East Arizona (Day 8)

Arizona is one of only two American states to feature roundabouts. This brand new roundabout sports a fun three-dimensional design. I think Nicole would prefer driving over it rather than going around it the 'wrong' way.

Breakfast at the Cameron Trading Post is not like the breakfasts we've been having at all the other American motels. As the crowd is a mix of tourists and locals from the reservation, there are a wide range of American, Navajo and Mexican breakfasts on offer. Most of these involve frybread and eggs, but there is one token meal amusingly called The Bilagaana that consists of pancakes and toast. Bilagaana is a Navajo word that can be taken to mean 'white man' or 'white devil', and developed as the Navajo approximation of the word 'Americano' (they sort of sound the same once you remove the 'r' and 'm', which are letters that don't exist in the Navajo language).

Nicole asks the Navajo waitress what she tells people if they ask what it means and she laughs, "I just say it means 'white person' and leave it at that, because I don't want to be racist".

Prickly Pear Milkshake.

We both have frybread and bacon for breakfast. Frybread, with its chewy interior and crunchy outer crust, makes a good breakfast food. I watch a jackrabbit eating its own breakfast of sage brush outside the window opposite and think of my own rabbit back home. Gable, I miss you! 

A geology store along Route 66

That's our hire car behind the sign. This store had its yard open with gems and rocks everywhere but the actual door into the shop was padlocked.

Today we head off east and drive on the famous Route 66 for a little while, stopping at the once-busy town of Holbrook. It's a place reduced to rusting '50s kitsch, a pale shadow of its former self now that Route 66 has been replaced with more efficient but mind-numbingly dull interstate freeways. 

Welcome to Holbrook. Statue appears to be a cowboy riding a petrified tree while a Navajo menaces him.

Holbrook's distinctive and slightly racist Wigwam Motel has large wigwam-shaped buildings that people can book rooms in.

The cars remind you of the bygone era that once made Holbrook such a significant stopover.

This car reminds you of what has happened to all the towns that once thrived on the old Route 66.

From here we explore the Petrified Forest, a desert covered in fossilised trees and a paleontological site for several hulking dinosaur-like creatures from the Triassic era. The willowing heat is a nice atmospheric touch that puts me in mind of prehistoric times. 

Actually, that's not really true, but wouldn't it be great if I could find a positive angle to the dry 90 degree fahrenheit weather?

Petrified tree #1.

Petrified tree #2. You can only look at so many of these.

Polished cuts of petrified wood on sale.

A skeleton of Placerias,a large theraspid that walked the Arizonian earth when dinosaurs were just beginning to emerge. Theraspids are large animals that were a bit of a cross between reptiles and mammals.

The whole north-eastern side of Arizona is still within the Navajo Nation, so there's a lot of Indian stores along the way. Nearly everyone in this area also sells geodes and petrified wood. As we head up north to visit a local historical site we see many cars pulled over on the highway; Navajo families gathering pinon nuts from the trees just as they have for thousands of years (only, of course, the cars weren't around back then). 

Inside Hubbell Trading Post

Rugs, rifles and randomness

Our last stop in Arizona is the aforementioned historical site, Hubbell Trading Post. This is the oldest Navajo trading post that has continuously been in operation in America. Since 1878, the store has been selling groceries to the community in Ganado, and it is considered a point of reconciliation between Navajo and white settlers. The original owners, the Hubbell family, learned the Navajo language during an era when fraternisation between Americans and Indians was not encouraged. These days the store is owned and operated by Navajo people, and it continues to thrive as a meeting point for people of both cultures. Today there is a Navajo rug auction in a huge marquis outside, and several stalls and many cars have gathered to partake in the festivities.

Saw this in a store/restaurant called the Cracker Barrel. Features such delicious recipes as coca-cola pot roast.

The restaurant Applebee's has these cool little touch-screens on their tables so the patrons can play trivia games while they wait. How good is that? When you're done eating you can also pay your bill using this and then simply get up and leave.

Unfortunately there has been a lot of driving today which has put a bit of strain on us, so we strike out for New Mexico around 5:30 pm (the times keep swapping back and forth as we move between the Navajo Nation and Arizona, which can be really confusing). We finish today's drive in Gallup, a small city that has been nicknamed the 'Indian Capital of the World' for the large percentage of Navajo, Hopi and Zuni who live here. It seems like a pretty busy place and after dinner and a visit to Walmart we call it a day.