“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss
Flagstaff, Not as I remembered
This cheerful seating area at the Flagstaff KOA reinforced my inclination to simply sit quiet for a while. — Photo by Pat Bean
Flagstaff still remembers Route 66 in all its glory. No crumbling, run-down remains in this elevated city, whose 6,920-foot elevation lets it nestle comfortably among 12,000-foot peaks. Flagstaff – which incidentally got its name from a flagpole made by a scouting party from Boston on July 4, 1876, to celebrate this country’s centennial – even holds an annual festival in September to celebrate the Mother Road.
I observed many signs and buildings as I made my way down the old highway through the town that loudly announced to travelers that Route 66 had passed this way.
Of course I never stop birdwatching. And this raven obligingly posed for a photograph. — Photo by Pat Bean
I had meant to explore some of them, to walk among Route 66 landmarks, hearing Nat King Cole in my head singing Bobby Troup’s “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.”
But I didn’t.
Flagstaff wasn’t the quiet town I remembered from past visits. Today it seemed like people and traffic were everywhere. After my drive through the town, my canine traveling companion, Pepper, and I took Highway 89 heading north out of town and checked into the Flagstaff KOA.
And there Pepper and I stayed for the rest of the day and the next day, our sightseeing limited to what we could see in the large rustic park and on a short nature trail that we hiked several times a day.
It simply felt like the right thing to do at the time.
Bean’s Pat: http://inaroomofmyown.wordpress.com/ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – writing! This one’s for the writers among us.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. June 2, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Dogs, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged Dr. Seuss, flagstaff, flagstaff koa, pat bean, postaday, ravens, Route 66 | 8 Comments »
“We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don’t think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you’re hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time.” ~Art Buchwald
The Beginning of a New Day
Today — How could it have started any better? — Photo by Pat Bean
Early Morning on Lake Walcott
It’s days like this that I don’t mind my canine traveling companion, Pepper, waking me up early for a walk. — Photo by Pat Bean
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged Lake Walcott, pat bean, postaday, sunrises, today art buchwald, weeklyphoto challenge | 11 Comments »
“For fossils to thrive, certain favorable circumstances are required. First of all, of course, remnants of life have to be there. These then need to be washed over with water as soon as possible, so that the bones are covered with a layer of sediment.” – Richard Leakey
Hard to believe that this creature’s bones are over 200 million years old. — Photo by Pat Bean
The Bones of the Matter
It stands to reason that if conditions are right for ancient trees to be preserved, other things in the landscape will also be preserved.
Flowers weren’t plentiful in the Painted Desert. The landscape wasn’t encouraging for them, which is why this small patch of yellow stood out so dramatically. — Photo by Pat Bean
And of course they were, as evidenced by the dinosaur skeletons on display at the Rainbow Forest Museum, which sadly would be my final stop before exiting Petrified Forest National Park.
As dinosaurs go, well if you compare them to Sue, the Chicago Field Museum’s gigantic T-Rex, the ones that lived in this ancient forest, were on the dinky side.
The dinosaurs found here belong to the Triassic Period, the late dawn of the dinosaurs, according to the park’s fact sheets.
Two more ancient dinosaur skeletons. — Photo by Pat Bean
These human-sized dinosaurs shared the landscape, which back them was dominated by a huge river running through it, with phytosaurs and rauisuchians, words that sent me running for my dictionary. Crocodile-like is the best definition I could come up with.
Triassic, another word that left me wondering, refers to the period on earth that existed 200 to 250 million years ago.
Now, just as the age of dinosaurs had come and gone, it was time for me to leave the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest and continue traveling down the road. Flagstaff was awaiting me.
Bean’s Pat: Wistfully Wandering http://wistfullywandering.wordpress.comTake an armchair hike in Grand Teton National Park. I can’t believe I’ve missed this one.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 25, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged arizona, dinosaurs, national park, painted desert, pat bean, petrified forest, postaday, rainbow forest museum, Route 66 | 5 Comments »
“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Agate Bridge: Floodwaters washed away softer sandstone to allow this harder 110-foot long petrified log to form a bridge. Humans, fascinated with the bridge, added supports, something National Park staff would not do today, preferring to leave things in a more natural state. This log bridge, however, was one of the things that prompted the creations of Petrified Forest Nation Park in 1906. — Photo by Pat Bean
Trees Turned to Stone
Stone logs testify to the ancient forest that once thrived here. — Photo by Pat Bean
Araucarioxylon arizonicum. I can’t pronounce it either. But I did learn that it was one of the most common trees found in a 225 million year old forest that once thrived in what is now Arizona.
These trees are extinct, but more than their memory lives on. The great conifers among them that were quickly buried by mud, silt and volcanic ash in ancient days, then at some point were exposed to silica-laden water, live on, their organic tissues transformed into quartz.
That, at least, ‘s the abbreviated version of the science behind the stone trees. If you want more details, you’ll have to do your own research. It could be fun.
I tried to picture the forest as it once was, with dinosaurs roaming through it, as I stood in front of “Old Faithful.”
Old Faithful: The largest 225 million year old tree trunk in the park. — Photo by Pat Bean
That’s the name of the largest Araucarioxylon arizonicum tree trunk on exhibit along a short hike behind the Rainbow Forest Museum near the south entrance to the park.
Petrified tree remains were once so plentiful, and not just in the Petrified Forest National Park where it’s illegal to remove then, that you can find homes and cafes and other structures in which they were used as building material.
Araucarioxylon arizonicum is also the Arizona’s state fossil.
Hmmm. I wonder if I can learn to speak the name of the tree as easily as I learned to say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Bean’s Pat: Love Thy Bike http://tinyurlcom/7n85fbh Take an armchair bike ride along the California Coast.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 30, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged agate bridge, arizona, pat bean, petrified forest, postaday, state fossil, trees | 5 Comments »
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” Thich Nhat Hanh
Blue Mesa Trail in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. — Photo by Pat Bean
Blue Mesa
Big old petrified tree trunks like this is why it’s named Petrified Forest. — Photo by Pat Bean
I appreciate nature best when I can get up close and personal with it. I had that opportunity when I left Route 66 at the top of Windy Hill and hiked the Blue Mesa Trail.
The paved loop path, just a little over a mile long, drops about 100 feet down to the valley floor. It winds among the stratified rocks that tell 200-million-year-old stories, just as the petrified logs along the trail bear witness to an ancient forest.
Blue Mesa’s layered rocks contain 200-million years of the planet’s stories. — Photo by Pat Bean
A few people passed me on the hike, but mostly I had the trail to myself. It was an opportunity to drink in the peaceful stillness and ponder the creation of this landscape in which wind, water and the passing years were the artists.
My canine traveling companion, Pepper, greeted me as if I had been gone those 200 million years when I arrived back at our RV. I gave her treats and thought to myself that life couldn’t get any better.
Bean’s Pat: http://tinyurl.com/br2wub5 Take a walk with Mountain Mae.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 29, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Art, Favorite Hikes, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged arizona, blue mesa, hiking, national parks, painted desert, pat bean, petrified forest, postaday, trails | 8 Comments »
“Life is all about timing … the unreachable becomes reachable. The unavailable becomes available, the unattainable, attainable. Have the patience, wait it out. It’s all about timing.” Stacey Charter.
It’s pretty easy to see why this area of Petrified National Park is called the Tepees. — Photo by Pat Bean
Tepees and Grinning Old Men
But can you see the two grinning old men that I see in these rock formations? — Photo by Pat Bean
Having the time to dawdle as I travel, time to let my imagination run wild, time to stop just to see a dandelion’s fine seeds blow in the wind, to watch a cloud dragon turn into a mouse or a red-tailed hawk circle above is precious.
While I didn’t always keep my nose to the grindstone, the time I could let my mind wander in wonder in my younger years was always way too short. That is not the case these days. And each day I awake with gratitude in my heart for every unrushed second allowed me to on this beautiful planet.
Which is why this blog is still a couple of weeks behind my reality. I don’t want to rush you through the landscape either.
I want to share fully the unhurried day day I spent in Arizona’s Painted Desert lands, espcially for those who told me they had passed this way but didn’t have time to linger.
And these reminded me of pawns on a chess board, and then I immediately thought of the chess game in the first Harry Potter book. Perhaps you see something different? I’d love to know what. — Photo by Pat Bean
I hope you enjoy lingering and dawdling with me – and my odd thoughts.
Bean’s Pat: A Small Press Life : http://tinyurl.com/bpnf80c Surfin’ Bird – this one’s for Agatha Christie fans. As one myself, it tickled my funny bone to see this early photo of the Grand Dame of who-done-its.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 28, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged landscape, painted desert, pat bean, petrified forest, postaday, Route 66, thoughts, time | 10 Comments »
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” – John Lubbock.
Ye Old Swimming Hole
Everyone should have a summer swimming hole in their past This one can be found near Carthage, Missouri. — Photo by Pat Bean
“Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.” Ada Louise Huxtable.
