Some Things Never Change

In this post I’m back on the road again, headed across the Southwest. I visit a friend I hadn’t seen in nearly 30 years, meet her husband, and together we visit the Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona.

I’ve made the trip from San Diego to Arizona several times and have always enjoyed it. The mountains east of San Diego are green with pine trees on their western flank, rugged and rocky on their eastern. Then you’re in the desert and soon see giant sand dunes, marshes along the Colorado River, and before long saguaro cactus start showing up. On previous trips, I’d always turned north at Gila Bend to head toward Phoenix, but this time I continued on I-8. I had forgotten that along that stretch there are veritable forests of saguaros - an amazing sight. I wanted to take a picture, but was hesitant to stop on the shoulder of the highway.

I stayed that night at the Wild West Ranch and RV Resort, west of Casa Grande. I had envisioned some sort of lively dude ranch, but in the off season it was just bleak, barren, and nearly empty. The owners were friendly and helpful, though. The woman said she’d lived in Alaska for many years and wanted to move back. I pulled in a deep breath of 70-degree mid-November air and kept my mouth shut about that choice.

The next morning, I made my way through Casa Grande, Coolidge, and Florence (with a very pretty old downtown area), to get on Highway 60 that runs north and east. Soon after that, I was nearing the town of Superior. Very scenic, nestled right up against the mountains:

Just east of Superior, I drove up through a very rugged canyon:

After that, I passed through Globe, that has an active mining operation, and then, about half way to Show Low, I came to the Salt River Canyon:

I thought the views there were spectacular - something of a mini-Grand Canyon:

I crossed the river at the bottom of the canyon (there’s a visitors’ center there) and climbed back up the other side:

When I arrived in Show Low, I got a bit of heartburn because I’d made arrangements through email to call my friend, Nancy, when I arrived in town, but my Sprint network cellphone got no service, nor did I have her address. I drove from one end of town to the other looking for a signal. Finally, in desperation, I found a pay phone (I wasn’t sure any were still in existence), and got through. She and her husband had driven the thirty minutes into town and were waiting in a shopping center parking lot.

Nancy and I dated for a while almost thirty years ago. We parted as friends after deciding we had very different plans for our lives. Soon after that, I met Pam, the woman I would marry, and lost contact with Nancy. She found me on Facebook a few years ago, and we were both pleased to see that the other was doing just fine. When I decided to travel extensively after my wife passed, it seemed natural to both of us that I should visit in Show Low when I got the chance. Even so, I had some trepidation. Nancy was happily married now, and not every husband will welcome his wife’s ex-boyfriend, even if it was thirty years ago. However, I liked John the moment I met him, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that by the end of my visit, we were fast friends. Here’s a picture of the three amigos:

John and Nancy share a passion for collecting beautiful and unusual rocks, rockhounding, including petrified wood. They live on a five-acre property near Show Low, and a great deal of their land is covered with rocks that they have collected over the years. Here are a couple of the prized pieces in their collection:

It’s no coincidence that they’ve chosen to live near the Petrified Forest National Park - there are plenty of private lands around the park that let rockhounds collect what they find. Surprisingly, it had been several years since they’d gone to the park itself, so that’s where we went the next day. I hadn’t realized that numerous fossils have also been found in the park, and they have several impressive specimens on display in the visitor’s center:

John’s got a great sense of humor, as you can tell in the photo above, and the one below:

Here are some other pictures we took in the park:

In that last photo above, the petrified log used to span the ravine without any support, but when it began to deteriorate in the early 1900’s, the concrete brace was added.

After seeing all the beautiful specimens in the park, if one has an irresistible desire to own a piece of petrified wood, or other beautiful rock, Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Company, near the park, south of the town of Holbrook, is a favorite of Nancy and John:

Besides every kind of cut and polished stone inside the shop, including entire dining tables cut from petrified logs, acres outside the shop are covered with mounds of rocks for sale in their natural state. Even if you have no intention of buying anything, it’s worth going into the shop to see their museum of rare and particularly beautiful stones.

To cap off a very enjoyable day, on our way back to Nancy and John’s place, we spotted a herd of antelope:

In addition to the extensive rock collection, Nancy also has a collection of beautiful mounted butterflies. Here are just a few examples:

I remember in particular, the one directly above is called the Cobra’s Head because of the upper tips of its wings.

As they were giving me directions for the next leg of my journey, Nancy and John mentioned that I’d be passing right by the Very Large Array radio telescope. As a science geek, I could hardly wait. That’s the topic of my next post.