Today’s list of must-do functions was limited to checking out Meteor Crater, the original reason we parked in this part of Arizona. I was a really good guy and cooked up some breakfast before Peggy threatened to have her way with me. We finally got rolling about noon and drove the 5 miles up to the Meteor Crater visitor center. We had a discount card from our campground and I am ancient so I got two discounts, Peggy got one and the visitor center cashier got $30.
The visitor center is quite nice, not very large but well air conditioned which is fortunate because it was toasty outside. We sat down and watched their informational movie where we learned the meteor that made the big splash here was about the size of a bus and was moseying along at 26,000 miles per hour when it reorganized the local terrain.
We strolled outside into the inferno-like sun and were rewarded with a magnificent view of the 550′ deep, 4,000′ diameter crater created when the rock hit the earth. They believe everything within about 10 miles was vaporized by fallout, blistering heat and explosive magnificence some 50,000 years ago when the chunk of iron and nickel hit the earth. 150 million tons of rock and impact products were blasted from the hole, leaving the monstrous crater visible today.
We finished giving the Crater a sniff and returned to the Invader for lunch supplies before taking off on another local loop drive through the Navajo Indian rez a bit north of I-40 between Winona and Leupp Corners – about a 60 mile round trip. This part of the world has some extraordinarily beautiful desert and mesa scenery and, next year when we have more time, we hope to return.
We ran into some of our fellow RVers as we bought fuel today and a pithy comment might have been made about some of our geriatric counterparts. The fellow RVers were traveling in an very upscale and expensive motorhome called a “Phaeton,” sometimes referred to by us as a “Pharton.” The believe the comment went something like “Just because you own a Phaeton doesn’t mean your wife doesn’t shave her moustache.”