Day 114 - Austin, TX - 8736 Miles

Well, I lied. I hadn't planned on any more sight seeing, but one of the beauties of driving trips with relatively short days is the "stumble upon". They are the places we had no intention of visiting or even any knowledge they were there but they just pop up.

One of those was heading across northern Arizona out of Flagstaff. We saw an unassuming billboard announcing the exit for Meteor Crater nine miles ahead. In the past I have fallen for these where you get off the interstate because of an advertised attraction only to see the next sign saying (in effect), "Thanks for getting off. Now drive 90 miles down this side road". Now with smart phones and GPS we could see the crater was only five miles off the interstate so we figured, "Why not?"

I had some minimal information on Meteor Crater but the guide filled in a whole lot of interesting background and history. The item I'll insert here that I found most interesting is that until 1965 the scientific community was convinced it was the result of volcanic activity rather than a meteor impact.

The reason the tour was so expensive was the tour guide also took your picture with your camera.

A picture of the largest recovered chunk of meteor at 1450 lbs. (The meteor is the one on the left.)

The next day we also had a "stumble upon" in Ft. Sumner, NM. We ventured a few miles off course to see Billy the Kid's grave.

He is buried along with his pals.

The Kid's marker is shackled in iron because it's been stolen multiple times before being recovered in Granbury, TX and Huntington Beach, CA. 

Now we're home. We were greeted by 93 degree heat and the chirping of a dead smoke detector battery. I figured all in all that wasn't too bad until I opened the laundry room door. A drip pan for condensation from A/C stuff had overflowed. Water accumulated in the ceiling until the ceiling collapsed leaving a gaping hole into the attic and sheetrock chunks all over the floor. Luckily we had left the washer lid open and the bulk of the water ended up in the washing machine tub. (It's theirs, not mine).

A downside of apartment living is that routine or preventive maintenance is a completely unknown concept. Nothing is addressed until it is a catastrophe. An upside is that when that catastrophe inevitably occurs, I just call and say, "Hey, your ceiling caved in. Let me know when it's fixed."

The end.