Imagine the earth during the days of Pangea when the world was a veritable playground of rainforests and lush landscapes. In contrast to its current state, the land of Petrified Forest National Park was once a tropical rainforest. About 225 million years ago, trees climbed towards the sun in these rich terrains. The trees eventually fell and were submerged underwater. At that time, the area that the National Park sits on was only 4 degrees north of the equator! Minerals from the water seeped into the logs and started to turn them to rock. You can see the various minerals displayed in the vibrant colors in the wood. There are several petrified logs on display in the visitor’s center that have been polished to highlight those impressive colors. Per cubic foot, petrified wood weights between 160 to 200 pounds. I’m sure moving these logs was quite the feat, involving heavy machinery. Researchers have been comparing early photographs of the park with modern day landscapes and it has been mostly untouched. I was most impressed to learn that one of the pieces in the lobby, weighing 800 lbs., took 10 hours to cut. In contrast, a piece of similar sized granite would take 2.5 hours. This stuff is durable.
The other cool fact about this national park is that it is home to many fossils, such as crocodile like creatures. The kids loved the fossil (plastic) digging exhibit in the visitor’s center. Learning about the Petrified wood gives you a real sense for the enduring nature of our history. While the Petrified Forest was pretty cool, after a few pieces of wood, it was more exciting to see the scenic view of the painted desert. The Painted Desert stretches from the Petrified Forest to the east end of the Grand Canyon. We followed along its trail, observing its grand streaks of color.
The frozen drip, drip, ugh
The crazy unusual frozen weather is following us wherever we travel. Our new furnace is working like a champ, but we’ve had enough snow here in Holbrook, AZ to stick to the ground. We arrived late, our teeth chattering as we attempted to set up in the chilly weather. The wind whipped all around us, making it even more challenging to see what we were doing. The wind even slapped me with some tumbleweed, part of which ended up in my slipper. I spent the rest of the night pulling tumbleweed out of the bottom of my foot. In the morning, we had no water in our toilet which was super unexciting. John realized that the plug for our heated water line was in a dead electrical socket, so we moved it and had water again soon after. These are the glorious moments of living in an RV.
The next morning, we woke to glistening white snow over everything. Riley immediately layered up and ran outside to play in the snow. Less than fifteen minutes later, she was inside changing, dripping wet. It’s not quite as much fun playing in the snow without the proper gear.
There was only one problem … we had no water again. John checked all the water connections and initially felt this was related to our issue with the sink at White Sands. After hours of sleuthing, John was no closer to an answer. The camp host suggested that our pipes might be frozen which led to us digging out our handy space heaters once more … to place under each sink and at the water pump. John stood outside running the warm air from a hairdryer over the water connection while we waited rather impatiently. As I worked that evening, I bounced around from the wind gusts like the giant tumbleweeds outside.
We ended the day with water and learned a very valuable lesson: you need a little drip, drip when it is freezing. It’s a weird thing, but when the water is dripping, it moves it through the plumbing lines, preventing it from freezing. The only problem is that this also involved opening your gray tank so that the water doesn’t back up in your sink resulting in a whole different type of plumbing problem.
