On Sunday morning, 3/31 we packed up our things, and set out for a short 75 mile trip to Wildwood, FL.  We had scheduled this time for some repairs on our motorhome.  When we got to the repair facility, it was packed to the gills.  I guess all of the Snow Birds returning home after a winter in Florida made reservations for the same time, and there is barely room to park.  Based on the projects we had, and the crowd of customers, we expected to be there for a minimum of 3 weeks before we were done.  There are motorhomes everywhere.  Our service writer came to see us right on time, at about 8 AM Monday morning, and encouraged us that we might be done sooner than we expected.  They took our coach in to the service bay Monday afternoon, and came up with the estimates of time and money to make the needed repair.  By Thursday, we were surprised to find that about all of the work was done, but we had to wait until Friday for some final adjustments.   By noon we were finished.  Based on our expectation of how long the motorhome repairs would take, along with about 12 Deer Creek friends, we bought tickets for a musical review of 50's and 60's for Saturday evening.  So we were excited when one of our motorhoming friends who was in the area called and invited us to their rig for a Shabbat dinner.  Pearl Laroff made a delicious dinner for us, with an unusual Shabbat appetizer of vegetarian sushi!!  While we were in Wildwood, the weather was generally nice and warm, but there were sporadic torrential thunderstorms which resulted in lots of mud everywhere.  Fortunately, we were parked on macadam, so we stayed mud-free.  On Saturday we drove back down to the Orlando area, where we joined many of our friends in a nice dinner at a Japanese steak house before going to the musical, which was a big disappointment.  We rated it a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Following the show, we drove back to Wildwood for the night.  [Monaco Repair - Wildwood, FL - 28.50 N / 82.02 W.

We woke up on Sunday, April 6, to a cloudy day, but our spirits were sunny as we got back on the road.  We drove about 450 miles to Mobile, AL where we stopped at a Wal-Mart to spend the night.  Just before we got off I-10, traffic slowed as we noticed a helicopter overhead.  We also noticed that there was no traffic on the eastbound side of the highway.  The helicopter landed there, near a terrible looking accident, with at least one car on its roof, and at least one dead person covered with a sheet.  Certainly, that was not a great way to end the day. [Wal-Mart - Tillman's Corner, AL - 35.69 N / 88.98 W].

On Monday, we drove about 250 miles to Maxie's Campground, in the area of Lafayette, LA.  This was our 3rd visit to Maxie's and the owner remembered us from our earlier stays.  In addition, we parked next to a familiar looking motorhome.  Lola and Elmer Crochet were still there from last year, and we brought each other up to date on recent news.  We'll have dinner with them to Wednesday evening.  On Tuesday, Norm was up early and went for a haircut at Jud's barbershop.  Believe it or not, they open at 6:30 am, and a haircut is only $12.00.  Later on, we reviewed the next week of our trip.  We heard on the news that the Mississippi River is flooding upstream, and our next two stops are Natchez and Memphis, both cities right on the Mississippi.  We called the local Chambers of Commerce there, and received assurance that we should not change our plans.  At noon, we went for a drive around, and stopped at a few local businesses where they sold some Cajun delicacies.  We bought some crayfish pistolettes and a crayfish pie, but bypassed some rabbit dishes and some spicy foods which Shelley was afraid would upset her stomach.  We stopped for lunch at a local place called T-Coons where we had a delicious meal of chicken and sausage gumbo.  After a relaxing afternoon, we went to the Boiling Point, a local eatery, with Elmer and Lola.  Shelley had fried crayfish legs for dinner and Norm had fried alligator.  The alligator tasted very much like chicken.  [Lafayette - Maxie's Campground - 30.09 N / 91.67 W ].

