The meteor that left this massive crater was about half the size of the parking lot at the bottom of this picture:
About 50,000 years ago, this meteor hit the earth at about 40,000 miles per hour, and left that giant hole in the ground.
This is a picture of a rock. A rock that FELL FROM OUTER SPACE! How cool is that?!
I decided to pass on the Petrified Forest. I was kind of close, but how much I've been pushing myself the past few days had been catching up to me and I just wanted to head back to where I was staying and relax. So I skipped the Petrified Forest and didn't bother stopping in Winslow, Arizona to stand on a corner and see if a girl in a flatbed Ford would slow down to take a look at me.
Yesterday as I was packing up my bike, I started talking to two other bikers on a couple of dual sport adventure type bikes. Turns out they're up from Argentina, traveling the world on their motorcycles and doing a documentary about water scarcity. It's a problem that a lot of the world faces that most people wouldn't imagine in this country. These guys are doing some noble work so check them out at www.motodestino.com.ar (most of it's in spanish).
It was lucky I ran into these guys though because it was Matias who pointed out that one of my bags was leaking. The side compartment of my luggage system was leaking a green fluid...that's where I've been keeping some extra radiator coolant/antifreeze since my radiator issue in Austin. Crap. Luckily it was just the cap on the bottle that crakced and not the bottle itself so it was just a mess instead of a disaster. He asks me what the bottle of mysterious green liquid is and I explain it's radiator fluid because I had a leak in Austin so I've been keeping extra but haven't needed it. He points out that Sebastian's bike needs antifreeze because he's been using water and they can't bring the bike anywhere where the temperature is below freezing.
Sweet serendipity! This stuff has been taking up space in my bags for the last few thousand miles and I've been looking for a way to get rid of it other than just throwing it out. I gave them about half my supply. I would have given them all I had but the rest was packed deep in Mt. Luggage and it would have been quite a hassle to get it out and then repack. I'm glad I could contribute to the cause though :)
I then rode from Flagstaff to Tucson via Sedona and Payson through the Tonto National Forest.
What a ride. I may have added an hour or two to my total trip, but it was so worth it. Sedona was such a cool place, even to just ride through, and the ride over there was amazing.
After hitting a whole knot of twisties I ended up in a canyon along a river that was just beautiful.
And then I entered the Tonto National Forest on my way to Payson and it was also amazing.
Now most of you probably picture the same thing I used to when I thought "Arizona":
But this is more like it:
Now here I am in Tucson where it's 73 degrees out.
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