Havasu Havok (Part 2)

Four hours passed...then we saw it. This sign:

Whatha? "Dad, the Meteor Crater? I thought you said that was near Winslow...?"
Dad: "Well, it is."

Me: "Oh. So...and how far is Winslow from Havasu?"

Dad: "Eh, I don't know... Like 2 or 3 hours. Why?"
Me: "Well, it's almost 4:00pm... What are we doing?"
Dad: "We're going to see the Meteor Crater. I'm 40 years old, have lived in Arizona my entire life, and STILL have not seen it, so I figured, 'ah heck, we're on the road anyways, might as well see it!' Why not? Do you not want to go?"
Me: "Not really... But ah heck. Two or three hours isn't too bad. How long could it take to see a big hole in the ground?" (famous last words)

$54 later, here we were: looking at the "big hole in the ground." :) Here's some pictures :)

Pop-sicle Joseph :)

Curious Jakey :)

Mandy the Monkey :)

Half of the big, happy family :)

Emma and the "hole" :)

Best question of the CENTURY: (Anna) "Mom, where is the hole? I don't see it..." *with dead serious expression on her face* :)

"Oh. There it is." :)

After spending an hour in the freezing cold, looking at the big hole in the ground and the small museum to accompany it, we retreated to the motor-home to eat some hot nachos and warm up a bit. The tickets that we bought to get in also gave us a discount on gas at the gas station just down the road, so we took advantage of it and filled up. Then we continued onward.

About another hour passed. Dad was driving, I was the "navigator-ator" (supposedly), Mom and the rest of the kids were in back. It was now about 7:30. Dad and I started hearing this strange noise that seemed to be coming from the front passenger side, but paid no mind to it for the first few miles. We figured, "Eh, something probably just got stuck. It's fine." When all was quiet, we figured, "Ope. It must've fallen off. Hurray." We drove about 20 miles with the strange noise and then it was just gone....until. Until it got LOUDER. This time we had had it! We couldn't stand it any longer so we pulled over and got out to figure it out. It was about 18 degrees outside and there was about 4 inches of snow (SNOW!?!) on the ground.
I hopped out and saw a small, plastic thing laying just in front of the wheel. It looked like some sort of Gameboy or GPS thing. We figured, "That's what was making the noise? Really? That's lame," but just as I was getting in, I checked my phone and the light from my phone shone on the tire. That's when we noticed the tire was TOTALLY blown. The entire outside rubber was completely off the wheel, but somehow still stuck on. (It was a MIRACLE! We had been doing about 70-80mph for the past hour.) "So THAT'S what's been making that sound!" Already-long-story-made-short, half an hour, several ingenious ideas from Dad, and 4 frozen hands later, the spare tire was put on and we continued our journey.

To be continued.......