Trip To Hardin – Day 14

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, Travel2 Comments

Petrified Forest National Park

Today after a slow leisurely morning we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park.  This has been on my bucket list since I was a kid.  I wasn’t expecting much.  Many times you build things up in your head and when you see them in real life they are so much smaller than they thought they would be.  I have to say I wasn’t disappointed.  There are so many petrified trees there.  Plus the park also encompasses part of the painted desert.  It’s about a 30 mile drive through the park and it is so worth it.  There is a lot to learn about the indigenous peoples who lived here, their ruins and petroglyphs still stand today.

Painted Desert

We entered by the north entrance and the first part of the park we came to were the overlooks that give you stunning views of the Painted Desert.

Puerco Pueblo

A little farther along the drive we came to the Puerco Pueblo ruins.  A place first built most probably by the Anasazi people.  Here is what it looked like in its heyday:

And here is what it looks like today…

They also left behind quite a few petroglyphs.  They are not a written language but convey ideas or are symbols of the people who lived here or passed by over the years.

But the showstopper for me was the petrified forest itself.  So many trees knocked down by a huge flood and all came together in a huge logjam and were buried beneath the silt together until minerals from the surrounding earth were absorbed into the wood leaving behind a crystalized ghost of the tree that was.

All in all a wonderful day and wonderful drive through time.  Tomorrow we head to Flagstaff, AZ.

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Trip to Hardin – Day 13

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, TravelLeave a comment

Travel Day

Today we slept in and slowly got the trailer ready to go.  It was a short drive from Grants, NM to Hollbrook, Arizona.  We stopped in at the OK RV Park.  It’s kind of dated but all still in good working order.  Including the park staff.

Not much happened on the way.  The wind was at our backs and we were at the park by 11:30pm.  We decided to use to today to catch up on Internet stuff; email, updating blogs, etc.  Tomorrow we’ll explore the petrified forest and see what else we can find here in Hollbrook.

Trip to Hardin – Day 12

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel1 Comment

Turnaround decision revisited…

I didn’t get to update the blog yesterday due to lack of Internet.  We had to stay at a KOA in Grants due to there being no room anywhere near Albuquerque because of the balloon festival.  This KOA had very poor WiFi and I can understand why.  We also had poor data reception on our cell phones.  Verizon was showing only a couple of bars of LTE, no 3G or 4G.  So… it was slow, even on our phones.

Before talking about the Grants area, let me catch you up on our travel day.  Here is why we were unable to continue.  The line of thunderstorms stretched from El Paso, TX all the way up to Minnesota.  It was a slow moving line as well.    This is what we would either have to drive through or delay for.  We didn’t have time to delay our trip and be able to make it back to work in time.  So, we turned around and headed to…screenshot_20191001-070951

Grants, New Mexico

As it turns out, Grants was a wonderful place to stop for two reasons, the Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum and El Malpais National Monument.

Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum

This museum is a restoration of two forms of aviation infrastructure, now both largely gone.  The first and foremost reason I wanted to visit this museum is it’s exhibit on vintage airway beacons.  In many places throughout the country people have stumbled on mysterious concrete arrows and wondered what they were for.  At this museum they have completely restored the concrete arrow and the lighted beacon tower it supported.  As well as the generator sheds that accompanied these towers to power them.  These beacons lighted the way for early airmail aviators so they could continue to fly the mail at night.  There were literally hundreds of these arrows and towers across the country.   The museum is only open on Saturdays so we took the outside walking tour.  There are free pamphlets you can grab that talk about the outdoor exhibits and the history.  This was one of the stops I was most looking forward to.

 

Grants, New Mexico

If you’ve ever seen the movie Cars, think “Radiator Springs” and you pretty much have Grants.  Still it was fun to drive down the main drag and look for remnants of her Route 66 glory days.  We stopped at AutoZone to buy a new tire pressure gauge.  Then we stopped at a touristy little spot to take a picture.

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El Malpais National Monument

After visiting the museum we decided to check out El Malpais (literally, The Badlands in Spanish).   El Malpais is a hugh lava field created by volcanic erruptions.  Spanish explorers named it El Malpais due the fact that it was impassible for their horses.  The terrain is literally littered with razor sharp chunks of black lava.  They had to find a way around.  Other than some Indians that lived in the area the place was largely abandoned for thousands of years.

We drove out into the park and stopped at an area with some sandstone bluffs.  This turned out to be the hidden gem in all of Grants.  Here is a taste of the sandstone bluffs:

 

We drove a little farther down the road and stopped at La Ventana, a large natural arch.  It’s a nice easy hike, only about 10 minutes from the parking lot.

