The Painted Desert and Scared Trees

Once upon a time, Louise and my dad dragged all us kids to see the Petrified Forest. I must've been about eight at the time, and I was wondering why...WHY...they would take me to a place where trees had been scared. What kind of monster lived in those woods? What kind of fear had struck the heart of those poor trees? What kind of PARENTS would take their kids to a place where something had scared the TREES?!?

Needless to say, seeing petrified wood was a huge let down to my eight-year-old self (a letdown and just a little bit of a relief).

This time, I was prepared. "The trees are not scared, Thelma; use the other definition." ;) What I had forgotten (or didn't/couldn't notice in my hyper-watchfulness for the boogey man) was the sweeping majesty of the Painted Desert. It was stunning and breathtaking, and it seemed to never end.

At the end of this post, we're also including just a bunch of pictures that we've taken along the way. Have fun making up your own captions to them (feel free to share in the comments)! Also, if you click on the pictures, it will load them bigger, so you can see the detail in the panoramas, if you so choose.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Grand Canyon (another place I was still looking for the boogeyman, so I'm excited to see it this time!).

Goodnight, all,
- xoxo, The Not-so-worried-anymore Thelma























And now, the weird and wonderful of Route 66:



































Oh, and we DID finally get our fuzzy dice! ;)