Road Trip – Glenn Canyon/Lake Powell – Page, AZ – Horseshoe Bend

Its Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, our first day off after our second round of duty on the North Rim, cold and damp.  Let’s blow this popsicle stand and see if we can change things up a bit.  Page, AZ is only about three hours away; we’ll just pop over there and see what’s what.

As we pull out of the North Rim it is in the upper 30’s with not much promise of improving.  But our hopes of it being warmer in Page have us dressing in layers so we can pare down as the day ages.  Cyndee decided to forego the thermals she had been wearing for the last week for the convenience of not having to do a full change of clothes later on.

The route we are taking is totally counter to what the GPS wants us to do.   The GPS does not know that the road between Marble Canyon and Page has suffered a quarter mile long avalanche and is indefinitely closed.  So, rather than drive the southeast route along the Vermillion Cliffs and across the Navajo Bridge before turning north to Page, we are going north to Kanab, UT and traverse the Grand Staircase Escalante before dropping into Glenn Canyon.  We are losing elevation almost the whole way and Big Gulp is registering an all-time mpg high of 18.3!  I’m sure we’ll be giving some of that back on the return climb.

On our way out we stopped to reconnect with our friends that run the Country Store which lies about 5 miles outside the entrance station to the North Rim (which is 15 miles from where the camper sits).  I bought just enough diesel, at $4.40/gal to get us to Page where I hoped it would be better priced for a complete fill up.

Next stop was 26 miles later at Jacob Lake Inn. 

We had both skipped breakfast in anticipation of an awesome cinnamon roll we are told they make.  We tried to get one of these rolls last year on each of our trips out to do grocery shopping but every time we were either too earlier (we were told they would be ready in maybe an hour) or they were sold out.  So with optimism we strolled into the Inn and eased up to the bakery counter only to be told, again, they should be ready in about an hour.  I told the girl behind the counter that I was beginning to think that the cinnamon rolls were only a myth.  Since she was new and had not seen us attempt to get a roll about a dozen times last year, she just blankly smiled.

So, like last year, we got a couple of their six-grain cookies and went on our way. 

I think the next time we get a wild hair to do something we are going to drive out to the Inn early in the morning and just camp out in the lobby until that hour that the cinnamon rolls will be ready in comes.

Had an avalanche not taken out the primary road that we would have normally used, the entire trip would have been within the borders of Arizona.  But taking this route “over the top” has us wandering between Arizona and Utah.  Most of the scenery is high desert with brilliant red and white cliffs in the distance.

As we drop off the Grand Staircase and into Glenn Canyon, Lake Powell becomes a prominent feature in the windshield.  But after driving for a while we realize that a lot of canyon we were enjoying used to be lake.  The amount the water has receded is shocking.  Side canyons that used to be flooded and afforded boaters and fish alike an enticing place to be with deep water and shelter from wind were again the dry canyons they were before the dam’s construction in 1957.

The Glenn Canyon Visitor Center is pretty nice, perched high on the cliff above the dam.  It has an interpretive display with the Lake’s namesake, John Wesley Powell featured prominently.

Glenn Canyon Bridge with Visitor Center perched high on a cliff.

Looking north towards Lake Powell.  There should be a lot more water visible.

Glenn Canyon Dam.  At 710 feet high and 1,560 wide makes it the fourth largest dam in the U.S.

In my shot above you can get a glimpse of the old water line, where the rock changes from white to red.  The scale of this becomes pretty impressive when you realize that the clump of tiny dots on top of the dam are people.

I went on-line and was able to find some before and after pictures that give a sense of the change in just a few, short years.

 

 

That cookie for breakfast has long since worn off, time to find either a BBQ or Mexican Food place a couple miles away in town.  As we drove down the main avenue we found one of each, side-by-side.  The smell of the smoker at the BBQ place made it an easy choice for which one to have.  We pulled into Big John’s BBQ.  Like any respectable BBQ joint, it was housed in something that was built for anything else except a restaurant.  In this case it is a former gas station.  The pump island now serves as an outdoor dining area and the driveway is home to the meat smoker.

 

 

Being this may be the only time we go to Page I could rationalize my way into the $16 sample platter so that I could try all of the meats.  The brisket, pulled pork and ribs were all good but I liked the spicy smoked sausage the best.  However, I am pretty sure dinner will be out of the question for me tonight, and maybe every meal tomorrow too.  Whew, that was a lot of BBQ.

 

While at the Glenn Canyon Dam Visitor Center we learned the road taken out by the avalanche is not completely closed.  A little section from Page, south to the Colorado River’s famous Horseshoe Bend is open and being used, heavily.  It was only a few short minutes from our BBQ extravaganza to the trailhead for Horseshoe Bend.  Notice I said trailhead, we had always been under the impression that this was a drive-up scenic overlook.  Nope, not even close.

