On a Corner in Winslow...

This'll be a short update tonight. We've been going all day and didn't get back to the bus-house until almost 8pm. Then make dinner -- one of the best deals around right now... the 12 inch Supreme Pizza from the Walmart fresh deli area for only $5. There's enough goop on it that we can stretch almost two meals out of it. And it's suprisingly good. (End of commercial ad.)

We did visit the meteor crater earlier today. Just a 5 minute jaunt down the road from our camp, it's the best preserved impact crater in the world but not the largest. This one is 4,000 feet across and 550 feet deep -- and created from an meteor impact some 50,000 years ago. They estimate the meteor was about 150 feet in diameter and it hit the earth traveling about 10 miles per second... far faster than the fastest rifle bullet... and the resulting crater is still here after all that time. It was an enjoyable stop and it's certainly something you don't see every day.

We then headed into Winslow, AZ., just 20 minutes up the road from camp. Part of our mission was to, just for fun, stand on that corner in Winslow referred to in the classic Eagles song "Take It Easy"... a portion of those lyrics go like this:

Well, I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed
Ford slowin' down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me

This song was released by the Eagles the same year we were married -- yes, it's that old! So we stood on that corner in Winslow, Arizona, snapped a few pictures and had a few laughs acting like kids again. The city of Winslow, in an effort to revive the tired old town and attract a few tourist, has created a small park on that corner, complete with a flatbed Ford truck. Sure, it's corny, but what self-respecting small town boy from Wisconsin doesn't like a little corn once in a while.

The next stop was absolutely unplanned and very unexpected. On good authority from a local we walked a few blocks to the La Posada Hotel, the last of the great railroad hotels. I want to write more about this stop, but will have to do so when I'm more awake and lucid. We were also introduced to an incredible painter, Tina Mion, whose works are on display all around the newly renovated hotel. As I said, this will have to wait.

The last stop of the day was a Walmart stop for provisions. We're heading further east tomorrow and would like to stay near the Petrified Forest National Park. We may be boondocking (no hookups) and I'm not sure what the internet connection will be like either. So if updates to the Journal are slow in coming, just check back the next day.

standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...

Thom Hoch