Siteseeing in Holbrook Arizona

Sometimes you never know what you are going to see in the small towns.  We went looking for a grocery store to get some milk and the town of Holbrook was the closest place to go.  Although we had been to the petrified forest and to the gift shops there, when we got to Holbrook we saw this store saying they were the biggest seller of petrified wood and they had a lot.  This was only one side of the building.  It still amazes me how much it cost when there is this much.  But eventually it will run out.

This was also setting in the parking lot of this store.  It seems like everywhere we go we see old cars.

 Ed says this has to be the most expensive fish pond he had ever seen.  It was surrounded by the petrified wood.

While there we came across this Wigwam motel.  It was unique so we decided to go check it out. 

Here is the entrance, which it seemed like a unique place to stay but as you see below, inside it was just a small motel room

nothing special inside

Outside the wigwam were all these old cars. At first we thought it must be some kind of car show.   Some looked like they could be driven and some were in pretty bad shape.  Ed talked to the owner and he told him he owned them all.  It was interesting looking at them all.  And I'm not even that much into old cars.

Can you imagine these cars all just sitting outside this motel.  I wonder if the guy will ever do anything with them.  The last couple were up by the office and looked in pretty good shape.

That was our day.  You just never know what you are going to find in these small towns.


HAPPY TRAILS       ED and  LYN

Petrified Forest Nat'l Park

We spent 3 days at Root 66 RV Park. Most rv's just spend one night and than leave early the next morning.  We had 3 days before our next reservation and this place was close to the Petrified Forest.  A place Ed says he has always wanted to see.  I had heard of it but really didn't know much about it.  When we got there we had an unexpected surprise.  Because of Veteran's day they had a free weekend, so we didn't have to pay.  So we saved $10. 

We were able to drive through the park and get out and explore different areas.

This petrified wood had amazing colors in it

Some of the pieces were huge

Some of them was a whole section of the tree.  This is the way they break up.  It looked like someone had taken a chain saw to it.

This one was unusual because of the way the bark had separated from it. 

The petrified wood's colors come from minerals in the waters that at one time covered the wood.  The wood is surprisingly heavy, remember it is like a rock. 

It is illegal to collect or remove any of the wood from the park.  All the petrified wood sold at the gift stores come from private land.  Everywhere you go in this area you see places selling  it.  They shine the pieces and they are beautiful but, they sell starting at 5,000 and up.  They make benches,  slice the top off and make tables and smaller pieces make book ends. 

The road through the park was 26 miles long.  We could have been there longer but because we got a late start we ran out of time.

You can see by the way we are dressed it was cold

We didn't see much wildlife, actually all we saw were a few birds.  Ed tried to make friends with this one but this was as close as the bird would get to him.  He was feeding him a nutri-grain bar.

Route 66 went through the park at one time, it is no longer there but they had they spot marked with this car.

The car had been stripped but it was still interesting

 By the time we left the park it was after closing.  We came up to a gate that was closed.  At first I thought we were locked in.  But, as we got closer it opened for us.  Than we headed home, I tried to take a picture of the sunset.

The perfect ending to a perfect day.  ( although a little warmer would have been nice)

HAPPY TRAILS!!    ED AND LYN

 




We are heading farther into Arizona plus a little more south.  The weather is suppose to get warmer.

The "Grand Canyon of Texas"

We were in Amarillo, Texas and  heard they had the second largest canyon in the United States.  It consists of 18,438 acres.  What was nice about it was you could drive down to the canyon floor.  We have never been to a canyon so we were impressed.  Hopefully we will make it to the Grand Canyon one of these days.  Here are some of our pictures.



They had several cabins made out of stone

the road down into the canyon

Ed climbed up to the rocks

look at the colors

Ed lifting up the rock

Did you notice I had a jacket on and that Ed is in a t-shirt

Ed falling down

notice the layers of rock and the cavern

doesn't this look like a rhinoceros

We stayed in Amarillo 2 days and then headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  They have an aerial tram that takes you up to Sandia Peak.  At an elevation of 10,378 feet the peak has an 11,000 square-mile panoramic view.  I was really looking forward to this, but when I called they were shut down for maintenance.  Then we found out we could drive up so we decided that is what we would do.  The view was pretty could but it probably would have been better in the tram.   We also found out they had snow up there. 

Ed showing you the snow

Isn't this pretty

there were a lot of towers at the top

The pictures just don't do it justice

All in all we are enjoying our trip to Arizona, just wish it wasn't so cold.  It was down to 33 degrees last night and suppose to be colder tonight.  It was warmer in Elkhart this morning than here.  Just doesn't seem right.  We were suppose to be heading to warmer weather.  Hopefully it's coming. 

HAPPY TRAILS   ED AND LYN

Leaving Oklahoma and the earthquakes

We spent 2 days in Oklahoma just in time to experience the earthquake.  We slept through the first one.  It happened around 2 in the morning with 2 after shocks.  I  guess we were too tired.     Well the next night we are sitting watching TV and Ed gets  up and goes to the back.  All of a sudden I hear a noise and the rv starts shaking.  I hollar at Ed, "what are you doing."   I had the thought that he started the rv.  Which he couldn't have because he was in the back. Ed was thinking the motor home next to us was starting up and leaving and wondering why it was making us shake.   Then  Ed comes up and says it must be the wind.  I say it can't be.  Right than we both realized it must be another quake.  It not only shook the trailer but it also made a noise.  I never knew that a quake would do that. 

