New Mexico/Arizona/The Great Meteor Crator

Good morning! we were so exhausted last night we couldn't even write to you all. I did upload all my pictures thought so we will write this morning.

I will let Shell write the blog today because the meteor crator was a lifelong dream of hers.(yes people...she is a HUGE geek). It's a good thing she's happily married because there were a ton of perfect men for her, all sharing the same passion for rocks and things that fall out of the sky and make big holes.

Shelley here. It's true. Yesterday morning it felt like we were headed toward Disneyland. I awoke ready to go at 4 AM. It was the crater, the canyon and the Navajo shopping that I had waited my whole life, so far for. Because we got such an early start, our shopping took place in conveniently located 24 hour convenience stores adjacent to gas stations. I bought a hat, some lace-up-to-the-knee leather moccasins and a clutch of dream catchers. We hit the crater at 11 AM. There was a guided one mile rim walk included in the price of admission but you HAD to have shoes on that covered all of your foot. Lucky for me, I had on my knee-hi moccasins. Steph, however, was wearing some nature-lover hiking sandals, so she had to stay in the visitor's center with the other spouses of geeks on the tour.

They don't let you go down into the crater any more for liability reasons. It's probably best. It is 550 feet deep and 4000 feet across and I would have been (even more of) a sweat and dust caked hot mess and Steph may not have let me back into the car, especially not after the stinky feet incident. The rim circumference is 2.5 miles and the tour took us out one mile. I had a religious moment when I picked up a round fossil that when scrutinized, revealed itself to be an ancient- hundreds of millions of years old- sea urchin. I could distinctly see the spines, poking out from the flattened bottom. I knew I could not take it, as our guide stated that they sell this kind of thing in the gift shop. I just wish I was the kind of person who just didn't hesitate to steal when stealing was required. Is it bad to admit that? At heart, I am just a little too good.

When I came back, I knew Steph would say that she had grown bored of this place, but she was being so nice to me that she let me shop in the visitor center and look for rocks on the sly on the lookout platform where she herself had pilfered two.

Steph here again, I did NOT rush Shell out of that place as I knew how important it was to her. I was happy to follow along and observe.

We ended up skipping the Grand Canyon all together as there was a large fire that had muddied the air and honestly...we were just too damn tired. We still many hours left to get to our hotel so we had a pseudo Mexican lunch at some obnoxiously decorated restaurant in Flagstaff and got back on the road.

This morning we are headed home to our families. I myself have not seen my husband or kids in a few weeks so I can't get there fast enough. I think Shell would like a few more days but she does miss her family too.

we will be writing an epilogue of our adventures later today. It should be quite funny. I hope.