Our Day Trip for Saturday

This is our trip today. We went to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Today was a good day for a trip. Tomorrow and Monday will not be. We were here in '01 in an rv and the wind was blowing real strong.

The above is behind the visitors center and museum on the south entrance.

This tree is rather big. The root portion is more than 6 foot tall. The smaller tree portion has some very nice crystals that were shinning in the sun. I took two pics and hope I got the mineral sparkle.

This is a "peak" on down the road and near the north entrance. There is a panaroma of this in that folder. The colors are not as bright as
hoped but the different colors due show.

There are a total of 33 pics taken with two panaroma pics made from them. We may not come back to see this but I'm sure we will be by here again. It was warm in the sun but the little bit of wind was cool. You can travel I40 thru here and be within a 1/2 a mile of this and never know it. Worth taking the side trip to see.

Monday's weather so far is upper 50's and wet. if this holds we will stay here at Normas rv park, Joseph City, AZ, till Tuesday and then head north. We will be boondocking, no hookups, for several days. We have two 120 watt solar panels and six 6 volt batteries to support our electrial needs. And a 5500 watt generator for backup power. We are electric hogs though. And another 240 watts of panels would be nice. Once we park, setup the Directway dish, modem and router, King Dome, 2 laptops, tv, we are at or possibly over the input from the 240 watts on top. It gets cold in the dark. We do have to run the gen for 120 power. Hence the microwave has to have the genset running.

The suv is full of gas, $2.85.9 but the rv is not. We have 160 miles and have used about 30 gallons of gas out of a 75 gallon tank. With gas prices rising we will gas up at the truck stop here or in Holbrook before heading north.

Our first stop is still Chinle, AZ and the canyon there. The cotton wood park as no hookups but it is free. We will probably stay there two days and then head north from there. All depends on the weather. The elevation is the problem in part of the travel. Its gets colder up there and has snowed at the 6000 foot level. Cell service may exist. But if not, email still works. Come on spring.

Rocks and More Rocks and Critters

More rocks and some "old" visitors. Since this is a mecca for gems and petrified wood, stores are abundant. This is one of the more interesting of the many in town. We will go to the post office and see if our mail is here. If its not, we will have made an appearance atleast to pick up some general delivery. Its cloudy, sprinkles, 43*, not very good for doing much outside.

The mail was there. We picked it up at 10:30 am and stopped by the store on the way back. We got our Rx, bills, magazine (last good sam), and letters. Its only 55* now.

The Weather Is Not Good

We have cloudy skies, 53* and wind. More wind. And a 40% chance of rain. Checking the weather map shows a cold front moving across the state and bring more cool and cold weather. Snow is forecast for Flagstaff which is west of us about 100 miles. This will prevent us from doing much in the trip plans till the weather is more favorable. We were here 6 years ago and it was windy then too.

Moving on, I got an email from our banker and she lost her husband in February. Our most sincere condolences go out to her and her family. We have known Linda for over 15 years. She bought a house literally around the corner from us when we lived in Burleson, TX.

We are looking for the mail to arrive on Saturday at the earliest. We will go by the post office on Friday to see if its there and to make sure the staff there know that someone is inquiring about their mail.

And the wind continues to blow. We have 29 sustained with 38 gusts, and 61*. Once this low passes its suppose to calm down. Till then.......

Sleep In A Wigwam Tonight on US66

We had to go back to Holbrook today to get some more pics of the "motel". One of the more interesting places in town. This is the west entrance sign as you approach the "motel" on US66.

A closeup of the "room" and the old car.

A panorama of the whole attraction. Quite a sight when you first encounter it. In the folder for Holbrook is the pics to make the above. Well worth the time to see them.

The Escapees mail service computer is being inundated with spam, so much that getting a reply from them is impossible. We had to call and get the mail sent out. Instead of Monday, the mail will go out today. Hopefully it will be here this Saturday or Monday. We are staying in Joseph City at Norma's RV park. Its small but quite. All of the rv's here are working at the power plant and are gone during the day.

No wind today. It was forecast to blow like yesterday. We have a cool breeze, maybe 5-10, with a warm sun shinning. The last time we were in this area was '01 and the wind blew. We stopped at Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest then but to much wind to enjoy. We didn't get out of the rv it was so bad. We can do a day trip since its real close.

Joseph City, AZ

Happy Birthday Shirley

Today is Shirley's day to shine. She has requested that we go for lunch. We will drive the 8 miles to Holbrook. There is lots around here to see and pics will be posted. We went to Holbrook and she got pizza.

We are being blown away today. The winds are sustained at 29 with the highest gust to 38 from the nw. This is what has been forecast for today. Tomorrow maybe a repeat. The culpert is a low passing over the four corners pulling air our way. Our temps are 52 this morning with 65 now and a high of 74.


2 pm wind data: Sustained at 29, nw, with a gust to 47. And the dust is blowing.
3:30 pm wind data: sustained at 29, nw, with a gust to 46. And the dust is still blowing.
5 pm wind update: sustained at 31, nw, with a gust to 42. ditto dust. Suppose to end at 6pm.
the wind is down to 18 sustained and 24 gusts. More of this tomorrow.

When I was a working man, I worked for Continental Conveyor & Eq. Co., a company that engineers and furnishes conveyors for handling large quantities of material. One of the jobs I was involved in was helping in putting the estimate together and making of the proposal drawings for a power plant here in AZ. Well, its across the street. Since I was not intimately involved, I did not think much more about it.

The plant is the Arizona Public Service, APS, Cholla Station, Joseph City, AZ. This is a coal burning utility. The coal is brought in by train and bottom dumped from the cars into a large hopper. It is then conveyed to a stock pile for storage and reclamation as needed. This was a multi-million dollar job some 33 years ago. My big job was the Sioux City, Iowa power plant known as Neal Station 3, south of town, another multi-million dollar job. This was a job I did 30 years ago. I left this company and went to work for another company providing airport baggage handling conveyors. If you are in either area, take a look at my legacy.

Our Last Day In Show Low, AZ

Our new visitors yesterday left this morning. And we will leave in the morning ourselves. We have been here four days and we must move tomorrow to get water and empty our tanks. Our next stop is about 50 miles, Holbrook. We have been watching the temps around and everything east of the AZ, NM state border is cold. After Holbrook we go further north to Utah.

After Holbrook, our being able to post will be dependent on where we are and how secure the dish will be. Since we could not get our King Dome to find the satellite we will try again at the next stop. No trees means we got tv.

GREETINGS FROM JOSEPH CITY, AZ

We are now parked at Norma's RV Park for a week to await our mail. We have full hook ups. The rate is $15.00 per day and $80.00 per week. Its one of two parks in town. The other is $10.50 per day and not worth that. We are about 8 miles west of Holbrook, AZ at exit 277 or 274. And we are across and west of the Cholla power station. This plant is part of my working past. And our King Dome is working, but we have cable here. Pics to follow later.

We left before we and Gypsy Journal had a chance to say goodbye. They never were able to get over our way. Since he is going to be a new grandpa we understand. Have a safe trip Nick and Terry.

Mileage: 64 from our last park with suv driven
GPS: 34* 57.405', 110* 49.660'
Elev: 4996'
DW: 127*, 40*, -33*