We left this morning and  I read they had another 10 aftershocks today.  We are in Texas now so we have left the quake zone.

We went downtown to Chandler yesterday.  There wasn't much there but there was a Route 66 museum in an armory that had been restored.  There wasn't much in the museum, it had videos to watch but they weren't working.  They had these beds you laid down to watch the videos.  When I asked  the woman in charge, she  said it represented all the motels along route 66,  and she assured me she cleans them every morning.   If we didn't have such a big MH,  we thought it would be fun to follow some of the old Route 66, but we feel safer staying on the interstate.



since the videos weren't working I thought I would rest,  lol



This was a shell  in the side of the building



the building was neat

We had a nice drive from Oklahoma to Texas today.  The land is pretty flat in this area.  Here are some pictures of what we saw.  Nothing!

Tomorrow we are going to drive into Amarillo to look around and then we will be on our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

HAPPY TRAILS   ED AND LYN

On the Road Again or On the Way to Branson

When we came back to Elkhart in May, we didn't plan on spending all summer there plus some of the fall.  We didn't realize how sitting in one spot that long would affect us.  On our travels down to Florida and back we had become so smooth in loading and hooking up the trailer to the motor home.  At one point in Florida we had some people actually stand and applaud after we had hooked everything up.  We sort of forgot everything during the past 6 months.  It was like we were starting out new again.  Not only were we rusty but so were the tie down straps.  It seemed like we were doing everything backwards.

Getting on the road was exciting and  there weren't a lot of cars on the road.   I love it when we have the road to ourself.  We saw several wind turbines, which I always find fascinating.  The trip seemed to be going good.

Coming through Springfield, Mo., we missed one of our turns.  Of course our gps rerouted us, so that didn't seem too bad.   .  We ended up going down this narrow road with cars parked on both sides.  Remember we are a 40 ft motor home with a 25 ft trailer.  By the time we were a little  ways down the road we had figured out we had made a wrong turn.  Then we had to  figure out out how to get turned around.  There were some sharp turns but we made it.  I should have taken some pictures but that was the last thing I was thinking about.   When we got back to where we had made the wrong turn, we saw that we had turned one road to soon.  Boy, we have got to get more observant. 

Then when we got to Branson, boy what a mess.  There was construction  on the exit going into Branson  so traffic was backed up.  I thought, I should have seen if there was another way to our campground.  We actually drove through downtown Branson.  That wasn't too smart.  Then as we are coming in I see a sign that says bridge out,  Then I see a sign that says detour.  So I am thinking we don't want to get down there and have the road closed and no way to get turned around.  So I figured we better take the detour.  We turn and are in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic and not even sure where we are going.  We never did see another detour sign.   In the mean time I am on the phone talking to a girl at the registration desk of the campground.  She tells us they have built another bridge next to the one that is out.   We are not seeing any more detour signs so we decide to turn right, not sure why.   We end up coming back around to where we had taken the detour.  We decided to go for it.   There were a couple of tight turns but we made it. 

We get to the entrance to the campground and we are heading back through a golf course.  I am thinking what have we gotten ourselves into since the road is pretty narrow.    We get to the campground but we don't see any place to check in.  We have condos on the right and the campground on the left.  We come to the end of the road and there is a sharp turn and the road goes downhill.  So Ed stops, gets out and walks a little ways down.  It is more condos and the road ends with a circle drive at the bottom.  We were so glad we didn't go down there.

The campground is up on a hill next to where we are at, but we had went a little ways pass it.  We saw a spot we thought we could get into so we decided to go ahead and pull in and then find out where to register.  We had to back up, which isn't  an easy feat.  We pulled into the camp site.  The motor home went in fine but the trailer was angled and there was a tree in the way.  There wasn't any way to get it in short of chopping down the tree.  I know some of you are probably surprised Ed didn't do it.   So Ed decides to unhook the trailer.  We are on a slant, so he put the hitch on a block.  We pull the motor home up and back the Jeep up to the trailer.  The trailer hitch is way to high for the Jeep.  Ed tries to knock the block out, that didn't work.  We tried a couple of other things and nothing work.  So we realized we had to move the Ranger back to take off some of the weight off the hitch.  We move it to the middle, strap it down.  Then try again, it is still to high.  Then Ed realizes the Ranger needs to go all the way to the back of the trailer.  But we had strapped it down. So we had to take the straps off and move it back.  We mess with it and finally got the hitch connected with the Jeep. 

The registration desk said the trailer had to be in an overflow parking lot.  So we take it up there, get it in a spot.  Then we found the registration desk and went back to the camp site.  So we got to Branson at 4:30 and we actually got set up and into the motor home at 8:30.  The whole process had taken 4 hours.  By the time we were done I was so stressed.   I really enjoy what we are doing when we get to where we are going and get set up.  I just don't know if I am cut out for the process in between. 

Ed says we were doing everything backwards and making everything more difficult.  We have got to get better.

We have been in Branson 6 days.  We were going to stay 4 days.  We have met up with 2 other couples and have  just been hanging out and enjoying the fellowship.  The one couple is heading to Arizona, so we are planning on meeting up with them there. The time has went fast and Branson is a nice place to visit.

 These are our new friends.

So all is ending well but last  Friday evening I really had my doubts.    Tomorrow we hid the road again.  We need to pray.


HAPPY TRAILS.    ED AND LYN