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Saturday, April 7, 2007

We left the Rest Area about 7 this morning, headed for Laughlin, Nv.  We have never seen Laughlin before, and also have a old friend that works in one of the Casino's in Laughlin.  I tried a couple of night ago to do an internet search, but did not find his name. 

We arrived in Laughlin about 9:30, parked in a parking lot and I went into a convenience store, borrowed a phone book, and found what I think was his name and phone number.  We were not even sure which casino he worked at, but Donna called Lou (in Lufkin) and she knew it was the Riverside Casino.

So, in order to try and surprise him, we drove to the casino, asked one of the bosses if he was working.  He said he would be in tonight at 6.  So we will go back.  I have this match trick I want to show him (private joke between me and him).

We moved to an RV park owned by the casino, just across the street, are all hooked up, not having to run the generator to run the air conditioner.  Oh, did I mention?  It 91 degrees here right now about 3pm.  And, snowing in Lufkin??  Something is sure messed up??  Guess it's Al Gore's Global Warming coming to Lufkin.  More later.

After a nap this afternoon, we went back to the casino to find our old friend, Sam.  After checking the table game area, I asked a lady where Sam might be working.  She said he is on vacation until next Tuesday.  Dang!!  Then she said we might find him upstairs in the Sports Book.  So away we went, and Sure Enough, he was there betting on some horse races.

He was sitting at a desk, I walked up, leaned over, and said:  "Say fellow, I'v got this match trick to show you"  He immediately knew it was me.  He and I and Donna visited for quite a while.  He even missed betting on one horse, but the horse lost, so at least he saved a little money.

After a real good visit, Donna and I went back down to the casino, and left Sam with his horses.  Hope he did well.  We played a little, had dinner in their Rib Room,then back to the coach, and heading out to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon in the morning.

The Rib Room was not real large and was basically a Salad / Potato Bar with the entree' being served by the waiter.  We both had Prime Rib and it was absolutely delicious.

We are slowly headed back to Lufkin.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Happy Easter Sunday!!

We left Laughlin about 8am this morning with about 180 miles to drive to Flagstaff. The first 50 or so were on a US Highway and the remainder on I-40.  We had a couple of passes to cross with some rather steep pulls up the mountain, but we made it fine.  Only 1 or 2 times did the motorhome downshift below 5th gear. 

The temperature in Laughlin when we left was about 68 degrees, and kept steadily falling as we traveled higher and closer to Flagstaff.  By the time we arrived in Flagstaff a little after 11am, it was 53 degrees, with wind about 40 mph.  In my shorts, I nearly froze getting to the office from the motorhome to register, a distance of 15 feet.

We are parked in J & H RV Park a couple of miles north of Flagstaff, a very nice park that has been named 'National Good Sam Park of the Year' 3 times.  It's a very well maintained park, very nice, with very good facilities.

After getting set up in our space, the Datastorm connected immediately, and we just set back and relaxed a bit.  A little after 12, we decided to take a look at the Old Town Flagstaff, which has many of its old 1880's (and prior) buildings still intact and in use.

A lot of the businesses were open, several small restaurants were very busy, and a few tourists were in evidence.  Most of the businesses that were not open had signs about closing on Easter Sunday, so they must normally be open on Sunday, also.

We then decided to visit a couple of National Monuments that are nearby.  The first park was actually two different areas- Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano.  These are about 20 miles north of us and we spent about 2 -2 1/2 hours driving and visiting the sights. 

The first was the Volcano area, with huge lava flows in abundance.  Maybe not as big as the lava flow we saw on Maui, but huge never the less. It last erupted in the winter of 1064-65, the most recent of all eruptions in the Flagstaff area.

Then on through the park, and part of a national forest, we saw several examples of the Wupatki people that inhabited this area in the 1100's and for several hundred years afterward.  They were farmers and traders, and lived in stone houses from single story and one family to multi-story and multi-family.  The largest dwelling in the area has about 100 rooms.

After leaving the area, we went back to the motorhome, got a carry-along snack, and quickly made our way to another historic site, Walnut Ridge. This is a small cliff dwelling community, much, much smaller that Mesa Verde, in the four corners area of Colorado.

One of the dwellings were visible from an observation room with glass walls, not conducive to good photos and the trails were all pretty long and steep, way beyond my ability.

