"One goes, not so much to see but to tell afterward."--John Steinbeck

On the way home from Santa Barbara, Sophie was moving like a spirited horse heading for the barn, and I debated about whether to make a short detour to Meteor Crater or just keep going. I may have been afraid, as John Steinbeck wrote in Travels with Charley about Yellowstone, that the neighbors would say, "What?! You were that close to Meteor Crater and didn't go?" So I went.

I forked over my 15 bucks (!!!) and schlepped up the stairs to the rim. The wind was howling, and if I had opened my jacket like a sail, I could have been home in about 10 minutes. Because I was so close to the crater, I didn't really grasp the size of the thing. It's big. I said, "Pretty."

The aerial images, however, give a better sense of the size of the crater. In the lower center of the image is the visitors' center. That's one big honkin' hole in the ground.

And so I've told you afterward, and I feel better for it.