After 5 days mostly in the car, we arrived in Fountain Hills around 7 PM on Friday night. The fountain started its hourly plume just as we were turning into the drive, so we felt it was welcoming us "home" for the winter! It was a day of amazing contrasts, from the flat grasslands of West Texas (including many "wind farms") to the rolling plains, mesas and mountains of New Mexico, and then the high desert of Arizona. Ross was especially interested in the glimpse of Gallup, NM where he had sent many dental impressions when he worked for the Indian Health Service (it is at the heart of the Navajo Nation).
We decided to start getting better acquainted with our adopted state, and so took a quick detour through the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, AZ. The 28-mile drive through part of the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest showed amazingly different landscapes and geologic factors, and we hope to go back with a bit more time to explore, walk and take in the geology of it all.
Then it was back to putting down the miles as we descended through an area looking much like Maine (snow and all), along the Mogollon Ridge to Payson, and then on to the Phoenix area and temps in the 60s. It was definitely the most interesting day of driving -- and there was no active precipitation, which was a plus!
Over the trip we worked our way through 3 months worth of podcasts of
The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLain that helped to tick off the hours. We love the stories and most of the music he plays, and there was an interesting Dave and Morley story of Canadians shopping in Bangor, and then crossing back across the border! It was also interesting to see all the cross country transportation -- lots of doubledecker container trains, double trailer trucks, whole airports devoted to Fed Ex, etc., etc. It probably shouldn't be surprising, given the variety of goods available everywhere -- it has to get there somehow! But we still found it noteworthy to see all of that day after day and state after state.
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