Tag Archives: Winslow

Jul6

Arizona Penny Presses

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The Lady of the House and I were on an epic road trip in Arizona and Utah. At the first two tourist attractions we visited—bam! bam!—penny presses!

Penny presses outside the Meteor Crater Natural Landmark gift shop.

The first two penny presses we saw were outside the gift shop at the Meteor Crater Natural Landmark. The gift

shop—and the presses—were deep in the complex, well past the entrance where folks pay the admission fee. If you don’t plunk down $18 for admission, you’re not getting anywhere near those penny presses.

We saw the presses at the beginning of our visit, but we spent the little-less-than-an-hour before our guided tour (included in the price of admission) picking out postcards and a t-shirt for The Boy after freshening up in the restroom. We didn’t have time for immediate penny pressing.

After the tour, we made a quick exploration of the Discovery Center, then looked at the bottom of the crater with the free telescopic viewer. Then it was time for the penny press.

Turns out, The Lady of the House enjoys pressed pennies. Before we left town, she mentioned she was saving her  quarters to use in penny press machines. She was pleased to see those penny presses outside the gift shop.

First she had to pick the design she wanted on her penny. Should I get the picture of the crater or the picture of the meteor about to crash into the earth? she asked me.

You saw the crater, I reminded her, but you didn’t see the meteor.

That’s what I was thinking! she said, then began the penny pressing process.

She lined up her design choice and put in her coins. Then she turned, turned, turned the crank. Soon her souvenir penny clanked into the dispenser cup.

The second penny press we found was in Winslow, Arizona. The Lady had never been there, and she wanted to see the Standin’ on the Corner Park. We pulled off the I-40, and I navigated the van through the town to the park. We found a free spot half a block away to leave the van, then walked over to the famous corner.

On the way, we passed a gift shop across Kinsley Avenue from the park. Right outside the shop’s door stood a penny press machine.

Penny press in Winslow, Arizona.

After we took our photos in the Standing on the Corner Park, The Lady stood in front of the machine to choose her design. She’d used up all her quarters at the Meteor Crater gift shop, so after she picked out which penny design she wanted, she went inside the gift shop to get four quarters for a dollar. The woman working the cash register offered her pennies too, but The Lady said she had some. The worker said her pennies were bright and shiny, so The Lady accepted a few. The bright and shiny pennies did make for a nice souvenir after The Lady turned, turned, turned the crank.

At that point I started wondering if I should start collecting pressed pennies.

Fifty-one cents is a good price for a souvenir, The Lady told me.

My main concern was what I would do with a bunch of pressed pennies. Would they just sit in a bowl or a drawer? Would I ever remember to look at them?

The morning after the Arizona double penny press experience, I was lying in my bed, looking up at the ceiling of my van. There are three wooden strips, each about two inches wide running across the width of my van. I could glue pressed pennies to those wooden strips, I realized. I could display my collection in my van!

It’s too late to get a pressed penny from Meteor Crater, but maybe someday I’ll pass through Winslow again. I also know where to get a pressed penny when I go through Quartzsite, AZ; Baker, CA; and Las Vegas, NV. I’m sure my collection will grow in time.

I took the photos in this post.
Mar24

Meteor Crater

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Crater Sign

I’d heard about Meteor Crater on an episode of the Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase (http://betty.libsyn.com/) podcast. In the episode, a pilot tells the story of flying over the gigantic crater near Winslow, AZ. Supposedly, a stewardess saw the crater from high up in the airplane and marveled at the fact that the meteor landed right at the end of a road.

I made a mental note of the location of the crater and told myself I’d visit if I were ever nearby.

In the Fall of 2015, I found myself passing through the area as I traveled from Las Vegas to New Mexico. I’d stopped in Winslow to take some photos of the Standin’ on the Corner Park to update my blog post about the town (http://www.rubbertrampartist.com/2015/04/28/winslow-arizona/), but I hadn’t stayed there long.

I was driving east on Interstate 40 when I saw one of those brown signs that alert drivers to state parks and outdoor activities. I think this one said “natural attraction,” and probably something to let me know Meteor Crater was the attraction in question. I was not traveling under a deadline, so I decided to stop and see the sights.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater,

Meteor Crater is a meteoriteimpact crater approximately 37 miles (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 miles (29 km) west of Winslow in the northern Arizona desert…Because the United States Board on Geographic Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of “Meteor Crater” from the nearby post office named Meteor.[2] The site was formerly known as the Canyon Diablo Crater and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite.[3] Scientists refer to the crater as Barringer Crater in honor of Daniel Barringer, who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact.[4] The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be the “best preserved meteorite crater on Earth”.[5][6]

Despite its importance as a geological site, the crater is not protected as a national monument, a status that would require federal ownership. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in November 1967.[7]

Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of about 1,740 m (5,710 ft) above sea level. It is about 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in diameter, some 170 m deep (570 ft), and is surrounded by a rim that rises 45 m (148 ft) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 210–240 m (690–790 ft) of rubble lying above crater bedrock.[1] One of the interesting features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site.[8]

After exiting I-40 (at exit 233, according to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13081), I drove a few miles through the desert. As I drove, I saw several signs, each with a clever or funny message, like the one that opens this post. I became more excited as I drew closer to the attraction.

Because I’d done no research on the crater, I had no idea the attraction is privately owned. According to http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13081,

The Barringer family still owns the Crater, and has made a tidier profit as a tourist attraction than Daniel ever would have made from the meteorite.[Daniel Barringer, a mining engineer from Philadelphia, bought the crater in 1903 and spent 20+ years looking for the meteorite that made it.]