The walk to the overlook is three quarters of a mile; normally a leisurely amount of distance but there will be no leisure about this walk.  The trail is deep, loose sand; plenty hard to walk in on a flat surface, a vigorous workout to do it as a hill climb.  To get to the overlook we had to climb up a ridge and then down to the canyon’s edge.



Cyndee getting started on her trudge up the sandy trail.  You can tell by all the cars this is a popular place to be on Memorial Weekend.

Only a short way into the climb, probably not even 75 yards, Cyndee and I were both wishing we had done this before eating large quantities of BBQ.  We both kept scouting for places off to the side of the trail to retreat to should our lungs win the battle of using the space that our full stomachs were occupying.  And combine that with the fact that it was now 50 degrees warmer than when our day started, it was a real challenge to not barf our brains out.

But the effort was worth it.  Horseshoe Bend is a beautiful sight.

Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River

While Cyndee has gotten much better at venturing out <near> the edge of high places, she was not quite ready to get close enough to the edge to get her picture taken, or to take mine with the whole horseshoe bend in sight. 

What would a trip to a major tourist attraction be without getting your picture taken in front of it?

That long-sleeved, dark-colored, canvas shirt was a poor choice for a day that topped out 50 degrees warmer than it started.

The sandy climb back to the top of the ridge was even more arduous as the temperature had risen quite a bit just since our arrival.  My heavy canvas shirt was pretty drenched by the time we got back to the truck.  Time to crank up the A/C and make our way over to one of the marinas on the lake.

In just a few minutes we were driving into the Wahweap Marina area.  In addition to the large and bustling marina there was a resort, shopping, visitor center, and camp ground.  We drove around for awhile to get the lay of the land and take in a few sights.

Marina on the right, resort perched on the hill to the left.

 

A prominent landmark visible for miles, even when shaded by clouds.  Tower Butte

Standing on the marina looking north.

Tower Butte spotlighted by a break in the clouds.

Cliffs in the distance that Cyndee called "other-worldly".

Lone Rock has its own designated recreation area.  Its use is relatively new as everything in the foreground used to be under 40 feet of water.

A close-up of Lone Rock clearly shows the old high water line.  This used to be the domain of fish and boats.  It has been dry long enough now that trees have taken root.

The day was getting late.  We had a three and half hour drive ahead of us and we still needed to buy fuel and make a quick stop at Walmart before heading back. 

It was worth the wait to get fuel in Page.  At forty five cents a gallon less than what I could get it for anywhere else along our route, I saved $20 on a 43 gallon fill-up.  We were also able to get a fresh vegetable at Walmart that we have not been able to find in the last three towns.  Zucchini of all things.  But as we went through Walmart the basket kept collecting more and more things that we didn't know we "needed".  By the time we got our zucchini there was $115 of other stuff in there with it.

The drive home started later than we planned but we saw a fantastic sunset that we would have missed otherwise.  Sorry, no pictures.  The road was single-lane, no shoulders and we had traffic behind us.  Nowhere to pull out and grab a few shots.

Like last year, we were hyper-aware of the multitudes of mule deer that would be along the roadside the closer we got to the park.  And we were not wrong.  As soon as we topped out the 2,000 foot climb from the Fredonia highway up onto the Kaibab Plateau there they were, lining the road.

The next 65 miles was spent at no more than 45 mph with frequent stabs of the brake as grazing deer raised their heads and made motions in the direction of the road as we passed by.  At least this night the buffalo were not strung across the road just inside the entrance station like usual.

We finally got close enough to home that we thought we were home free.  But at one and a half miles from our destination we passed the Kaibab trail head.  This trail head is THE trail head if you are going to descend into the canyon or climb out if you come from the South Rim.  We are passing by at 10:00pm and notice a number of headlamps as we approach the entrance to the trailhead parking lot.  It is not unusual for it to take people longer than they expected to make the rim-to-rim crossing so seeing someone this time of night was not a total surprise.  But what got our attention was the headlamps all seemed to be pointed at us and bobbing in our direction.  Just as we passed we could just barely make out forms.  Were they waving their arms at us?

I rolled Big Gulp to a stop and took a moment to watch in the mirrors.  The headlamps had definitely come out to the edge of the road and were still pointed in our direction.  I began backing the couple hundred yards to get back to where the headlamps were.  When we finally crept up to them there were two or three voices talking all at the same time.  We were able to discern that a group of four had made the rim-to-rim hike but that they were too exhausted to walk the last two miles to the lodge where a friend was waiting to take them the 5 hour drive back to the South Rim.

