Travel Blog

We've had a good week since last I wrote. Working hard and trying to stay one step ahead of RV repairs. We have a few wrinkles with the new rig, but we'll get them ironed out soon. We either have a bad battery or a shot converter, and we need a day off to do some tests to see which one it is. So our lights have been a bit dim lately, but our neighbor, Dave, is letting us borrow his battery tender, so we're muddling through. We're hoping it's something we can fix ourselves, though, as the closest mobile RV person is in Flagstaff, and he charges $250.00 just to make the trip here. And there's no way we're taking this baby out of this spot. We're tucked in for the winter. So keep thinking good repairman thoughts about us, and I'll let you know how we make out.

We've been having some fun lately, though, too. Our coworkers threw a pumpkin-carving party on Halloweve, and here's the one Phil and I came up with:

I was hoping, since it was A Nightmare Before Christmas theme, that it would last until Christmas, but it already died badly. It's rotting on my porch as I type. I'm not sure what to do with it. I hate to put it in the dumpster, but I don't want to feed the wildlife by tossing it in the woods. Hmmmm.

I have a random picture to share before I write about our hike we did on our last day off. This one is of the train depot here that's been around forever. Trains actually still come to the Grand Canyon. You can take one from Williams, Arizona.

On Saturday, Phil and I decided to hike out to Hermit's Rest. It's about a 7-mile hike from the starting point and back. We did about 5 miles of walking, and then decided to hop on the free shuttle because we had stupidly splurged for breakfast at El Tovar Hotel and ate way too much. It was worth it, but oh, my tummy hurt.

El Tovar Hotel:

You may notice in that picture that there are about 7 park ranger vehicles parked in front of the hotel. On that particular day, it seems someone reported hearing a gunshot. So everyone came out to investigate. People were searched. Rooms were searched. Turns out someone had put their soda cans in their freezer and they exploded. So that was our excitement for that day.

But our hike started out fine, and we got a great shot of Kolb Studio from the rim.

And we saw the mules coming back up from the canyon.

It was from this vantage point that we were almost swept away by a big gust of wind, but luckily it was only Phil's hat that we lost. We didn't try to get it back.

Before we got to Hermit's Rest, we got some great pictures of the Colorado.

And some pretty shots of the Canyon.

And then we finally made it to Hermit's Rest.

This Saturday, we're going to go to the other side of the canyon, Desert View, and then keep on heading eastward to Cameron to get us some Navajo tacos that Phil loves. More on that later...