Grand Canyon!

At last! I can finally say I've been there! This is Duane's fifth trip, but my first. When I stood on the edge and got my first good look, I wept. It was wonderful. We started our Grand Canyon experience in the little town of Tusayan, just south of Canyon City. Tusayan is home to the airplane and helicopter tours of the canyon. It is also the location of the National Geographic Imax theater. We viewed the 35 min film of the discovery and exploration of the Canyon, replete with some excellent reenactments of the lifestyle of the first people to live in the Canyon, the first Spanish explorers, the first white trapper/hunters, and the first geologic explorers who traveled the Colorado River from the beginning to the end of the Canyon. I must say the film was breathtaking. Literally, I forgot to breath. And I wept from the sheer beauty and grandeaur. Also the excellent music. I have to admit that the actual Canyon almost didn't live up to the film, but it was still awsome. We drove to the parking lot closest to the famous Bright Angel Lodge. We picked up the rim trail from there and walked the whole 5.5 miles to the Pipe Creek Vista, then took the free shuttle back. The trail was actually a wide paved path. The only parts of the South Rim we didn't see were the view from the last vista on the east and the 3 miles west of the Village which was closed for construction. All in all it was an experience worth waiting for. We would have liked to take a mule ride, but they were booked for the two days we planned to be here, so we passed. Tomorrow we plan to make a day of visiting the local vistas and canyons around Williams, and to visit the Oak Creek Canyon cities of Sedona, Cottonwood, and Jerome, all south of Flagstaff. On Friday we set sail for Congress--Arizona that is, and the North Ranch Escapees RV park.

That's all for now! Louise and Duane

Painted Dersert and The Petified Forrest

We left Gallup, New Mexico at about 8:00AM this morning because we had a lot planned for the day. Our first stop was at the Painted Desert welcome center where we chatted with a man that was workcamping there. We then entered the park after buying the annual National Parks pass. This is last year I have to spend the $80.00 for the pass. I turn 62 next year and price comes way down. I don't like wishing my life away but the savings will be great. The Painted Desert and the Petified Forrest National Park are connected. You enter in one park and drive through the other. Our trip through the parks took us about 5 hours with all the stops to view and take pictures. We only took one hike, about 1 mile, because we still had some driving to do. I had a heck of a time keeping Louise from picking up some of the wood lying around. The fines for taking anything from the park is real high. There is an inspection station at the exit of the park to check your vehicle for wood, but we were waved right on through. I guess we looked like honest people.

Next we had to stop at a rock shop outside the park. They had petrified wood by the tons. I ask the guy that ran the place where they get all of it. He said that the park has about 10% of the wood in the area. Whoever has the mineral rights on the land around the park can mine the wood. I ask if there was any tours for finding the wood and he said no, the cost of insurance is way to high. He said you now have to dig for the wood as deep as 20 feet because all the surface stuff is gone. Louise had coupon for a 1/2 pound of wood, so she ended up with some in the end.

After leaving the store we continued on to Williams, AZ where we will stay for a couple of nights. We will visit the Grand Canyon tomorrow. The total miles driven today was about 250, but it took us 8 hours to do it with all the stops. Depending on rather we want to return to the canyon or not will determine if stay here a few more days.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Gallup, New Mexico

Today we only drove 130 miles to Gallup, New Mexico. The first thing that I had to do this morning was find fuel filters for the coach. I found a Cummins dealer about 5 miles from where we were camped, they had them. After a lot of debate with myself as to rather I should save $100 and change them myself or let the dealer do it, greed won out. I was able to talk to a guy in the park that gave me a few hints on how to do it without causing a problem. It took me all of 20 mins. to get the job done. The best part is, it cured the lack of power I was experiencing. The coach ran like a new one all the way here. We got away this morning at 11:00AM. Just as we were getting to Gallup the bracket on the power shade on the drivers side broke and the shade came down to the dash. That made for a little excitement!! The one on the passengers side had broke on the way to Alaska so I knew what I needed to do to fix it. As soon as we got to the Wal Mart we found a good place to spend the night and I got the shade fix in short order. We plan to stay here tonight before heading to Williams, AZ and the Grand Canyon tomorrow.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

Saturday was a driving day for us. We dropped off the interstate to get a picture of the Midway Cafe. The cafe is on old RT 66, at the exact midpoint of the road. Most of old 66 is now Interstate 40. There are still portions of it still intact, mostly in the towns along the route. The towns that got passed by the interstate advertise and trade on the 66 draw to get people off the highway and into thier towns. The campground we are at for the weekend is on old 66.

We spent part of the day Sunday at New Mexico State Fair. Louise and I have a tough time not comparing state fairs to the Ohio State Fair. Sorry New Mexico, but your fair is nothing like the fairs in the mid west. I guess it is not fair to compare since the population of Ohio is a lot greater then here. The NM fair was really nice but little. We went to watch some of the horse show and the classes had 5 or 6 horses in them, Ohio would have had 50. They did have a nice craft building with lots of quilts for Louise to look at and a wood carving section for me to look at, that was the best part. One area of the fair grounds was Spanish and one was Indian. The Spanish section had music on stage and indian section had indian dancers.