We woke up on Wednesday not sure of our plans.  The Mississippi River was above its banks throughout most of its trip from St. Louis to the Gulf, and the forecast was for severe thunderstorms and maybe even tornadoes from Texas through Louisiana.  After studying the weather forecasts, which we know are never correct, we decided to go to Jackson, the capitol of Mississippi.  The weather on Wednesday was beautiful, but the forecast still warned of severe weather during the next few days.  After we arrived in Jackson, we studied the AAA Tour Guide, and nothing attracted us in particular.  So we headed for the Mississippi Museum of Natural History.  They had extensive displays of fish and birds that are native to the state as well as bones of dinosaurs from way back when.  The museum was OK...interesting and not great but not terrible. When we got up on Thursday, the forecast was still pretty ominous for Memphis, which was our intended next stop.  Jackson was one of the few places that had reasonably good weather forecast.  So we decided not to move the motorhome.  Instead we got in our Honda and took an hour drive to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Our first stop there was the Museum of Coca Cola, where Coca Cola was first bottled in 1894 by Joseph Biedenharn, who also thought up the franchising system which resulted in Coke's world-wide popularity.  After a nice lunch, we walked down to the Mississippi River, which is at its highest level in about 30 years due to heavy rains upriver.  And forecasts are for another 2 foot increase in water levels.  But the levees are holding fine, and the city is dry.  We then drove over to the Vicksburg National Military Park. The Union forces surrounded the city and Confederate Forces.  After a series of unsuccessful attacks on the city, the Union began a 45 day siege and the rebel forces surrendered on July 4, 1863.  In return, they were allowed to return to their homes and families.  Following successful siege, the Union controlled the entire Mississippi River, allowing their forces access to the southern states of Texas, Arkansas and most of Louisiana.  In addition, commerce in the Midwestern part of the Union was able to flow smoothly to the oceans.  Because of the huge area over which the 2 armies were deployed, a trip through the park didn't really give us a good sense of the battle and following siege.  However, we were amazed at the incredible numbers of (1)state monuments commemorating the participation of their different units in the battle, (2) large state monuments commemorating the participation of all of their troops participating, and (3) markers indicating exactly where different units were deployed during the battle.  [Swinging Bridge Campground - Jackson, MS - 32.11 N / 90.15 W ]

Mississippi River overflowing	Men shoring up the levee by the river	Mississippi River	Coca Cola history museum	Vicksburg Battle - Missouri Monument
African descendants monument	Arkansas monument	Illinois monument	Norm checking out the cannon	Shelley hanging out on the cannon

 

We left Jackson and drove to Memphis, passing through a short amount of heavy rain.  The campground that had been recommended to us is in West Memphis, in Arkansas on the west bank of the Mississippi.  We called for reservations as we were on the road, and the receptionist put a crimp in our plans by telling us that the campground is under water and the campground had been closed for 3 weeks because of flooding.  So Shelley studied our campground books and the computer, and came up with an alternative, TO Fuller State Park in Memphis.  The setting is beautiful, but after setting up the rig, we found that the water tap leaked constantly.  So, after checking the water, we moved to another site, but it was on a pretty steep slope and we couldn't get level, so we moved again.  The 3rd attempt was perfect, but it took us almost 2.5 hours to get set up.  Our friends, Paul and Carol Goldberg are heading east; they're planning to meet us here tomorrow and spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday with us.  We're looking forward to seeing them again, its been about 4 months since we were together.  We got up and out relatively early on Saturday - we had a full day planned.  First we drove to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley.  As you might expect, it was on Elvis Presley Blvd.  The tour took a full 2 hours plus, and the moist interesting things to us were (1) what a nice person Elvis was and (2) what a big business Graceland is.  His two airplanes and his racquet ball court were pretty amazing as were the number of gold records he had and the amount of time and money he donated to local charities. Of course, there were many displays just full of the costumes he wore while entertaining.  Following our Graceland tour, we returned to the campground where we met up with Carol and Paul and had lunch.  We then went to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated.  The displays were really impressive and followed the history of slavery in this country.  It was almost to much to assimilate in one visit.  One interesting fact is that the museum curator seems to have doubts that the full story of the assassination has come out.  This came out clearly in many exhibits.  Later in the afternoon we went downtown to the Peabody Hotel where 5 ducks parade through the hotel lobby twice a day as they migrate from a fountain in the ornate lobby to an elevator that brings them up to the hotel's roof where they spend the nights.  We then went to Beale Street where Blues is played everywhere.  It is somewhat reminiscent of Bourbon Street, but nowhere as tawdry.  We then went our for a nice dinner at the Majestic Grille. On Sunday morning, 4/13, the four of us piled into the car and drove to eastern Memphis where we did some shopping for the approaching Passover season.  We also stopped off at a bagel shop and treated ourselves to a bagel.  We then drove a short distance to the Brooks Museum where we visited an exhibit of African photography.  Although we all enjoyed the display, Carol, being a professional photographer, particularly appreciated the exhibit.  We had lunch at the museum and then drove to downtown Memphis where we visited the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art.  The Asian part of the display included carved tusks with incredible carvings of intricate details while the Jewish items of beautiful religious items and wonderful paintings touched the four of us.   The amazing this about this museum is that all of the items were once part of the personal collection of Jack and Marion Belz, real estate tycoons in the Memphis area.  We got back to our coaches to avoid the cold weather, where the high temperature today was about 48 degrees compared to a normal high of about 72 degrees.  Brr!  [TO Fuller State Park - Memphis, TN, 35.04 N / 90.08 W]    

