Day 11 - Gallup NM to Holbrook AZ - 170 miles (1961 miles so far)

Another late lie this morning, planned this time as we didnt have very much ground to cover.

We went to the cafe in the Gallup Cultural Centre for brunch, I had a breakfast burrito and K had a croissant with bacon and egg, we both had ice lattes to drink (did I mention it is warm here?!).

Then we went an unintentional detour (read the wrong way) through the desert for about 20miles, oops! However, we did get to see some prairie dogs since we were in the middle of nowhere so it wasnt too bad. Once we got back on the road we were soon in Arizona, we stopped at a giant TeePee (see above) to do some browsing.

Then we pushed on to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park. We did the 28 mile scenic drive that goes through the park, it has loads of parking places for views, little walks etc. It took us about 3 hours to do the 28 miles! The Painted Desert bit was amazing, it was kinda like being on a different planet. The rocks were all stripey, and we saw the badlands and a lot of mountains. We also saw another group of Pueblo ruins, this time though they were older and had a lot of petroglyphs on the rocks (drawings by the indians), especially on Newspaper Rock.

The Petrified Forest part wasnt as exciting although it was pretty cool, much more impressive than Fossil Gove in Victoria Park.

Eventually, we arrived in Holbrook (via Buckets of Blood Dr!) but sadly the wigwam motel was fully booked - gutted! We booked into a America's Best Value Inn in a huff. We then walked down to Joe and Aggies cafe, a route 66 institution. Walking was a bad idea as although there are pavements in Holbrook there are no pedestrian crossings. Joe and Aggies has fun murals on the side and a lot of Rt 66 tat for sale inside. The menu was massive so I couldnt decide on what fun thing to get so I just got a cheeseburger, what a loser! I also got a ranch side salad, it was actually all very nice. K got fried chicken with mash, gravy and veg and a ranch side salad. It was massive, she said she ate loads but there was still millions on the plate at the end. She then had a sopapilla with honey ( I had a wee bit of it). After that we went a wee walk again then went for our first ever Dairy Queen experience for pudding. I had a strawberry shortcake sundae and K just had a hot fudge sundae malt, good times.

Then we just went to Safeway (!?) and got some water and now we are back at the motel. It is way too warm, the electric shocks have started!