The Crater is such a big natural wonder that some people mistakenly believe it’s owned by the government, and are sometimes unhappy to discover that they have to pay retail price to see it. But, you know, the Barringers have sunk a lot of cash into this place. They built a six-mile-long paved road between it and the interstate, and a nice visitor’s center and museum, and even an elevator to take you to the rim if you don’t want to climb the stairs.

I’d figured there would be a price for admission, even if the attraction were owned by the government, and I was ready to pay it. I’m fully aware that many (most?) cool things to see in the U.S. have some sort of price tag attached. So I budgeted $10 to see the Meteor Crater. I don’t typically spend more than $5 on an activity, but I decided I’d splurge to see the crater.

I tucked a ten-dollar bill in my small travel purse, along with my camera and my lip balm, and walked into the visitors center. I got in line to pay my entrance fee, and looked up at the board listing admission prices. WHAT? $18 for adult admission? (The Meteor Crater website [http://meteorcrater.com/contact-us/] lists other admission fees as follows:  Seniors (age 60 and older) $16.00; Juniors (age 6-17) $9.00; Non-Active Duty U.S Military/Veterans (with I.D.) $9.00; U.S. Military Youth (age 6-17) $5.00; Active U.S. Military (with I.D.) FREE.) Upon seeing I was expected to fork over $18 to see the crater, I turned right around and left. $18 was simply more than I could justify spending.

I get it. As the Roadside America.com article quoted above says, money’s been sunk into the place, paved road, visitor’s center and museum, elevator, etc., etc. However, $18 just seemed more than it was worth for the time I was going to spend there and the photos I was going to take and the information I was going to acquire.

I asked one of my Arizona friends if she’d ever been there. She said no. She said she’d waited in the car while her husband and daughter went in. When I asked her husband if it had been worth the $18 admission fee (plus the $9 he’d have paid for his daughter to get in), he had a hard time believing he would have paid that much to see the crater. He kept insisting they must have had a coupon. (Or maybe he’d just wanted to please his daughter and had swallowed hard and handed over the $27.)

In any case, while I would have liked to have seen the crater and learned more about it, I still don’t think the visit would have been worth the price of admission.

I took the photo at the top of this post.

Apr28

Winslow, Arizona

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The first time, we drove past Winslow, Arizona.

Mr. Carolina was at the wheel as we chugged along the I-40 toward Flagstaff. I was in the passenger seat, and when I saw a sign saying Winslow was ahead, I started singing the part of the song by the Eagles about standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. Mr. Carolina joined in, and we were soon singing loudly and enthusiastically. The kids in the back (Sweet L and Mr. and Ms. Fighting Couple) were too young (or too something) to know the song, so Mr. Carolina explained it was by the Eagles. I loved him for knowing the song and for singing it with me.

I was curious about Winslow, but I didn’t ask to stop. We were on a mission, on our way to a Rainbow Gathering in Mesquite, NV, and I didn’t want to slow us down on frivolity. It was my van, but I’d just met these cool young traveling kids a few days before, and I wanted them to like me. I didn’t want them to think I was dumb for wanting to see what kind of town a band they’d never heard of had sung about before they were born.

The second time we approached Winslow, Mr. Carolina was again at the wheel, but we’d parted ways with Sweet L and Mr. and Ms. Fighting Couple. We had, however, picked up the Okie and Lil C in Santa Nella, CA and were trying to get them to Oklahoma City.

It was early when we approached Winslow. We must have slept at a rest stop the night before, but I don’t remember why we were up and traveling so early in the morning. I just remember that although the sun was up, it wasn’t out. The sky was overcast, and the morning air was chilly.

Mr. Carolina took the Winslow exit and started driving us through downtown. It was deserted that early in the morning (I think it was Sunday too), but the look of the place hinted that even on a Monday at noon, the streets weren’t going to be hopping much more than they already were.

Mr. Carolina had traveled Interstate 40 (which he referred to simply as “The 40”) through Arizona and into California before. He’s been pretty drunk for most of that trip, he said. Sometimes he brought us places and didn’t seem to be sure if he’d been there before while drunk or if his intuition had led him to something we would like to see. That’s how it was in Winslow.

We were downtown, he was driving, then there was this corner with a statue of a guy leaning on a post. How did he know how to get us there? He parked the van and we all climbed out and ran around what turned out to be a park for a few minutes.

It’s not a big park. It’s mostly the statue surrounded by bricks, with a mural behind him. There is also a flatbed Ford parked on the side street.

According to Wikipedia ,

The park contains a two-story trompe-l’œil mural by John Pugh, and a life-size bronze statue by Ron Adamson of a man standing on a corner with a guitar. The park is surrounded by a wall of bricks, each with a donor’s name on it, and a story by each of the donors describing their fondness for Winslow.[1]

IMG_3577     IMG_3578

When I-40 bypassed the community many local businesses disappeared, tourism being among the hardest hit.

The Standin’ on the Corner Foundation was formed to create a renaissance of Winslow. Determined to build on tourism, the Foundation took advantage of the town being mentioned in the song “Take It Easy” by the Eagles. From 1997 until 1999, the foundation was busy finding donors and planning design concepts. On September 10 and 11, 1999 the park was opened to the public.[1]

 

IMG_3579

We didn’t stay very long. After we looked around a bit and took some photos with our phones, there just wasn’t much else to do there. We piled back into the van and went to the nearby truck stop, but the harsh anti-panhandling signs chased us out of there pretty quick.

Now I can say I’ve seen Winslow, and I don’t really ever need to go back.

Update: I did stop in Winslow again, on my way from Las Vegas to New Mexico. I stopped just long enough to hop out of the van and take the photos you see in this post.