This morning Sandy and I had a breakfast at the El Rancho before heading out on the "Mother Road".
Gallup New Mexico is wonderful place for "Route 66" historical pictures.
The petrified forest is an amazing place. The trees from a tropical forest fell in to water and sediments began to immediately cover them preventing decay. This happened over 200 million years ago. Mineral rich water percolates through the sediment and wood. Slowly, over several thousand years the minerals in the water, primarily opal, replaces the wood cells, thus the tree becomes a rock that looks like a tree. Enough trees and you have a forrest, and that is what lies a little west of Gallup, New Mexico (in Arizona). The petrified forest. The amount of petrified logs littered across the plains must number int the hundreds of thousands.
We've already described how the petroglyphs are made. Between the Painted Desert and the petrified forest there were many more. We tried to guess what this ancient graffiti meant, our guess is as good as anyone else's. A pueblo paleontologist said it's more like a secret that the ancient artist knew but no one else ever will. So guess what you please, it doesn't matter because we will all be wrong, including the pueblo paleontologist.
Tonights dinner was at Turquoise Room at the La Posada. So named because the train that originally serviced the Southwest Chief had a diner car also named the Turquoise Room. The meal was superb. After cocktails Sandy had three elk medallions with a blackberry brandy sauce. I had a "James Beard" nominated dish they called The Wilds. Consisting of three small portions of wild game, quail, elk (like Sandy's), and buffalo. I was told this dish finished as the runner up for the James Beard award. I need to find the dish that won, because this dish is amongst the best I've ever enjoyed.
More pictures from the road.
Gallup to Winslow
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