The back seat of Big Gulp was full to the brim with our shed cold weather wear, groceries, coolers and travel paraphernalia.  Cyndee drug a bunch of it up in the front seat with her and I stashed the rest in the bed of the truck.  Four people piled in the back seat and for the first time we could see the faces of who we were rescuing.  They were all twenty-something, two men, two women and ex-pats from India.  In the short ride to the lodge I think at least one of them fell asleep.

But we got them there and left them to their own devices to find their ride back to their hotel.  We still had a truck full of stuff and groceries to get in and put away before we could hit what is now a very attractive looking bed.

It was a heck of day for not having planned or researched any of it beforehand.  We'll have to try this again.

Spring Migration - Hummingbirds

Spring time is migration time for hummingbirds and they come across the North Rim in droves.  As we and our co-hosts got our rigs parked and the sun began to catch the highly reflective reds and yellows of tail and clearance lights, you could hear the strum of tiny wing beats as hummingbirds streamed by to check out all the color.

Most of their movement was so fast that getting a lens on them was nearly impossible.  Cyndee made up a batch of hummingbird food and we set out a feeder for a couple hours to see if we could get them to linger just long enough to snap a couple of shots and identify what was coming through.

At the end of our quick little study we had identified three species: the Broad-Tailed, Black-Chinned & Magnificent Hummingbird.  Many of the hummingbirds look so similar it is hard to tell one from another, especially on the wing.  But with stop-action photography and a great birding app on Cyndee’s phone we were able to sort out the small differences and get a good identification.

Male Broad-Tailed

Female Broad-Tailed and Black-Chinned

Female Black-Chinned.  The girls do not have the black chin, just the males.

One bird that there was no doubt it was different than the rest was the Magnificent Hummingbird.  This guy was like a B-1 bomber alongside fighter jets.  His wing beat sound was a couple of octaves lower and could be heard from greater distances.  And except for his wing beat, made no other sound.

Something else he did that the little ones did not was to keep to the shade.  Without sunlight hitting them directly, all the hummingbirds look like they are colored a flat black or charcoal.  But when the sun hits their scale-shaped feathers they explode with color.  The little ones seemed to try to stay in the light and display their color while the Magnificent did just the opposite.

The big one is the Magnificent Hummingbird.  He only came around when he could stay in the shade.

We may try to attract again later and see if we can catch the big one out in the light.  Depending on the direction of the light, their neck can be either blue or green and their head has the deepest purple cap you have ever seen.

And It Just Gets Wierder

After our little SWAT team raid yesterday I thought that it might be an early culmination to weird goings on in the campground for awhile.  Not so.

In the middle of the afternoon I was alerted to a possible squatter on one of our campsites.  Sure enough, when I got over there, there was a fire going in the fire pit, at least six empty cans of beer on the table and what appeared to be a full glass of wine and a half melted pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream with a single, young male prancing around the table and delighted to see me.  I recognized him as one of the evening cashiers from our General Store and asked him what he had going on and if he knew that he was breaking about nine different rules.  He said that he was just having a little party (by himself??) and how pretty he thought my name was.  Wow, this guy is toasted.

I told him that he was going to have to get his stuff and get cleared out and while he was doing that I would go get water to kill the fire and buckets to clean out the fire pit before the people that had the site reserved arrived.  When I got back with the equipment he was still there and hovered around me while I did my fire pit cleaning routine, all the while telling me how great I was and patting me on the shoulder and arms.  Again I told him he had to clear out but even as I was getting in the ATV and buckling up he was standing at my side, chattering and now patting on my leg.  WELL, GOTTA GO, SEE YA.  And I drove away.

I stopped and helped a couple of campers on the way to the ranger station so it was awhile before I got to relay what happened to a ranger.  But just as I was leaving the ranger station one of our LE's (the one that was sporting the AR-15 in yesterday's manhunt) drove up and asked if I had seen an individual in the campground that they were looking for.  He gave me the description and guess what, it was the same guy I had just run off from the campsite.  Seems that they had gotten reports of a person walking through the campground and looking into people's cars.

Long story short, they caught up with him and after checking into his background found that there was enough there that he was arrested and they made the ten hour round trip to take him to jail in Flagstaff.  The LE wouldn't tell me what the charges were but he did say he would not be coming back.  I guess the General Store is going to be short an evening clerk.

Ponderosa Pines, Redwall Cliffs and FBI's Most Wanted

Opening day/week of the North Rim has passed.  Cyndee and I took the first four days on duty and got to experience what it was like getting the first wave of campers checked in.  We also saw how rusty everyone was at using all the procedures that need to be done to get everything to work smoothly.  But by the end of this first week it is going pretty well.

It did not take long before we were out at one of our favorite spots, the place we call cell phone point.

Ten miles as the raven flies across the canyon is the only cell tower that has a signal that can just barely reach to the North Rim.  It is a bit of a hassle to make the half mile walk to place a phone call but the bonus is the awesome view.

