It may not be the weather...

that determines my staying or leaving Arizona!  The temperatures have been high 70's to mid 90's so far and the winds have been from 5 MPH to gusts put to 35 MPH.  The humidity though is only 7-15%.  This does call for the use of much lotion.  These conditions however, may not be a deterrent.  These crittters may be:

Along with these creepy crawlers there are also poisonous centipedes, locust, grasshoppers and various other creatures that can come with the summer monsoons. 

In preparation, I have got a pair of snake proof chaps and a long stick for beating the bushes where the geocaches may lie.  Any suggestions for these other neighbors of mine?

Holbrook, AZ

On Route 66:
"Holbrook was used as the setting for the Disney movie "Cars", with the name changed to the fictitious "Radiator Springs". While finding this cache, you will recognize several sights from the movie."

The interesting things you can learn when geocaching!  After reading this I felt that I had been transported into the movie Cars as I was driving around.  There was even a sports car with a set of racing stripes down the center of it.  Have to do a quick reality check! 

 IT'S TOW-MATER!  Can I have your autograph, please!!!!

The Petrified Forest & Painted Desert

The journey to Holbrook, Arizona where the national park is, takes about 5 hours from Sunsites.  Decided to do a few geocaches along the way, however could not find a single one!  I did find out that cacti must be carnivorous.  They can throw thorns at you and draw blood quickly!  In looking for a cache I had to pass by two cacti.  Did not even feel a scratch but happened to look down at my leg to see a couple dozen holes and several thorns and long scratches.  So many lessons to learn, grrrrr.

 Some of the sights along the way:

Thought this was a particularly cool picture.

After getting to Holbrook, I tried one more geocache, but had to try again the next day on my way to the national park.  Took my picture with the holder of the cache:






Before going to the park there is a store/museum that contains displays of artifacts that had been discovered in the park.  Quite suprising!

Phytosorus, mamoth trunk, turtle shell

The colors that show up in the petrified wood is amazing, even when its not been polished.

He's kinda scary even petrified!

 This is a piece that has been polished but it looks like a picture of  the petrified forest (its just coincidence).

 Would you like this gorgeous table?  Only $4,300 will send it home with you!

 

Into the park and to the Crystal Forest, to the Teepees, to Blue Ridge, Puerco Pueblo:

 It is almost as if a logger came and sawed these into even chunks, but they actually just fractured that way!

 This picture to the right is of a petrified log that is somewhat intact, hasn't completely fractured into chunks.

 Sorry for the blurriness, tried three times to get a good picture of this log that is 40+ feet long but the wind was blowing so hard that I just couldn't get a clear picture.

This must have been the root end as it is more fractured than the other "cuts".

This area looked like what would be seen where someone had used a chainsaw to cut up wood.  There are "wood" chips all over, but they are all petrified pieces.

 These petroglyphs are estimated to be from 800 to 2000 years ago.  Notice the cross type symbol and the animals and then the symbols in this picture of maybe stairs?  Pagan influence got everywhere, didn't it?

Some of the views are just incredible.  Miles and miles of pink.  It is interesting to read the estimates that man has made about the age of things.  The petrified forest is said to have been alive 24 million years ago.  Something blew the forests down and then they were are covered up until it was uncovered by the Colorado River.  Won't it be interesting to find out what really happened?

That's all for now!  TTFN! lj

The desert will bloom...one way or another

The lady who lives here has quite the green thumb!

What is this on my windshield?!  Rain?!  Well, sprinkles anyway.

 This person has gone with flowering cacti to landscape with.  So many different colors and textures.

This is inside the petrified forest also known as the painted desert.

A veritable rainbow of flower colors!

A pink what?

Circled around three times to figure out what this was.  The first time all I saw was a long, thin pink something.  The thought passed through my mind that maybe the snake is pink because of it having been cooked on the hot pavement, like shrimp.

This snake is known as a red racer, a coachwhip and locally I was told its also called a bubblegum.  Its a good snake as it will eat rattle snakes!  But, to me, its still a snake.  EEEK!

More geocaching...

There are many a "ghost" town in this part of the country and the dessert is starting to blossom.

On the edge of a mostly forgotten cemetery was a geocache that is attempting to keep the memory of one man alive by telling the story of the end of his life, Tomas G. Allen.  There are very few graves here that still have the names of the people that buried beneath the markers. Two have cement markers as shown here.