Graceland's exterior	Elvis's pink cadillac	Lorraine Motel	Lorraine Motel sign	Belz Museum - oriental screen	Hungarian synagogue in gold	Shelley with oriental Lion

On Monday, 4/14, we left Paul and Carol and headed further west.  A relatively short drive took us to Little Rock, Arkansas where we stopped at the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.  They had ample parking for us and even said that we could spend the night parked there.  Upon entering the building, there was an exhibit of a miniature White House, with a scale of an inch to a foot.  According to the docent, the model is always kept up to date....as changes are made to the Washington White House, the identical changes are made to the model, which was built by a private individual, his friends and his family with no government financing.  The exhibit is so realistic that a miniature TV was actually showing the ABC feed.  The model constantly tours the US, and takes about 4 weeks to set up.  It was recently at the Smithsonean.  To me, the most interesting part of the rest of the building was the immense amount of material that was available to the general public.  A copy of Clinton's schedule for every day of his presidency could easily be retrieved, and there were individual displays covering many of the major issues of his presidency.  They even touched on his famous relationship with Monica Lewinsky.  When we returned to the motorhome, we noticed that one of the rear tires seemed low.  So we dragged out the airhose and revved up the compressor and added some air.  After about 20 miles, we decided to stop to get the tire checked out, but we arrived at an RV dealership just at 5, and they suggested that we come back the next morning.  Conveniently enough, there was a Walmart near by, so we headed for our favorite campground. [Walmart - Benton, Arkansas - 34.45 N / 92.16 W].

Model of the White House	Cabinet room during Clinton's presidency	Clinton Oval Office

