Happy Earth Day everyone and greetings from Holbrook, AZ! I hope you all had a chance to enjoy our beautiful living spaceship on her special day. We’re all lucky to be aboard this little capsule of life.

Matthew and I were also lucky enough to stop by the Petrified Forest National Park today. The winds were fierce up to 50 mph which kept the park pretty empty. The winds whipped up a lot of dust, making the underside of the clouds reddish instead of grey. I was stunned to see this national park. I didn’t know much more than what the name of the park implies but it’s so much more than the petrified wood. It has different colored badlands (from reds to blues/purples) hidden in the park. I had no idea we had more than one “badlands” in the United States. I’m happy to learn something new! Our drive through the park was at least an hour long and worth the one way drive south from the Painted Desert Visitor Center. The winds were another character of the park, one of the most striking. I haven’t tried to go for a walk in such gusty winds before today and I’m from Chicago (lol). My chapped lips are not happy about it. Our walk among the mosaic-colored, millions of years old wood. The bark felt the same, I saw where a tree had a knot, the fibers of the wood transformed into to stone. The sandstone held onto these logs until it was eroded away and the quartz logs were exposed. How lucky are we to live at a time to see these beauties? I hope everyone reading this will explore this park some day. It’s worth the drive from any part of the country.

This is my study of the petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock. These petroglyphs were created by Puebloan people from 650 and 2,000 years ago.

This week has been a whirlwind of change. Quite literally winds were the catalyst to our moves around the state of Arizona. We loved our stay on the Rio Verde river at the Box Bar Recreational Area. The birds sang all day while the water rushed by, what more could we ask for? The people we encountered were all friendly and very happy to have found this special spot. Unfortunately our stay was cut short due to the Needle Fire in the Tonto National Forest. We were camped just a few miles away and on Saturday 4/16/22 we were told to evacuate due to the proximity to the un-contained fire. The air was smoky and a fellow camper said he saw the glow on the horizon. That was enough for us to get the HELL OUT OF DODGE. We packed up within the hour and headed out of the forest with a few stowaways, Cooper and his two dogs Guy and Scooby. He needed a ride to Flagstaff (fyi: the locals drop the staff) which was where we were going.

Thanks to Cooper, we had a fantastic free place to stay within walking distance of downtown. We loved Flag! We found an open-mic night, a local coffee shop, and a dog groomer in the same shopping strip as a laundry mat. It just felt like home somehow. Unfortunately another fire started (is it us?!) north of Flagstaff and we didn’t feel safe enough to stay longer. We’ll definitely be back.

If you had asked me where I was going to be for Earth Day last week, I would not have guessed Petrified Forest NP near Holbrook, AZ. That’s the fun of this lifestyle. I wish everyone near the fires safety and calm winds!

Love always,

r