Adventures with Luna: Day 26 - Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

After a chilly night filled with nightmares and waking up freezing, Luna and I headed to Petrified Forest National Park. We spent several hours enjoying the incredible place; the petrified trees held beautiful, vibrant colours that stood out against the barren, desert landscape. 218 million years ago, these petrified trees were part of a thriving rainforest, due to the position of Pangea, the forest would have been where Costa Rica is now.

A tiny toddler at the National Park became utterly fascinated by Luna. He came over at one point, my back was turned, so I did not see him until he was almost upon us, but Luna was very gentle and calm with him, reaching her nose up to touch his face and let him stroke her. She did get quite frightened by him later when he suddenly cornered her agains a rock, but he was good about backing off and his mom was there to tell him to ask before approaching a strange dog, although he didn't seem like he could speak very much yet. I was checking out the view at one lookout when a woman pulled out a bottle of water and Luna went over and stood up on her hind legs near her, staring at her water. I had offered Luna water not that long ago and had been planning to again shortly, but apparently she had suddenly become very thirsty. Despite me saying that I had water in the car for her, the woman kindly poured water in her hands for Luna to drink. Luna was a little confused about drinking out of a stranger's hand, then her thirst overcame her uncertainty and she drank plenty. The woman owned seven hunting dogs back home, German Shorthaired Pointers I believe she said, so she was happy to get her dog fill.

We left the park around noon and headed on towards Texas. After driving for 6 or 7 hours, we stopped in a small town called Tucumcari. I finally found a place I could sleep for the night that was actually open in this desolate, old town and was mightily ripped off. It was the worst place by far that I have stayed to date; there was no water, it was right in town (a very creepy, worn-out town from what I could see) and worst of all, no washroom. I was quick to lock myself in the car until daylight! Oddly enough, they did have wifi, which is at least something for the insane $20 fee they charged me. I spent a lovely couple of hours on the phone with my mom, then prepared much better than I had in the past for a cold night. Despite it reaching 0 overnight, I was so warm and cozy in my two sleeping bags, sweatshirt and long underwear that I didn't wake up over the course of the night, except for one time that I woke up out of habit to see if Luna was warm enough and cover her again with my jacket.