Tour of the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Well, Plan A was to get up early in the morning and head to the Meteor Crater, take the 1 hour tour and then drive back eastward, for about an hour and a half and hit the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Parks.  Well, that was Plan A.  

We got up early enough, and I started cooking our oatmeal...after all, it was only 49 degrees outside, and that's pretty chilly for us.  When I went to raise up the dining room shade, I was surprised to see a young lady outside, fooling around with our water spigot.  Whaaa???  Naturally, I opened the window and asked if I could help her!  I think she was as startled as I at that point!

As it turns out, she and her husband came in around midnight last night, never having been in or driven a motorhome before, and now proud owners of a 1998 Fleetwood Discovery.  His uncle, who had Alzheimer's passed away and this couple flew from Pittsburgh, to Phoenix, picked up this coach and drove it to Meteor Crater RV Park, with absolutely ZERO planning or experience.  In the DARK.  And now, in the light of day, they wanted to look at our hookup, especially the water, to see just how it's supposed to be. When we realized how badly they were struggling, of course, we had to step in and help them out.  Educate them, if you will.  First off, we had to explain they were on a site with no sewer outlet, so there was that.  Then Driver got to work on their water situation.  Their coach had been sitting, idle, for at least 8 years, so the filters were totally dry and wouldn't allow water to pass.  Then there were leaks - lots of 'em.  At the hose (I had to help him attach the hose to the spigot, even!), at the outdoor shower faucet, at the sewer outlet, on and on.  While Dick was helping the hubster find and fix the issues with the plumbing, I helped the Missus hook up another (NEW) potable water hose to the site next door and fill the fresh water tank.  Then the guys moved on to the hot water heater.  Then we explained about the outdoor fridge/freezer, which the hubs had thought was a generator.  At some point, someone remarked about the back window vent cover being torn up; he fully admitted to that, but blamed it on being in a narrow-door garage, that he just squeaked out of.  But then his wife pointed out all the roof damage.  Oh yes, all the way down the edge of the roof, where the wall curved over and met the roof, was scraped and peeled up.  Almost from the very front to the very back.  No pictures, didn't want to get involved in that one.  Apparently, they had tried to get in one site last night where the trees were a bit too low.  They must have driven out and come around again, to land in the site next door, where they were so close to the utilities and the tree on the driver's side, they couldn't open their slide.  We explained about our daylight driving and mileage rules.  On the road at 9 or so, stop by 3 pm, and don't go over 300-350 miles.  Sooo much to learn!  Meanwhile, the hours were just flying by, and we were not making any progress towards our own plan.  But, hey, what were we gonna do?  Not like you can just walk away from that mess.  On to Plan B!

So, eventually, we got our oatmeal cooked, eaten & cleaned up, PBJ for us, a meal for doggie, and lots of water was all packed and we took off.  We thought we knew which exit to take, but the brown signs indicated we were to exit almost 25 miles prior to that.  Who are we to argue, so we exited and went into Holbrook, following signs to the Visitor Center.  First up, we came upon the Wigwam Motel.  Have YOU slept in a wigwam lately?

Then we found the Visitors' Center, and got directions back out to the south end of the National Park.  On the way, we ran into these guys just hanging around at a service station.  I had asked, at the VC, and there had been dinosaur bones found in the local canyons, so dinos were a big thing here.

 Our first glimpse of the Painted Desert and Rainbow Forest (Petrified Forest) belied what was to come!

First things first, though, Bailey was invited to become a BARK Ranger.  She was NOT comfortable being turned over to Ranger Jack, but once she got a whiff of the Milkbones he was holding, she settled down a bit and sat still for a photo! All a BARK Ranger means is that I signed a paper saying I would scoop her poop, she would respect wildlife and not go in buildings.  Tho, that last one doesn't really pertain to her, as long as she's wearing proper ID and her vest.

Here are some examples of petrified wood, which is really just stone now.  You can see the mineral deposits have taken the place of the cellulose of the tree.

These are actually trees that fell into rivers or lakes, hundreds of thousands of years ago, and became buried by silt and sediment, preventing decay and decomposition.  Ground water rich in minerals seeped (soaked?) into the wood, saturating it, and eventually, replacing the cellulose with stone.  If you want to see more details photos, or read more about the fossilization process of the trees, click HERE.

You can see the actual TREE shape a bit better here.  This was the Long Logs Trail, aptly named, dont'cha think?  This particular log was about 35 feet long.

This felled tree is known as Old Faithful.  In the trail brochure, there was a photo of Mr & Mrs Einstein standing in front of the "root ball" way back in March, 1931. They were wearing long coats and HATS, to ward off the chill.  We didn't suffer that problem this sunny afternoon!

