New May-Hico!

The road from Flagstaff, AZ to Albuquerque, NM is a straight shot through some of the quietest, most serene South Western territory. Beautiful, but apparently deadly. I have been living in "obsessive gas fill-up" mode, where every time I see a gas station, I fill the tank. Numerous friends and relatives have told me stories about "That time we were driving on fumes and didn't have a gas station for 75 more miles, so we had to push the car." Broken down in the middle of the desert with no upper body strength is not a place I want to find myself, so I have been quite careful.

When I was in middle school we had a geology unit on the Meteor Crater which, for some reason, really touched me. Since then, I have longed for the day when I could see it. Today was that day. The crater is about 40 miles from Flagstaff and is the site of a major meteor crash 50,000 years ago. Good thing we bypassed that catastrophic event. There is a long winding road that leads to this incredible scene near Winslow, Arizona. The Park Services have looked upon this crater as an incredible money-making opportunity. I got to pay $15 to see a hole in the ground! A very cool hole in the ground, nonetheless. The floor of the crater is large enough for 20 football fields and the surrounding walls could hold 2 million watching fans. The size was breathtaking.

After my flirtation with scenes of the future Apocalypse--afterall, claim the crater people, this could happen again some day!--I got back in the car and started heading east to Albuquerque. I was taken by complete surprise by a tremendous rain storm. I thought I was experiencing my own end-of-world experience; didn't realize it could rain that hard in the desert. I kept my wits about me and made it into New Mexico without a scratch. In Albuquerque, I have been welcomed into the home of Sylvia Hanna, a friend of a friend's friend. Sylvia and her friend, Bob, have been giving me the royal treatment and are my unofficial tour guides while I'm here!