Day 130 – Sunday, November 3, 2013

We left our site at Homolovi State Park near Winslow, AZ today but not before checking out one more Hopi ruins site located on the Little Colorado River.

Our campsite in Homolovi State Park.

Julie was leading the way trying to find the Hopi ruins for us to view. Julie notes “This archeology stuff isn’t as easy as Harrison Ford makes it look in his ‘Raider’ movies. Luckily though we never once needed to use a bull whip (outside of the camper) or had to out chase a giant boulder. As you’ll see further down, we did encounter some troublesome boulders though.”

Some of the unexcavated ruins with archeological survey stakes still in place.

After our brief site tour we headed westward on I-40 towards Flagstaff, AZ. Before we got very far into the strong headwind we decided to detour 6 miles south to see the Meteor Crater. Julie notes “We heard they ‘crater’ to all sorts of visitors. There were some fun signs on the road approaching the crater sight. One said ‘Speed Limit – Vehicles 50 mi/hr, Meterorites – 26,000 mi/hr’. And ‘Enjoy the impact!’ Yes I see that there might be a career for me in writing ‘punny’ signs.” It was very impressive to see the impact crater. The crater itself is about 1 mile in diameter. The site was used to train Apollo astronauts and has a lot of memorabilia of space exploration. The original research conducted here led to a much greater understanding of our solar system. Julie notes “Yes I made Brad watch the 10 minute movie and read parts of the brochure out loud to him. Until that said brochure mysteriously ‘disappeared’? We declined the hour long meteor rim tour that was included in the slightly heavy entrance fee as we had miles to make yet plus it is very windy up there. I am not sure Brad would pay to have me hauled out if my feather weight body was accidentally blown into the crater.”

Julie notes “Note the telescopes that Brad could watch me through as I scurried around the bottom if I did happen to blow over the edge. They have a life size astronaut figure down there so at least I wouldn’t be lonely. I should have had a speech ready. How about ‘One small step for woman…'”

A view of the desert and mountains from the visitor centre courtyard at the Meteor Crater site.

Julie took a little side trip and I agreed to pick her up again if she could land the Apollo Capsule in the courtyard. She did pretty well for never having flown a space capsule before. Her only previous flying experience has been her broomstick. Julie notes “Sometimes he is just funny isn’t he?. (insert wicked cackle here) Gotta let him have that one, but as usual he will be watching his back (and sniffing his drinks for hints of that arsenic water I stashed up on at Ojo Caliente spa.) (insert more wicked cackling and sounds of potions gurgling and brewing)”

After our tour of the site, some lunch at the onsite Subway, and the obligatory trek through the gift shop we headed out towards Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood, AZ. Being ones who do not like to backtrack, we decided to take the seemingly high-grade gravel road, the Chavez Pass Road. This road led us south through some beautiful desert and then the Coconino National Forest. There are numerous Forest Service roads that head off in every direction. Most of them are dead ends.

This was one of the unheeded warning signs. “Primitive Road – CAUTION – Use At Your Own Risk – This Surface is Not Regularly Maintained”. This is our kind of road.

So far, so good. Level, gravel, a little rough, but pretty good driving conditions for our truck and camper.

Nice scenery and no other traffic. We only met 2 other vehicles the first hour of driving. Julie notes “One more hint gone unheeded. We have no fear or something. My book map shows a nice straight gravel road. It wouldn’t lie would it?”

Julie notes “Still a bit of a breeze out there. The iPod with Terri Clark’s help sang about ‘tyin’ a heart to a tumble weed’ and we saw a few of those as we drove along today.”

Left or right? Follow the graded road or the GPS?

A little road work was required after we first followed the graded road instead of the GPS. After a short distance, we decided to turn around and follow the GPS.

Wrong! The road started to deteriorate quickly and became a 4X4 track. Lesson #130; Follow the graded road – ignore what your GPS tells you to do. Julie notes “We have named her Bambi as she seems to want to get us lost in the woods, in hunting season.”

Checking out the trail ahead. Julie notes “For once the pain in his backside is not caused directly by me, just the jarring roads.”

