The DataVan Diaries

From Baltimore to San Diego or Bust!

APRIL 13
Stanton PA to Casey IL

APRIL 14  Casey IL to  Cuba MO

APRIL 15    Cuba MO to Amarillo TX

APRIL 16
Amarillo TX to Winslow AZ

APRIL 17
Winslow AZ to Yuma AZ

April 17 -- A Big Hole in the Ground, the Risks of "The Scenic Route", New Age Mania, and Damn This Traffic Jam

Got a great night's rest and was really looking forward to the first stop of the day, Meteor Crater, AZ.  

Sure, most everyone would say "Well, of course a meteor crater is pretty cool, Sandy, but to get all excited about it? That's a bit much."

That's because you don't know the history. 

Sixteen years ago, my sister and I were traveling eastward from California, taking the circuitous route to see things like the Hearst Castle, Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon, and various other intriguing destinations.  On our list of stops to make was this "must see" called Meteor Crater, between Flagstaff and Winslow, Arizona.  I remember the day well: it was late in the afternoon, and we drove and drove down this winding road in the middle of nowhere, until we reached a sign at a gate that said "Closed". 

Closed?  How the hell can you close frickin' meteor crater?  Easy -- you put a lot of fences around it, and that way nobody can get near the thing.  My sister and I were SO PISSED that we had to drive all the way down this bloody nowhere road that terminated at a gate to find out the crater was CLOSED!

So you see, now it was personal, and I was determined as all get out to see this freakin' big hole in the ground if it killed me.  As it turned out, it wasn't so tough at all.  Signs marked the exit and as we traveled down that same winding nowhere road, we could see signs that said "Meteor Crater - OPEN" and "Meteor Crater - open 8 to 5".  Perhaps others had been just as annoyed as us over these years?

Anyway, we made it to the parking lot (sorry, no way to get the van and crater in the same photo), paid our admission, and promptly went up to the crater rim, and were simply amazed.  The crater is simply huge.  There is no way photos can capture the size of this thing.  It's just amazing to behold in person. To give you the briefest of brief histories, I'll take some info from the Meteor Crater info brochure: the crater was formed 50,000 years ago on an unbroken plain, by a meteorite (or dense cluster of meteorites) estimated at 150' across and weighing several hundred thousand tons.  Its explosive force was supposedly greater than 20 million tons of TNT.  Dang!

To give you a better understanding of the crater's size, again from the pamphlet: the floor of the crater is 550 feet deep.  In other words, if the Washington Monument was placed on the floor of the crater, the tip of the monument would be at eye level.  The crater is 4,000 feet across and 2.4 miles in circumference. Imagine twenty football games being played simultaneously on its floor, while more than two million spectators observe from its sloping sides.

It was incredibly windy up there, and I could actually hear the wind swirling in the bowl of the crater before it made its way up to buffet the rim (and everyone standing there).

We viewed all the interesting display items, watched a movie on meteors, and headed out towards Flagstaff.

My sister wanted to venture off the main course towards Sedona, best known for being an enclave of artists and New Age types.  I wasn't against an adventure as long as it fit our timeline, so at Flagstaff we veered off I-17 onto Arizona Route 89A, heading south.  An adventure it was!  While we were pleased when we first saw the signs stating it was an official Arizona Scenic Route, I wasn't too thrilled when I was steering the van down sharply graded hairpin turns.  My sister, who is not thrilled with heights, has probably left indentations from where she gripped  the dashboard handle on our little spiraling trip from an elevation of 5000 feet? more? to 3000 feet on a two-lane highway with not much shoulder on the road of which to speak. 

Our reward for the hair-raising drive was some gorgeous scenery, some of which was captured with the Datavan in the foreground. As for Sedona, well, it was a lot more touristy and resorty than we expected it to be, (we expected it to be a little more hippie-ish, I guess) and it was swarming with people.  That didn't stop us from making a stop and doing a little shopping.

Heading south on I-17,  were making great time and I was thinking we'd either be in San Diego (or just outside it, to save a few bucks on hotels) by the evening. We had decided to have a late lunch, possibly in or just before Phoenix, and had been traveling at a fair clip when we saw a warning sign "ACCIDENT AT SUNSET POINT EXPECT DELAYS". Naturally, my first inclination was to find out where the hell Sunset Point was, and could we get around it.  Neither my sister nor I could find it in any of the resources we had available to us. The traffic was still moving pretty well, so we shrugged our shoulders and kept going.  Consulting the maps, there was no way to get off of I-17 and onto another road (even a "scenic" one) that would get us to Phoenix or I-10.

Sure enough - our day's luck had run out.  Traffic came to a standstill in the middle of stinking nowhere.  We couldn't leave, we couldn't turn around (there was a large rock between the northbound and southbound lanes).  We were stuck.  Eventually people started getting out of their cars -- two guys started playing Hacky-Sack, another guy walked his dog.  "We could always watch 'Shrek'," I said to my sister, holding up the DVD I'd brought with me.

We were hungry.  We were thirsty. We were really annoyed that we were stuck in the middle of BFE Arizona with no way out. About 2 hours or so later, traffic began moving at a fair clip and we cleared the accident -- evidently a tractor-trailer had bought the farm (probably caught in a wicked cross-wind) and turned over on the freeway.  It was still blocking one lane when we finally passed it.

At this point, we were so annoyed that we decided damn hunger, thirst and bladders and press on towards Phoenix in search of decent food and clean restrooms.  You'd think we'd find them, right?  Wrong.  Seems Phoenix, while having clearly spent money on good roads and lovely landscaping for their freeways, neglected to spend any freakin' money on GAS-FOOD-LODGING signs.  You didn't know where anything was until you were up on it and basically past it.  We took I-10 west, and now highly cranky, we said to hell with Phoenix and chose to try our luck on Arizona Route 85, which we would take to I-8.

Yes, you saw it coming.  FOR AN ENTIRE 30 MILE STRETCH of Route 85, there was nothing -- I mean nothing -- to eat, drink or gas up at.  As we got closer to I-8, I said to my sister, "You know, at this point, I don't give a shit what's up there.  If there's a place to eat, I'm eating."

We finally saw a billboard -- civilization?

"Burger King," my sister said with disgust.  She could have said "Manure Cafe" and it would have held more appeal. She and I both share a severe distaste for Burger King and the vile trash they try to pass off as food.  I was willing to subsist on Peanut Butter 'n' Cheez sandwiches from the Chevron in the distance, rather than eat at Burger King.  I was about to suggest it, when in the distance we spied...a Mexican restaurant!  I spun the van around (now an expert after our Az Rte 89A experience) and we pulled into the lot of Casa de Cazadores.  It was their Grand Opening, and the place was sparkling clean and still smelled a little of fresh paint.  We were immediately seated and treated to the obligatory chips and salsa (chips: tasty, salsa: hot, but not as hot as Joe and Aggies).  The menu was limited to six, maybe seven entrees, but at this point, all I wanted was food.  I ordered the carne asada, and was shocked when the waitress placed a plate heaping with grilled beef, nestled between a healthy serving of Spanish rice and refried beans. The beef was flavorful and seasoned with just the right hint of lime.  The refried beans were outstanding, better than Joe and Aggies.  Though I'm not a huge fan of refried beans (I like them, but it's not like I make them at home),  I could eat these beans every day.  They were that good.  It was amazing the amount of food we got for about $8 each.  We both left stuffed (and satisfied) and ventured west on I-8 until reaching this final destination for the day, Yuma -- approximately 2 miles from the California border. 

We're about 2 or 3 hours from San Diego.  Got an appointment set up to detail the van and we're done!

The Datavan
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