We traded phones with a family, just as we had done on the corner, in Winslow, and this is the photo the dad took for us.  He really took about 6, all the same. I guess technology eludes some folks.

Driver always wants to get high or as close to the edge as he can.  Sure looks like he could touch the sun from the top of this hill!

There were lots of dry washes (stream beds)...

And plenty of layers denoting time passages...

Be sure to click on the panorama to enlarge it and get a sense of how vast this area really is.

We couldn't go to the Agate House, because it was a 2 mile round trip hike, and doggie was already draggin' her wagon (I wasn't too awfully far behind), but we WERE able to make the .3 mile hike down to the Agate Bridge.  

 The photo immediately below describes one of the changes that happened recently in the park.  Remember, we are looking at formations that have taken hundreds of thousands of years, so, recently, is a relative term!  The log on the right actually fell in 2005 and chunks of it can be seen, scattered at the base of the formation.

 Yeah, I don't always feel the need to explore every trail or path.  This was a perfect example of one of those....

Here we are at Newspaper Rock.  You can barely make out the petroglyphs on the flat side of that bottom rock (front and right sides).  However, when you looked through borrowed binoculars, the bottom right side was actually covered with HUNDREDS of 'em.

Then we drove on up to the Puerco Pueblo, located, conveniently enough, beside the Puerco River.

Now, HERE are some petroglyphs I could see, with my naked eye, and I didn't even have to climb up or over or on any rocks!  Easily viewed from the platform.  Thank you Lord!

A more modern claim to fame for this park is that it is the only National Park that Route 66 ran through, so, of course, they have an homage to that.

In the form of a rusty old Studebaker.

Back in the heyday of the park (the 1920's and 30's), there was a lodge constructed to accommodate overnight visitors and offer day visitors a bite to eat.  Originally, The Painted Desert Inn was made of, what else, petrified wood.  But, as usual, it was renovated, in the 30's, and they adobed over the wood to create the facade we see today.  It no longer functions as an inn or cafe, but is instead, a museum.  A closed museum, as we arrived about 45 minutes too late.

But, our long, skinny shadow selves were happy to take a moment and enjoy the view from the veranda of the Inn.  That long strap the hatted man holds has a puppy at the end of it...I don't know why her shadow didn't make the picture!

We had heard (and seen evidence, thank you very much Gail!) of the spectacular sunsets the desert offers.  Up till now, we had yet to see one.  Tonight, we were treated to a pretty nice one as we traveled the hour and a half back to our camper.  We also were treated to not one, not two, but THREE freight trains alongside of us as we rode down the highway.  Apparently, there was a logjam in Winslow, probably at La Posada, since they were all 3 stopped dead in their tracks, waiting for who knows what.  Or whom.  

We were sure glad to get back to our camper, though, and be done for the day.  And I have the snoring puppy to prove it!  Tomorrow, we intend to go to the Meteor Crater, for which this RV park is named.  It's actually all owned by the same individual, so I'm sure the bookkeeping is easier that way.  Certainly, the branding is easier.  I'm really not sure how a privately-owned, commercial, for-profit entity gets to have its own Federal brown sign and designation as a National Landmark, but, we've seen it, we know it does, and there you have it.  We'll find out more tomorrow, I guess.  As long as it's not pouring down rain.  They keep threatening us with Monsoon Season, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna hit tomorrow, hopefully, not till late afternoon.  Till then, y'all stay safe out there!

