The Oregon Trail - Day 3

We got an early start this morning on our quest across the western US to Oregon.  New Mexico is beautiful but very, very different from Mississippi.  One of the most amazing things I think we saw was the huge feed lots with thousands of cows in fenced feeding pens with hardly enough room to lay down.  They can only stand, eat and sleep.  That would give even me mad cow disease.  We saw one feed lot that ran along the highway for more than a mile!!!!  I can't even think of how many cows were on that one farm/ranch.   I just had to post the picture we took of some people riding horses along the road.  It reminded me of the old westerns we used to watch on TV when we were kids.  I would imagine myself as Annie Oakley with long braids riding a horse across the desert like she did.  I never had long braids because mom liked short hair.  That didn't stop Kit and me from pinning stuff in our hair and pretending anyway.

About 3:10 p.m. we crossed the Arizona state line and out of New Mexico and the rain.  At Winslow, AZ we stopped and viewed Meteor Crater which is a hugh hole that was made by a meteor fallling to earth long, long, long time ago.  The wind was blowing so hard up on the top of the crater I was about to blow off the viewing platform.   The picture of the crater below just shows you how big the hole really is.  The little poked up place on the far rim that you can see is actually the size of a average house.  That really puts it in perspective for me.  I am just going to say BIG!

We made it to Flagstaff in the mist and decided that camping was absolutely out of the question for tonight.  I was happy to find a Ramada and a dry, warm place out of the whipping wind.  Slept like a baby.

 
Marmalade's Side of the Story

As for me, I want to drive a train.  We saw a big train coming down the tracks that ran along the highway about every 30 minutes.  I think they were bored or something because lots of times they would blow the whistle at us.  The highway we were on had very little traffic and was very long and flat.  Nonnie can be a cow girl, but I want to be a train conductor.  There were lots of tumbleweeds and wildflowers along the sides of the road and train tracks.  Nonnie took lots and lots of pictures of them.  Other than that, I was not too impressed with New Mexico.