In our first four days Cyndee and I saw more service rescues than we did all last summer.  We aired up two flats, jumped a dead battery, made arrangements to replace a busted radiator, and towed a truck out of a campsite with our all electric Polaris ATV so a tow truck could hook it up and take it to the nearest diesel mechanic a hundred miles away.

Then there was the law enforcement activity.  One morning as Cyndee and I were servicing the tent sites out near cell phone point we noticed a couple of our local LE's walking up through the Transept Trail.  Not unusual except that they were carrying AR-15's!  Then we noticed LE's we did not recognize in vehicles we had never seen easing in on the road we use to get to the tent sites.  Then we saw LE's in the woods perpendicular to the road.  There were at least 3 pairs of cops coming in on a tent site from every angle except straight up the canyon wall.

Guns drawn they closed in on a campsite of a guy that had hiked over from the South Rim a couple days earlier.  He had arrived with barely a day pack of stuff, intending to return to the South Rim.  But when he got done with the 14 mile hike and the 5,000 foot climb up to the North Rim he was totally exhausted, dehydrated and altitude sick.  We loaned him a sleeping bag to use with the hammock he was carrying and encouraged him to drink, eat and rest.

And he did just that, but he stayed pretty sick for a couple of days.  But that did not stop him from doing what we later learned was his reason for hiking over here.  He was applying for a job at Forever Resorts, the concessionaire that operates the Lodge, General Store and Gas Station.  But what about the LE's and drawn guns?  Well, they quietly eased up on the bulging hammock and when they were within arms reach announced themselves.  Nothing.  One of the cops inched forward and gave the hammock a tap with his boot, it was obviously empty.  The bulges were from the heavy sleeping bag we had loaned him.

We were headed out of the tent area by this time and as we swung through the campground we saw the two that had come through the woods.  Their bullet proof vests had big yellow letters on them spelling out 'Federal Police' .  I have never heard of a federal police before, but that is what they were.

A day went by before we were able to talk to one of the LE's that we knew about what was going on.  Apparently they thought they had come upon the FBI's fourth most wanted person.  A guy that had killed his wife and two children, blown up the house to try to cover up the murders and on the run for the past thirteen years.  They finally caught up with our guy in the campground, discovered he was not who they were looking for and before the day was done, Forever Resorts had made him a job offer for the summer.  By 6:00 am the next morning the sleeping bag we had loaned him was neatly rolled up and on our picnic table.  I returned the bag to the store room and we have not seen our sick hiker since.

Last night we thoroughly enjoyed hearing the wind rustle through the tops of the giant Ponderosa Pines without ever feeling a gust shake our camper.  And no dust either.  We slept like babies but not yet adjusted to the 2 hour time zone change, woke at 5:00am.  Laying there in a waking grog we began to realize we were hearing the tinkling sound of ice pellets on our fiberglass roof.

Getting up to check the temperature, it was found to be 35 deg.  No worries, too warm for anything to stick around and besides, the sun was coming up and it would get warmer.  Yeah, no.

With each passing half-hour the mercury dropped and before 8:00am the temperature was 30 deg  and the ice pellets had become a full-on snow storm.  And it just kept snowing, buy mid-day we had several inches piled up on non-road surfaces.  That’s when the temperature started jumping around.  It would get above freezing for a while and melt most of the accumulation, and then the temp would drop again all the while snowing.  It was that fine, powdery snow that was coming down heavy enough to make it appear like fog.  So much for my plans to wash the camper and truck today.

Snow in the middle of May

No outdoor activities today.  We'll just stay snug inside and wait for this to blow over.

 

Summiting the Kaibab Plateau

The day after the last post was spent entirely shopping and running errands, trying to squeeze in all the things we needed to do before once again parking ourselves in a very remote area.

The dry cleaner delivered on their promise to have our bedspread finished in 24 hours, it looks great.  We knew it needed cleaning but were surprised at just how different it looked.  Five months in the desert took its toll.  Sam’s Club and Walmart were thoroughly scoured for everything we thought we could find a place to store food and dry goods we will need for at least the next month, and more if possible.  Big Gulp is packed to the gills with three large thermal bags and an ice chest as well as big packages of paper goods and 40 pounds of oranges and 25 pounds of apples.  The space in the bed of the truck not being used by the 5^th wheel hitch has cases of water and I lost count of how many six-packs of bottles of Coke Zero.

One last stop at the mall on the way home from grocery buying to get the batteries replaced in two of Cyndee’s watches.  The jeweler was able to get the back off of one watch but not the other.  Looks like her everyday “dress” watch is going to have to wait until we find someone a little more skilled at working on difficult to remove watch backs.

