We left Albuquerque in the rain. It was a light rain and it washed the dust off the MH that accumulated while we were camped there. Today we have planned to visit the Petrified Forest and get to Canyon de Chelly before dark. It was nice to get back on the road. Too much down time these last two days. If you don't know by now "I love to travel" and the MH is the way to go for me.
Sharon has been looking for some real Indian jewelry so I will plan not to miss to many trading posts along the way.
First stop - Continental Divide. If you are traveling in New Mexico on I-40 it will be exit 47.
Sharon decided to check out the tepee for jewelry - OOPS! No one home. 
Now she has me pushing things out of her way - No the Trading Post is not over here, either.
This is the landscape at the Continental Divide at this location............Where did Sharon go?
Well, looks like she has found the Trading Post so we will be here for a little while. Time for a beer.......
While traveling thru New Mexico we saw a lot of trains like the one in the picture above. Some were going east and some were going west.
Santa Fe Railway - I think I saw that one in a few westerns.
There was one train hauling a couple of Army tanks!
And one train had a lot of grafiti on several cars. People will paint on anything sitting still. Let's keep moving.
We finally made it to Arizona and the Petrified Forest National Park. Part of the park is the Painted Desert which you go thru first. In 1962, Congress changed the Monument Park to a National Park combining both areas.
One of the many information boards located at each parking area.
The Painted Desert is made up of different minerals exposed by wind & water, and they paint the desert with beautiful colors. Pictures can't show what a person sees because it is so vast. Colors change with the effects of sun & shade on the desert. We were trying to take it all in and took many photos as reminders of the areas we viewed.
Sharon stands by one of the information boards located throughout the park.
The hills in the Painted desert continues to yield many fossils as the forces of wind & water changes the landscape.
The Painted Desert Inn onced served as a respite for travelers along historic Route 66. It was a Harvey House and the Harvey girls live two in a room working 12 hour shifts. One working and the other resting. I counting 7 bedrooms for the Harvey girls. (Harvey Houses is a Bed & Breakfast Inn)
The building has three floors with the bottom floor being the bar. The top floor was a trading post at one time. There are 28 rooms. The walls are 2 feet thick.
On the right side of the bldg. Sharon is returning from viewing the living quarters for the girls. The rooms had a sink & mirror. No bathroom in the rooms.
Fred Kabotie, a well known indian artist, painted this mural as well as others on the walls.
This is the trading post area. Note the hammered-tin Mexican style chandelier. There were at least 6 of these. The ceiling had various layered logs which were placed in different angles. There was a very large skylight of translucent glass with pottery type paintings on them.
Now we have traveled on down to the Crystal Forest well known for its collection of petrified wood made up of many crystals.
I was really surprised when the park ranger at the gate ask me if I was bringing in any petrified wood, fossils, or rocks. I asked, "Do the people bring this stuff back that they took?" (There are signs everywhere telling you not to take anything from the park.) She told me a lot of rock collectors find things elsewhere and bring them there.
Here you can see the crystals in the end of a broken piece of petrified wood.
This is one of the longest log formation. We enjoyed the visit even though most of the the park deals with items dating back million of years.
Of course, I never was into to dinosaurs or the things before that era. Though interesting & beautiful, we would not put this one on a list of parks to visit.
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