We are planning to have dinner in the coach tonight, I think, and will drive to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.  I am really looking forward to the canyon, never having visited there before.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Today was our day to take in the Grand Canyon, if you can do such a thing in a day.  We left the park a bit after 8, stopped on the way in a little town named Valle, and arrived in the park about 9:45, a drive of about 80 miles, I think.  With my Golden Age Passport, admission was free but otherwise would have been $25 per car for a 7-day pass.  The Passport that I bought a couple years ago has sure paid off.  To qualify you must be 62, pay the small fee, and you get a card entitling you to free admission to any National Park, Monument, Historical Site, or any other location run by the National Park Service.

Our first stop was Mather Point, with a small parking lot that is provided for the viewpoint as well as for going to the visitor's center. It is just a 300 foot walk from Mather Point to the new Visitor's Center, which has no public parking for individual cars.  The Visitor's Center is also a transportation center for bus routes that run throughout the park.  The center has been built to have the least effect on the environment with only minimum paving and a lot of native plants.

We continued our drive toward the Village Center, stopping at various observation point, and driving through Trailer Village, which we think was mostly for employees.  There is another campground, Mather Campground, which we didn't drive through.

On September 17, 1901, the first steam-driven train rolled into Grand Canyon Village after a 3 hour trip from Williams, Arizona.  What is now Grand Canyon Village was immediately more accessible that Hance Ranch or Grandview to the east and Bass Camp to the west.  The Depot was completed in 1909 and is one of three remaining log depots in the country.  For some reason I never got a picture of this structure.  And, the train is still running bringing visitors from Williams to the Grand Canyon on a daily basis.  Of course, now its diesel engines rather than steam.

At the Historic Village Center we finally found a parking place and walked around this historical part. One of the buildings here is the El Tovar Hotel, once described as "the most expensively constructed and appointed log house in America."  Built by the Santa Fe Railroad to house visitors brought to the canyon by the railroad.  The El Tovar cost $250,000 when built in 1905, and was considered by many to be the most elegant hotel west of the Mississippi.

Also at the Historic Village area was the Hopi House, now a gift and souvenir shop.  Hopi House was completed on January 1, 1905, just a few weeks before the completion of El Tovar.  It is a multi-story structure of stone and adobe masonry typical of the pueblo buildings of the southwest.  The construction was done mainly by Hopi Indians, who lived and worked there.  The Hopi's entertained guests with nightly dances on the dance platform to the north.

With the completion of the Desert View Watchtower in 1932, work started on the Bright Angel Lodge.  Bright Angel Camp was a cluster of cabins and tents that had been built by James Thurber in the late 1890's.  In the lobby is the 10 foot high geologic fireplace representing the rocks and order of strata from inside the canyon.  The top of the fireplace is constructed of Kaibab Limestone found on the rim of the canyon.

Several other historic buildings are located in this area, some of which are currently undergoing refurbishment.  These include Vercamp's Curios, Buckey O'Neill Cabin, Kolb Studio, Red Horse Station, and Lookout Studio.

The Lookout Studio was completed in 1914, the same year Hermit's Rest was completed eight miles to the west of the village. On the porch of Lookout Studio was a large telescope that visitors could view the features of the canyon and watch the mule riders descend into the canyon.

After visiting the Historical Village, we drove around the area some more, then parked and walked down to the point where you load onto buses to travel the 7 or 8 miles to Hermit's Rest, while getting off at 7 or so view points along the way.  Most of the buses were tram type with a trailer.  If you make the whole trip without getting off at viewpoints it takes about 75 minutes.  But, we got off at every stop, and caught a later bus.  The buses usually came by about every 10 to 12 minutes.

Hermit's Rest is the last stop on the route, and has a gift shop and snack bar, as well as rest rooms.  It is the kick off place for those hiking to Hermits Trailhead, a trail leading into the canyon.

After returning to the village, we got the truck and headed for the East Entrance, hoping for a great view of the sunset.  We found a pretty good overlook and waited for the sun to set.  Nice sunset, but not as dramatic as I had hoped.

Generally the photos from the various overlooks today were pretty good examples, although they were a bit hazy, because of the haze in the canyon.  Just typical haze for the canyon from pollution in the West.