After a wonderful week in Albuquerque, I picked John up at the airport. We spent the following day at Petroglyphs National Monument Visitor Center, 2 sites within the park, and Old Town where we had lunch at the Quesadilla Grill. Don't miss it if you're there. The flavors are subtle and wonderful!
Thursday morning we hitched up and on down I-40 we went. The buttes, mesas, and canyons from Albuquerque to the Arizona border are gorgeous, but about impossible to photograph. it's something you simply have to experience. We pulled into the RV Park at Meteor Crater in the early afternoon. Some people would say it's desolate and barren, but all we could say was - wow! Space, beautiful space. We were now at 5700 feet above sea level, which was much better than the 7800' in Taos. Of course John had just returned from Green Bay which is only 581' above sea level, so although I was pretty well adjusted to the mile high elevation, he wasn't. We went on up the road 5 miles to the crater and got out uniforms and stuff and found we were to start on Saturday. Looked around a bit then went back to the rig and crashed. Driving/traveling is exhausting.
Friday we drove the 20 miles back to Winslow for groceries - walmart; then went back up to the crater to see the movies and get a bit more familiar with our new summer home. The crater is a Natural Landmark, and is still owned by the Barringer family. It's 4/5th mile across and 560 feet deep. The meteroite (which was the size of a bus) came in from the east at 26,000 miles per hour and struck the spot about 50,000 years ago, give or take 3000 years. Barringer secured mining rights from the federal goernment in the early 1900's and tried to prove this was the site of a meteor hit. 2 years after his death, this fact was finally confirmed and accepted by the scientific community. To get a little better idea of how big it is, think about 20 footballs games taking place simultaneously in the crater, or downtown San Francisco being totally swallowed by it. This is the first meteor crater to be proen. it is not the largest crater created by matter from space. Russia has that, and it is 61 miles across! The surrounding 260 acres is pastureland for the T-T cattle ranch. The first tours began in 1942 and cost $.50, and you had to drive 6 miles down a bumpy dirt road to get there. today the price for a regular adult tour is $16, seniors are $15, and juniors ages 6-17 are $8. there are also AAA, military and group rates (over 8 paying guests). Special tours can also be arranged in advance. There is currently a 20 million dollar improvement project underway, which should be completed this fall (2013). Until then, you get your exercise walking up the long ramp (a shuttle will pick you up at the bottom if you push the buzzer). The ticket gets you in the gate. There are 4 observation decks at different levels with telescopes in place; a hands on museum; 2 short informative movies; a 1/2 mile hike out onto the rim with a tour guide @ 5 times per day; a gift shop, rock shop, subway, restrooms of course, a space shuttle from NASA, and yes, the astronauts did train here before the lunar missions. All this and the RV Park (which is very clean and nice with pull through and back in sites and 2 doggie run areas) and a gas station, all owned by Meteor Crater Inc. which leases the land. I'm really impressed with the whole operation. We are here for our guests, and they ome from all over the world to see this crater. In my firts 2 days of work, I've met people from all over the US and Canada and: England, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and I'm sure I'm missing some. So far I've only worked in Admit, and John in the gift shop and rock shop, but that will change this next week.
We're both enjoying the job, and our bank account will too! We have 3 days off now, and John needed to get down to a lower elevation. He's not been sleeping, and breathing is still a bit of a trick, as is appetite and intestine function, and his sinuses and mine have been rather messed up, so we took a trip down the mountains to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon and down to Camp Verde where we're staying in a hotel for the first time in over 2 years. We're now at 3147' which is a bit lower than we were in Idaho last year.
It's interesting watching the terrain change from elevation to elevation, but if your body is real sensitive, it can be rather uncomfortable going up and down too!
Thursday morning we hitched up and on down I-40 we went. The buttes, mesas, and canyons from Albuquerque to the Arizona border are gorgeous, but about impossible to photograph. it's something you simply have to experience. We pulled into the RV Park at Meteor Crater in the early afternoon. Some people would say it's desolate and barren, but all we could say was - wow! Space, beautiful space. We were now at 5700 feet above sea level, which was much better than the 7800' in Taos. Of course John had just returned from Green Bay which is only 581' above sea level, so although I was pretty well adjusted to the mile high elevation, he wasn't. We went on up the road 5 miles to the crater and got out uniforms and stuff and found we were to start on Saturday. Looked around a bit then went back to the rig and crashed. Driving/traveling is exhausting.
Friday we drove the 20 miles back to Winslow for groceries - walmart; then went back up to the crater to see the movies and get a bit more familiar with our new summer home. The crater is a Natural Landmark, and is still owned by the Barringer family. It's 4/5th mile across and 560 feet deep. The meteroite (which was the size of a bus) came in from the east at 26,000 miles per hour and struck the spot about 50,000 years ago, give or take 3000 years. Barringer secured mining rights from the federal goernment in the early 1900's and tried to prove this was the site of a meteor hit. 2 years after his death, this fact was finally confirmed and accepted by the scientific community. To get a little better idea of how big it is, think about 20 footballs games taking place simultaneously in the crater, or downtown San Francisco being totally swallowed by it. This is the first meteor crater to be proen. it is not the largest crater created by matter from space. Russia has that, and it is 61 miles across! The surrounding 260 acres is pastureland for the T-T cattle ranch. The first tours began in 1942 and cost $.50, and you had to drive 6 miles down a bumpy dirt road to get there. today the price for a regular adult tour is $16, seniors are $15, and juniors ages 6-17 are $8. there are also AAA, military and group rates (over 8 paying guests). Special tours can also be arranged in advance. There is currently a 20 million dollar improvement project underway, which should be completed this fall (2013). Until then, you get your exercise walking up the long ramp (a shuttle will pick you up at the bottom if you push the buzzer). The ticket gets you in the gate. There are 4 observation decks at different levels with telescopes in place; a hands on museum; 2 short informative movies; a 1/2 mile hike out onto the rim with a tour guide @ 5 times per day; a gift shop, rock shop, subway, restrooms of course, a space shuttle from NASA, and yes, the astronauts did train here before the lunar missions. All this and the RV Park (which is very clean and nice with pull through and back in sites and 2 doggie run areas) and a gas station, all owned by Meteor Crater Inc. which leases the land. I'm really impressed with the whole operation. We are here for our guests, and they ome from all over the world to see this crater. In my firts 2 days of work, I've met people from all over the US and Canada and: England, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and I'm sure I'm missing some. So far I've only worked in Admit, and John in the gift shop and rock shop, but that will change this next week.
We're both enjoying the job, and our bank account will too! We have 3 days off now, and John needed to get down to a lower elevation. He's not been sleeping, and breathing is still a bit of a trick, as is appetite and intestine function, and his sinuses and mine have been rather messed up, so we took a trip down the mountains to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon and down to Camp Verde where we're staying in a hotel for the first time in over 2 years. We're now at 3147' which is a bit lower than we were in Idaho last year.
It's interesting watching the terrain change from elevation to elevation, but if your body is real sensitive, it can be rather uncomfortable going up and down too!
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