"Standin' On A Corner In Winslow, Arizona" [230404]

We started today's drive with the Eagles' Take It Easy playing on the radio to psych ourselves up for today's destination:  Winslow, AZ.

Our originally planned stopping place for tonight was a Maverik (Gas Station) that used to allow overnight parking on site.  However, a last minute check of the reviews revealed that they no longer do so, so we looked for alternatives.  Winslow was actually 33 miles closer, was on our list of road stop places to visit some day, AND their Visitor Center supposedly allowed overnight parking!  A call in the morning confirmed that overnight parking is still allowed for the time being (it's actually going to be discontinued in the coming months, because of the construction of a library next door) and we were welcome to stay the night!

The drive itself ended up being somewhat brutal, due to wind storms blowing through the region.  Hours upon hours of white knuckle driving with speeds averaging only about 60 mph for the day - and even at those speeds the van's Cross Wind Assist Feature had to switch the Adaptive Cruise Control off four times throughout the day because of particularly strong wind gusts.  Tom was very glad to finally pull into Winslow around 5:40 this evening, albeit with somewhat sore shoulders and arms.

After parking at the Visitor Center (which unfortunately was closed by the time we arrived), we walked the few blocks to downtown:

in search of Standin' On The Corner Park.

where we took photos with the statues:

and the flatbed Ford:

Afterwards, we walked around and looked at some of the other art around the town.  This totem pole was one of our favorites.

For dinner tonight, we decided to invoke the "regional specialties" rule and eat out instead of cooking, since one of the restaurants in town had Navajo Tacos (Navajo fry bread topped with chili beans - Christine substituted vegetarian pintos on hers, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese) - something we loved when we first tried it when visiting the Canyon de Chelly National Monument back in 2021.

More wind storms are forecast for the next leg of our journey tomorrow, so it may turn out to be another slow slog day.  Hopefully not, though...