A train derailed and exploded and closed I-40 so I had to hole up on the outskirts of Gallup, NM.
Made do. Found a decent hotel, and there was a deli and donut shop within walking distance.
The situation wasn't much better the next day. There were countless trucks lined up along the side roads waiting it out. Reminded me of the images of cargo ships waiting to get through the Suez canal when that got blocked.
I accepted Petrified Forest wasn't in the cards and headed on the detour, which went though Navajo and Hopi reservations. Gorgeous scenery, but no road shoulder so no pics.
Barringer Meteor Crater
Back on I-40 and the planned route. Stopped to see the remains of a destructive astronomical event while listening to an audiobook about destructive astronomical events (The Three-Body Problem).
There's a piece of the meteor on display that you can walk up to and touch.
TMI section: Most of the meteor turned into basically grains of sand and got distributed all over the surrounding area. This is interesting for two reasons:
Barringer (the guy) sunk loads of cash trying to mine the crater believing the rock was still intact and there was one big honkin' piece of iron just below the surface. After decades of digging and frittering away a small fortune, he came up empty handed, but in his failure, it helped us learn what actually happens in meteor impacts.
All that metal strewn about means the area gets tons of lightning, and the buildings around the crater had to be specially built to withstand all that lightning.
Also I find it fascinating how small the meteor actually was. It's the red dot:
Flagstaff, AZ
Only had a few hours to spend here, but I liked it. Kinda reminded me of Lawrence and Ann Arbor but in the mountains, which makes sense since they're all college towns.
Drove up to Lowell Observatory too, where Pluto was discovered and the first evidence the universe is expanding, but wasn't willing to spend $30 after a long day. It was still nice to be on hallowed ground and to see the telescopes from afar.
Even when things haven't gone right, they've still turned out alright. There's probably a life lesson in there somewhere, but I'm too tired at the moment to figure it out.
With this leg of the trip complete, I've hit the southernmost limit of the route. Still farther west to go, but starting to head back north.