Change of Plans and Travel to Amarillo, TX

So, Karin is good at math, said NO ONE. EVER.  Y'all who know me well, know just how true that is.  I can't do math, I don't LIKE math, and trying to do any kind of math causes me great anxiety.  So, it should come as no surprise that I can't count a week of 7 days and I would get mixed up between Sunday the 5th (which doesn't exist, by the way) and Monday, which really is the 5th.  Dick kept asking me when we were leaving OKC, and I kept telling him Sunday, the 5th.  That only worked up until Saturday, the 3rd.  On Friday, Donna & I had made plans to meet up at 10 am, in Tulsa, at The Gathering Place.  Well, they say if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.  Obviously, He was in need of a bellybuster, 'cuz He sent us a storm the likes of which we hadn't seen in years.  Where is all this going, you ask?  I know, I hear you....just bear with me a moment.  So the storm is actually BETWEEN Oklahoma City and Tulsa, so neither Donna nor we are impacted by the high winds, torrential rains, flash flooding and hail the size of quarters.  BUT...and it's a BIG but....in order to REACH Donna, we would have to travel THROUGH said storm.  And then, once our brunch and visit were complete, we would have to travel BACK through said storm.  Dick and I talked about this at 7 am, Saturday, and about 7:15 or so, decided that to attempt travel like that was not necessarily the smartest of ideas.  Especially when we had to leave bright and early the next morning (Sunday, the 5th).  So I texted Donna, and she was already up too, and she also had been eyeing the storm.  She agreed, it would not be prudent to brave the storm to visit.  So, we had Saturday to hang out at the campground, do laundry, do some cleaning and prepare to leave Sunday morning.  Bright and early.  The 5th.  Now you see where this is going?  There is no Sunday, the 5th!  Saturday afternoon, Dick mentioned that we had arrived on a Monday, purchased one week (7 days, for those of you that can count), and we should be leaving on a Monday, 7 nights after arrival.  Whaaa?  Maybe we should look at the calendar again......OH.MY.GOSH.  All of a sudden, it appears that we are NOT leaving on Sunday, we are leaving on MONDAY.  The 5th!  Well isn't that a kicker.  OK, so what do we do with the extra day?  Well, we kicked around the idea of going up to Donna's in Tulsa, but in truth, we had slept in waaaay too late to do that, and when we DID get up Sunday, we started thinking about our upcoming Harvest Host slots in September.  Coincidentally, again on the 4th and 5th.  

For those of you that might not know, Harvest Host is a free-camping program, where you stay at a Host member, free of charge, and usually with no hookups (electric, water and sewer).  You are pretty much on your own, there may be one to three other campers, or you may be all by yourself.  You are invited to tour the facility - it's usually a farm, orchard, winery or some other agricultural installation.  If you wish, you are encouraged to make at least a small purchase, in return for them allowing you to stay on their property free of charge.  So, being that we had back-to-back Host stops scheduled, and it's been running anywhere from 90 to 100 degrees, we thought we might ought to check and see if either spot was offering at least electricity, so we could plug in and run our air conditioner.  

We called our first reserved stop, an Alpaca farm in Santa Fe.  Good thing we did!  As it turns out, Santa Fe commissioners have changed the zoning regulations, and overnight camping is now prohibited on the farm property.  Whaaaa???  So, we had a reservation, but apparently, it cannot be honored.  Good to know now!!  The next night's spot was yet to be reserved; it was going to be an Air & Space museum in Pueblo, CO.  We checked their website and their reviews, and looked at the photos previous campers had uploaded.  It appears they park you out at the very edge of the parking lot, and there is absolutely no way to plug in.  Well, no need to stay there, either.  So, finding a place to park, for two days, in a holiday week, consumed most of what was left of the Sunday.  After a good and filling dinner of home made spaghetti and salad, we watched some TV and called it a night, safe and secure in the knowledge that we had found a suitable campground to tide us over those 2 days in September.  And we would be leaving our current campsite bright and early in the morning.  Sorry, Donna, it would have been great to see you and give you another big hug, but not to be, at least not this trip.

So, this morning, Monday, both of us got busy doing our (self) assigned tasks and got the camper ready to roll.  Didn't take us long, so apparently we are finally getting the hang of all the systems and processes in this new camper.  We were rolling out of the park before 9 am!  We knew there was a Pilot Travel Plaza just 4 miles down the road, and that's where we planned to fill up, on our way by.  We like to travel on a full tank, 'cuz, you just never know.  We pulled in to the Travel Plaza, right at 9 am, thinking at that time of day, it would be a quick, in and out stop.  HAHAHA, must have told our plans again.....There was an empty pump, and we pulled right into it.  That should have been our frist clue - we NEVER get to  pull straight into an empty pump!  Dick's credit card had been compromised a few days ago, and he spent an afternoon with USAA trying to get a new card issued and sent to us at the current campground.  Too late, 'cuz they had already issued a new one, and sent it to our mailbox in Florida.  Well, crap.  Eventually, he talked someone into overnighting a temporary card to us at the campground, and it was received.  However, it was severely restricted in its permitted usage, so we decided we would just use mine until we could call for our mail, which would include Dick's new card.  HAHAHA, there we go again, planning!  Apparently, even though that new card has not yet reached Florida, it, too, has been compromised!  Already!!  As a result, they locked our account!  So, when we tried to access it, using MY card, to pay for our fuel, bright and early this morning, the transaction was denied!  We spent a half hour trying to get $60 worth of fuel!  (which did NOT fill us up, by the way)  Took a phone call, a trip inside to clear the pump, and a text authorization, all for 20 gallons.  End result, we were now at 9:30, half an hour behind, and still just starting out on the day's journey.  But, hey, we were safe, and the weather was clear.  

