Hole in the Ground Tour 2006: Days 2b and 3
Friday, Oct. 06, 2006 at 9:03 a.m.
On this day in 1536, the man to translate the Holy Bible into English, William Tyndale, is strangled and burnt at the stake in Brussels, Belgium. Translations of the Bible into vernacular had been long suppressed, but oddly most of the work in the KJV's New Testament is Tyndale's.
Go figure.
Anyhoo, day two of the Hole in the Ground Tour 2006 was very busy and very long. We started at the Meteor Crater and then drove on I-40 to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. The land on the way was as flat and swept as Nebraska (and just as boring), which prompted a discussion in why can�t that area be a wind farm, and Hubster said that environmentalists have raised concerns that the big windmills will kill birds. Personally, I think birds are smarter than that, with the exception of pigeons, and that population needs to be thinned anyway.
However, we were more or less on the route of old 66:
Get some kicks, baby! So then we found the Painted Desert. Now, the story I heard was that Pecos Bill was stirrin� up sum trouble with the local natives, and he and his horse Widowmaker skerred them Injuns so bad that they ran right out of their warpaint.
Well, isn�t that a nice, jingoistic story? Yay revisionist history!
We then went down a path to find the Painted Desert Inn, which was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) starting in about 1935:
The CCC was formed by FDR (much like the WPA) to provide men with work and education back during the depression. I think each man earned something like $30 a month, but $25 of it had to be sent home to his family! Of course, the CCC was disbanded when WWII swept in. Then the Inn was taken over by the Fred Harvey company (thank you, Harvey Girls) and is now a museum and a bookstore.
On the same stretch of road, you got through the Petrified Forest. Now tell me the truth, when you first heard about the Petrified Forest as a kid, didn�t you imagine big trees standing up like a big woods? Well, sorry, that ain�t what it is. There was a big-ass piney woods a long time ago, and then everything got moved around, and these felled trees fossilized and have been encased in sandstone. As the sandstone erodes away, then the logs show up.
The problem was, that this area was long used as a trail west, and the pioneers (and others) thought the fossilized wood was nifty. So a lot of the stuff is now gone, like in this picture:
This is part of an area called the �Jasper Forest� and those little lumps there are petrified wood. Now imagine, at one time, that floor was literally covered with petrified wood. It has been plundered over the years like a teenager on her prom night. Now, this is a National Park and supposedly protected, but that still doesn�t stop looters and poachers. And tourists who think that a little piece won�t be missed. However, now there is enough superstition about stealing the wood (it will bring you bad luck) that the visitor�s center has books full of letters of people who mailed the pieces back in shame and guilt.
And you can get petrified wood for $1 a pound in Holbrook.
This are was also a hotbed of activity for the Hohokam (the name given to all the tribes in the area at the time) and the Hohokam were big on petroglyphs. These were probably done in the 15th century.
By this time it was about 5:00 pm and we were wiped and we still had to drive two hours to Egar. But we did find a nice greasy burger diner and got filled up with cholesterol. And that was the end of day 2!
Day 3 of the Hole in the Ground Tour 2006 was actually spent mostly in transit as we headed down to the Chiricahuas. We drove most of the way down SR 191, which is a gorgeous drive so long was you�re not afraid of heights, as most of the road is like driving in Arlo Guthrie�s �Motorcycle Song: The Explanation of the Pickle�: On one side of the mountain road there was a mountain. On the other side of the mountain road there was nothing. Just a cliff and the air.
But talk about some views:
Didn�t think Arizona looked like that anywhere, huh? We also saw a bit of wildlife:
Horny toads are so cute. But we had to chase him away from the road so he didn�t get squished. But the big part of day 3 was getting to/setting up the campsite:
Hubster knows how to pitch his tents. Now, this was the first time I had ever camped. This is what I learned:
Bring more mosquito repellent.
Bring lots more mosquito repellent.
Bathe in mosquito repellent.
There are lots more stars than I�m used to seeing.
I can hunker down inside a sleeping bag like a turtle in his shell.
And actually, I learned that camping can be kind of fun.