On Tuesday, we got to the RV dealer pretty early, but they were busy so we had to wait.  At about 9 Norm went to check on things, and was told that they don't do tires, and we should go to a nearby tire dealer.  So, off we went.  It turn out that we needed a new tire, and they had to send back to Little Rock for a tire.  So we retreated to a nearby breakfast place for a nice meal.  By noon, the new tire was installed ($570 later) and off we went.  We arrived at the local Elks Lodge, took a restful break, and then Ed Berkun, a friend and CHAI member who lives in Hot Springs came over. Shelley wanted to eat at an authentic barbecue place, so off we went.  We were probably the only tourists there, and the ribs were really delicious.  Norm even had beer with dinner, probably the third beer of the year.  Wednesday morning was spent doing chores, and Ed came over for lunch.  He then took us on a tour of Hot Springs.  It is a town of about 35,000 people, with no other towns nearby. As a result, nothing is more than 10 minutes from anything else.  Of course, Hot Springs is most known for its Hot Springs.  Water that has fallen as rain about 4,000 years ago bubbles to the surface at a temperature of about 143 degrees.  There is still a line of elegant bathhouses along Center Avenue where people came to take the baths.  One has been converted to the headquarters of the National park, and we were able to take a tour that had various exhibits about the bathhouses. Although the water that came to each bathhouse was identical, each claimed special powers for different kinds of ailments.  And the machines that were used looked like they were used for torture.  We also visited Ed's synagogue and met the Rabbi, who invited us to join the congregation for a Passover seder.  Too bad we will be 200 miles away.  All in all, Hot Springs seems like a nice place.  The town is growing, and the retirement communities seem to be growing at a rapid rate.  Ed said that the weather is really nice most of the year.  During the past winter, there were only 2 days with snow, and it melted shortly after falling.  He did admit that summers are pretty hot and humid. We went out for dinner with Ed to a nice Japanese restaurant. [Elks Lodge - Hot Springs, Arkansas - 34.28 N / 93.04 W ].   

Bathhouse Row	Buckstaff Bathhouse	Bill Clinton's hometown sign	Ed's Temple's sanctuary	Shelley filling up water jugs with 4,000 year old water	More water	Shelley & Ed at 140 degree water fountain	Shelley & Norm

On Thursday, 4/17, we hit the road again.  We travelled due north on Arkansas Route 7 from Hot Springs, through the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests.  Most of the trip was on a narrow (one lane in each direction) road that twisted and turned through the mountains, as we reached an altitude of about 2,400 feet.  We pulled off the road for lunch, and the vistas in both directions were spectacular.  After our GPS misled up somewhat, we arrived at our campground in mid-afternoon.  Shelley kept busy after we arrived, doing a wash and also some cooking for our mini-seder (just the 2 of us unless someone unexpected shows up) on Saturday evening. We drove into Branson on Friday morning to pick up our mail and then to a nearby Walmart for some grocery shopping and then Norm took care of some business while Shelley did some cooking for our seder.  The motorhome soon had the wonderful smell of cooked brisket.  I know I've said it before, but we are not on vacation, this is our life.  So we still have things to do, like laundry and shopping and paying bills.  After the trips to town and to Walmart, we agreed that we were not in love with Branson.  So we cancelled our reservations for the Platters on Sunday night and, instead, got tickets for Kirby and Bambi VanBurch's magic show on Saturday night.  We'll leave Branson on Sunday morning for Santa Fe.  Back to Friday though, after dinner we left the campground at 6:20 for our 8 PM reservations for Country Time, a country and western musical review.  We had been told that Branson traffic was terrible before show times, so we gave ourselves lots of time.  Of course, there wasn't a car on the road and we arrived at the theater well before 7.  So we found a coffee cafe' (in a super market) to kill some time.  The show was very enjoyable and high energy.  But we were amazed at how small the audience was.  There were no more then 150 in the audience, while the cast and technical staff probably numbered 25 or so.  They couldn't make much money, but I'm sure that things turn around during the warmer weather.  (It was cold and nasty with a high of about 50 degrees on Friday).  On Saturday morning we took a short ride to the College of the Ozarks.  This is a very unique school.  No full time student pays any tuition, but in exchange they all have jobs around the college; 15 hours per week during the school year (except for one week where they have to work 40 hours.)  The students can also earn room and board by working at the college during the summer. 65% of the 1,500 students are from the Ozarks and all have to demonstrate financial need before being admitted.  The college is on a 1,000 acre campus in a beautiful setting.  The credo of the college is certainly Christian in nature, and a student told us that she didn't know of any students that were not Christians.  Only about 2% of the students are from outside the US.  We had our mini-seder on Friday evening including Gefilte Fish (from the jar and not very good), Sephardic Charoset, brisket and home made mandel bread.  Everything but the gefilte fish was delicious, but we both missed being with either family or good friends.  Afterwards, we went to see the magic show of Kirby and Bambi VanBurch.  The show was pretty spectacular, and even from up close, we were not able to see how the magic was done.  It was pretty amazing.  But we were sort of taken aback when Kelly sat down toward one side of the stage and started telling how his grandmother had found Jesus.  We weren't happy at this type of ending to an otherwise wonderful show. [Tall Pines Campground - Branson, MO - 36.40 N / 93.20 W]

