Day 16

A trip to Bearizona in Williams, Arizona. A drive through park fully of grizzly bears (and a walk round zoo with other things). See the GPS path we drove.

Or, I guess, you can look at some animals.

In Ash Fork we bought a homemade cake from Zettlers.

A pretty drive on a good well tarmacced bit of Route 66 through nice mountains. (photo by Jane).

Through towns like Truxton.

In the past when we’ve driven past the Hackberry General Store it’s been closed, so it was nice to finally go in and have a look around.

---

In the second edition of “Local News”;

• County sues Fair Association

• Shuffler enters not guilty plea in emotional arraignment

• Helping Kingman achieve by teaching locals how to read

• 14 top prosecutors support expanding Downwinders compensation programme

The last is the most interesting. “Fourteen top prosecutors from around the U.S. are throwing their support behind efforts to compensate people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing.”

Day 15

A drive up the hill to the Lowell Observatory where we saw the telescope through which the (demoted and no long a) planet Pluto. It was not named after Pluto the dog, who did exist at that time but was called Rover and only later changed to be called Pluto (and there’s no evidence the name change was inspired by the planet.)

The former planet was named Pluto following the public being asked. The name Pluto had been suggested by about 150 people, but the first received was from a young called Venetia Burney from Oxford.

We also looked at the sun through a telescope which feels like all kinds of wrong. Not blind. You could see the ejections around its perimeter.

Lowell was re-interred in the mausoleum below.

You could look down on Flagstaff from a look out point on the drive down.

Day 14

For a good few hundreds miles we’ve seen the teaser signs saying “Here it is” and we finally got to the Jack Rabbit Trading Post. Jane got a t-shirt.

“Standin' on the Corner Park is a public park in Winslow, Arizona, opened in 1999, commemorating the song "Take It Easy" which was written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and most famously recorded by the Eagles.”

Had an excellent toasted thing at the Sipp Shoppe.

The Meteor City Trading Post was in a pretty bad state of disrepair compared to the last time we were here. The location featured in the film “Starman”.

After driving in circles more than ideally we ended up at our hotel for two nights so we can have a break from driving.

Dinner out. Robots bided their time outside waiting to deliver people’s food.

Day 13

Waking up in Grants, New Mexico we headed off and came across the Indian Trail Trading Post. Jane bought a little pot, and I bought a stone dinosaur which they wanted to give me for free and didn’t want me to pay, so I bought a NM number plate to try and make up.

Mr. Freeman (as Mary Lou behind the counter always referred to him, and shown above) said there was a small museum. He showed me this photo of a “Wind Talker” and his guard meeting up long after the war.

Navajo Marines, used their native language as an unbreakable radio cipher during the war.

It was the guard’s job that if the wind talker was captured he was to shoot him to keep the code safe.

Mr. Freeman had been in London with the military in the late sixties.

Driving onwards we got stuck behind a house on wheels.

Passed through the Continental Divide where…. well, you can see from the sign.

A walk around Gallup (murder capital of New Mexico, fact fans) and picked up another Muffler Man. Also, this very nice old cinema.

The main trip for the day was to the Painted Desert (which is part of the Petrified Forest - of is it the reverse?)

Newspaper Rock (below) contains 650 images scratched into the rock between 650 and 2000 years ago. The meanings of the symbols are unknown.

Motel for the night in Hollbrook, Arizona. Being across into Arizona we get another hour we hit another timezone, though it’s not observed all over the state. Wikipedia says: “Because of Arizona's hot climate, DST is largely considered counterproductive. The argument against extending the daylight hours into the evening is that people prefer to do their activities in the cooler morning temperatures. The Navajo Nation, a semi-autonomous Native American territory, follows the United States DST schedule. It lies in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah and thus maintains the same time throughout tribal lands despite state borders".”

---

In a new series called Local Area News, what’s on the front page of the local paper?

In Gallup: Independent - The Truth well told.

“A Mentmore man has been charged with his fifth DWI offence after police received reports of driving stunts and a possible race.”

“Parents concerned of gender politics in curriculum withdraw children from Ramah Elementary School.”

“Navajo Breastfeeding Coalition holds health fair.”