Our RV Adventures

Our Grand Canyon day started early. Jan was up about 6:30, said she was too excited to sleep. I was up by 7:30, and we left the rig about 8:15 to make the 5 minute trip to the Grand Canyon Railway Station.

After we picked up our tickets, Jan checked out the gift shop while I checked out the steam engine that they used on the Grand Canyon trip until recently.

We boarded our car about 9:15, and the train pulled out about 9:30 to make the 65 mile trip in about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Our seats were in a First Class car, with an observation dome on top.

Along the way we came across this herd of horses on the move. Don’t know if they were startled by the train, or just running for the fun of it, but they paced the train for a few minutes.

Certainly makes you feel you’re out West.

The train snakes its way up to the canyon, so from our car, third from the end, we were often able to see the front of the train.

After our train arrived and we walked to the canyon rim at the Bright Angel area, our first view of the Grand Canyon was just spectacular.

Everywhere you look you see colors and patterns as far as the eye can see.

This photo shows the multi-mile hiking trail that takes you further out into the canyon.

I’ll let these next pictures speak for themselves.

Looking over the edge of the canyon we saw this squirrel looking up at us. As soon as he saw us, he started climbing up the outside wall, heading our way.

It was obvious that he expected to be fed,

and despite the sign below, he was going to follow us until he was.

And when we refused to put out, he headed down the wall looking for someone else.

The building at the left in this photo is the Lookout Studio, built by Fred Harvey to give a close up view of the canyon.

While I was out on one of the lookout points here, Jan stayed up top sitting on one of the low walls.

Suddenly another squirrel appeared, climbing up over the wall, and going directly to the trashcan. After pulling out several empty wrappers, he saw Jan sitting there and headed for her. He climbed right up on her lap, sat on her fanny pack, and put his little paws up to her.

Everyone around her marveled at this, but no one took a DARN photo.

That’s about it for today. I’ll have Part Two tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy’s vacant dead eyes.

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We left Show Low about 9:30 this morning heading 170 miles away to Williams, AZ to spend a few days seeing the Grand Canyon and other sights in the area.

Overall the trip was pretty uneventful, with some road construction on SR77 between Show Low and Holbrook and a lot of smoke around Flagstaff.

Holbrook, where we got on I-40W was on the old Route 66, and was also home to one of the 7 Wigwam Motels in the country. My family and I stayed here on a trip out west in 1963.

Built in 1950, it first closed in 1974, but the original owner’s family renovated and reopened it in 1988. And, in fact, the same family still operates it today.

It’s good to see it’s still around. There are only 3 of the original 7 still in existence.

After getting on I-40, our first stop was at the Flying J Truck Stop in Winslow, AZ. Nick wanted to fuel up with diesel and propane, and we all wanted to eat breakfast at the adjacent Denny’s.

We finally got back on the road about 1:30 for the hundred mile run to Williams, with Mister spending the whole trip catching rays in the front window.

Sometimes wide awake . . .

Sometimes dozing off . . .

And sometimes, just completely out of it.

Approaching the Flagstaff area we started seeing a lot of smoke in front of us. It turned out to be a Forest Service controlled burn. Although it wasn’t too bad, we did hit several thick patches and you could certainly smell it.

While passing through some of this, we were passed by Kenny Chesney’s tour bus. He’s got an upcoming gig in Vegas and travels in style. Must be nice to have someone to drive the RV for you.

Just as we were pulling into the Canyon Gate RV Park in Williams, our daughter Brandi called to check it and tell us that Landon’s daycare had called and said a little girl in his group had BIT him. We all figured that just as soon as he has some teeth, he’ll bite’r back.

After getting set up, everyone rested up, and then about 5:30 we all headed out for a drive around the area, and dinner.

And as it turned out, dinner was at the Pine Country Café, where we ate last year when we were through here. Our meal was good, but what we really came for were the pies.

They bake 44 different kinds of pie every day, but when a particular flavor is gone, it’s gone for the day.

Jan had this huge slice of Coconut Cream, with enough left over to take home.

And I had this delicious Strawberry Cream Cheese.

I didn’t have any left over.

Tomorrow Jan and I are taking the Grand Canyon Railway train trip to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It leaves about 9:30 and returns to Williams about 5:30 or so. Nick and Terry did this trip last year, so they’re going to sit this one out and rest up.

It’s supposed to get down to 29 degrees here tonight, but it’s just after midnight and it’s already 31.

So I think it might get colder. We’ll see.

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Thought for the Day:

“… that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back–you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going."

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