Route 66, Day 2, Flagstaff

A surprise day in Flagstaff.  We had intended to venture east to the Petrified Forest National Park and stay at the Wigwam Motel in nearby Holbrook.  Our lack of planning led us to get a room for Night 4 of our trip instead of Night 3.  Luckily, Flagstaff had piqued our curiosity on Day 1 and we spent some time around local haunts.

For Mom, the only true measure of a place is its thrifting.  The Los Angeles Goodwill Outlet (find one near you here) had transformed her in-city thrifting from a desolate landscape of hipsters and dealers to one of the truly desperate, those relying on this purest form of capitalist hustle, greasing the wheels of secondary market efficiency, turning the least-desired of people well enough off to dispose of it into something useful for penny after laborious penny on dollar after laborious dollar.

While half-joking about finding Flagstaff's Goodwill Outlet as a Day 1 activity, the extra Day 2's priority 1 was clear.  If ever we get Mom to do a full write-up of what she found, it will be included.  The most notable find was the oldest garment she'd ever found in the wild, dated 1929.  In the place of a full inventory, allow this one quote instead: "I couldn't see over the mountain of stuff I had."  Lucky for the rest of us, she pared this down to what would fit in the car.

Tactile experiences for children at Riordan Mansion

Child and Dad didn't join in this thrift score.  Instead, they went to Riordan Mansion.  It is almost completely surrounded by now by NAU (apparently, a University).  While making more wrong turns than one would think possible on a mile-and-a-half drive, we saw much of this campus and only one entrance to the Mansion's grounds, which we had been adjacent to during many of those wrong turns.  We didn't take a guided tour of the interior of the mansion, but the Visitor Center had many tools and implements of the time.  The tactile experience was of far more interest for 3 1/2 year-old Child.  More child tactile experiences, this time of feet on rocks and earth, were had on the Mansion grounds.  Adult tactile experience was that of no fewer than 5 mosquito bites inside half an hour.

Rear of Riordan Mansion

After lunch, we ventured to Thorpe Park.  Child had much pent-up energy from so much time driving.  This park was the perfect release.  As usual, she made a friend, a boy who was celebrating some small part of his ninth birthday here at Thorpe.  Mom was enamored with the Saddlemates.

A few Saddlemates, including a two-seater

Only allow children to make decisions for you when you're genuinely 50-50 on the options.  I didn't care whether thirst-quenching happened next or toy-finding.  Child chose toy-finding.  This led to a direct experiencing of the Goodwill Outlet for Dad.  Dealers had descended since Mom's early-morning triumph.  The place had been picked over and things Mom had caught and released had disappeared.  Nonetheless, a braided belt and jar full of wooden beads supplied the required materials for an hour or so of child necklace-making later that yielded three wonderful pieces of jewelry.  Some fries and drinks at Galaxy Diner next door and some swimming at the hotel rounded out the day.  Despite two nights of trying, taking advantage of the first International Dark Sky city's dark skies was fruitless, as both clouds and lightning descended and viewings at Lowell Observatory's telescopes were impossible.