Arizona to New Mexico

August 14

We parted from David and Susan this morning, after giving David a short synopsis of our visit with our mutual nonagenarian cousins. I hope that this visit helps draw some of my relatives closer together after I leave Phoenix; funny how that can happen. Razelle and I have found that as we travel we touch people's lives in ways we had no idea we would (and in turn have been touched by them, too).

Breakfast was spent with one more relative of mine, Eileen. Her maiden name had originally been Leeper, before she married. She is on the Serbin Family Circle almost diametrically across from me. A while back, Eileen had taken up writing the Serbin Splatter, the family newsletter, temporarily for a few issues. I had written to Eileen a few times, but this was our first opportunity to meet. We had a lovely time learning about each other over stacks of pancakes at a nearby IHOP. I took out my laptop and showed her where we fit on the family tree. It was a short visit, but it capped off a visit to Phoenix with relatives of every kind. One thing that tied them all together, surprisingly, was their political philosophy. David, Susan, Dorothy, Pearle and now Eileen all had similar views, sharp or tempered, but all on the same side of the political spectrum. "Is this an Arizona thing?" We wondered....

With visits to people over, now we set our sights on visiting places. We headed north out of Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun (so aptly named because it had been so very hot down there, so much so that we were relieved to be putting it behind us). Phoenix really impressed us in so many respects. The neighborhoods were all so nicely landscaped and the street-plan so logical. Commercial centers all conformed tastefully to the Phoenix "look." We could easily understand why so many people were happy to make Phoenix their home. Perhaps if our van's air-conditioner worked better we would have been more tolerant of the infernal heat, but it didn't and we weren't.

On the way up to Sedona we climbed a section of the interstate that was steep enough to warrant a warning to motorists to shut off their air-conditioners and avoid overheating their engines. Our van never even came close to threatening to overheat the whole time we were in Phoenix, but I didn't want to press our luck, so we switched off the ineffectual air-conditioner and opened the windows. It was cool enough not to need the air-conditioner, and, suddenly, with the air-condition no longer an issue, driving this van was not at all objectionable. True, it's steering has too much play, but I was coping with that by now; and true, the cruise control wasn't able to maintain a constant speed if the hill was too steep; but as a means of conveyance, the van was getting it done, and looked like it could keep getting it done as long as we needed it to. We drove along with a new attitude toward this vehicle.

Sedona has a lot of beautiful vistas to offer and I could see what draws people to it. We drove through Sedona slowly, but didn't stop. There were resorts and spiritual centers to serve their respective patrons, but we had a goal of reaching New Mexico, if possible, before we called it a day. We wended our way up and up and up some more in an amazing canyon in a fragrant forest alongside a rushing stream almost all the way to Flagstaff, as the temperatures outside cooled further and further, exactly when our van was not capable of cooling us (we appreciated the irony no end!).

   

Our first destination was Meteor Crater. We arrived during a monsoon downpour. Everyone in the parking lot waited in their cars until it passed. We got wet anyway and visited the visitor's center in damp clothing. I've been here before, but not during a downpour.

We took turns posing against the crater; then we walked into the visitors' center, watched a video presentation and toured the exhibits and scanned the giftshop. Then we continued on our way. We were properly impressed by how this crater was formed, but, as for size, our smallest crater in Israel is far larger than this one, and we have others far bigger still than the smallest one.

Next, we stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, takin' it easy. Razelle wasn't familiar with the song reference, but it gave me a great thrill to be able to do this. The song can be found on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEzTdBJUHO8. The other people who showed up while we were there were all from the same generation as I. We knew without speaking to each other what had drawn us all there.




And there is a Jewish connection here (unless I'm mistaken): the wall on which the mural is painted of "the girl (my Lord) in the flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look" was donated by the Kaufman family of Winslow -- merchants who had owned a business on that corner in the past. I imagine their story parallels the story of the Phoenix families we read about at the museum we had visited a couple of days ago. See: http://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=130172

Next stop: the Petrified Forest. This National Park closes by 7:00 PM, so we were a bit concerned when a train several miles long (I am not exaggerating, I don't think) moved through Winslow and kept us waiting. We reached the park with enough time to marvel at the colors of the petrified logs and the rock strata they were situated in. It was essential that we reached the midpoint of the park by 7:00 PM so we would be herded out the Painted Desert end, rather than forced to go back the way we came. We succeeded in this, but we saw the Painted Desert in light so subdued that its colors were by now various hues of gray (David, are you getting this?).

We drove on in the dark. Interstate 40 is a major artery through here and even after dark it was full of traffic. It was good to get off this highway and roll into Gallup, New Mexico. We saw a number of signs on motels advertizing good rates, BUT, they each had a catch that made them no bargain at all. Then we saw the RV park. It was still open. We pulled in and were pleased by how much less it would cost than the motels. This is where our day would end. We had squeezed a lot of things into it, but we had reached our goal of sleeping in New Mexico (I had projected reaching Albuquerque, but Gallup was just fine). We hadn't slept in the van since the first two days of this part of our trip, so we had to figure out how to set it up without any real practice, other than the practice we'd had in Australia, a long time ago, it seemed. It was good to be doing it again. We settled in and, not immediately, but eventually, fell asleep.