So now we are headed to Amarillo, TX, a day and 30 minutes later than originally expected.  Our planned route is I-40, all the way, and most of I-40 covers the old Route 66, so we hoped we could see some of the historic sights along the way. 

First up was this old bridge.  Here's the synopsis of the writeup on it, in case you don't want to follow that link:

Here is another bridge on the famed Mother Road, Route 66.  This structure consists of 4 160' modified Parker Truss spans plus two 100' ponies at each end. The bridge is of the old standard width, and has two 10' wide driving lanes (as opposed to today's 12' lanes). If you saw the picture of the old US 169 bridge crossing the Caney River, you'd realize that the 160' span on that bridge is the same as the 160' spans on this one. This bridge still has its corner brackets and a very heavy-duty type of lattice guard, similar to the kind installed on a bridge in Blackwell, OK built in 1924. This bridge was also built in 1924.

Just a few miles down the road, we came upon Yukon's Best Flour Mill.  Again, if you don't want to follow the link, here's what they have to say about the mill:

The mill and storage silos were built in 1900-02 by John F. Kroutil and operated by him and the Dobry family until the 1930's, when the Dobry's moved across E. Main St. and started their own milling enterprise. The earlier association had come about as a result of a Dobry marrying John Kroutil's sister. The advertisement on the mill champions Yukon's Best Flour. A fire early on in its operation destroyed a lot of the original mill structure; but, the mill was rebuilt and continued to operate, the fire being a chance to upscale and incorporate new methods and to correct original engineering glitches. The framework on the roof of the mill is comprised of individual bulbs that light to spell out Yukon's Best Flour at night.

And and example of the omnipresent oil wells:

As we traveled west, the countryside got flatter and flatter.  Good thing, as we were battling a strong headwind.  And we didn't have a full tank.  (see above!)

Eventually, we came across some wind mills....and more wind mills, and MORE wind mills. 

This dust cloud was simply a farmer tilling his field, but it was visible for miles!

We were still in Oklahoma, but I'm pretty sure I can see Texas from here!!!

Yup, there it is!

More flat land, with some really deep washes.  This photo doesn't really show how deep this little valley is, but, trust me, it's not somewhere you'd want to be during a rainstorm!

And MORE wind mills.  LOTS more.

More flat land.  Pretty sure I can see Amarillo, and I know it's still 100 miles away!

OK, I know this one is terribly blurry, but remember, we travel at 61 to 62 mph, so it's really hard to get a good shot.  I thought I'd be able to read the name on the side of this water tower, and Google it, to find its story, but, ummmmm....if YOU can read it, or you know where it is, let me know, k?  But, yeah, it's listing pretty badly.  I would love to know the back story.....

About an hour down the road, we hit the next Pilot, just before the exit to The Big Texan RV Ranch, and what do ya know?  Easy in, empty pump (uh-oh, should we be worried???), fully fueled, and easy out.  Really!  And turns out, it was a darned good thing we exited when we did, as the NEXT exit, which we were supposed to take, was CLOSED!  We figured that out, when the ramp to get back ON was also closed!  We just stayed on the access road, and voila!  There was the street leading right into the park.  We checked in, no problem, and there was even an escort to our site, and 2 milkbones for Bailey.  Nice and welcoming.  But when we pulled into our assigned site, I asked if we could get some help to lop the overhanging branches.  The escort was absolutely adamant that the branches would pose NO problem for us, and they wouldn't come anywhere near our slideout.  Ummm.....Let me just say, I might not can do math, but I'm pretty sure I know how wide my slide is, and I know for a fact that those branches ARE going to hit our slide out and our topper.  These photos were taken with the slide partially extended.  Pretty sure the branches are already hitting us.  Hence, the ladder.  And the loppers.  Yup, we took care of the problem, under the withering glances of the escort, every time he rode by.  He didn't offer to help, but he didn't stop us either.

After we got set up, we washed the front cap (bug, lots of smashed bugs), installed all the MagneShades and tire screens, washed the sliders (protection for the tile floor) and took showers.  Yup, it's still pretty hot here, and we were pretty sweaty by now.  This campground is owned by the corporation that runs The Big Texan Steak House, so they run shuttles limo service between the Ranch (campground) and the Steak House.  We had just enough time to make our reservation for the 5 pm run.  

Here's Dick, all cleaned up and ready to go eat steak!  The dude in the back, on the phone, is the driver.  That van was not what I had expected, that's for sure.  It was also bare bones, and HARD SEATS.  I'm pretty sure it needed new shocks, too. Lolly asked if dinner was fun, and it was, oh, it was.  I have lots of pictures, but you've been so sweet to read this far, so I'll save them for the next post.  That's our version of a cliff hanger...

'Till next time!