Back in Phoenix, we strolled in an Asian Cultural Center Park after one of the best meals of the trip at the Chinese Buddha restaurant in the Asian Cultural Center. The lemon chicken was exceptionally good!
A good nights rest at Hampton Inn, then Mac and Gwen will get up at 4:30 to catch a 6:40 flight home. Linda will fly out later in the afternoon to Akron for a convention, then drive home from there next Sun-Mon.
This has been an exceptionally beautiful and awe-inspiring trip that we will always remember.

Both the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest were much more impressive than we had anticipated.

After passing many beautiful logs, Linda and Mac posed with the largest log in the Petrified Foret, called "Old Faithful".

Next we came to the Petrified Forest, where we saw hundred of trees which were turned to stone many millions of years ago. These trees were origionally in a flood plain near the equator before the separation of the continents.

We went through an area of stone formation called the Tepees that showed the different layers of rock which were laid down over 20,000,000 years ago.


This last photo shows a petrified log bridge (the Agate Bridge) that is supported by concrete added in 1917 to prevent collapse.

Painted Desert

Many trains passed our motel during the night. Gwen said that she grew up near the tracks in Thomasville, so she slept well. Ray didn't have many trains in Ellerbe where he grew up - he didn't sleep so well. After a good breakfast at McDonalds, we headed west on I40 into Arizona. We toured the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. The Painted Desert reflected many different colors of rocks and vegetation for miles around.

We had dinner near our motel at a good Greek restaurant, the Olympic Kitchen. After that, we "cruised" the historic "Route 66", a glitzy strip of neon from bygone days.