Standin' on the Corner Park (Winslow, Arizona)

It was probably a silly stop, but when I found out that Winslow, Arizona was between the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest, I knew I had to go there. I've been a fan of the Eagles for, oh, I'd say about 15 years now, and one of my favorite Eagles songs is "Take It Easy." This song has a line, "Well, I was standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford slowing down to take a look at me." Believe it or not, the town of Winslow has actually dedicated a corner of a commercial block to be "the corner" from the song. And, yeah, I had to go there.

Mom and I wasted a good 15 minutes trying to find the derned corner. But it was cool to drive some more of historic 66--especially through a town. We met up with a road closure, which really threw us off, but we continued to search. Eventually, we found our way back out of town, without spotting the corner. Mom got back on the interstate, got off at Mike's Pike (where we had some delicious Pizza Hut pizza and an order of Quepapas the night before) and took me to Wal-Mart, because, after all, I was nearing the end of my memory stick.

I had to wait for an eternity at the photo area of the Winslow Wal-Mart, because it was not only still before 8:00, but also there was another customer who had been waiting longer than I, so he got waited on first. I bought my memory stick and asked the woman in photo where this "Standin' on the Corner Park" was. She gave me some directions which sounded nothing like the directions that Mom had printed from the Internet. So we headed back onto Route 66 and tried it again. I'm not exactly sure how Mom found it, because she was neither following the Internet directions nor those of the photo lab expert. Still, though, we did find the corner, and this is a picture of me with the statue they have erected to resemble whichever Eagle it was that met up with the mystery woman at that location.

As far as the waits? They turned out to be in our favor, because the gift shop (yes, of course there is a gift shop on the famous corner) didn't open until 8:00. In fact, Mom and I meandered into it before it was really supposed to be open. Thus, we had to wait a few minutes before I could buy anything. I'm not sure why this is, but the woman working the cash register claimed she couldn't make a sale until 8:00 when the store officially opened. I was kind of in a hurry to get to the Petrified Forest, because I knew we'd be taking some pictures and visiting (yes, another) gift shop, and then we would have about four hours of driving to get back to Scottsdale. It was to be a full day.

About those gift shops, I'm fully aware that they are tourist traps that steal your money, but dang it, I like to have a souvenir for a visual aid to help me remember the places I've been. Call it a memento.