Side Dish - Meteor Crater, Winslow, AZ - 5/2009

FLASHBACK

The Year is 1980, a family of four from Huntington Beach is driving through the Arizona Desert. The adorable, beautiful, precious (ahem...coughcough) girls in the backseat spot a sign off the highway saying "VISIT THE WORLD FAMOUS METEOR CRATER - Exit in 9 miles".

Dawn: Are we still on Earth?

Brooke: Dad? Dad? Dad? LOOK! Can we please go to the Meteor Crater??? That sounds like the absolute most FABULOUS place to go in the world! Can we make precious family memories together and all go visit together? PLEASE????

Dad: No

Repeat same Flashback in 1981, 1983, 1985 etc as we traveled past the Meteor Crater at least 10 times throughout my childhood, and receiving the standard "No" answer each and every time. The Crater faded in the distance while a sharp sigh rattled in my throat.

It only took 30 years - but the "adorable, precious" (oh who am I kidding.....more like Bitchy, Pushy etc) now 40 year old exited the anticipated Highway 40 and went.

And dammit - it was kinda worth it.

Yes - the admission fee is too high, and the 100 degree wind blows harder than a Category 5 Hurricane, but the crater is something that we feel occurred an infinitesimal era ago, was actually yesterday in geological standards and appears tangible and real here. Because of the isolation of the area, the crater appears far bigger than it actually is in reality.

The bottom of the crater which does not appear that deep (Says the woman with the Kate Spade purse and high heeled wedges looking down from the top), is not accessible to the public, but a Rim Trail is available twice a day to traverse the circumference of the crater by a guide.

Which we obviously did not do......:-)

The interior of the complex houses an exceptional film and several interactive exhibits which makes for an entertaining stopover on the lonely Arizona highway.

Redemption is a sweet nectar.....even 30 years later