note: please click on photos to see them larger
we had no time to post last night as we were hanging out with our good friends ron, rod and kent from colorado.
the guys drove down from colorado (500 miles no doubt) to see us and meet "jean' for the first time!
pat mentioned that this particular circle of friends have not had a chance to be together in over 20 years. (so yeah, the nightly post last night took a back seat to martinis with the greatest hooligans on planet earth)
first item of the day on nov 21st was waking up to seeing frost on "jean"! being a "california girl", i know this was a bit of a shock to her. she was being a bit pouty on the idle setting in the crisp morning high altitude air.
next up was visiting the Meteor Crater in arizona. something that i've wanted to do since i was a kid.
we also brought a 110lb. rare earth magnet to get a first hand chance to see little nuggets of meteor (iron chondrules) that are lost in the dirt. this is highly illegal with a penalty, so we actually didn't take any BB-sized spheres of an ancient meteor that stick really well to the magnet. (please note: i wasn't carrying around 110lbs. worth of metal, it's the strength rating we're referring to)
did you know? Meteor Crater lies in an elevation of 5700 feet, is about 4000 feet in diameter, and is 570 feet deep.
the object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 150 feet across. (half a football field)
new data says that the object hit the earth going 28,600 MPH! estimated weight of 150,000 tons.
the impact produced a massive explosion about 150 times the yield of the atomic bombs used at hiroshima and nagasaki. (a little more than an m-80)
after Meteor Crater, that's where we met cindi and her colleague brandon at Crystal Forest Museum. an amazing place that will have you running in circles on decision. thousands of pieces of petrified wood, that show the ancient bark and rings of the original wood's cellular composition. these guys are a true pleasure to talk to and wealth of knowledge to boot.
this shop was amazing. totally impossible to actually choose which piece to buy. not good for the ADD brain...
just down the road was the Petrified Forest. a place that you can spend more time than your sightseeing budget allows. just amazing.
this place contains the petrified remains of 225 million year old trees from the Late Triassic. Petrified Forest was set aside as a national monument in 1906. it is well known for having a broad representation of the Late Triassic Paleo-ecosystem, significant human history, clear night skies, fragile grasslands ecosystem, and unspoiled scenic vistas.
we left Petrified Forest behind schedule (as usual - wink) to rush and meet the lads from colorado in new mexico at the Sandia Casino Resort; where rod incidentally made $2,400.00 on mechanical slots! lucky bastige. (vids of this soon. or rather "incriminating evidence" coming soon)
today we hit roswell, new mexico! the famed alien spacecraft wreck site that took place in 1947.
the best restaurant in roswell seemed to be McDonald's. seriously, the options were severely limited.... roswell isn't known for their dairy products, the cows are size B at best. but i give them +100 points for being whom they are.
the next few days are "miles" days. so there will be limited resources of vids and pics just due to demanding destination timelines and getting more wheel weights that "jean" like to throw off. hahaha... (video of this scenario coming very soon, thanks pat and kent!)
oh and WOOT! here is the latest video! thanks scotty!
EDIT: will upload video tonight. technical diffs.
have a great evening all.
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