Winter Road Trip Day 6: Winslow AZ and...

On our second day in Arizona we were still in a bit of a recovery mode from all of the traveling. We got up in the morning and decided to re-stock our supplies, so we headed west to Winslow to do some grocery shopping.

Along the way, we stopped at Geronimo, one of the many trading posts and rock shops along Interstate 40 in Arizona.

Geronimo is home to the world's largest petrified log:

Some beautiful cliffs overlook the trading post.

After a grocery run in Winslow, Gynn was feeling tired. I decided to go for a drive back toward New Mexico to see the sights that we had missed when we first drove into Arizona in the dark. I also wanted to collect some tourist brochures at the Welcome Center on the Arizona/New Mexico border.

The scenery was gorgeous. I pulled off at an exit to photograph some lovely mountains when a rabbit ran right by my car pursued by two dogs (at first I thought they were coyotes, but when one stopped a short distance off to look me over I could tell it was a dog; the other continue trailing the rabbit). I snapped a couple of pictures of the mountains.

And yes, that white stuff you're seeing is snow. If you thought this kind of terrain is always scorching hot, you might be in for a surprise on a winter visit. It was well below freezing outside and there was about half an inch of snow on the ground.

I continued on into New Mexico, and stopped at the New Mexico Welcome Center, which is located near some impressive cliffs with this even more impressive cavernous overhang.

I turned around in Gallup NM and headed back to the Arizona Welcome Center across the road and across the border from New Mexico's rest stop.

There were more spectacular cliffs to be seen.

The picnic area had signs warning about some of the local hazards:

I must admit a moment's annoyance when the sign stated "insects" and the picture depicted a scorpion, which is most definitely not an insect. That would be the science teacher side of me coming out.

I picked up a bunch of brochures detailing local attractions, and got back on the road, where I found myself driving alongside a fast-moving freight train. I snapped this picture out the window of my car, paralleling the train at about 75 MPH.

We bought souvenirs at Geronimo, but I couldn't resist a stop at Stewart's Petrified Wood, which was advertised on billboards stretching miles in every direction. Stewart's has its own collection of dinosaurs to rival anything in Holbrook. Most of them are mounted with old mannequins for that added touch of the bizarre.

They stand among old wrecks of cars and even a school bus.

The road leading up to Stewarts has a nice view of the distant cliffs.

Some of the dinosaurs are animatronic and can be seen moving occasionally.

I bought a trilobite fossil for Gynn and a small piece of petrified wood, but Stewarts is more than just a rock shop. It is a working ostrich farm. Yes, this place gets even more bizarre.

Here's a closer look at one of the big birds.

When I returned to the hotel, I learned that Gynn had gone for a walk around the neighborhood we were staying in and had found... A bunch of petrified wood in the dirt.

Made me feel slightly foolish about the piece I'd paid three bucks for, but she loved her trilobite so it was all good. We ate dinner in the hotel room and got to bed early to rest up for our planned trip to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park the next day.