The next morning was a ‘scratch our hitch itch’ day.  We were prepping the camper for travel, Cyndee doing the pink jobs, John doing the blue jobs.  While John was outside disconnecting the utilities the folks in the motor coach next to us came out and, surprise, it was the campground hosts at Rio Grande Village in Big Bend.  We had left Big Bend a month apart and ended up side-by-side at a campground 800 miles away!  While we were headed due north they were headed for the Pacific Northwest.

Today’s route is almost five hours of some pretty tough driving.  We’ll gain several thousand feet in elevation and negotiate roads that are narrow, with no shoulders and rough from frost heave buckles.  Most of the elevation change comes all in one climb, from the lowest point at Navajo Bridge in Marble Canyon up to the top of the Kaibab Plateau, a little more than ten miles of steep grades that see our speed getting pulled to below 35 mph in the steepest climbs.  Thankfully there was virtually no traffic.  We were not responsible for backing things up for miles on end.  The best part was that all of Big Gulp’s temperatures (exhaust gas, water and transmission) stayed below, well below, what they were last year.  The cooling system repairs seem to have made a difference.  But we had weather to our advantage this time too.  Coming up in early May instead of late July saw outside temperatures 20 to 30 degrees cooler.

Something we did different this year was to plan stops along the way.  Last year we started from Winslow, AZ and gutted out a nearly non-stop drive until we arrived almost six hours later.  This year starting from Flagstaff put us an hour closer and we knew what to expect as well as where it was possible to pull in with a 60 foot long rig.  One of those places was Cameron Trading Post.  When we were there last year the place was so jammed packed with tourists (we’re talking multiple bus-loads of tour groups and individuals) that you could barely move.  Consequently we did not get to take in everything there was to see.  So this year we are stopping well before the tourist season ramps up and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  The handmade Navajo, Supai and Hopi jewelry, blankets, rugs and pottery were something to see.  They also have a restaurant that is famous for its Indian Taco, a piece of Indian Fry Bread bigger than the plate it comes on, smothered in taco meat, cheese and all the rest of the goodies a taco has on it.  It is customary to order one and split it between two people.  We had one last year but it is pretty early in the morning when we are here this time and neither of us are hungry so we will just have to make a trip later or catch them on our way out in October.

Cameron Trading Post

The next stop is a quick one.  There is a gas station and convenience store just after crossing Navajo Bridge, it is about half way between Flagstaff and Jacob Lake and perfectly spaced for a bathroom break.  We missed it last year and came to regret it.  Not this year.

Jacob Lake, the last services before entering the 45 mile long road into the North Rim, came into view just as we finished the climb onto the plateau, a great place to take a break, let the truck cool down and have lunch at the Jacob Lake Lodge.  We are in familiar territory now.  Jacob Lake Lodge is the jumping off point for the North Rim.  Like the Grand Canyon Lodge of the North Rim, Jacob Lake Lodge stays booked full from the end of May until the Beginning of October.  This early in May they are thinly staffed and the dining room is still closed for the season.  But the diner counter is open and we get a couple of hot sandwiches.  We were also happy to see that their bakery was in full swing.  They make some pretty good cookies, lots of flavors, but you have to pace yourself because they run $18/dozen.  The park staff at the North Rim has a custom that whoever goes to Jacob Lake has to bring back cookies for everyone.  A dozen of them go in the blink of an eye.

Back in the truck for the last leg of our day’s journey it is only a mile down the national park road that we encounter the first of two locked gates.  Our volunteer supervisor had sent us the combination for the padlocks so it was just a matter of getting the locks off, swinging the wide gate aside and getting the rig far enough through so we could close and re-lock the gate.  It was not long before we crossed a cattle guard that we remembered was a landmark for where you really had to start watching out for mule deer.  And as if on cue there were three big ones on a slope right next to the road no more than five lengths of our rig in after crossing the guard.  A few more miles in and we were in the miles long meadow.  Instead of seeing three or four deer at a time we were now seeing multiple herds of 15 to 30, all taking advantage of the lush grass in the meadow.  All ears and eyes raised and turned our way as we rumbled by but they held their ground and quickly returned to grazing as we shrank from sight.  Something we both found strange was that we did not see a single fawn.  You would think this time of year they would have been frolicking all over the meadow as their mothers recharged.  I guess they are still small enough that the does keep them hidden in the trees at the edge of the meadow.

About ten miles of meadow leading up to the North Rim Entrance Station.

The second gate is at the park entrance station, it is to one side of a really large cattle guard, well in this case it is a buffalo guard.  It keeps the Grand Canyon herd from using the convenience of the paved road to get from one meadow to the other.  There is fencing all along the park boundary but it is not very substantial, if the buffalo decide they want to be on the other side they can pretty much just walk through it.  But for the most part the national herd seems to keep to the park.  With it being mid-day we did not see the herd today, they usually only make an appearance in the meadow near the entrance station from late evening until early morning.  You have to be super careful coming through this section after dark; they’ll be bunched up on the road where it runs near a small watering hole.

