Land, a retelling of Christ's parable about the prodigal son (or the prodigal father, as some call it) set in 1930s Hollywood. The hotel/restaurant in Gallup dates from the 1930s and hosted numerous Hollywood personalities whose pictures were all over the walls. 

 

 

As if the 8-and-a-half hour drive from Amarillo to Flagstaff weren’t enough, we decided to add Petrified Forest National Park. (Love that lifetime seniors pass!) The northern section is mainly painted desert.

 

If only we had had time to walk some of the trails! Those are petrified logs in the foreground.

 

The petrified forest part in the south is full of stone stumps and even whole fallen trees turned to stone. Again, I wished for more time to explore.

We are staying two nights in Flagstaff so we have time to explore the scenic highways and byways in the National Geographic book. Steve had just turned on his computer when it beeped at him and reminded him we were traveling to Santa Fe tomorrow. Uh... That's supposed to be next week. Our snacky, crash-in-the-room supper was delayed while he got that straightened out.

To Amarillo, TX

Today was a driving day. I had packed picnic stuff, but it was too cold and windy at lunch time, and we hadn't seen a single rest stop with tables. When we got all the way around Tulsa without seeing a Subway (or any other franchise we recognized except McDonalds), we pulled off the tollroad at Bristow, OK. The woman in the toll booth recommended Boomerang, a local diner with a Route 66 theme, which was everything we could have hoped for.

Every table was taken when we arrived, which speaks well to the quality of the food. But we didn't have to wait long. Steve had a patty melt, Mom had a BLT, and I had the hand-breaded catfish sandwich with lettuce and tomato.

Yesterday afternoon we did our first escape room in Branson with Erika and Simeon. It was chaotic. Even with lots of hints we were on the last puzzle when time ran out. If you enlarge the above picture, you will find a word puzzle on the wall above Elvis. We joked that we couldn't escape the diner without solving it. If you solve it, let me know in the comments. I'll put a hint there in a few days for those who haven't succeeded.

Branson, MO

 I’m not feeling real motivated to blog this trip. With Covid, it has been a long time since we have done much travel, and it is a lot of work to collate pictures and write up an account every night. Mostly so far has been family stuff, but when we get out west, I know I will wish for an account. The destination is Grand Canyon—a place Mom has been but not Steve or I. We have our trusty National Geographic Scenic Highways and Byways book to suggest routes.

We spent a couple days with Erika, Dan and Simeon in Lansing, KS, to see their new home. It’s five levels. Not five stories. Each level is only a few steps up or down from something else. A bit hard for Mom to get around, but after going up eight steps, she was able to keep to one floor for the two nights, three days we were there. 

 

Erika and Simeon and I went for a walk in a local park, but mostly it was rainy and we just hung out.

 

 

The rain followed us south to Branson. Erika and Simeon came with to the time-share we have for three nights. It is very nice with two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen/dining room/living room. There is even a gas fireplace and three TVs. 

We are not into the shows Branson is famous for, but last night at the Mexican restaurant there was a map on the wall that showed a huge lake area created by a dam in the Ozarks—well worth coming back to explore when it isn’t raining.

 

Erika, Simeon and I went out yesterday despite the drizzle. All Trails sent us to Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area along the river where we hiked a pleasant trail to an old homestead. 

 

Then we started down the steps toward a cave where a local man hid during the Civil War, supplied by his wife. There were 315 stone steps. Although it wasn’t raining at the moment, it HAD been raining. We went VERY carefully.  

 

 

Two/thirds of the way down we came upon a small cave.

 

 

Coming out of the cave, Simeon was very excited about a rock he had found. He wasn’t thinking about how slippery the wet rocks and leaves outside were. He went down. Fortunately, there was a level space in front of the cave and he did not go tumbling down the steps. But he did dislocate his little finger. That was the end of our hike. Instead, we went in search of an urgent care. In the car he managed to slip his finger back into place and by the time we arrived it didn’t hurt as much. He came away with an order for an X-ray if it wasn’t better, but he seems to be fine.

Tomorrow Erika and Simeon will return to Lansing, and the three of us will have a long drive to Abilene, TX, and the edge of our Western adventures.