Adventures of a Curious Cat: Cross-country Roadtrip Part 4

Went to Meter Crater after finding we had an hour to kill - spending quality time in Winslow, AR talking to local native, Sandy. When you first get to the Meter Crater site there isn't much to see because your "tour" starts inside their museum and gift shop. I of course went to the observation deck to see the crater and my eyes were amazed! Yeah I know its just a huge hole in the land out in the middle of nowhere Arizona....BUT its still freakin cool!!! Especially once you go through the museum to read some history or rather scientific research and evidence that suggests this crater was created over millions and millions of years ago. Way long before human species existed. The picture to the right is a model speculation of what the actual meter would have looked like and the size needed to make such an impact. Yep, its small thats what I said.

Say WHAT?!?!?!

Cheese next to a huge hole in the ground

After I geeked out at the meter crater we went back on the road towards Flagstaff, AR. We were in desperate need of grub. So we whipped out our notebook folder of things to find our handy dandy list of Guy's Triple D hotspots. In luck we found one restaurant in Flagstaff called Brandy's. It was really interesting driving into Flagstaff - which btw is not all too big which was a bit of a surprise, but then again I didn't realize it is not the capital lol - because it was surrounded by mountainous plains and hills. What was even more interesting was that I felt like I was in central Jersey since Brandy's and a ton of other places (shops, restaurants, etc) were in stripmalls around the city.

Well deserved stop filled us up. We even took some goodies on our way south to Sedona - a gigantic lemon bar and sticky bun with pecans on top. YUM! About 45mins later we were on one of the four scenic routes Mom had looked up beforehand. Of course we didn't know that at the time so we were just jaws-drop the whole time. Sedona is one of those places where you should expect to be amazed despite what you might think you already know. Its different being in a place and experiencing in person than seeing a picture or hearing about it through someone else's experience.
But its still worth expressing how awesome driving around on the scenic routes, going to see a church in the red rock (now decommissioned), meeting the people at the Chamber of Commerce (so friendly) and walking around in one of the state parks and in the oh-so-cute town of Sedona.

Yep, thats a church in the red rock. Casual.

A short walk following a river in a state park

From a high attitude "photo point"

Next order of business was to head north about 2hrs to go to the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan, a town right outside of the Grand Canyon National Park. It was amazing that most of the two weeks on the road we had sunlight from about 630/7am to about 830/9pm. What was even more interesting was how buzzed the little town of Tusayan was around 9pm. We kept saying to ourselves that we would hate to be here in a week or more because it would be soooo crowded.

God Bless America and all its beauty. A painter took 3yrs to paint a full-size still of the canyon.

Wildlife in the park

As the sun begins to set the colors of the canyon really come alive

Sunset at the Canyon (west view)

That night after we were awe-struck we were hungry. So we went to "We Cook Pizza and Pasta". Easy to understand right. LOL. It was a goldmine and lucky we got there when we did because they were in the mist of closing up the place as we ate our supreme 2 person pizza.

Next morning we were up and ready around 5am to catch the sunrise. And so our surprise so were a bunch of people. There were quite a bit of activity to see the sun rise up out of the canyon ridges. Most in lounge wear since many of these sightseers came from the surrounding campsites and hotel villages within the park.