Petrified Forest and surroundings

We have been at the Petrified Forest for several weeks now and are enjoying the warmer, sunny and especially drier weather. However, it has been very windy as well and some days Interstate 40 was closed several times between just west of Winslow to just east of Flagstaff. This made it very hard for people who were coming from New Mexico and were planning to drive to Williams or to the Grand Canyon. It also made the beautiful Painted Desert very drab and almost colorless.

One day we went to El Morro, New Mexico (www.nps.gov/elmo) to tour that area. What a wonderful place it is but we wouldn't want to volunteer or work there as you would be too far from civilization for groceries, etc. We really got our exercise that day as you can see by all the stair climbing we had to do to see the beautiful ruins. There were approximately 200 steps on the whole trail.

The picture below shows the pool where people finally got water on the way to the west. It looks pretty icky but when you are thirsty enough it will do. Besides that, maybe the water was cleaner those days.

Some of the early travelers wrote their name and/or a message on the walls. Of course, you can't do that nowadays as it would be called defacing government property. This was all done in the 18th and 19th century.

We drove through the Zuni reservation and saw several outdoor ovens which we didn't get to take a picture of, unfortunately. 

One day we went on a long walk on old route 66 and saw this old model T Ford that didn't make it. 

Below is a photo of old route 66 looking east in the Petrified Forest. 

Our friends George and Linda will be camping like this on their way back from New Jersey. It is something George made up but we wouldn't like to rough it that much. Linda is flying out to New Jersey and George is driving to see her there and then they will go back and visit different places.

Below is a picture of our campsite at the Petrified Forest. Our trailer is small but has all the comforts of home, especially compared to the picture above.

We saw and old '38 or '39 Ford truck towing a newer 5th wheel parked in Holbrook. Later we saw it on interstate 40.

Right in front of the Ford was a '53 Buick towing a small trailer. 

Looking at all 4 modes of camping which one would you choose?

This is it for now because we are going to have some ice-cream before going to work. Will try and be more frequent posting on our blog. Let us know how you like it so far.

Back in civilization -- more or less.

We finally have reasonable access to the internet. I say reasonable as we have the Verizon wireless card which is faster than what we had at the campground in Columbia but at this location not as fast as I would like it. We are back at the Petrified Forest and are loving it. We had a great trip back with the weather behaving and the traffic was not bad. What a beautiful part of the state of California we drove through. The scenery was changing often and making it very pleasant to drive through. The first night we stayed at the Orange Grove RV resort in Bakersfield, California and we could definitely recommend it. The spaces are very big and every space had at least one orange tree. And the price was definitely right. The second night we stayed for free at the Avi Resort/Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. We had stayed there before and liked it well enough to go back there.

We are glad to be out of the Columbia area as the weather was terrible and we are just not liking it when we can't see the sky and it was so damp.  We would wake up in the morning with dripping windows making the bed covers wet.  We were there for 1 month and I bet we didn't have more than 6 days of no rain. Anyway, we did get to do some sightseeing. Went to the Big Trees one day and almost missed it as we didn't see any big trees at the entry of the park. We went back to a winery we had passed and told them how disappointed we were about the big trees. They set us straight and so we went back and were happy we did.

Another day we were able to to go Yosemite National Park and after having spent part of 1 day we decided that we needed to come back there for at least several more days. So, we now have some plans for future trips. If you want to tent camp in "luxury" you can spend $138.00 per night in one of these tents. You can share it with 5 of your friends and split the cost. No bathroom or shower inside -- just the bare essentials.

On our last day in Columbia we saw a volunteer firefighter's parade. It was quite spectacular. They lucked out as it was not raining that day and the sun was even shining.

Anyway, we are glad to be back in Arizona and will be here for a couple more months. On our days off we will go to our property near here and enjoy our time there and have some campfire with our friends. We do miss our friends we made in Columbia, CA!!!