As I said, we had a friend get married in Phoenix. I am glad he did, because I may have never gone to Arizona. I rather enjoyed the state. We were there during their two weeks of spring, before it gets hot. This was good, cause I might have melted otherwise. We rented a car and were off.

This picture was taken on our way from Phoenix to Tuscon. We got off the Interstate to shoot this. This is out in the desert, which is as flat as glass, but has these mountains rising out of it on the horizon. A lot of people out in the desert own boats as well. Wonder if they know something we don't.

They have free range cattle out in Arizona. We didn't see any, but this contraption in the road is to keep the cattle from making their way onto the Interstate. It consists of a metal grate over a trench. The cows step on it, and kind of fall through. At first, I thought it was to wipe dirt off of the tires of cars before entering the highway, kind of like a boot brush.

That abberration in the center of the sky is another fine example of the state of film developing. They scratched the negative.

This is a Saguaro Cactus, the kind you expect to see someone hiding behind in cartoons. This is on our way to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. These cacti can get pretty tall, and they don't always have 'arms'. At one point on our trip, it looked like we were in the middle of a forest of telephone poles.

Apparently, the cactus is a very useful plant. Not only do they store up water, but you can also make jellies, jams, and candy from them. They also flower in the late spring, but had not done so yet when we were there.

This is on our way from Phoenix to Holbrook. We were heading to the Petrified Forest, and took the scenic route. This went through the Apache reservations. When on their territory, the tribal law is in force, and U.S. law stops at the border.

This is where we stayed for the night in Holbrook, the Wigwam Motel. Basically, it was a cute collection of concrete teepees. It is one of those landmarks left over from the 50's, when people took their time travelling, and Route 66 was still on the federal highways registry. And yes, each unit does have running water and its own bathroom and shower.

Holbrook is a small crossroads town, and everybody knows everybody else. They all knew we were from out of town, and where we stayed the night before. One shop owner asked how we liked the Wigwam, because he had seen our car there.

This is out back of the motel. Arizona is a great place to be if you are a rail fan. Trains ran through here very frequently. This is a Santa Fe engine pulling a long train of double stacked trailers. I am told that the second engine is painted up in their War Bonnet scheme. The first engine is a boring Freight Livery pattern. This is a sight which will be vanishing, as Santa Fe has been merged into another rail line.

This is along the Historic Route 66, which is an attempt to revive the tourism in the small towns through which it winds. It's not an official federal highway anymore, but the townspeople will argue that Route 66 is real. Given how the local economies dried up when the road was decommissioned, I can't say I blame them for promoting it.

Bobby Troup's song is everywhere, and we didn't forget Winona. Not much there, but it leads into Flagstaff well.

This is the Painted Desert. Its a quite colorful sedimenary formation, as taken from inside the Petrified Forest National Park. We drove from the northern entrance through to the southern entrance, and it took quite a few hours. Doesn't help that we stopped at every pull-off to snap a few pictures.

Another picture of a freight train, crossing the expanse of the desert. It's a ways off in the distance, and you could not hear any sound from it.

This was inside the Petrified Forest area, which you can't see for the trees. The forest itself has long since toppled over, millions of years ago. Minerals replaced the organic material in the fallen trees. Over the past century, they've lost a lot of the forest to tourists. People want to take a piece home with them. The shame is that for most people, what they've stolen winds up sitting collecting dust in a box in the closet.

I really enjoyed driving in Arizona. The roads were smooth. The speed limit was 75, and you could really cover some ground. Considering how much ground there was to cover, this was a good thing. Some places you could see things as far as eighty miles away. This is a view from Interstate 40 looking west at the San Fransisco Peaks around Flagstaff.

Route 66 ran roughly parallel to Interstate 40. All along this stretch, there are remnants of establishments that catered to Route 66 traffic. The Interstate just cut them off, many of them are next to the highway, but miles and miles from an offramp. One of the lucky ones was the Jack Rabbit, a gas station, restaurant, and souvenir shop. It has kind of a South of the Border feel too it, but is a lot smaller. I really wanted to buy that set of longhorns for the car.

We stopped at the Meteor Crater, west of Winslow. We didn't actually go to Winslow, Arizona, so we didn't stand on a corner there. This crater is a really big hole in the ground.

It was formed 40,000 years ago when a meteor came crashing down from above. In the center at the bottom, there is a small shed and some equipment forming the top of a mineshaft. There is also a lifesized cutout of an astronaut standing up down there. You can't see him with the unaided eye. NASA used the crater for training for the Apollo moon landings.

Just when I thought I'd seen big at the Meteor Crater, we went to the Grand Canyon. Now, that's freakin' HUGE! I watched an airplane fly overhead and disappear out of sight down into the canyon.

I think the canyon looks best in the early morning's light. It really brings out the colors of the rock strata. We didn't have time to wait around for sunset.

Driving south from Flagstaff to Phoenix on our last day. We took the scenic route through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona.