Mon, September 22

We had a difficult morning today.  Tensions were high and we struggled to get along with one another.  The traveling is wearing on us, and as has been typical thus far, just getting out the door was a challenge.  Consequently, we weren't on the road until almost noon.  However, once on the highway we were amazed at the beauty that eastern New Mexico offered.  

We crossed the Continental Divide.  Anyone know what this is?  Here's a hint:  it has to do with water flow.

We have now crossed into our 18th state, not counting all the re-entries we've had.

We spent some time this afternoon going through the Painted Desert National Park.  Wow! God sure must have had fun creating this piece of the Earth!  

The Painted Desert is north of Highway 40, and the Petrified Forest National Park is pretty much on the south side.  We thoroughly enjoyed listening to our audio tour CD of the park, stopping at each spot on the park map, and soaking in all the amazing beauty of this place.

We have been traveling on the Historic Route 66 for a while now.  Everywhere we go there are signs and plenty of gift shop baubles.  Route 66 intersects the National Park, so they have a plaque for it.  

At Newspaper Rock we were able to get a glimpse of some petroglyphs on the large rocks just below.  The following picture was taken from about 100 yards away.  You can see a round image almost smack dab in the middle of the picture.  These were amazing.  The petroglyphs were made by the ancient people who lived here by poking holes in the rocks.  There were many of these pictures all over the rocks in this area.

Shannon inspected one of the petrified logs at one of our turnout points.

Here is a beautiful bluff off in the distance created by the ongoing erosion of the area.

We were leaving the park just as the sun was preparing to set.  Here is a view looking east with the sunset light reflecting off the clouds in the distance.

Joshua and Shannon posed as an Indian and his squaw at the gift shop just outside the park.

In all, we drove about 280 miles today, traveling from Grants, NM, to and through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks, and ending up in Flagstaff, AZ.  We have put over 7,000 miles on the Sienna at this point.