Day Eight: Stronger than Oprah

Ok, first I have to say that I have a different impression of both the conditions of the Indians on the reservations and of the Route 66 towns, after having talked to Adam and Alice. (Alice of Joe and Aggie's Cafe in Holbrook.)

Adam's older two kids are in college. We met his niece who's volunteering at the National Park to improve her resume. Adam really did have a prideful attitude towards his family's opportunities and accomplishments that made me feel a lot less depressed looking around the reservation.

This morning when we were talking to Alice after breakfast, she also had a really positive attitude about the future of the Route 66 towns and businesses. She says there's been a big resurgance of Route 66. She said that it's become a big destination for European tourists. The come over "Especially the Germans" to Chicago and ride motorcycles from Chicago to Los Angeles. She said that Harley Davidson has even hired a man she calls "Herman the German" to lead several of these trips a year. It was during this conversation that she mentioned how much of the Route is drivable or close enough drive much of it. There are several books out on how to do this, now.

So last night was rough. Just like in Chinle, I didn't sleep well at all. I'm not sure why but I woke up several times during the night. Daddy Doc had slept well in Chinle but reported that he slept horribly in the Wigwam, too. In retrospect, the bugs were really what pushed me over the edge. Well that and the smell. I was prepared for old. I was prepared for tight. If the only thing had been the old carpet, I probably would've been fine and dandy. But not being able to use the a/c and the smell of the room really made it hard to get comfortable in the Wigwam. It wasn't Cozy. I'd love to say I'd be willing to do it again. Daddy Doc made a comment at some point about how he kept thinking about the Holiday Inn Express we'd seen just off the freeway as we drove into town. I had BRIEFLY considered it when we smelled the room, I confess, but there was NO way that we weren't going to follow through with our plan. We slept in a Wigwam. We survived the Wigwam. Hopefully our children will remember it as an adventure.

Of course, Mr. Genius woke up in a mood as surly as the one he'd fallen asleep in. SO unpleasant I can't BEGIN to tell you. 

Do you see the train?

Interestingly, fast forwarding to this afternoon, tonight is Sweet But Sneaky's turn to pick his bed first. He hates sleeping with MG because MG wrestles and is hard to get to sleep and SBS gets in trouble because he gets going with MG. But Captain Stubborn loves the sleeping bag. SBS doesn't want to sleep in the sleeping bag but he doesn't want to sleep with MG. So he begged CS to sleep with him in the bed tonight... We'd decided to let SBS fall asleep in our bed and them move him if CS won't sleep in the bed tonight.

(Here's the size of the window in the Wigwam. There's also a window in the door. But that's it.)

We took some more pictures before leaving the Wigwam and we went back to Joe and Aggie's for breakfast. We had the same server as last night and Stan and Alice were both there again. It was lovely to be greeted so warmly when we walked in! While we waited for our breakfast to be ready, we shopped the rack of t-shirts. The fronts all say Route 66 and the backs have a logo for the cafe. They didn't have any "Mom and Dad" sizes but they did have kid and small adult sizes so each boy got a t-shirt. We chatted with Alice a bit more and then went on with our day.

First on our list was to drive west to see the Meteor Crater. On the way, however, we had to stop for yet another Route 66/Pixar connection! Between Holbrook and Winslow, Arizona is a town called St. Joseph. Outside of THAT is an exit off the freeway called "Jack Rabbit." (Yes, it is there because the man who owned that "stop" was a senator who wanted an I-40 off-ramp for his business.)

Ok, everyone, get out your Cars DVDs and go to the part where you see Lizzie's Curio Shop. There's a sign that says "Here It Is" with a picture of a Lizzie car. And Jack Rabbit is where Pixar came up with the idea. See?

After our stop at the Jack Rabbit, we continued to Meteor Crater.

It's a big hole in the ground. I'd probably feel better about it if it didn't cost so much to get in to see it. It was interesting but it was a bit strange, too. I think part of me is getting some amazing things fatigue. Driving through the Painted Desert yesterday, Daddy Doc would ask me "Do you want to stop for a picture here?" and I'd say "Nah. I've got enough." 

Another odd thing about the Crater was the section of self-congratulatory plaques. There was a platform overlooking the crater and hanging on it were several plaques. The first commemorated the 8 children of the guy who 'discovered' the crater, formed a corporation for it and dedicated it to scientific exploration. Yeah, a plaque for his kids. There was a plaque for him. And a plaque for his wife. That one just said that she was his wife and mother of eight children and just a wonderful person. There were plaques for some other people, too, including other members of the family. And they were all placed there by the 'Descendants of" these people.

Uhm, ok.

It was just ODD.

I'm glad we went and saw the Meteor Crater - I think part of my "huh"ness is that it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting to park and see a hole in the ground and walk around it. I wasn't expecting a ticket office and to have to pay as much as we did to get in just to see it. (It was just under $50. It would've included a movie and a tour but we didn't really plan that much time for it.) They also had a radio station devoted to pimping the crater. Come see the Crater Impact! We have TWO Subway Sandwich locations, a movie, a museum, a gift shop and an RV park!

So self-congratulatory capitalism. 

