July 17

Left Grand Canyon and headed for Meteor Crater. Highways are boring, so we took Zelda’s advice (Zelda- our GPS guide) and went off on logging roads. It was a short cut too! It never ceases to amaze us that this GPS thing can guide you along every dirt road in creation. Even some that don’t exist as we found out later!

On the way we stopped off at the Indian ruins in Wapatki Park. Hot but interesting with stunning scenery: cinder cones, painted desert, lava fields, volcano, and cliffs.

Went looking for another Ghost town, this one called Two Guns. With a name like that, it was sure to be a real Wild West kind of place. Well, the only Wild West about it was the cartoon cowboy painted on a 30-foot high water tank! It was another abandoned gas station/campground on Route 66 in the middle of nowhere. I guess that it was a victim of the interstate passing it by. This one was sort of sad though, we drove through it and looked at the dead shade trees, empty swimming pool, abandoned office and ruined washrooms. With the background sky filled with thunderclouds and the wind blowing Tumbleweeds through it, it did have a ghostly feel, but a poignant one.

Could almost see the families camping there on their way along Route 66. Left there feeling kind of sad, someone’s dreams now just a place to laugh at and vandalize.

Meteor Crater was something I was looking forward to seeing. It lived up to my expectations.

As we left the crater, Zelda suggested that we head for Winslow (to stand on a corner) but avoid the highway and go along these well-marked country roads. Seemed like a good idea at the time…….

At first, the roads were good 1 ½ lane dirt and gravel and Zelda was constantly telling us we were “on route”. Then her demonic side began to show. “Turn left.” Guess what, no road there, just a dried up riverbed! So, we just kept going because we were headed in sort of the right direction. “Off route” – a voice we were to hear a lot from then on. The road was now just a rutted dirt path, but still headed sort of east, into the approaching thunderstorms. As we wandered around this absolutely flat, treeless desert, occasionally we would hear “On route, turn in 1/3 of a mile” as we zigg-zagged across where the road supposedly was! As the voice faded off I swear I could hear laughter over the sounds of the undercarriage smashing into another lump of hardened mud. At first I thought it was the kids laughing but soon realized it was Zelda.

The car rental agreement states that we can't go off "hard-surface" roads. I guess that the rocks we are hitting qualify as hard!

Following along this worn out wagon road we came around one of the numerous corners to discover an abandoned watering hole. A few scrawny trees circled a dried up mud hole that once had water pumped into it for the cattle. The windmill was now defunct and there were no cattle to be seen, except one. Unfortunately this one was deceased...fortunately long ago. Kind of interesting though, the cow obviously died with a full stomach, the remains of its last meal was lying on top of a bunch of ribs and other bones. Even more exciting, you can see the dead (or dying) cow on Google Earth at: 35 degrees 03' 17.72" N 110degrees 55' 18.81" W just west of Winslow, Az. Zoom way in.

After about 90 minutes of this, we were “back on route” again, still a cow-trail, and we could see the highway (our destination) about two miles ahead. The only problem was that there was a train track on a berm between us and the highway. Indeed, there was an underpass but it was a dry riverbed with huge rocks sitting in the mud. The only thing left was to turn around and head back, into the rapidly approaching thunderstorm. I finally began to get a bit stressed at this point, with the prospect of having to drive for miles and miles through a torrential downpour, getting dark, tracks turning to mud and flash floods! God really was looking after us though, the rain stayed about 5 minutes behind us and the lightning only hit the higher spots near us, not us! The only point that actually made me nervous was when I had to open and close a steel cattle gate….in a thunderstorm….at the top of a hill…..right beside the cow skeleton……with a 40mph wind….in hindsight, I should have made Kendra or one of the kids do it!

That was just as I remember the trips Dad used to take us on when I was younger!

Gave up heading for Winslow and started towards Sedona. GREAT thunderstorm on the way, lightning every 15 seconds and not far away at all. We could see the whole bolt from cloud to ground. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got to Oak Creek Canyon (5 miles from Sedona), and couldn’t see the scenery as we descended the switchbacks. It is supposed to be a great drive. Got into our hotel at about 10pm. Kind of late but we made it! We’ll be here for 3 nights.