Good 'Til the Last Drop

We got an early start Tuesday morning, it was still overcast with light sprinkles, but nothing like the night before.  After a great breakfast at the Super 8 (waffles, cereal, apples, yogurt, mmmm) and a conversation with Jan and Ken from Riverside who were also caught in the storm (Grace gave them each a hug before we left), we headed out.

A brief stop by Arthur's favorite online train store based
in Albuquerque, NM. Alas, they didn't open until much later.

We didn't have any particular agenda for the day, other than getting home. But, when we saw that the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest were just a quick hop off of the highway in Arizona, we couldn't say no.  We'd purchased a National Parks pass to get into Zion, we might as well make good use of it!

Painted Desert

Petrified Forest

After a brief stop in the Visitor's Center, Jane and Grace
were sworn in as official Junior Rangers

Iconic Route 66

We spent much of the day traveling on or near Route 66 and played the song over at least five times, ticking off the cities we'd driven through on this trip (St. Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, Flagstaff, Winona, Kingman, Barstow).

When we saw the signs for the Meteor Crater, we figured, "What the heck? We probably won't be back this way anytime soon."  So glad we stopped!  There was this nifty little museum and then you could go out on the observation deck to see the crater.  Grace didn't want anything to do with it and stayed as far away from the edge as possible.

That huge crater. . . .

came from this little meteor!

Hello?  Helloooo?

Astronauts trained here!

Picture postcard vista

The last pennies of the trip! 

After the Meteor Crater, it was one marathon drive home, but we made it, rolling in around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Sunset in Needles, CA

I'm going to try to write up one more post this weekend summarizing the trip, so stay tuned!