Afterwards we drove back and had dinner back at our trailer.  And enjoyed a beautiful New Mexico sunset thanks to the storms passing by to the east.

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All in all our decision to turn around was a good one.  We saw some things we may not have had time for otherwise.

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Trip To Hardin – Day 11

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV Life, RV Parks, Travel1 Comment

Getthereitis

There is a term in aviation known as “getthereitis”.  It means that you are in such a hurry to get some place that you tend to ignore warning signs or go against your better judgement.  In most cases it is when a pilot is trying to get home.  It my case it would be trying to get to Hardin, Missouri.  IF I had getthereitis.  And I don’t.

Therefore we are cancelling the remainder of our trip to Hardin and slowly making our way home.  The simple reason is that weather is not cooperating.  A line of thunderstorms is making it’s way through Kansas.  It runs from El Paso, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota.   Here is what the National Weather Service has to say:

This hazardous weather outlook is for portions of central...south
central...southwest and west central Kansas.

.DAY ONE...Today and tonight.

Day 1 Discussion
----------------

Periods of rain throughout the day could cause flash flooding
especially in river basins and low lying areas as 1 to 2 inches of
rain with locally higher amounts possible. A few storms this
afternoon could turn severe especially around the I-70 corridor
with gusty winds the main threat.

Flash floods and gusty winds.  Nope.  Already dealt with that on this trip.  It will only last a day or two but it’s a day or two I don’t have time for.  We would not be able to make it to Hardin and back in the time allotted for this trip.

We turned back west and stopped off in Albuquerque for some shopping at Trader Joe’s and some lunch.   We continued on to a KOA in Grants, New Mexico.  This is fine as it will let me visit the Airways museum that I didn’t get to see on our trip out.  We have a full day in Grants tomorrow.  I’ll let you know what fun there is to be had in Grants.

Trip To Hardin – Day 10

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV Life, RV Parks, TravelLeave a comment

Day of rest

Yesterday, we had Plan A, B, and C for today:

Plan A: Go to Valles Caldera and visit Longmire’s Cabin.  7 hours round trip plus whatever time we spent there.

Plan B: Go to Santa Fe and see the sights.  3 hours round trip plus whatever time we spent there.

Plan C: None of the above.  Stay home and do laundry.  Relax.  Listen to the whispering pines.

We went with Plan C.  After sleeping in we had breakfast and then went and

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did laundry.  We walked around the park for a bit.  Drove to the ranch up the road and admired the scenery.  Then we folded the laundry and had lunch.  Afterwards I took a nap.  Then I checked the tire pressures in the truck, but no before running over my favorite tire pressure gauge.  HULK SMASH!

Cristy started making some Chile Verde and has asked me to watch it while she takes a nap.  Which is what I’m doing now.  God commanded that we take a day of rest for a reason and I’m so glad I followed His command today.  We really needed the downtime.  I also used the time to prepare for our drive up into Kansas tomorrow.  The forecast calls for thunderstorms so this ought to be interesting.  We’ll spend two days getting across Kansas to our ultimate destination, Hardin, Missouri.

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Trip to Hardin – Day 9

On By The Flying DutchmanIn RV Life, RV Parks, Travel3 Comments

Longmire Tour

Well after a crazy travel day we decided to rest a little on this Sunday.  Our only plan was to drive back into Las Vegas to buy some groceries, get some gas, and check out some of the Longmire filming locations there in town.

We found Plaza Park which is where the “Absaroka County Sheriff” from Longmire was.  They still have the name on the door.  Note that we are in Las Vegas, New Mexico, not Durant, Wyoming.

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The building is fronted with shops and city offices upstairs.

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Other interesting facts about Las Vegas, NM, it was a major stop on the Santa Fe Trail.  In fact, one of the last stops.  Santa Fe is just over the mountains from Las Vegas.

Afterwards we drove to a nearby WalMart Supercenter to do some grocery shopping.  Beforehand we listened to our church, Big Valley Grace, online on my phone.  My daughter prays piano in the praise band so it was nice to see her as well.

After we went shopping we stopped at K-Bob’s Steakhouse for lunch.  There isn’t a lot else in Las Vegas aside from Mexican restaurants or steakhouses.  As it was the food was pretty good.  Cristy got grilled salmon over rice and I got a bacon cheddar burger.  Let’s just say I didn’t need to eat dinner that night.  Then we headed back.

