Get Your Kicks...

... But Not Before 11am

Continuing the drift west today and I am going to try and stick as close as possible to the original Route 66. In flagrant violation of that principle, I initially head on to I40, but only briefly as I aim for an iconic Route 66 location, the Jackrabbit Trading Post.

Before I get to the turn off, I am accosted by many signs for the Geronimo Trading Post. I would have ignored these but then one of them pronounced that it contained the worlds biggest petrified tree and so, bound by the previously expressed rules of the road, I veer off to take a look.

The trading post is closed, but I can’t deny the presence of some large petrified logs. World’s Largest? I am unable to confirm. This once again raises the question of who if anyone verifies these claims (last year I visited one of the 3 or 4 claimants in the US alone which supposedly have the World’s Largest Frying Pan) or whether it is just accepted that any town can make a wild claim to a tourist draw. Wild West indeed.

Yep, its a big old petrified log

And so, duly documented, I head on to the The Jackrabbit Trading Post. This is actually on the original Route 66, Has a large rabbit that you can sit on, should such be your thing, and is also not open until 11am. To be fair it is Sunday and a holiday weekend so I can’t grumble … and of course prevents me from getting sucked in to buying any tourist tat.

Yep, that's the Mother Road!

And so on to Winslow, another iconic Route 66 town. Immortalised in not one, but at least two songs. The Eagles song “Take it Easy” refers to hanging out on a corner in Winslow Arizona, and I am duly visiting said corner. To be fair, it is the most diffuse corner I have encountered as it (and the accompanying Eagles blaring out of speakers, profusion of gift shops) seems to spread to several streets.

I decide to explore a little while I am here, if only to escape from the other tourists who are just clustering for photo ops at “the corner” and am rewarded by the discovery of the worlds smallest church - which had I missed would have seen me drummed out of the League of Road Trippers. The Church of the Mother Road is indeed tiny and, it being Sunday and me being the good religious chap that I am, I take a look.

As I pull away from the corner to head out of Winslow, “Take it Easy” pops up on my Spotify playlist. Now this is not astronomically improbable on a random shuffle of 500 or so songs, but was odd. Methinks the universe is playing silly buggers with me again. Made me smile anyway.

Onwards to one of the few places on this trip that I am visiting for the second time - The Arizona Meteor (twitch) Crater. Even second time around, the Meteor rather than Meteorite bothers me. They do research at this place, surely they can get the terminology right? Grrr. Anyway, OCD pushed to one side, I cruise up the approach road, snag the last parking place ( yes, this not realising it was a holiday weekend is starting to tell) and merrily skip the queue with my online ticket (senior rate of course!).

Well I know this is a spectacular sight, but I had not expected to make new friends here.

I’m sorry, you want to put what where?

Now the problem with the Meteor…ite crater is that it looks spectacular in person, but the photographs never do it justice.

So to try and assist with the sense of proportion, a series of photographs at different levels of zoom.

Look at the white patch at the bottom. This was a mining operation of the original owner (the family still own the crater it turns out) who spent ages and much cash, trying to find the meteorite to sell the iron, not realising that most of it vapourised on impact.

Now zooming in…

… you can make out a little more. The two dark objects are a steam boiler and winch used in the mine…

… and finally you can see the mine shaft and the astronaut (they trained the Apollo astronauts here), which is 6 feet tall. Does that help with scale?

You have to be there I guess.

Now before heading to Sedona I’m going to try and visit a ghost town in Diablo Canyon. Atlas Obscura says that this is the remains of a town which grew to service (use you imagination as to what that means) several thousand men who temporarily lived there to build a railway bridge.

Well, unless I have gone astray, it is so much of a ghost town that there is nothing there. The bridges are there, but no sign of habitation, other than some ruins which look far too recent.

There is a strange gathering on the wasteland that I drove across to get here. The local Navajo are all setting up their grills. I guess bank holiday Sunday barbecue is universal?

Onwards to my final destination of Sedona, and a few days pause, with minimal driving (or possibly none if I can bring myself to abuse the complimentary transport at the hotel I am staying in - apparently I can call someone up and get dropped off or picked up anywhere in a 5 mile radius for nowt, sweet).

The drive to Sedona is interesting - partly because of excessive traffic (again with the holiday weekend), but also because the route through Oak Creek Canyon, is a mad road.

The canyon is pretty but as you come out and get a glimpse of what surrounds Sedona, it is stunning. I think I may like it here…