ROUTE 66, Flagstaff, Arizona

The Continental Divide (a.k.a. Great or Western Divide or Continental Divide of the Americas,) here close to the Four Corners between Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, is the watershed of the Americas. It extends from the Alaskan Bering Strait in the north to the Strait of Magellan in the south of Patagonia, and it divides the rivers and streams going towards the Pacific Ocean from those flowing east.

It is an arid landscape (calling it a prairie would be giving it too much honor) but there is beauty, too. We found the Painted Desert named for its beautifully colored layers of rocks and the stunning, deep Canyon du Chelly, a green oasis with cliff dwellings in the middle of the Navajo reservation–but that, too, is a different story.

Our next stop was Flagstaff with its Galaxy Diner, as typical an architectural design as it can get for The Mother Road. We stayed in an RV Park out of town in the mountain side, and every morning, 7AM sharp, there was the whistle of a train so loud we thought it was going right through our camp ground.

We became accustomed to the train whistles as most camp grounds are built along or close by train tracks–it’s affordable land. And when we are on a camp site without this whistle, we do miss it.

Arizona fave food Ñ There have been filed petitions to make the chimichanga (basically a deep-fried burrito) the Grand Canyon State’s official food, but that hasn’t happened… yet. For now, it remains the state’s fave unofficial state food.