We grabbed Subway sandwiches inside the gift shop/museum and ate them in the car. We headed Eastward, again.

On our way back, we stopped in Winslow, Arizona, as we had stopped in Kingman, just to say we did!

We didn't have the detailed directions for the shop I saw pimped online and the shop I saw that said it was the "Standing on the Corner store" was blocked by heavy road construction. So rather than stop at a store, we drove to the east end of town and took a picture at the "Standing on the Corner" Park. 

I officially suck as a mother because reading my bookmarks right now, I realize there were three potentional Pixar Stops in Winslow, Arizona and we missed all three. Nice. But I slept in a smelly cement teepee with bugs last night and no a/c or decent ventilation, so that should make up for it...

Back through Holbrook we went to the Petrified Forest Rainbow Museum and on a very short trail. The winds were really kicking up here and it was looking like rain. We got through the trail and CS finished the last activity of his Junior Ranger program. The kids really did enjoy looking at the Petrified wood, especially MG. CS's activity today was to really look at the wood, touch it, explore the colors in it, compare the sizes of the wood pieces. It ended up being a good thing because the programs for MG and SBS  didn't require them to study the wood at all! But as MG continued to explore the wood, even when CS was done with his activity, he'd call CS over to say "LOOK at the PURPLE in this one, Captain Stubborn!" And they'd all gather to look.

Inside the museum, they did their swearing in as Junior Rangers. CS hates that part. I don't think he understands it and it confuses him. But the Rangers always give him his badge even though he doesn't say the pledge.

We had an ice cream break at the outsourced gift shop and food counter. The "Single Scoops" of ice cream were HUGE. CS was funny when he got to the bottom of his cone (it was the cake kind of cone, just upside down in his bowl.) He showed me the bottom 1/2" or so and said "Look, Mommy, it's air conditioning!" Uhm... OK.

Daddy Doc found a scorpion plush in the gift shop. MG's Webelos Patrol is the Scorpions. When DD showed it to me I said "Oh, you HAVE to get that." He did.

Back in the car we were finally heading south to Show Low. We could see lightning in the distance but we never did get more than a few drops of rain as we got closer to town. The towns down here, Snowflake, Taylor and Show Low are SUCH a contrast to the towns of I-40 and the Reservation! They're lush, they have lots of businesses. The homes look "clean".

Our hotel here is just LOVELY. It's rather new, but also it's very nicely appointed. It looks to me like an Austrian Mountain Lodge, LOL. The furniture is a bit - well flowery, but not overdone. I don't know the style. The pool is indoors but doesn't stink like chlorine. They have a Laundry Room - THANK GOD!

There's a skywalk that attaches the two buildings at the second floor. That thrilled SBS who really wanted to stay on that floor. We were assigned to the first floor so I asked about a higher floor. The manager on duty explained that the second floor is the smoking floor so I'd have a non-smoking room but it's on the smoking floor. No thanks! And not only that, but on the first floor we're nearer to the pool and to the LAUNDRY ROOM, THANK GOD.

We walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was the New York something or another. The manager's description made it sound like an Italian Pizza place but I wasn't in the mood for a steakhouse so we picked it. It turned out to be more like a Sports Bar or a Pub. It was quite satisfactory and our waitress was TERRIFIC. We had fantastic service. She was attentive and cheerful and friendly.

At the end of the meal we got to chatting about the area. There's a papermill in Snowflake which is the major employer - although they laid off 100 of their 400 employees very recently. her father works for one of the cities as a planning manager public works something or another. He's been trying to get businesses into the towns. Walmart was going to come to town but after the lay-offs, they cancelled. I told her "That's ok, you don't want a Walmart here." She said, "Well, we really could've used the jobs after the layoff." Oh, duh. I said, "Well you really want a Target." She said her dad's been trying to get Target to come but Target won't come because the town is too small. They have to drive to FLAGSTAFF to get to a Target.

As we drove into Snowflake, we saw a couple of Huge beautiful homes. She actually told us that the two 'twin' towns of Snowflake/Taylor have had a recent boom. When they built "The new big temple" (yeah, we saw that because there was a typical LDS Ward/Stake/Building/Church thing - the one with the white steeples that we see EVERYWHERE from Arizona to Idaho but somehow I never see them in CA - and then across the street and down a block was another huge LDS complex.) - ok, so when they built that, a bunch of wealthy Mormons from "the Valley" moved up to Snowflake. The two huge homes - one of them is 17,000 square feet and is owned by a real estate agent from the valley. (Our waitress works for a lumber company during the day and they worked on the house.)

So after we walked back from dinner, MG and SBS swam for awhile (CS didn't want to swim,) I uploaded yesterday's photos and blog, and started laundry. 

Vacation's more than half-way over! I guess I should look at today's photos to see what to add to this entry! Did you see my new "blog photo" to the left? That photo was from the Petrified Forest this afternoon.

Oh, and I've finished one knitted washcloth and I'm almost finished with a second. There are a few mistakes but not too many hideous mistakes. The first one's really pretty even though it has yellow in it. It's yellow and blue and white. The one I'm working on now is blue, tan and white. WOO HOO. Knitted Washclothes!