That was pretty much the extent of our day other than some star gazing that night.  Couldn’t get a picture of the stars but trust me, on a moonless night you can see just about every star in the sky from here.  Pendaries RV Resort is a great place to come get away from it all.  If you’re ever near Las Vegas, NM I highly recommend it.

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Trip to Hardin – Day 8

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, Travel6 Comments

The travel day from hell…

We got a fairly early start from USA RV Park in Gallup.  At least 8:00am felt early.  We probably hit the road around 9am or so.  It was a fairly nice drive… at first.  Then as we passed Albuquerque our GPS suddenly told us to start going back the way we came.   Cristy checked traffic on her phone and sure enough the freeway was closed several miles ahead.  Against my better judgement I decided to trust my GPS and let it take me on a detour around the closure.  In California, a detour is usually only a few blocks over.  In New Mexico the detour was over 90 miles!  So long story short, 2 extra hours, 2 extra gas stops, and one pounding headache later we finally arrived at Pendaries RV Resort.

I didn’t get to take any pictures today but here are the pictures from yesterday that I wasn’t able to post.

We’ll be here a this resort for the next few days.  More to come.

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Trip to Hardin – Day 7

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel2 Comments

Travel Day

Today we travelled from Williams, AZ to Gallup, NM by way of Flagstaff to pick up some groceries at Sprouts.  We also stopped at the Meteor Crater because I demanded to pay $36 for the two of us to look at a hole in the ground! 🙂

Anyway this update will be short because the WiFi is down at USA RV Resort so I’m working over my phone.  I’ll catch up with pictures tomorrow.

Trip To Hardin – Day 6

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, Travel1 Comment

Grand Canyon

Our trip to the Grand Canyon started with chilly, rainy temperatures.  Just yesterday we had the air conditioner on because it was 100 degrees.  Today’s high was 68.  It had rained all night (a novelty for this Californian) but Providencially the rain let up long enough for us to walk to the railway station.  We boarded the Grand Canyon Railway and were treated to some beautiful scenery on the 2 hour trip over and back.  We literally saw deer and antelope.  We did not witness them playing however.

When we finally made it to the Grand Canyon itself the mix of clouds and sky made for some dramatic scenery.  We decided to hike the rim trail in the short few hours we had.  We brought our lunch rather than eating at one of the restaurants (who boast gorgeous views).  I’m pretty sure our view was MUCH better than any window seat in the most expensive restaurant there.

After lunch we continued along the trail until we got to the end and then took a shuttle bus the the visitor’s center, then another shuttle back to the train depot.

I have to say a little more about the train.  I bought the cheapest tickets I could find.  They were in Coach A near the front of the train.  I am so glad I didn’t buy a more expensive ticket because the entertainment in this coach was outstanding.  Our attendant spent the whole time talking to us about the scenery, the history of the area, the railroad, and so on.  And she was a crack-up!  It was like a dinner show the whole way there and back.  They also brought in a couple of musicians who told jokes and played.  One was a fiddle player and the other played (what else?)  The banjo.  “Banjo Billy” was by far the best.  At any rate, if you want to visit the Grand Canyon and avoid the traffic hassles, take the train!

We got home tired, happy, and again, tired.  But it was a GREAT trip.  I’ll leave you with some miscellaneous photos we took of the canyon.

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Trip to Hardin – Day 5

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel1 Comment

Travel Day

Today was just a travel day and a short one at that.  Cristy slept in a little while I read my book outside under the awning.  It was 75 degrees at 7:00am.  Perfect reading weather.   A hummingbird flew up to me several times, probably wondering where our feeder was.  Sorry bud.

After Cristy woke up and had her breakfast I began the ritual of dumping the tanks.  Black, then turn on the tank flush, then drain, then flush, then drain, then pump a few gallons in for good measure.  Then I empty the gray tank.  Clean and stow the hose and accessories.  Then pull my disposable gloves off, one inside the other.  Then hand sanitize and call it done.

That’s when I noticed our first damage.  I shouldn’t really call it damage.  A cotter pin came out of our hitch when we were driving the truck yesterday and we almost lost a very crucial part of the weight distribution hitch.  Luckily it didn’t fall out.  I was able to push it back in and safety wire it in place.   It looked much nicer when we started this morning.  This is what it looked like once we arrived in Williams, AZ at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park.

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The trip over only took about 3 hours.  And it can be summed up in one word: UP.  It was all uphill.  We stopped for gas in Seligman.  The scenery is beautiful but the highway and the wind kept my attention mostly on the road so I didn’t have time to grab any pictures.  I’ll have to see if Cristy did.

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Tomorrow we take the train to the Grand Canyon!