Just 15 more miles from here and we are done.

We’re home now.  It is just 15 miles to the campground where we will drop anchor for the next five months.  When we left (actually kicked out) last October when the government shut down we thought if felt pretty eerie because the place was so empty, but it was not as empty as it is today.  It is almost a week before opening day and save a few maintenance people from the Forever Resorts concessionaire there is not a soul in sight.

But one thing I do see is a couple of shiny new power pedestals in the camp host sites.  Bless Jude’s heart!  He upgraded the wiring and connections while we were gone.  Last year the power was so bad that the power management system on the coach was constantly “clipping” the service to protect the electrical equipment from low voltage damage and the amperage was so low that we could use only one appliance at a time.  Now we have a modern, 50 amp connection and it is working great.  We’ll have to wait and see how it does when the lodge opens and starts sucking down copious amounts of power.

Big Gulp is Back!

It was a Monday when Big Gulp was unceremoniously towed into the garage for a major fix.  Now, at 2:30 on Wednesday we get a call saying the work is complete and come get him.  Nobody has to tell me twice.  I have the keys to the rent car in my hand and out the door before the phone call ends.

They showed me all the parts that were replaced, what a mess.  But now it was time to pay the piper.  It was seriously painful but unavoidable.  Now all attention is turned toward getting out of Winslow and up to Flagstaff.  It is too late to leave today, we'll have to call the RV Park and see if we can get a spot for tomorrow night.  Luck on my side this time, they had one spot open up in what was an otherwise full park.

Cyndee cooked some chicken and steamed some fresh zucchini and we had a quite dinner and spent the evening surfing the web and watching TV.  We hit the sack by 10:00 hoping for a quick night so we can get on our way.

Morning came, finally, and we were happy to start packing up and getting on our way.  But we had to pace ourselves because we can't check in before 12:00 at J and H RV Park.  But the drive from Winslow was really easy and we showed up a few minutes early.  No problem, they just ignored me until it was time.

Talking about a night and day difference, the transition from the seedy little roadside trailer park to this upscale park is a shock, a good shock.  But boy does this place have a lot of rules, they don't even allow smoking anywhere in the park, not even in your own rig.  Now how they know whether or not you are smoking in your own rig is beyond me.  And kids are discouraged.  And Ham radio operators can not put up their antennas.  And should you need to sweep pine needles or other debris off the slide tops before pulling them in to leave, too bad.  You are absolutely forbidden to get on the roof of your rig.

Now that we have that out of the way we can get on about our rat killing.  Cyndee is trying to find a dry cleaner that can do our bed spread and pillow shams in 24 hours.  The last time we tried in Odessa they wanted three weeks.  Fortunately she found a spot that was a little better at customer service here in Flagstaff.  We dropped off everything and were told to come back tomorrow at the same time.  Cyndee had also looked up a place to get lunch while we are out, Satchmo's.  It is a classic little hole in the wall, behind a gas station, and they bill themselves as BBQ and Cajun.  Whether you want a brisket sandwich or a shrimp po'boy or a rack of ribs or bowl of jambalaya, they have it.  We both got a pork sandwich and red beans and rice.  Cyndee hit a home run with her adventure in dining.

We took a little time to do some sight seeing in the historic district of Flagstaff.  Some of those large, old buildings date back to the early and mid-1800's.  None of the buildings were functioning as the business it was built for a 150 years ago.  Now, about every other building is an outdoor gear store with a coffee shop or café in between.

Old Town Flagstaff.
Directly behind from where this picture was taken the cross-street is historic Route 66.

Tomorrow is shopping day.  We are going to, hopefully, buy a months worth of food and supplies to take to the North Rim with us on the following day.  We'll have to buy dry ice to keep the frozen food frozen until we can get access to the chest freezer that the volunteers share.  We have one small ice chest and three of those padded freezer bags from Walmart.  It is going to be a stretch to get everything we would like to get in that amount of space.

Next post will come from the North Rim, provided we can get a connection.

If it weren't for bad luck......

We are hunkered down here at the little interstate-side RV park in Winslow, AZ waiting for Big Gulp to get a major cooling system overhaul.  The exhaust gas return cooler has cracked.  It is a tube-in-tube heat exchanger and buried deep in the valley of the engine.  The oil cooler is clogged with 8 years and 113,000 miles of "gunk".  Also deep in the valley.  The charge air cooler tube (part of the turbo-charger), a silicone hose, has a split forming and is about to catastrophically fail.  And finally, the electric clutch on the radiator cooling fan is not engaging at the proper temperature.