We decided, at least with the camper loaded on the truck, that we should follow the graded road. Julie notes “Nooooo! But there were parts of the road ahead that would likely cause us to tip over, that is if we made it past the trees overhanging the road. We were worried we would have to travel all the way back to the Meteor Crater because of the myriad of dead end roads that Bambi was showing us on the GPS. We had not heard any banjo music yet though so weren’t too afraid about being lost for the night out here. It was a beautiful but bumpy place. The actual music playing as he headed back scratching his head was the ironic Cowboy Junkies again singing “this ain’t no long journey home, this ain’t no trip across the tracks, this ain’t no dead end street, there ain’t no turning back…” I think that might be ironic. I am never sure. I should ask Alanis Morrisette, ‘Isn’t it ironic?”

A short distance down the right path led us to a hunter, and his faithful companion, who knew the area and gave us some good directions. Julie notes “Windmill Man meets Windmill Hunter and Friendly Dog. I was not fast enough to catch the multiple arm (and tail) actions involved by all three participants. My impression, from the arm movements, lead me to believe the Windmill Hunter was saying ‘WTF? (Why This Forest?) You can’t get there from here, you crazy Canuck tourists!’ But they were actually windmilling about RVs, real roads and where we had seen elk tracks, yonder on the rock path.”

After another 15 kilometers or so of graded road we joined up with Highway 87.

Ahhh, pavement!

We started descending from ~7,500′ above sea level and 10C to ~3,200′ and 17C, even as the sun was setting. Nice! We arrived at Dead Horse Ranch State Park and got a nice site just before dark. Julie notes “We are expecting to have scrambled eggs for supper after our extreme version of a Brad/Kelly H. shortcut.”

A great day. We love days like this; traveling through unknown territory with beautiful diverse scenery and great clear weather. (Julie notes “And no Deliverance banjo music and a fridge full of food and a furnace and bathroom with us.”) We finished the day with a campfire, some bratwurst cooked over the fire, and a couple of drinks. Julie notes “I haven’t been brave enough to check the eggs yet. We ‘shell’ see later if the final ‘yolk’ is on us.”

…over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi folks,  We just wanted to let you know that we are experiencing technical difficulties uploading our daily posts to our website/blog.  Please stay tuned.  We will get these issues resolved as soon as possible.  Believe me, you won’t want to miss these updates.  …the muleskinner

Julie notes:  “I have my full time live in IT guy working on these issues.”

Brad notes: “Where are my Help Desk guys?”

…over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick

PS: I uploaded this message the old fashioned manual way and may have to resort to that for the posts.

Day 129 – Saturday, November 2, 2013

It was cool here again overnight. The low was about -1C. It did not get as cold as it did in Gallup, NM where you are close to 7,000′ above sea level. The high today was about 23C and mostly sunny but the light desert wind makes it feel cooler. Julie notes “Thank you Jim Bob o.g. (ohso gorgeous) for the nice weather. The elevation here for those of you wondering just how high we are most of the time, is about 4850 ft. What a difference a few thousand feet makes.”

The Arizona State Park is a beautiful place near Winslow. And guess what? It has more ruins here from the Hopi tribe. Julie notes “I did not know that when I first suggested we come here honest! (Pssst They also have a museum and gift shop. Don’t tell Brad.)” We renewed our camping permit for another night and filled out a 15 minute survey for the Arizona State Parks in exchange for a free night camping worth $20. Julie notes “We saved $20 bucks and I was able to leisurely explore the beautiful displays and exhibits they had, while Brad made up answers on the survey. Win/Win/Win situation.” We then headed the 3 miles to one of the ruin sites within the park. Most of this site has not been excavated and stabilized. It is mostly still buried by the desert sand. Julie notes “Well archeologists have explored a lot of this site and this area. Homolovi, ‘Place of the Little Hills’, was a thriving area in the 14^th century. On bequest of the Hopi peoples, archeologists explored the area and upon completion of a 5 year project, filled the site in with desert sand to protect from erosion, etc. Other methods besides digging, including aerial surveys, are used now as well for less disturbance of the sites. Pot hunters had raided this site extensively making it look like it has been bombed to the dismay of all. A very informational audio tour was available on our phone and it was neat and a bit eerie walking form sign to sign with the traditional Hopi music playing. If you would like to know more about what I learned and have since forgotten please contact me and I will be happy to relay more misinformation to you. If you are writing a school report on this though I would suggest you Google the info. I don’t want to be responsible for any ‘F’s on your report card. I had enough of my own.”