College of the Ozarks, main building	Main building exterior	Old Rolls Royce in museum

On Sunday morning we left really early; we were packed, hooked to our CRV, and on the road by 7:50.  The first 100 miles of our trip wound through the mountains of northern Arkansas and we finally found ourselves on the interstate in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  410 miles from our start, we arrived in Elk City, Oklahoma where we spent the night. We were within walking distance of the Route 66 National Museum which, unfortunately was already closed for the day when we arrived. [Walmart - Elk City, Oklahoma - 35.25 N / 99.27 W ]

Route 66 sign in Elk City, OK	Route 66 Museum

We packed up the rig, and were ready to get rolling at about 7:40.  Unfortunately, it was really foggy out, and we didn't feel comfortable driving, so we pulled over to the side of the road and did Suduku puzzles for 30 minutes or so, when the fog started burning off and we started west on I-40.  It was an amazing trip.  Our altitude was about 1,700 feet in Elk City, and as we drove west, we gradually went up and up, peaking at about 7,200 feet.  We arrived at our campground in Santa Fe at about 3:30 Mountain time, and the owner directed us into our parking space.  Our friends from Deer Creek, Joanie and Earl Bell, had mentioned that they had good friends who lived in Santa Fe, and gave us their phone number.  Shelley called Connie Rosenberg as soon as we got settled, and by 6:30 we had gotten together and went out to Saigon, a Vietnamese restaurant for a delicious and inexpensive dinner.  We seem to hit it off really well; one of the things we had in common is that both families suffered the same loss of a child, our Amy and their Shayna.  Both daughters died very suddenly and ironically, at their time of passing, both girls had dogs with the initials JD!!  Later in the morning we took a bus downtown to the plaza, the center of Santa Fe.  We were surprised at how small Santa Fe is.  The city proper has a population of about 65,000.  Because zoning requirements severely limit the height of buildings, there are no high rises and virtually no buildings higher than 3 stories high.  Zoning rules also restrict building styles so that they all look like they are made of adobe, and they are all shades of brown.  During most of our travels during the last three years, we frequently remarked how similar one place is to another.  But in Santa Fe, there is no doubt where you are.  If you were anywhere else, and you were blindfolded and dropped in Santa Fe, you would immediately know that you were in Santa Fe.  Anyway, back to the walking tour.  We learned lots about minutia.  We saw the oldest carved Madonna (made in Europe in the 1400's), and a unique circular stairway in the Loretto Church that had no visible means of support.  We saw 70 or so native American artisans, who get chosen by lottery every morning (out of a pool of 300) for the right to sell their crafts in front of the Palace of the Governors.  We also found that Santa Fe is the 2nd oldest city in the US (after St Augustine, FL) and we visited La Fonda, the oldest hotel in the southwest.  We decided to take a drive to Taos on Wednesday morning.  Although the trip was only about 70 miles, we were told that it would take us between 1 1/2 and 2 hours.  On the way, we stopped at the Sanctuary of Chimayo.  According to legend, this modest little church was the site of some miraculous cures, and people come from all over the world, hoping that their maladies will disappear.  There is a small room with crutches and canes left behind by those who have been cured.  