5C's Que Pasa

It was about 37F in the RV Tuesday morning and it pretty much rained or….

…snowed off and on all day. No accumulations of snow fortunately.  But it did snow up at the Grand Canyon.  So happy we got two perfect sunshine days for our visit and photos.  It was even colder than on our visits.

This was the style of our old bedroom lights.

Colin replaced all three with these which match the new dining room fixture.  He had other outdoor things to do like replace all the tire sensors but it was not an outside day.  One day soon I pray we will be warm again, before we get to the Isla.

Is is not an easy task to keep our RV warm in these extreme conditions.  First off we only have single pane windows and a lot of them.  We kept the front window blind closed as well as these curtains which are directly behind our driving seats.  Their purpose it to keep the heat in the living room or on the other side of the curtain if we are driving.

We are also keeping both blinds down on each of the windows to try and prevent heat loss.  I hate not being able to see outside.

For the first time in about 15 years we started to use the 1500 watt baseboard heater we had installed a long while back.  It takes a long while to heat up but it does throw heat once warmed up.

We also have had two electric heaters running almost nonstop.  We do shut off all sources of heat at night when we go to bed.   Of course we have been running our furnace in the morning and just before going to bed when we have our showers but not during the rest of the day.

It took us half a day before realizing that we should shut the door to the bedroom.  No sense heating up a room we are not using.  That made a huge difference.

I also use a hot water bottle filled with boiling water to put between the sheets before I get in bed.  It then keeps my feet warm until I fall asleep.

First time we have seen this guy.  We were going to go to the nightly street show ( gunfight ) put on by the world famous Cataract Creek Gang that George commented about and suggested but it was too dark and way too cold @ 42F.

Instead we caught this lovely sunset and filled up our two 5 gallon water jugs, picked up some fruit and enough wine to get us through the next week.

We just had to have a Mexican dinner on our last night in Williams.  We ate at the Fiesta Mexican Grill that is run by the Rodriguez family from Guadalajara, Mexico.  Our fish tacos were excellent.

I should have had two pairs of gloves on as well as a second scarf.  My feet were happy in a pair of Colin’s socks.  I had my runners in my backpack. Yes I finally got a backpack  ( it is a Route 66 design ) and I really like it.

Only every two years!

Looking over the rim at Yavapai Point.

From the Geology Museum we walked two miles towards the Bright Angel Trailhead.

Each metre walked along The Trail of Time which was between the Geology Museum and Verkamp’s Visitor Center signifies one million years of geologic history.

Along the Trail of Time there are a series of rocks and exhibits that explain how the Grand Canyon and its rock formed.

Don’t we look chilly?

Colin really liked this tree.

We saw the Hopi House, the historic El Tovar Hotel, the Lookout Studio and the Kolb Studio.

We had our lunch just around the corner from this Native entertainment.  We shared a picnic table with Joachim who was visiting from Northern Spain.  It would have been lovely to spend more time chatting with you Joachim.  Perhaps we will meet in Spain one year.

This is the Bright Angel Trailhead which is used to hike down to the Phantom Ranch.  The South Kaibab Trailhead is also used.  Some hike down one and back up another.  The hike is not for the faint of heart, only 1% of the millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon each year, make it down and back up from the canyon floor.

Way down in the canyon is the Black Bridge that hikers use to cross the Colorado River to reach Phantom Ranch.

Phantom Ranch.

The bridge and part of the trail.

A small tarantula on the path.  I stood guard until it crossed to the other side so that no one would step on it.

Taken from our first stop at Hopi Point.

The first few viewpoints on this side of the park off views of the Colorado River.  This was taken at Mohave Point.

Pima Point where we would have watched the sunset from.

It was a 35 minute shuttle from here back to the Visitor Center where we had parked the Jeep.

The first view point outside of the National Park.  The Little Colorado River.

I am proud to say that I took this shot with my small Canon SX600HS, zoomed right in.  Colin wants me to add that he thinks it is one of the best photos he has seen of the canyon.

Our first official view of the Grand Canyon from the Desert View Watchtower viewpoint.

It was a bit nippy but as the sun rose we warmed up.

We made a point of stopping at every viewpoint and here we are at Navajo Point.  Self portrait with the Nikon D800 and a 12 – 24mm lens.

I started with three layers and gloves.

Moran Point

Lipan Point

We think this was taken at Grandview Point.

I took this as we were driving and got lucky when this big fella turned his head towards the light.

Sunset from Yaki Point.  Colin was using the Canon SX60HS, the camera we used in Europe last spring.

At this time of year, the sun is lower in the sky so there are more shadows as the sun is not shining within the canyon.

Taken with my small Canon.

The rest of these were taken with the Nikon.  There was no one else here with us at sunset.

Just after turning right as we left the fiesta RV grounds Friday morning, we saw three balloons that had landed in an empty lot.

They were also landing along I 25.

Flying directly over the freeway.  That green boot balloon is from Edinburgh, Scotland and is 120′ tall and 90′ wide.

Some even landing right next to I 25.  Now I understand why many of the balloons would not fly when the winds were heading East towards the freeway.  There simply is no safe place for them to land.

Just as we approached the exit to I 40 we were slowed by a major accident.  Fortunately the Westbound lane was good to go.

A semi had flipped on its side ( top right of photo ), in fact a part of it was hanging off the rail on the other side of the semi.  Can you see the yellow sign ( mid shot to the left ) ?  It indicates an exit speed of 35 mph due to a possible tip over.  Guess that is what happened.  Those are birds sitting on the electrical line.

All new territory for us again.

We found I 40 to be very fast with many trucks.  The speed limit for any vehicle is 75mph but we kept to our 60mph which must have frustrated many drivers.

We traveled many miles on the famous Route 66.

There were dozens of these Indian markets along the highway.  We stopped here as this was the continental divide.  Colin bought me a nice T-shirt here ( $$ ) but I will enjoy wearing it, if it warms up.

Where the water flows either East or West.

Yet another state.

Eventually the terrain began to change.

The highest point in Arizona at an elevation of 12,633 feet, Humphreys Peak complete with snow.

We were tired and happy to pull into Williams.

367.8 miles from Albuquerque, a long drive but we did gain an extra hour.  We left at 8.25AM in one time zone and arrived at 4:15PM ( yet it really did feel like 5:15PM ) in another time zone.  Nine hours on the road with just a few small stops.

It was coolish and rained off and on most of Saturday.  We didn’t mind and stayed inside working on completing the Fiesta posts.  Finally we headed out late afternoon to check out the town.

So many fun signs along this stretch of Route 66.  This hotel is still taking guests but I’m certain that the nightly fee is much higher than $3.50.

Every few feet there is some nostalgia to photograph.

Lots of rain and wind and then a break in the clouds.

We had hoped to eat dinner here  ( the music was great ) but they only had meat entrees on the menu.  In fact most of the menus in town were meat focused.  We finally settled for Fettuccine Alfredo at the Italian Bistro @ $17.00 each.  Good but not somewhere we would return to.  Wine by the glass was $10.00 but happy hour prices brought that down to an affordable $4.00/5.15CAD per glass.  I can’t imagine paying $17.00/22.00 CAD  for a tasty but not great plate of pasta plus $10.00/13.00 CAD for a glass of wine.  A tourist town with the expected increased prices.

Still we enjoyed the ambiance of the town and were getting 50% off our nightly RV rate.

There is a very expensive train ( in my opinion ) that goes from here to the Grand Canyon Village.  The train leaves about 9AM and gets back to Williams as you can see, after sunset.  Yet they only have 3.5 hours at the Grand Canyon!  Why even bother?