Mileage - ~300 miles (via Window Rock, Petrified Forest, Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff)
9.45 - Jaffa comes out of the 7-11 with 4 large chilli pickled dills for breakfast. They taste of plastic coated in vinegar. I eat one and Jaffa eats the other three.
We take a detour to Window Rock in the Navajo Indian reservation. Lovely and peaceful place - also the home of the Navajo government. Saw a monument to the WW2 windtalkers (see the movie).
11:30 - We get to the Petrified Forest National Park Arizona. Jaffa expells petrified gherkins (a vicious turn of events - I was right to only eat one).. Amazing place, we spent most of the day there. The Grand Canyon is gonna have to be pretty good to compete with this. Jaffa now has sunburnt arms and my forehead is totally red as is my neck - I am now officially a Redneck. Temperature is now 24C (figured out how to get the car reading metric units) which doesn't sound like much but it's a killer when you're walking around for hours in the sun. The photos / film will tell the story - stunning views in every direction.
We then made it to Holbrook which was pretty dead - couldn't find the concrete wig-wams. We ate at a crap place which had expensive burgers that tasted worse than any of the big chain ones. We then drove up the road to Winslow where we saw the po-lice in action tackling a distressed woman and her 6 kids. We asked where the corner was made famous by the Eagles song (Take it easy) - we were told that there are lots of corners in Winslow Arizona. We took a photo at a corner anyway.
We went to see the Meteor crater - we were too late, it was closed. We then went to some other famous canyon en-route which was also closed. Only in America can you close-off a canyon or a crater. We then zipped the final bit of road to Flagstaff. We've checked into a small motel and gone for a walk around the town. Great place, lots of nice restaurants and bars. We are just about to eat in one which has more TV's than wall space.
Highlights - Eating 3 giant chili gherkins for breakfast (Jaffa only), chocolate-chip icecream sandwich, Petrified Forest, Scenery everywhere, Window Rock, spending time in the Navajo Reservation, lots of walking and exercise making up for all the unhealthy food and beer.
Lowlights - Jaffa's gut-rot following gherkins, Jaffa picks a motel between a train-line and a very busy road, getting sunburnt, Jaffa making me walk into the desert (proper desert) when I was wearing sandles and we had no water - the signs warned of rattlesnakes and some lizzards ran across my feet.
Tomorrow - Grand Canyon.
Jaffa and Spiro.
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