And in a small room, there is a pit where we were allowed to dig up some dirt from under the sanctuary.  The legend also attributes miraculous properties to this dirt.  After some more driving through high desert lands, we stopped for lunch at Alicia's, in Penasco.  The place was full, and without a doubt we were the only tourists.  They served a combination of authentic Mexican food and they typical sandwiches and burgers that one could fine in American diners.  The meal was delicious and HUGE...it was enough for us to finish at dinner. Shelley had chicken sopapilla ( a deep fried, but still fluffy tortilla) and Norm had a beef enchilada with a Mexican grain called hominy, somewhat similar, but very different than grits. After lunch, we finally made it to Taos, after driving at an elevation of about 8,200 feet and seeing snow alongside the road.  We made a quick stop at the Taos tourist information center and then continued up to the Taos Pueblo.  This village was once home to a few thousand Taos native Indians, but now there are only enough homes for 300 people, with the population shrinking to about 50 during the winter.  The homes have no electricity or running water but there seems to be a great demand to live like their ancestors did.  Several of the original building were 6 or 7 stories high.  There were no doors or windows except for a door on the roof.  There were a series of ladders that the residents used to climb to the roof;  these ladders could be pulled up whenever raiders threatened.  There were big adobe outdoor ovens where breads and cakes and cookies were baked.  Norm bought croakers (to hold his sun glasses) from Rose, AKA Chili Flower.  We returned to Santa Fe on a road that followed the course of the Rio Grande River.  Although we really didn't get to see Taos, we had an interesting day.  And we got a good sense of Taos while driving and listening to a radio station from Taos.  They spent at least an hour being liberal and environmental and discussing all sorts of causes that the Taos Peace House was working on.  If interested, you might find out more about this organization at www.taospeacehouse.org. We got up Thursday morning and took care of some housekeeping chores.  After lunch we travelled south for a short distance of about 15 miles to the small town of Cerrillos, an old town that is maybe typical of an old town that had seen better days but was still alive.  We stopped off at an old store that had lots of old stuff piled up everywhere, all covered with dust, but virtually nothing that we had even the slightest interest in.  We continued south for another 3 miles to the town of Madrid - pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.  Madrid is a small artist's colony with about 300 residents.  The shops are moistly along the main road and along an alley, and the small homes are on narrow allies that run perpendicular to the highway.  We felt that virtually no one lives in Madrid who doesn't have a family member who is an artist.  On the way back from Madrid we stopped at Connie and Stu Rosenberg's.  They have a 3800 square foot adobe home on 9 acres.  The house, on a beautiful setting, is what we would think of as a typical southwestern home and is furnished with lots of southwestern feeling.  We then went out for dinner to Tortilla Flats.  Also for dinner were Stu and Connie's friends, Jean and Robert.  They are longtime friends, and Robert is an artisan, making beautiful hand painted purses out of so-soft deerskin.  After dinner we came back to our motorhome for some schmoozing.  [Trailer Ranch RV Resort - Santa Fe, NM - 35.39 N / 106.00 W ]. 

