Today I drove south from the Grand Canyon to Meteor Crater, which is 35 miles east of Flagstaff. Formed 50,000 years ago. 4000 feet wide. well, here:



I saw that in the morning and made my way back to Flagstaff to find a place to stay with reliable Internet so I could updates posts. I am currently sitting in the Monte Vista Hotel, waiting on my room to be ready. I stumbled upon this place in downtown Flagstaff. It is on the National Historical Places registry. A bunch of famous people have stayed here: John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Carole Lombard, Lee Marvin, and more. And apparently John Wayne saw the ghost of a dead bellhop once. So it may be haunted too. Tomorrow, I may try to stop by the Lowell Observatory. That is where the planet (now ex-planet) Pluto was discovered. They currently do Near Earth Object research. Basically, they look for asteroids that may destroy life as we know it. From there, the map opens up a little. I may go to Mojave, CA to look at an aircraft graveyard and the Sealed Composites company, who won the X Prize for being the first privately funded group to build and fly a vehicle to the edge of space (62 miles).
We'll see.
Right now I just want my room so I can shower. I smell since I slept in the bed of the truck last night and haven't showered in two days.
By the way, third gear is getting touchy in the truck. I've had this truck for ten years, 145,000 miles and I have never had a single thing go wrong. So, I don't feel bad. All the other gears are still fine. They feel crispy and deep. But third is soft and shallow. It will actually fall out of gear if I let off the gas and press it again. I think the only gear I have ever ground has been third, and I may have finally stripped the teeth off of third. Regardless, I can still use third, I just have to hold the shifter. This is OK because I don't usually cruise in third anyway.