Hole in the Ground Tour 2006: Days 1 and 2a
Wednesday, Oct. 04, 2006 at 10:39 a.m.
On this day in 1986, Network news anchorman Dan Rather is mugged in New York City. The attacker, one William Tager, shouts the question "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" during the beating. While the "frequency" refers to the wavelength of the transmissions that CBS was beaming into Tager's head, history is still unclear on exactly who "Kenneth" is or why R.E.M. would record a song about it.
Hello, I�m back from the Hole in the Ground Tour 2006! We actually got back last Saturday, but I was waiting to get the pictures back . . . you know how I am about pictures.
Hole in the Ground Tour, Day 1: So last Tuesday we loaded up the car with enough crap to last us about 4 years (or at least until the next Presidency) and took off for the Arizona North. Our first real stop was Sedona, and the Hubster took me to lunch here:
On this historic site on November 2, 2002, the Hubster asked the Scotvalkyrie to marry him. Awwwwwwwwww. However, at the time, it hadn�t been so nicely refurbished. In fact, it was a falling-down old dive with tractor seats nailed to the walls. Imagine our surprise when we showed up and it looked like this.
Then we took off for Mormon Lake (yes, we have lakes here, and Mormons too) to find a Youth Camp where one of my Mary Kay customers volunteers every summer. However, we got off track and went down about 20-some odd miles of �primitive� road (my poor Trixie!) and when we finally found the camp, it was completely deserted. Weird, like, Blair Witch Project kind of weird.
Anyhoo, we went on to Flagstaff, (home of NAU! Go Lumberjacks!!) where we checked into our motel and then hopped back in the car to find the Sunset Crater:
So a really long time ago, Arizona was a freakin� hotbed of active volcanoes. This particular Lulu went boom and blew out cinders and ash all over, blowing out a crater at the top that�s about 300 feet deep. Back in the day, you used to be able to hike up there and look in the crater, but now that�s prohibited. Hubster thinks his dad made a trek up there about 30 years ago. Now this area of AZ provides cinders for iced-over roads in winter (yes, it snows here too. We have 3 ski lodges!).
At another time, the Sunset Crater mountain had lava tubes all underneath, and it blew out all this lava:
There are literally rivers of lava everywhere around here. It�s known as �Aa� lava, because, according to the Hawaiians, that�s the sound you make if you walk on it barefoot. (�Ah! Ah!�)
Across the highway, you can see the San Francisco Peak, which was also an active volcano at one time. It was once about 16,000 feet tall until it blew its top. I put lines on the picture to show just how much went away:
Yep, lost about 4,000 feet there. BOOM!
We then went back to downtown Flagstaff proper, which is now of course very bohemian and collegiate and hip and filled with art galleries, breweries, and hemp clothing stores:
Hole in the Ground Tour, Day 2 (part a): The Meteor Crater! This is the best preserved impact crater in the world. It�s been studied by NASA for years. Somewhere between 50K and 20K years ago, a big rock fell from the sky and went boom. (lots of stuff went boom in AZ, eh?) The resulting crater is 500 feet deep and � of a mile across:
Our tour guide took a picture of us:
Awwwww.
Then we drove to Winslow. And that�s a whole�nother set o�pictures . . .