Road Trip - Canyon's, Craters, and Standing on the Corner

Day 3's plan from which to deviate originally included

2 stops between Flagstaff and Holbrook AZ.  However,

as often happens, we got sidetracked a couple of times...

Shortly after leaving Flagstaff I noticed a large number
of remains of some very old buildings, so of course,
Don got off course...

and we ended exploring this site just off of Route 66.

Don found geocache #1 for the day
"HistoricAZ66 Guns Blaring".  This was an
interesting site with some 

great buildings near Diablo Canyon and/or Two Guns.

The next one "Gas, Food, Lodging" remained a
mystery, but whomever decorated the walls of the
building with graffiti did a great job!!!

Down the road a few miles we saw this sign.  The
first time we went to Meteor Crater, there was only
a small hand-made black & white sign and I said to Don
"Hey, let's check this out".  That was about 40 years ago.
  There was no museum, visitor
center or anything like there is today.

But this was my favorite photo of the entire day...
A place to put on your bucket list for sure.  Google it.

Don & I took a guided tour of the Crater Nov 1 2011.  50,000
years ago a fiery giant meteor weighing several hundred
thousand tons hurtled through space and created this giant
"hole".  50 Football fields could be placed in the crater floor,
and over 2 million fans could watch from the crater walls.

Winslow was our main objective for today

and once again took us off of I-40 and put us on Route 66.

Look who's just "Standin on the Corner" watching
all the girls go by... but only after he found all the
answers to the virtual geocache also named
"Standin on the Corner..." 

Hmmm... might be a fun thing to add to our
bucket list before we get too much older.
At least CA to OK.

The Homol'ovi II cluster of archaeological sites includes 

seven separate pueblo ruins built by various prehistoric people,

 including ancestors of the Hopi people, between 

approximately 1260-1400 AD. This fertile area is on

 a floodplain of the Little Colorado River, and the i

nhabitants grew cotton, corn, beans, and squash.

This was also on our master plan, so we stopped by
the visitor center which is part of the Arizona State Parks &
Trails Department,  to gather more information.

It is believed that these pueblos were once home to
ancestors of the present-day Hopi.  Much of this activity
took place during the 14th century.

We were fortunate to see a group of 5 or 6 wild Burros
milling around in the grasslands and a

uniquely marked lizard.  It was about 1 p.m. and 90 degrees
when we took this short paved stroll (with our zip fizz in our
water bottle).  And we were glad for the gusting 30 mph winds!