Burro Lane	Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi	Inside of the Cathedral	Interior of cathedral	Santa Fe courtyard	Gallery inside of La Fonda hotel	Exterior of Lensic Performing Arts building
Loretto Chapel sign	Loretto Chapel stairs	Museum downtown	Oldest Madonna in America	Palace of the Governors on the Plaza	historic street architecture	Snow Capped mountains viewed from our campground
Robert's artwork on handbag	Downtown Madrid	Some artwork from Madrid	Stained Glass	Madrid upscale housing!!	Chimayo Church	Chimayo Churchyard
Exterior wall of Chimayo Church	Taos Pueblo	Bread ovens	buildings on the Pueblo	ladders to the 2nd floor	overview of Pueblo	Church in courtyard

We had a leisurely morning on Friday, and sadly left Santa Fe bound further west.  We took I-25 to I-40 and passed through Albuquerque and Gallup New Mexico before entering Arizona.  The trip through New Mexico was pretty interesting, as we drove through alternating areas of 6,500 feet elevation and 5,000 feet elevation.  But when we got into Arizona, the scenery starting getting much more monotonous  - there is NOTHING to see on both sides of the road for miles and miles.  We found our destination, the Root 66 Campground.  It was definitely a place that had seen better days, but the utilities all worked ok and the sites were pretty level, so we settled down.  On Saturday we had some matzoh brei for breakfast, Shelley did a load of wash, and we headed for Petrified Forest National Park.  First we went through the Painted Desert portion of the park.  We were shocked to find that this spectacular scenery ran just alongside the seemingly boring highway.  The park road ran sort of parallel to the interstate on a plateau at about 6000 feet elevation.  On the side of the road away from the interstate there was a series of steep cliffs that led down to a valley about 400-500 feet below.  The Painted Desert was here in the valley.  From the park road, we saw spectacular colors, ranging from white to tan to brown to red to green.  And at each overlook, the view was more breathtaking.  After about 7 miles of the Painted Desert, the park road crossed over the interstate.  First we stopped at Puerco Pueblo, the site of a 100 room pueblo built around 1250 that might have held 1,200 people.  There were petroglyphs nearby that were amazing, thinking that they were 750 years old.  We then stopped at Jasper and Crystal Forests, where we saw numerous petrified trees.  All have fallen down.  According to the ranger, these trees lived 225 million years ago.  During a flood, the trees were washed downstream.  When the flow of water slowed, the trees sunk from they water they had absorbed and the were buried under a layer of silt, mud, and volcanic ash.  This drastically slowed the rate of rotting.  Silica laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissue with silica which eventually turned to quartz. We heard a really sad thing.  The ranger estimated that each month, roughly one ton of petrified wood is stolen from the park, despite multiple signs and warnings against taking any out of the park. AMAZING! [Sun Valley, AZ - Root 66 Campground - 34.59 N / 110.03 W]    

Norm & Shelley at the Painted Desert	Tawa Point	Whipple Point vista	Whipple Point	Petrified Forest
Petrified log	Petroglyph	Petroglyph footprints	Pima Point

 

On Sunday, April 27, we took an easy drive due West to Williams AZ.  We settled in at the campground and then Shelley called her friend, Christine, who has been involved with the grieving parents support group for many years.  We drove over to the Pumpkin Patch, Christine's antique/curio shop and found Christine and her husband Robin sitting outside on a bench.  Shelley and Christine really enjoyed meeting each other in person after several years of sending e-mails back and forth.  We went out for a delicious Mexican dinner at nearby Pancho McGillicuddy's.  On Monday morning, we were ready for the probable highlight of our trip.  We got in our trusty CRV and drove 53 miles north to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  And the canyon did not disappoint us.  It is so huge and awesome that words and pictures absolutely can't describe it, so I won't try.  Just a few facts.  It is roughly 1 mile down to the Colorado River, somewhere between 8 and 18 miles from rim to rim, and 277 river miles long.  We did see and IMAX movie about the canyon which was very good.  After wandering along various scenic outlooks, we listened to a ranger describe the work done during the mid-1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, including blazing of some of the spectacular trails that descend into the canyon floor.  An overnite mule ride to the base of the canyon, including hotel and meals, was $709.46.  Seemed a little steep.  (Pardon the pun). On Tuesday morning, we did some housekeeping.  At 2 PM we drove into town, picked up Christine and went to her home for a few hours.  Now, Williams has a total population of about 3,000.  Christine lives in SUBURBAN Williams, if you could believe that.  As we expected, the house looked really rustic.  Late in the afternoon, we drove back to Williams, picked up Christine's daughter, Emily, and went out for dinner.  We then all took a tour highlighting the haunted aspects of downtown Williams.  [Williams, AZ - Canyon Gateway CG - 35.16 N / 112.11 W ]

Norm & Shelley at overlook	Gorgeous views	more vistas	beautiful!	Lookout Studio	view of Lookout Studio	Mather Point vista	Mather Point another view
Mule road to bottom of the canyon	Shelley at Yavapai Point	Yavapai Vista	Emily, Christine and Shelley on Ghost Tour	Out with a cowboy!	SiouxZ - our ghost tour guide	Christine & Shelley outside the Pumpkin Patch	Downtown Williams - Rt 66

