We woke up to clear blue skies
looking forward to a beautiful day despite weather reports threatening thunder
storms which it turns out followed us around all afternoon but rarely got us
wet and only made us run for the car once.
The KOA in Flagstaff is close to the
town but by far the roomiest campsite yet. We are of course in a tent but
need a 50amp outlet to recharge so we don't get to stay in the tent section but
rather have an RV spot. The past two areas had us in a site that was just
wide enough for an RV so we pitched the tent in front of the car. This
leads to living in what my brother-in-law named the Winnebago Canyon.
This time the ground off to the side had not been driven on continually by
multi-ton vehicles so we could even set the stakes for the fly. A real
bonus
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| Storm clouds in front blue skies behind. Usually it was the opposite. |
The real great break was have Chuck
as a next camper neighbor. He and his wife live the entire summer in the
KOA campground. As we were going to have to get lucky to get into and out
of the Grand Canyon he suggested some more local areas that turned out to be
gems. Just like yesterday the alternative was great. We took his
suggestion and went to three of the places all of the National Monuments:
Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki. We managed to spend lots of time wandering
among ruins that dated back a millennium and cinder cone volcanos that dated to
that time and much earlier times.
We also got to see a California condor parked under the bridge we crossed the Colorado River on a mere 5 miles from the end of the ride.
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| Clever construction as they let nature do the roof and back wall. |
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| Michelle doubles as a family photographer. She always offers. |
We also got to see a California condor parked under the bridge we crossed the Colorado River on a mere 5 miles from the end of the ride.
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| California Condor on bridge over Marble Canyon |
We also got more questions about the car today then in the entire trip up to this point.
Statistics Corner
States involved: These states are so big out west it is hard
to collect new ones every day. We never left Arizona though we changed
time zones occasionally as explained in yesterday's post. Even now as I write this I can look across
the street where they are on MDT while on this side of we are on MST. Somehow the phones can distinguish that and
display the correct time which actually confuses the hell out of us.
Charging
Just at the end of the day at the Cliff Dwellers Lodge
Regular Features
Song of the Day: I Will Survive. We had no cell service so Spotify didn’t work
but this is on my mix of music on the USB and fit the civilizations that flourished
in this arid region despite all odds.
Coolest Car of the day: An early Volvo P-1800 being towed
behind an RV. Missed the picture though
as they were going the other way. My
kind of people though.
Church of the day:Not much to choose from as there are few
people out here that can support one but we saw three and this is the best mostly for the setting
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| This rock formation resembles a gothic cathedral so I am putting it here |
Coolest Thing of the Day –Larry – The cliff dwellings at
Walnut Canyon
Coolest Thing of the Day –Michelle- The cinder cone volcanoes
especially Sunset Crater itself.
Here in DC we all love that photo of the storms ahead and the sunny skies in the rear view mirror. Hope that is not a metaphor for the upcoming elections. Also I do hope that you have instructed Hobson to do a better job than some of his peers when it comes to driving unassisted! I assume that Hobson was the pilot when Larry was doing his bit as the family photographer.
ReplyDeleteMichelle gets the credit for conceiving and executing the shot with the assistance of Hobson keeping the car on the road while she set it up.
ReplyDelete