Painted Desert

On Sunday, we went to the Painted Desert and toured the Petrified Forest National Monument. The Painted Desert was born from -- this is the abridged version -- a violent uplifting of layers of rock. After the uplifting, erosion made the hills that remain look painted. Painted Desert is a landscape much like that of the North and South Dakota Badlands.


The Petrified Forest came about because -- again, the short version -- ancient trees were washed down into a stream in a huge flooding deluge. They were buried under millenia of silt, which gradually worked its way into the wood, depositing minerals, and made these trees into rock!



Native Americans made this area their home and made their marks via petroglyphs at various locations throughout the park. This one rock is covered with over 600 petroglyphs and is called "Newspaper Rock."




Yesterday (Monday), was a "dumb day" for us. I played with photos, we ate KFC, and we drove over to Winslow to Walmart for some hunting/gathering. I do have to insert a little commentary about our Walmart trip. This is a "super" Walmart, so after we got our plastic bins and lightbulbs, we picked up some food, too.

One of the things we picked up was a 12-pack of beer. When we got to the cashier, though, we were asked for ID -- both of us. Well, if that were not already funny, I didn't have my ID with me, since I'd left it in the RV -- waaay out at the edge of the parking lot. They would not sell us beer because they have to have ID from everyone present.

Now... how stupid is that? They claim that it's to prevent people from buying alcohol for minors, but does anyone think that a) I'm a minor; or b) that such a policy will have ANY effect on alcohol consumption by minors?

The store manager (yes, I did take it that far) said that, even if a family with children were wanting to buy alcohol, all the adults have to present ID, but the kids don't. But if a kid touches the alcohol while it's in the cart or whatever, the sale will not be made.

I told the manager that I actually like good rules. But stupid rules need to be changed, and this is a stupid rule.

The clincher: I had to return to the store to exchange some of the bins that we'd gotten. I took my ID and decided to get the beer. The store manager was there and told me that I could not buy beer, because my husband was not present with HIS ID (which he had already shown). The clerk who did the return rang up the beer anyway. Thank goodness for some sanity in a really insane store.

Ok, let's end this with some pretty flowers, since it is, after all, spring! This one was in the Petrified Forest:

And these I shot at Far Horizons before we left Tucson:




Today we drove through fierce winds to Albuquerque, NM. It's still hugely windy, and it feels like I remember some winter days in Indiana, though... it is in the 50's and that's not real winter, I know. ;)