All this adds up to days of work for the diesel mechanic at Winslow Ford and nervous anticipation of the check I am going to have to write when this is all over.  In the mean time about all we can do is twiddle our thumbs.  The rent car we have has a 100 mi./day limit and there is nothing within that range that we have not already seen or done.  We're just going to watch the five channels of TV we can pull in with our over-the-air antenna.

Let me tell you, Interstate 40 and the railroad that parallels it as they pass through Winslow are very busy 24 hours a day.  Between the wind, traffic and trains, getting a good nights rest was hard to come by.  To top it off, I forgot to screw the sewer hose storage cap back on.  It was dangling from its lanyard and the wind was having its way with it, banging it against the bottom of the coach.  Oh, well, I got up with the sun and went outside to lock down that noisy cap.  I opened the door and found us to be sitting in the middle of a lake!

Oh man, somebody's got a leak.  Poor guy.  I stepped down and tip-toed my way out to a dry pathway to the back-side of the rig and that is when I realized that there was no water anywhere else except under my rig.  Oh no, now what?  In just a couple minutes I was able to find that water was running from my fresh water tank drain hose.  That would be okay except that I do not keep water in the tank and the drain valve was closed.  I went inside to read the level gauges for the tanks and much to my surprise I found the fresh water tank at 100%.  After a little more sleuthing I found that the 3-way water supply valve had failed.  Normally the fresh water tank fill is a separate connection from the house supply but New Horizons designed the plumbing so that there is a single connection and the fresh water tank or house supply can be selected with a flip of a valve.  This valve was set to the house supply but was also leaking through to the on-board tank.  Over the course of the night it had completely filled the 100 gallon tank and ran out the overflow and put at least another 100 gallons on the ground.

I immediately called the factory to find out who the manufacturer of the valve was and started hunting a replacement.  As luck would have it there was not a single place in the little berg of Winslow that carried that valve.  I got on the phone with the mobile RV service I used in Albuquerque to see if they had one on hand they could send me.  They did not have one, but they could get one to me in a couple days.  Okay, we are probably going to be here that long, lets do it.

Now we can not leave the water on.  One of us has to go out and turn on the water to flush & wash hands, draw water for cooking, or get a drink and then shut it off again.  That got old really fast so we gathered up and struck out for Flagstaff, never mind the mileage limit.

Flagstaff was about 76 miles away and we got there plenty early to look around for some RV service companies that might have the valve.  Lucky for us, the very first one we visited had the valve and since it was within a block of the mall we got in some mall time before heading to a Pizzeria we knew about from last year.  The place is called Oregano's and they make an awesome Chicago-style deep dish pizza.

When we left Winslow it was 81 degrees, when we arrived in Flagstaff it was 58 degrees.  And now that the sun is about to go down it is in the 40's with a prediction of snow overnight.  We got ourselves together and headed back to Winslow where it was nice and warm.

While it was a comfortable night temperature wise, it was still noisy and the need to replace the water valve was gnawing at me.  So I was up and outside as soon as it was daylight.  Ninety percent of every tool we have is in a box in the back of the truck, which is at Winslow Ford, but we do keep a small bag of basic hand tools in the basement.  This time all I needed was a small Philips screw driver and a pair of pliers and they were in the bag.  I was in business.

The offending valve.

The replacement went pretty quick and everything started working as it should.  Time to take a shower and wash some dishes.  And you can bet that I will be getting me a spare valve to have on hand as soon as we get back to Flagstaff.

Welcome to Arizona

The drive to Homolovi State Park was uneventful.  We had stayed there last year on our way to the Grand Canyon.  Back then it was a first come first serve only but this year they operate through an online reservation system.  We reserved site number 20, a very long pull-thru with 50 amp electric and water but no sewer.  We'll have to use a dump station for the first time in quite awhile.

Like most places we have been for the last three weeks, the wind made it too uncomfortable to enjoy the outdoors.  We had a great view of the desert but only got to enjoy it through the windows.  But it worked out for the best, we have been needing to do some genealogy research and with our downtime in Albuquerque and now Homolovi, we have made some serious inroads in finding John's bloodline into the Cherokee and Delaware tribes.

But we were only staying at Homolovi for the weekend.  Next is a few days in Flagstaff where we will do a major shopping trip that will hopefully hold us over for our first month at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It is only a couple hours from Homolovi to J and H RV Park to the northeast of Flagstaff.  We woke without an alarm and started our morning routine for a move day in no particular rush.  Still, we were pulling out of the park shortly before 9:00am.

We pulled out onto I-40 and began our pass through Winslow, it was cool and the wind had not yet got going.  The short drive was looking to be a pleasant one.  That's when the alarms went off, the engine on Big Gulp was overheating, and not just little bit.  I pulled off the highway as quickly as possible, just as steam started pouring out from under the hood.  Uh, oh.

I got out and popped the hood to see if it was a radiator hose, hopefully something easy and cheap to fix.  No such luck.  The hoses were in perfect shape, the steam was blowing by the radiator cap.  This means something internal.  Time to call the emergency roadside service.

Within an hour a truck, a big truck, was pulling up alongside us.  He picked up the front end of Big Gulp, disconnected the drive shaft and pulled truck, trailer and all back to the Ford dealership in Winslow.  At first we were hopeful that it would be something that could be fixed same day and be on our way but ultimately it was not to be.  After a couple of hours of digging around they have determined that a seal has failed on the exhaust gas return cooling system, deep in the engine.  They think it will be a couple days to fix it.

This is where the full-timer lifestyle gets complicated.  The only vehicle we have to drive is out of commission and our home is sitting on the back lot of a car dealership.  We are afoot with no home to go to.  For a price all of this is fixable.  We rented a car and found a tow truck that can move a fifth wheel.  Although it did take two towing companies before one had a configuration that worked.  The first guy's truck bed was so long that he could not turn without the corner of the bed hitting the front of the trailer.  The second guy had a giant Peterbuilt tow truck, usually used to rescue eighteen-wheelers.  With everything hooked up and heading down the road to the RV park we were about 80 feet long.

We got situated in a ratty little RV park alongside I-40 in Winslow.  The power is borderline on voltage and 30 amps maximum with no breakers, we'll have to be careful about using more than one appliance at a time.  Water is okay and the sewer hookup is little more than a hole in the ground.  But we are happy to have it.  Looks like we'll have more time to do genealogy research.  Oh and we'll be stretching the legs on that little Ford Focus rent car.

The Whining Continues

Out of desperation I left a message last night with the Winegard technician I have been in contact with off and on during the satellite saga.  A saga that has now spanned nine months.  At 7:00am the next morning I got a call back.  I guess I must have sounded as desperate as I felt, they have never got back to me first thing.

Anyway, after a long discussion and trying at least a dozen more things Winegard is saying that it is no longer possible to figure out what the problem is remotely.  They want the entire system to be taken off the coach and sent to the factory in Iowa for bench testing.  I spent the next couple of hours stripping all the equipment out of the rig and just about had it all done when Chuck arrived from Action RV to collect everything so they could take care of boxing it all up and getting it shipped to Winegard.

Now there is no reason to remain in Albuquerque.  But we had paid for another week of camping thinking we would be hanging around waiting on parts again.  We'll see if we can get some of that back.  I trudged over to the campground office and told them my sad story and they took pity on me and refunded all the nights we are not going to use.  We'll head for Homolovi State Park, just outside Winslow, AZ first thing tomorrow.

Wicked Wind and Satellite Woes

As promised, Winegard was contacted first thing the next morning (see previous post), which was a Friday.  To my and the technician's dismay they defaulted to their standard routine of wanting to replace the data cable.  Never mind it has already been replaced twice, they are sure that is the problem.  Now we have to wait some number of days for the shipment to arrive, install it and then by the technician's and my prediction, confirm that the data cable is not the problem.

Alb. has a lot to offer so we thought we would make it around to a number of them over the weekend while waiting on UPS to do their thing.  It was a good plan but it was not to be.  The winds we have been having in the preceding days turned out to only be a warm-up for what the weekend had in store.  From the moment we got in bed Thursday night the wind hit a steady 50 mph with long bursts cresting at 70 mph.  For the next four days visibility oscillated between a few hundred feet and zero because of blowing dirt.  You may have noticed an absence of photographs in this and the last post.  With dirt so heavy in the air there is no way I am getting my camera out of its bag.

Monday came and went without a shipment, then Tuesday came and went the same.  On Wednesday we got word that UPS left the shipment on the doorstep Tuesday evening and that Chuck, our technician would be coming to our rig to do the install.  What a blessing that is.  We will not have to move the rig to the repair shop and be homeless for the day.

Chuck arrived as scheduled and we got the data cable out and almost started to fish it through the walls when I got a brainstorm to just string it from the control box to the dish.  Chuck plugged his end into the dish and tossed my end down to me where I took it through the door and plugged it into the control box.  Voila, the dish started working.  But like before we were not ready to claim victory.  This time it only took two cycles of raising and stowing the antenna before it began displaying the now all too familiar "no communication with antenna" message.  Like we expected, it was not the data cable.  Back to Winegard.  But disappointingly they wanted to replace yet another component that has already been replaced twice, the control box.

This means instead of getting to Flagstaff today as we were scheduled to, we will be spending another week in Albuquerque.  That's okay but I think most of that time will be wasted waiting on chasing a repair down a rabbit hole.  I don't know what it is going to take to get the Winegard people to think deeper about what the problem is.

Stay tuned if you can stand to hear me whining.