This is the third straight day with a pretty stiff wind blowing over Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. The wind has shifted to the north, northwest as the cold front up in Colorado and Wyoming move eastward. Of course the wind is the only thing moving. Day 4 of the shutdown is more of the same, shut down. The only thing that has changed around here is the color of the willow leaves.

Our volunteer neighbors will be packing it in on Monday and going home to TX. We are planning to move out on Tuesday. We made an appointment to have our motor home worked on at Flagstaff Camping World on Tuesday. We will plan on staying in the area and visit places we have not been to before such as Sedona, Flagstaff, and Bullhead City. Unlike our neighbors, we plan to come back to volunteer at PEFO as soon as the operation starts up again. So, even though the rent is cheap where we are now and will probably be quite a bit higher wherever else we go, we are going to take advantage of the time here and explore AZ. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that we can’t visit any Federal properties during our roaming time.

Friday, we stopped by the largest and best preserved meteor crater. It’s located just south of I-40 in the Winslow area. It is privately held and run which makes it a magnate for visitors trying to find alternatives to visiting shut-down federal sites. There were a number of tour groups that visited the crater the same time we did. One group was on a geology/birding tour sponsored by the Denver Science Museum. Of course PEFO, Grand Canyon, and other popular federal properties where on their tour list. We were not sure what alternatives were planned during the shutdown, but the casinos are open... Anyway, the meteor crater tour was very impressive and the facilities were up to date, informative, and provided a pleasant experience.