On Wednesday morning, April 30, we left Williams for Zion National Park.  About 50 miles north of Flagstaff, AZ we ran into a sandstorm like we've never seen before.  It was just like a snowstorm....visibility was down to 200 feet and many vehicles, including us, pulled off the road.  But we got back on the road, and crept along for about 15 miles until the storm abated.  When we finally got to Zion, we had another interesting adventure.  The road on which we were traveling actually goes through the park.  We stopped to at the entrance gate only to find out that the road went through a tunnel.  If you stayed in your lane, the tunnel was only 11 feet, 4 inches high and the lanes were 7 feet 10 inches wide.  But for a fee, they will stop oncoming traffic and allow you to drive down the middle of the tunnel. allowing vehicles up to 13 feet 1 inch high to get through.  Our height is about 13 feet, so I closed my eyes and inched through, fortunately without making contact with the roof of the tunnel.  Then we drove down the side of a mountain (4 hairpin turns) and arrived at Watchman Campground. After we settled in, the wind really picked up again.  Many small branches, and even several larger ones, were soon strewn around on the ground.  Although nobody was hurt, a pretty big limb came down, barely missing an RV by a few inches, and destroying a picnic table that was set for dinner which was to have started in a few minutes.  The coach was shaking for most of the evening before the wind died down.  We can only imagine the experiences of those in smaller, lighter RVs or in tents!  On Thursday, we left the campground and parked our car at the nearby visitor's center.  Cars are banned from most of the park.  They are replaced by free shuttle buses.  They estimate that about 12 fewer tons of particulates is emitted into the atmosphere each day since the free buses began.  We took a free bus to the Museum where we saw a movie on the formation of Zion Canyon and then saw a short ranger led program on the same topic. (The ranger's name was Amy!!).  We got on the next bus and off a few minutes later at the Zion Lodge.  This was the site of the trailhead to go to the Lower, Middle and Upper Emerald Pools.  We did it the hard way, hiking about 2.1 miles to the Upper pool.  The hike was about 50% scrambling up and down boulders and sand with the other half on a cement trail.  We went up about 419 feet from beginning to end, and we were really beat when we got back to the shuttle.  During the walk, we found a wall with graffiti scratched into it.  There was one that said "Amy & Greg 1982"!!  Finally, after what seemed like hours of scrambling up rocks and getting down on our butts to continue the progress, we made it to the top to view the beautiful pool there!!  It was about 10 degrees cooler than below.  Our reward - Dessert at the Zion Lodge!!  Shelley's knees were really paining her, she could hardly do any steps at all.  After a warm shower and some Advil, she finally was able to relax. 

We left our coach on Friday about noon and took the shuttle bus to the end.  We took the 1.5 mile Riverside Walk.  This walk was mostly paved, flat and quite enjoyable!!  No stairs!!  We followed the upstream course of the Virgin River to the end of the canyon, where it was difficult to see where the river entered the canyon.  According to the ranger, the river still carries one ton of silt and other debris out of the canyon each day.  When one projects that backward for millions of years, it gives us some understanding of how the canyon was formed, with the vertical walls about 3/4 mile high. Zion National park is 229 square miles with elevations ranging from 3,666 feet at the canyon floor to  peaks as high as 8,726.  We really enjoyed our stay at Zion and look forward to returning one day.  [Zion National Park - Watchman Campground - 37.12 N / 112.59 W ]  

Our first view of Zion as we entered the park	Another first view	Abraham, Isaac & Jacob Mountains	Look how high up I climbed!!	Norm is high up, too!	We made it to the Upper Pond	View from the Court of the Patriarchs	Sign we saw on our walk
View from underneath a waterfall	Gorgeous views	More gorgeous views	Another incredible sight	More.....	Wildflowers	View from our campsite	Waiting to go through the tunnel on our way out