November 30, 2005

November 30, 2005

Grand Canyon National Park to Congress, Arizona

YEAR 2 DAY 166

 

Today was sunny and warm. We finally made it out of the mountains, and down into the Sonoran Desert, and warmer temperatures.

This morning I did preventive maintenance, refilled the fresh water tank, drained the waste holding tanks, and prepared for departure. The tanks didn't really need refilling / draining, but I think it's always a good idea to head out on the road with full fresh water and empty holding tanks, if possible. You never know what unexpected circumstance might conspire to throw a monkey wrench into your plans. It's a bit of a variation on the theme taught to me by my first flight instructor. Always take off with full tanks of fuel. Fuel not in the tanks, and runway behind you, are of no use !

We left Trailer Village at Grand Canyon National Park heading south on Hwy. 64. At Williams we turned west on Interstate 40. This section of I-40 is part of Historic Route 66. At Ash Fork we turned south on Hwy. 89. We drove hard all the way through to Prescott. We needed to buy diesel, and find Wal-Mart in Prescott. The directional signs around Prescott were ambiguous, and we ended up not where we wanted to be, by about 20 miles. We finally found our way back through Prescott Valley, to the city of Prescott. Dee-Dee was really low on fuel, so I turned into the first station with diesel that I saw. It was one of the most difficult service stations I have entered and exited with the rig, but a year and a half of experience have sharpened my skills enough that I managed it without getting all stressed out. We filled with diesel, and found Wal-Mart. We had a late lunch in the Wal-Mart parking lot, then went inside to replenish groceries and supplies. This Wal-Mart was second only to one in Mississippi that we were at a year ago, for inefficiency, in every way. And believe me, we've been to a lot of Wal-Marts around North America. We finally finished our shopping, and headed out of Prescott.

It was already after 4:00 P.M., and I was looking forward to stopping for the night in an hour or so. I didn't know that we were about to encounter an extremely difficult mountain crossing. The road was single lane, and wound back and forth constantly. It was an example of really bad road engineering. The road must have been designed and built 75 years ago, and hasn't been straightened out or widened. It took about an hour to travel 15 miles. I was drenched in sweat, and exhausted by the time we made it over the mountain. And most of the driving was into the low, setting sun, making it even more difficult, and giving me a headache. Finally we were over the mountain, and about another hour of driving across the desert brought us to North Ranch SKP Park. We stayed here last winter for a couple of days.

The park office was closed. We pulled into a site, extended the slides, and hooked up the power. I'll do the rest tomorrow morning. While Joanne prepared supper, I did today's accounting, and worked on this journal entry. We watched The Apprentice : Martha Stewart, then the news and weather. Oh, goody ... the weather should be quite nice here in central Arizona for the next week.

We've covered a lot of ground, and seen a lot of sights, since we left Canada on November 1. I'm looking forward to a few days of resting, doing not too much of anything.

DSK