Bean’s Pat:: The Kindness Kronicles: http://tinyurl.com/bnjcqha Today I simply pass on Debbie’s Irish blessing to my readers. Her blog offers daily inspiration for a kinder world.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 26, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged Irish blessing, kindness, pat bean, postaday, summer, swimming hole, weeklyphotochallenge | 7 Comments »
“When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.” Samuel Lover, “Handy Andy,” 1842
Marker depicting some of the petroglyphs that can be seen below the cliff from the viewing platform. — Photo by Pat Bean
Newspaper Rock
The newspaper I found as I continued my travels on old Route 66 through the Petrified Forest National Park was 650 to 2000 years old. And it wasn’t written on paper pages.
Newspaper Rock, a National Historic Landmark. — Photo by Pat Bean
It was scratched in desert varnish on large boulders. And I couldn’t understand it. Neither can the experts.
Actually, in today’s age we would probably call it graffiti.
Were the petroglyphs carved into the rock by wise men among the Puerco River Valley Indian farmers who lived in the area?
Or were they done by bored Indian teenagers wanting to leave their mark on something?
Up close details — Photo by Pat Bean
As usual, the landscape I’m wandering through has me wondering again.
I love it.
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.: – Albert Einstein
Bean’s Pat: Everyday Sunshine: Get Close http://tinyurl.com/73enmyg I dare you to look into these birds’ eyes – even if you’re not an avid birdwatcher like me, I think you will be amazed.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 25, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Journeys, Travel | Tagged albert einstein, newspaper rock, pat bean, petrified forest national park, petroglyphs, postaday, Route 66 | 9 Comments »
“We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they’re called memories. Some take us forward, they’re called dreams.” — Jeremy Irons
This old junker is part of the Route 66 Memorial located in the Petrified Forest National Park. Note the passing semi on Interstate 40 in the background. — Photo by Pat Bean
You Can’t Get There From Here
As I continued on the park road after leaving the restored Painted Desert Inn and the mystery of the missing 200 million years’ unconformity, I found myself back at Interstate 40, but with no access to it.
This wandering old broad wonders how many of my readers traveled this road in its heydays. — Photo by Pat Bean
Located in sight of the freeway’s roaring traffic of semis and automobiles with occupants in a rush to get some place, I came upon a rusted, wheel-less relic of a different age. Like the A-Dome in Hiroshima, the only building remaining after the city’s bombing, this junker was a reminder of what once was.
Route 66 lives on only in memories, and bits and pieces of a route that truly takes one nowhere these days.
This tickled my funny-bone. — Photo by Pat Bean
I didn’t have the same degree of sadness in my heart as the day I stood before the A-Dome in Japan, but I wasn’t jumping up and down for joy either. Route 66 is a part of my past, a road that took this Texas flat-lander to magical places where there were mountains when I was only 14.
But then I thought of all the many places that today’s highways have taken me in my life. In the eight years that I have been a full-time RV-er, I’ve traveled this beautiful country called America from sea to shining sea. And more than once.
With this in mind, I gave a second look to this Route 66 memorial standing in front of me. And I laughed at the absurdity of encasing the front section of an automobile in cement. And this wasn’t the first such one I had seen. There had been similar encased old cars in the Albuquerque aquarium I visited, and in the Auto Museum in Santa Rosa.
Yup! Route 66 may be gone, but it certainly isn’t forgotten.
Bean’s Pat: Egret and Ibis http://tinyurl.com/cwefngs My kind of poetry.
*This award is simply this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged A-Dome, hiroshima, memorials, memories, pat bean, petrified forest national park, postaday, Route 66 | 2 Comments »
“Read, every day something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.” – Christopher Morley
200 million years are missing from this landscape. — Photo by Pat Bean
Unconformity Along Route 66
It’s amazing how much you can learn from stopping to read roadside markers. I rarely pass one by, usually only because it’s on the wrong sign of a busy highway, and I value my life more than my curiosity.
It’s amazing what one can learn from roadside markers. — Photo by Pat Bean
That was no problem during my recent loop through the Petrified Forest National Park, where I’m not sure I even saw a dozen other cars.
The educational marker shown here notes that the basalt cap on the top layer of the cliffs was deposited five to eight million years ago. The lower valley layer, however, was deposited about 225 million years ago. What happened to the 200 million years in between?
The scientist have only guesses.
During the 1990s, I saw similar unconformities in the landscape in the Grand Canyon, when I rafted the Colorado River through it. There was a fun discussion around the campfire later that night about the missing landscape.
But just like the scientists, we rafters could only speculate. Meanwhile, this wandering old broad is left in her familiar state of wondering.
Bean’s Pat: Don’t Follow the Lights http://tinyurl.com/7avfh7v I’ve gotta visit Marfa, Texas – so I can wonder some more.
*This award is this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged grand canyon, missing pieces, painted desert, pat bean, petrified forest national park, postaday, Route 66, unconformity, wondering | 16 Comments »
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