Beautiful stretch of road going through California...
Lots of windmills...we've seen many of these all along the way...
California landscape...it sort of looks like snow, but it is actually the sun hitting the rocks...
There are many opportunities to drive on historic Route 66. This is near Kingman, California where you can still see many remnants of the buildings that used to line the highway. It would be really fun to take a drive along there, but we're really trying to keep moving!
Crossing into Arizona and going from Pacific time to Mountain time...
The landscape reminded us a lot of Australia. It's amazing how the topography changes from state to state...
Amazing cuts through the rocks...
We went over a pass at 7300 ft and Jim found it quite hard for breathing. With his limited lung capacity, high elevations are not his friend!
This is still at high altitude, but it looks like the prairies!
I know we're trying to keep moving, but I couldn't resist this! I was figuring it was probably some hokey landmark, but we weren't far away, so we decided to investigate.
Holy moly!!! This was more than I could have imagined! 55,000 years ago a meteor about 150 ft across and weighing several hundred thousand tons hit the plains of Arizona at approximately 40,000 miles an hour. This 700 ft deep crater was the result....mind boggling.... the little black dot is a person on the viewing deck below.
Over time the crater depth has lessened to 550 feet due to eroding of the walls. It is approximately 4000 ft across.
A movie was showing which we missed by 5 minutes. I would have loved to have seen it, but it was time to get moving...
It was totally fascinating!
It was getting dark by the time we reached our destination of Holbrook, Arizona. The squiggly lines are what street lights look like when you're moving!
We got up early the next morning to get an early start. We were still at an elevation of 5000 ft and it wasn't surprising to find snow when we started out.
Next thing we were climbing back to 7000 ft and the roads were icy.
We came to a sudden halt and these cars were our neighbours for the next hour. We figured there must have been an accident and they finally took everyone off the highway onto a service road. Yay! We were moving at last! That lasted for about 10 minutes and then we sat on the service road for the next 90 minutes. Several cups of coffee and sitting on the highway for 2-1/2 hours is not a pretty picture!! We finally got moving and never did see what the problem was.
The traffic was backed up for miles...
Finally we started to come down in elevation and passed through Albuquerque, New Mexico. For all the Bugs Bunny fans, I got to say "I think I took a wrong toin at Albuquoicky!"
It is so similar to the prairies, but there are no towns or farms to break the monotony. It is endless miles of...nothing!
"World's Largest Cross" outside Groom, Texas...
Oklahoma City on the fly...
Tomorrow we're heading to Memphis to see if the King is still in the building...
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