With Flagstaff behind us and Gallup as our planned destination for the day, we were eastbound on I-40 when we saw one of those intriguing brown signs. We were just eleven miles from the Barringer Meteor Crater so of course we had to visit! Some 50,000 years ago a meteor measuring 150 feet and weighing several hundred thousand pounds hurtled into the Arizona desert at some 26,000 miles per hour creating a crater sixty stories deep and 4000 feet across with a rim that rises 148 feet above the adjacent plain. Today it is a National Natural Landmark that is privately owned and managed. We paid our admissions and watched the documentary. We listened to a live presentation and touched the meteor fragment on the pedestal but opted not take the guided hike along the rim. Spent some time in the museum and more time out on the observation decks. By then we were ready for lunch. Although there was a Subway attached to the gift shop, we returned to the truck for peanut butter, crackers, dried strawberries, and fresh banana before continuing east.
The Ruins of Pompeii
It was an incredible experience to actually walk the streets of Pompeii, once a bustling resort town in the Roman Empire until 79 AD when an apocalyptic explosion buried it under 20 feet of volcanic ash. Archeological excavations since the 19th Century continue to reveal evidence of a thriving community.
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