After leaving the fair we headed to the Petroglyph National Monument. It is a 2 mile round trip hike up a canyon that is strewn with large rocks. There are over 3 hundred petroglyphs on the rocks. We spotted a bunch but not nearly that many. It was pretty cool to see, but very hot to do. The hike was up a canyon with little breeze, all desert sand and the sun was pretty hot.

Tomorrow we will head on west. The first thing I need to do is find and install new fuel filters on the coach. It seems to losing a little power on the hills and I hope that that is the problem. Stay tuned for an update on that one. With any luck I can get them right down the road from the campground we are at. It shouldn't take long to change them and get on the road. We shall see.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Day 2 in Amarillo

We spent the day in the Panhandle Plains Museum. The musuem is 3 floors of history about the panhandle of Texas. It has everything from indian relics to oil well relics, ranching to gun collections and about 6 rooms of western paintings. By spending the day, I mean spending the day. It took us from 9:30 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon to get around the place. We were both rather impressed with it and would recommend it to anyone passing through here. While in the area we had to visit 2 of the local landmarks, The Big Texan, home of the72 oz. steak and the Cadilac Ranch. The steak is free if you can eat it and all the trimmings in 1 hour, if you don't you have to pay for it. Not sure what a 72 ozer would cost, but I bet it ain't cheap. They say many have tried but few have done it. We didn't go in, just stopped to take the pictures. Then we went to the world famous Cadillac Ranch. 10 Cadillacs buried nose down in the middle of a really big field. Over the years people have written all over them and drew all kinds of things on them. I have no idea what would have prompted a person to bury cars like this, but they did. You walk right up to them through a gate at the road. While we were there, there was a steady flow of people stopping to take pictures, just like us...lol. We will head on west tomorrow.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Palo Duro Canyon

We made it to Amarillo today around noon. Checked into the rv park and headed to Palo Duro Canyon. The canyon is billed as the Grand Canyon of Texas. I have seen the Grand Canyon in Arizona and believe me, the one in Texas isn't that grand. I guess for Texas it is. It is a very pretty drive and very different than anything else we have seen in the state. The panhandle part of Texas is pretty flat and this canyon just appears out of nowhere. Goodnight, of cattle drive fame, started the first cattle ranch in the panhandle of TX in the canyon. It grew to over 1,000,000 acres of land and ran 100,000 head cattle in it's prime. The dugout Louise is standing in front of is where Goodnight stayed when first starting up the ranch. We may return to the canyon to do some hiking before we leave the area. They say the best rock formations are off the road along the trails. Not sure yet how long we will stay here, maybe Monday. Tomorrow the plan is to go a museum or 2 depending on time.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Heading toward Amarillo

After spending the morning at Camping World in Denton, TX we fianally got on the road. They changed the oil yesterday and worked on the tire sensor this morning. It took them 3 hours to fix one sensor. I think the guy that they assigned to the job had never worked on them before. He had to get another guy to come out and help him before he was able to complete the job. Oh well, we are not in a big hurry right now anyway. Made it all the way Vernon, TX before stopping at a Walmart for the night. We will get to Amarillo early tomorrow and check out Palo Duro Canyon and decide how long we will stay in the area. There is a RT 66 museum in Amarillo I think we will take in while there. I'm going to check the internet to see if there is anything else in the area that might draw our attention. I hope to have some good pics to start posting from canyon in the next day or two.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

AND WE"RE OFF.......again

We hit the road about 10 this morning. Drove all the way to Denton, TX, about 30 miles. Stopped and filled the motorhome up with fuel...haven't had to do that for a while. The cost of fuel here was $4.04 a gallon, not as bad as it was. We hope that the cost will drop some more as we head west, but not counting on it. The short drive today was because of a stop at Camping World to get the oil changed. We dropped the motorhome off and went looking for a part for the toilet that broke on Saturday. Found the part, then picked up a new air filter for the coach. Got back here with the part and I got the pot fixed before they changed the oil. I think this place only has 2 techs working here, they are slowwwww. Tomorrow, the car gets a new pressure sensor for the tire, then we move on. Hope they get it fixed early enough for us to get down the road a little further, if not we will stay here another night. No need to hurry along, so we will take our time getting to CA.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Ready for take off !!!!

We are ready to head out in the morning. I finished up working on Thursday and spent most of the time since then wondering what I am going to do with all this stuff we have accumulated in the last 7 months. I think we have it all in place for our trip to California. We tend let things sit out when we are sitting still. The carving tools, the carvings, books and all the other things we use on a regular bases seem to find a spot on the counters or dash. That spot is not conducive to traveling, so we have to find a hole to put them in for the road. We are looking forward to a new adventure. Our first day on road will be a short one. We are going about 30 miles to the Camping World to have the oil changed in the motorhome before the long drive west. Also one of the tire pressure sensors on the Jeep is bad and they are going to fix that while we are there. Pretty cool way to spend my birthday huh...lol The trip west will be about 1500 miles, but we have a month to get there. I would like to arrive the last week of September to get ourselves settled in before starting to work October 1.

I just finished these 2 carvings this week. The giraffe walking stick was made for a lady here in the park. She really liked it and so did I. The blacksmith I made for me...lol..because I wanted to. I think they both turned out pretty good.

TIll next time

Duane and Louise