Standin' on a corner

It was just Dewey and me today, Tuesday, April 5, and we were off to Winslow, a few hours up the road.  Winslow was founded in 1882, and was and is a railroad city.  We didn’t go to see a railroad.  But a little history is in order.  Winslow was named after a prominent railroader, General Edward F. Winslow.  Situated at 4,880 feet above sea level, the town’s location was chosen because it had the surest water supply required for the steam engines of the time, and it was an easy place to cross the Little Colorado River. 

The town’s attraction to us was based on a song, “Take it Easy,” by the Eagles.  “Well, I’m standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine site to see.  It’s a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.” 

It was the Standin’ on the Corner Park for us, and we found it, just across the street from where we were standing admiring a huge 66 in the middle of the road, denoting Route 66.  This corner is considered the most famous one of the historic Route 66.  Everyone wants a photo on this piece of the highway, and we were no different.  We did have to scramble a bit to get out of the way of a few vehicles.  Haha!!

Run, Dewey, run.

The park itself features a life-size bronze statue of a musician, a flatbed Ford and a mural that depicts the lyrics of the song.  All that history was exhausting and required some ice cream, so we made our way back across the street to a place that made their own … oooooohhhhh.  It was sooooooo good.

Yep, standin' on the corner of Winslow history.  This area was dedicated Sept 11, 1999, as a tribute to the song of the 70s.

From there we found out there was a 9-11 memorial just down the road.  Dedicated to the horrific events that occurred Sept. 11, 2001, and a promise by this town to “never forget” we made our way to the east end of Winslow.  The memorial features two large pieces of the Twin Towers wreckage.  Standing 14 and 15 feet high, the beams bring home, once again, the ugliness that found its way to our country nearly 15 years ago.  I don’t believe that anyone who was in this country on that day will ever forget.  It’s certainly burned into my memory, and I only saw it on television. 

The flag in the background was flown at the Pentagon. 

The words, "United we stand" are to remind the world that we will not fear terrorism.

There’s a lot to see in the Winslow area, but we’d planned to carry on and head to Meteor Crater, a short distance down the road.  We had to make tracks as time was running out.  The crater closes at 5 p.m., and we got there about 3:30. 

A meteor collided with earth about 50,000 years ago, with the resulting explosion creating what’s now called Meteor Crater.  It’s said to be the best preserved impact site on our planet.  It was an incredible site, and we wandered to a couple of the lookout points.  I wished we’d had time to do the rim tour, but that wouldn’t happen today.

This photo is taken looking toward the center of the crater.

Looking left.

Looking right.

We did watch a movie with a giant screen and surround sound that simulated the meteor crashing to earth.  It was impressive as it showed it traveling 26,000 miles an hour, passing through our atmosphere, and striking Earth with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT. 

This photo was taken of the movie screen.  While it's not the best, the simulation certainly shows the power of a meteor impact.  I wouldn't have wanted to be in its way.

This photo was taken from the movie, as well.  It shows the crater as being more squarish than round.

The Holsinger Meteorite is the largest discovered fragment of the 150-foot meteor that created Meteor Crater.

The impact left a bowl-shaped crater about a mile across and more than 550 feet deep.  A 60-story building could rest on the crater floor and its top would just reach the crater rim.  Twenty football fields could be placed on the crater floor and more than 2 million fans could watch games from the crater’s walls.  That’s a lot of space being used.  In fact, the topography so closely resembles that of the moon that NASA made it an official training site for the Apollo astronauts.

This test capsule, Boiler Plate 29A, never flew into space.  Built in 1965 to test the systems that helped Apollo space capsules float upright after splash-down at sea, it represents a command module, the control enter for astronauts who traveled to the moon, and is the only portion of the Apollo spacecraft that returned to Earth.

Wednesday, April 6, was an easy day.  Once again it was Dewey and me and we decided to meet at the new Desert Wind Harley-Davidson.  I’ve also known this building as Chosa’s and Chester’s, so needed to find a poker chip or pin for this one.  Alas, Dewey got lost and his phone GPS was of no help.  It had overheated or something like that and wasn't working.  He was about an hour late in arriving, so we only had time to do a quick lunch before I needed to get back to the house to be there before Verlie got home from work.  It was time enough for me to find a shirt, or two, but no pin as their logo has a death head on it.  That’s a no go for me.  I’ll use a poker chip on my map.