My little adobe house in the Petrified Forest already feels like home. It is so solid and quiet, and I have the AIR drill down pretty good so it all seems very familiar. The house contains small kitchen with a motley collection of pots and pans, half a dozen assorted glasses, plates, and random silverware. Salt, pepper and a welcomed bottle of olive oil. There's a small bathroom and a common room containing a bed, naugahyde chair and couch, student grade desk and a nice big folding table, the only concession to possible artwork creation.
Now the kitchen is stocked with groceries from the Safeway in Holbrook, most stored safely in the refrigerator due to the prevalence of mouse droppings. The bed is made up, luggage sort-of-unpacked and a short tour taken of the "neighborhood". Then John and I barely had time for dinner of rice and beans before being drawn out again to see the sunset.
And then, a few hours later, the stars. The sky had cleared and the moon was rising, the crescent rim bright, the rest of the disc glowing darkly. Above it, Venus, dominating the sky with its brightness. I lay on flat top of the stone wall next to my house and tested my iPhone app, a star guide that uses gps to identify what's in the sky above. It indicated Mars, and I found it, a warmer color than its neighbors, and satellites which I could not find but was a little creeped out knowing they were up there. But I soon grew tired of the toy and just looked.
Tonight will be an early night. We had a long day of driving and exploring the Puebloan ruins in Walnut Canyon (with about a hundred school children on class trips) and the huge Meteor Crater on our way from Flagstaff. Tomorrow we will drive the park and plan our hikes.
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