Uh-Oh! Arizona

Today was one of those days that roadtrips are made of - snafus.  We got off to a bit of a late start due in part to the fact that Sandia Park, NM was just so beautiful that having breakfast outside on the porch with the view of the breathtaking mountains in the background took much longer than expected.  Malcolm and Leora seriously have the most beautiful house I have ever entered in my life.  They really made us feel so welcome there too which was fortunate when we accidentally cracked the front bumper of our car by running into one of the railroad ties lining the driveway.  Minor accident that was patched up with a shoelace and some good old duct tape but a major setback nonetheless.  Since it was Sunday, we spent a major portion of the day searching for an auto-body shop that was open.  We ended up at Firestone where they were able to screw the droopy mudflap up so that it wouldn't interfere with the tire.

After picking up a little extra duct tape, we headed off to Sky City in Acoma Pueblo, NM.  Sky City is a Native American reservation built on top of giant butte.  Unfortunately we'd missed the last tour to the city due to our setback but we did get to poke around the museum a bit and check out some artsy clay water pots and restoration project ground plans.

Next we trekked to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona which sadly was also closed by the time we made it there.  Would've been spectacular, although we probably wouldn't have gotten to hike much in it anyhow.

Follow that, we found ourselves in Holbrook, AZ where Wigwam Village #6 still stands.  The town itself looked frozen in the '50s with kitschy neon signs abound.  As we poked around the motel we noticed a bunch of vintage cars lined the parking lot.  Upon further inspection we discover that these cars were straight out of the movie Cars!  There was the Mater tow truck and even Doc Hudson.  It was surreal.

Finally we ended the night at our hostel in Flagstaff (yeah, I didn't know there were hostels in the U.S. until this trip either.  Don't feel bad.)  It's an international hostel and we ended up going out for a drink with a navy boy and a Swiss study abroad student (the hostel is, after all, international ;).  Overall a good day even if everything didn't work out as we had planned.

Tomorrow: Grand Canyon bright and early!  Happy trails. :)

Song of the Day: One Headlight -- Counting Crows
Quote of the Day:  "Tell 'em we're survivors." -- from Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane