CuRVWander

Our days have been routine since returning to our volunteer assignment after the mini “vacation” to Zion.   Just running the traps, scooping fire pits in the morning, checking in campers in the afternoon, generator checks in the evening and quiet hours checks after 10:00pm.   It was on one of the evening generator checks that something not so routine, shall we say, presented itself. With Arizona not participating in daylight savings time the sun sets just a few minutes after 7:30 and with our heavily wooded campground, it gets dark quick.   At 8:00pm we walk the campground to do the generator check because the vehicles currently at our disposal are louder than any generator (except those el-cheepos from Harbor Freight & Northern Tool.   You can hear those things over a jet engine.)   We have to carry flashlights lest we step in a hole or run into a tree.   But in the first few minutes of our rounds we can manage on the twilight, and that is just ...

You would think that as retirees and full time RVers the idea of taking a vacation would be a bit odd.  After all, are we not on vacation all the time?  Well, not exactly, but still, the idea of taking a vacation feels odd to us.  But we did think about it and Cyndee has found us a motel room for two nights a little ways outside the east entrance to Zion National Park . From our location on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we are about a three hours drive to Zion.  We are still scratching our heads as to why we never made it Zion last year when we were camp hosting at the North Rim.  We did one little overnight trip to Bryce Canyon and that was it.  This year we are making a more concerted effort to get out and about on our days off and see the sights.  This set of four days off we'll be in a motel for two nights and eating in restaurants for three days, just like real tourists! So we packed our bags (yep, we kept a couple of duffle ba...

We recently had cycled into one of our three day weekends, which for us is a Mon, Tues, Wed.  Having not made any plans to do anything definite we had only made a brief trip up to one of the big overlooks one afternoon.  More time was spent doing housekeeping and laundry as well as some time writing on this blog. But we also do not miss the opportunity to enjoy the moments of absolutely gorgeous weather regularly bestowed upon us.  It is quite enjoyable to sit in our camp chairs and watch the light as the sun finds ever changing paths through the ponderosa pines. On one of these mornings we had been sitting quietly for some time, the campground was unusually empty and the people that were here were making themselves scarce.  The silence was noticeable and we were drinking it in.  Just about then movement caught our eye.  A golden mantle squirrel (somewhat rare and found only in places with habitat similar to the North Rim) and a chipmunk started fo...

As full time RV'ers, retired and doing volunteer work year 'round we have found that the coming and going of weekends and holidays don't feel the same as they used to.  Since starting our adventures in volunteering the middle of last year we have been on duty every single holiday.  And given that we are living in the places that you would go to on vacation, the "rhythm" of anticipating paid days off, the long weekend road trip and the dragging yourself back to work after the holiday, are gone.  I'm not complaining, it is just an observation we have made as we adjust to retirement.  I suspect we are no different than anyone else in this regard that has retired, regardless of whether they are fulltimers or volunteers.  Except maybe the part about living in all the vacation destinations. So, with our new rhythm not fully developed we woke up one day with talk of a parade, decorating the Polaris and a bar-b-q lunch provided by the concessionaire for park employe...

Grand Canyon National Park, what an awesome, inspiring and breath-taking place.  But it is a park divided, the South Rim is convenient to a major interstate highway, has a railroad and runs shuttle buses up and down popular view points for fourteen hours a day 365 days a year.  The South Rim has a multitude of lodging options, I-MAX theater, and you are within minutes of well stocked grocery stores and restaurants.  The digital age has found its way to the South Rim as well.  This ease of access and facilities on a year around basis draws five million visitors a year.  A mere ten miles away, as the raven flies, is the North Rim.  Buried in ten feet of snowfall during the winter it is only open from mid-May to mid-October.  There is no interstate or major highway even remotely close.  A trip to the North Rim is not a visit of convenience, it is a place that you need to make plans to get to.  Basic services are Spartan at best.  There...

We have been on our summer assignment a little over a month now and have yet to get out to any of the places to see the canyon.  Our days have been pretty full with our routine work schedule and then there has been the extra training we have been getting.  We both got our certification to touch government computer keyboards and have our very own nps.gov email accounts now (ooohhh).  Then there has been the short road trips to see non-Grand Canyon attractions.  But we have changed that as of late. Just as the season was finishing up last year, the road to Cape Royal was closed so they could re-pave it.  It is a popular place for visitors to the North Rim to go and one of the few places that one can get a glimpse of the Colorado River.  The North Rim has a couple of rows of buttes between it and the river that keeps the sculptor of the canyon hidden.  For our first canyon outing we thought we would go try out the new road and see if they smoothed ...

It has been pretty steady of late.  Cleaning fire pits, filling flat tires, jumping dead batteries; just the usual.  We have however been getting trained to operate the check-in kiosk.  Sounds simple but as with all things government, it is anything but.  This means that we have to get 'certified' to push the keys on a government computer, which entails two hours of on-line testing and then a waiting period for our account to be approved.  THEN we can actually get trained on how to use the camper registration system.  We both aced the testing by the way.  Which I gather is not always the case based on all the procedures they have for reattempting the testing. A little something different is that tree pollen season is in full swing.  And since we have massive amounts of giant ponderosa pine trees that means massive amounts of pine pollen.  Having spent the last 30 years in the Atlanta metropolitan area, an area heavily wooded with pine trees...