| La Posada Hotel
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After breakfast in the Turquoise Room, we checked out of La Posada Hotel, packed up the luggage into the car
and we were off to Petrified Forest.
It turns out La Posada brochure display included Petrified Forest National Park maps.
On the map the Park advised that the most efficient way to visit this National Park was to use highway 180 to enter via the south entrance,
then exit the park via the north entrance at Painted Desert.
I was still trying to decide which way to go after Petrified Forest,
either have lunch at the Holbrook Supercharger or simply continue east, but I figured
that depended on how long our visit turned out to be.
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| Petrified Forest National Park
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| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 8:50 am | Departed La Posada Hotel | 242 |
| 9:47 am | Arrived Petrified Forest, Rainbow Forest Museum Visitors Center | 173 |
Range/Distance ratio: 1.28
Conditions: Drafting, 87°F
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We went right to the Rainbow Forest Museum Visitors Center so my children
could pick up their Junior Ranger books to begin their activities.
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But when we approached the Visitors Center I noticed a pair of ChargePoint stations.
Why not take advantage of the charging while we're here?
So I plugged in.
We spent a lot of time here.
Actually too much time inside the Visitors Center we were struggling to find a lot of the
clues to try to solve the pages my kids happened to choose.
Finally I convinced them to take a walk outside in the Rainbow Forest to see
the actual petrified wood in the field.
That's what we were really here to see:
Petrified Forest is one of the best places in the world to see the fossil record from the Triassic Period.
It's striking to see up close and touch the fossilized form of what obviously were tree trunks long ago
but converted into colorful formations of crystallized quartz.
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We had so much of the park to see and,
considering how far behind schedule we were now,
the best place for lunch was at the north end of the Park.
| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 11:28 am | Departed Rainbow Forest Museum Visitors Center | 194 |
The upside of taking so long here was that the car got a little boost in charge.
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| Crystal Forest
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Next we drove north to Crystal Forest.
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The trail in Crystal Forest offers access to numerous
petrified logs scattered on the landscape.
Seeing the enormous quartz crystals formed from ancient logs up close was
very unique.
The little ones even sat on one or two.
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| Blue Mesa
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Next we drove north to Blue Mesa featuring formations built with sedimentary layers
containing bentonite clay, which creates the blue color.
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Blue Forest is a region of these layers carved so deeply that visitors can hike amongst
these hills as if it were a forest, hence the name.
As we were leaving Blue Forest, we encountered deer, all the way out here in the 110°F desert.
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| The Tepees
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Just a little further north from Blue Mesa we found The Tepees.
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| Painted Desert
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Painted Desert looks just its name implies:
acres of desert seemingly dumped with a palette of red, brown, and yellow paint.
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The picturesque location inspired some to build the Painted Desert Inn so
travelers can stay and marvel at the colors.
Today it is an historic site.
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When we finally arrived at the Painted Desert Visitors Center, there was yet another charging station,
so I plugged in there too.
While the car charged, we had lunch, earned our Junior Ranger badges, and
shopped for local memorabilia.
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After one last chance to use the restroom here, we were
back on the road eastbound.
It wasn't long before we crossed into New Mexico and another time zone.
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| Gallup, New Mexico
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| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 2:40 pm PDT | Departed Painted Desert Visitors Center | 150 |
| 4:38 pm MDT | Arrived Gallup Supercharger | 68 |
Range/Distance ratio: 1.24
Conditions: 110°F
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My children and I needed the bathroom break, so we were glad that Hampton Inn offered their facilities.
After having a late lunch today, they didn't feel like having dinner just yet,
but I still offered them some snacks from the
hotel's vending machine.
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Cost to Charge: $0
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This segment of the drive featured more scenic desert scenery including several
impressive rock formations. We could just barely see Ship Rock in the distance,
far past three
other similar formations that were obvious to see.
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| Farmington, New Mexico
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| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 5:18 pm MDT | Departed Gallup | 188 |
| 7:29 pm MDT | Arrived Farmington Supercharger | 62 |
Range/Distance ratio: 1.03
Conditions: 97°F
The drive descending from the mesa and down into Farmington was surprisingly curvy.
When we arrived at the Supercharger,
my children picked the nearby Chili's for dinner.
Cost to Charge: $0
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(And Farmington was the last Supercharger we would see for days.)
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| Durango, Colorado
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| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 8:36 pm MDT | Departed Farmington | 229 |
| 9:41 pm MDT | Arrived Doubletree in Durango | 171 |
Range/Distance ratio: 1.03
Conditions: 97°F
The evening was still surprisingly warm.
In my original plan I intended to arrive here sooner, but this lateness is a
direct result of our spending more time than planned at the Rainbow Forest Museum.
After having dinner,
we looked forward to a shorter drive to the
Doubletree in Durango, Colorado.
We arrived too late to enjoy the pool here tonight, so we
checked in and settled for the night.
Then I plugged the car into one of this Doubletree's Tesla charging stalls, the one closest our room.
A Model 3 was plugged into a farther one.
Cost to Charge: $0
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Dean E. Dauger holds a Ph. D. in physics from UCLA, where his group
created the first Mac cluster in 1998. Dr. Dauger is the award-winning
author in multiple American Institute of Physics' Software Contests and
co-authored the original, award-winning Kai's Power Tools
image-processing package for Adobe Photoshop.
After founding his company,
Dauger Research, Inc., its debut product,
Pooch, derived from Dr. Dauger's experience using clusters for his
physics research, was soon awarded as "most innovative" by IEEE Cluster
and continues to revolutionize parallel computing and clusters worldwide
with its patented technology.
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