The Walrus & the Carpenter: Tales From the Road: You could not see a cloud, because  no cloud was in the sky

Travel Date: Wednesday, July 7

Staying put in one place for two consecutive nights lured us into a false sense of comfort when Wednesday morning sneakily came along and, true to form, flung us back out on the open road. This time, it was fortunately just a short jaunt over to Holbrook, AZ for our next stop offs at The Petrified Forest & Painted Desert NPs. Along the way, however, we were once more tempted by a random roadside attraction for “Meteor Crater.” Even if the name lacks any form of creativity (indeed, the official name for this impact site was “Meteor Crater”), there was a certain B-movie flair to the font on the billboard and it doesn’t take much to get us to alter our course for a quick detour (Editors’ score sheet update: Tourist Traps: 9 Weary Travelers: 2]. MC was essentially just that, a giant crater in the ground. There was a well-kept museum adjacent to the site along with a movie theatre featuring meteor trivia, to which we naturally answered all questions with “Bruce Willis” (Mac: Armageddon is not thaaaat bad of a movie so we don’t want to hear it). Not much more to say on that.

Back on course, the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest were easily found right off the interstate and quickly gave way to more of the desert’s innate splendor. The Painted Desert featured more large outcroppings and mesas with alternating layers of different rock types, each providing its own color to the palette of the formations. It’s also worth noting again that as the sun goes down for all of these natural sights, the shifting light can’t help but add even more intrigue to the already majestic.

Within the Petrified Forest, former waterways left large of hunks of multi-thousand year old tree debris covered in sediment, leading to unique wood/ rock combinations of uncompromising magnificence.