After touring the site it was time for lunch. We checked the ever faithful Trip Advisor and discovered the Turquoise Room at the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, AZ was rated #1 and had some great reviews. It did not disappoint! I am not sure what we did before the Internet? Eat at a lot of bad places maybe? Oh yeah, more importantly, Julie let me buy some more firewood. J Julie notes “Just to clarify, he did not buy firewood at the restaurant. That was at a garage.”

We toured around the small town of Winslow, AZ singing the Eagles song, Take It Easy with the lyrics “Standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona”. I sounded really good with my natural talent; Julie not so much. Julie notes “We of course had to get a picture of Brad standing on the corner. We were wondering why the locals were snickering as he posed in front of the Winslow post office, on the corner as I took a bevy of pictures from across the street. Turns out there is an actual corner delegated for these photo ops. But maybe we started a new trend? Won’t be the first time.”

We headed back to Homolovi State Park and relaxed for a bit in the sunshine and watched a beautiful sunset. After the sun sets, the temperature drops rapidly and cools the air down especially with a bit of wind. We headed into the camper and enjoyed some snacks and leftovers for supper. Julie notes “Jim Bob o.g. (Ohno Gouda?) declined the snacks. Could be he didn’t want to crumbs on his mittens or that he never was a big cheese fan, smoked gouda or not.”

Julie notes “Some of the excavated walls of this site that contains from 1,200 to 2,000 rooms. We assume there are hidden cameras somewhere to watch for vandals but most likely to watch people like us going in circles trying to figure out if we are at the right view point or not.”

Julie notes “Another big party here back in the day I guess. Beautifully patterned pot shards litter the area.”

Julie notes “Using our imagination to see the walls and 3 huge plazas that were busy places at one time.”

La Posada Hotel Julie notes “This is another historical site (with a self guided tour and museum and gorgeous gift shop), that will be on the list to explore further next time. As one reviewer put it, Winslow has seen some hard times but La Posada and the Turquoise Room seems to be immune. It is the last Santa Fe Railroad Hotel to be built. The train station is out the back door.”

Julie in her happy place. Julie notes “Yes, as with the rest of the Holmes, when I am in my happy place and smile, my eyes disappear. At least they are not rolling up into my head, this time.”

Brad’s happy place. A local (Flagstaff, AZ) brewery called LumberYard. This was their Pilsner. Very good.

More Julie happy times. We shared the Piki Bread with Hopi Hummus. It is a ceremonial bread made by the Hopi. The local delicacy is difficult to make with blue corn flour and ashes from juniper. The hummus was also their local version. We both had the signature black bean and cream of corn soup. I had the Southwestern Turkey Cobb Salad and Julie had the Crab and Avacado salad with heirloom tomatoes. The Turquoise Room is an excellent choice for a delicious meal in Winslow, AZ. Their #1 rating is well deserved. Julie notes “mmmmm so good, but do not waste your time asking for the signature recipes, there is a reason they are called signature. The walls are decorated with memorabilia of the Fred Harvey days and beautiful Navajo weavings. There was one in particular beside us that caught my eye and I thought they might throw it in with our meal. Only if we bought $1,385 worth of lunch I guess. I should’ve ordered the sandwich.”

And of course, Julie caught me “Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona”. Julie notes “Such a fine sight to see! Brad is the one on the left. The other guy ‘wooden’ get out of the way.”

…over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick

Julie notes “A little information mission for those of you who enjoy that (Suze and Aunt Lynne) and those of you who enjoy making up stuff (Quent and Aunt Doreen). Who was this Fred Harvey who’s name keeps popping up around and about these parts? The restaurant had a quaint old picture of waitresses called ‘The original Harvey girls.’ And it didn’t look like any Harvey’s restaurant we have been to.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 128 – Friday, November 1, 2013

After a leisurely morning at the USA RV Park, we packed up the camper and headed west to Arizona. Julie notes “It was time to leave New Mexico as the poor wrinkled and stained New Mexico pages in my giant Rand McNally map book had literally come loose and fallen out of the book. A sad ‘state’ of affairs so it was time to turn a new page in our travels.” We travelled on I-40 into Arizona and then toured through the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. Julie notes “Again I thought this was a Halloween theme park where we would be petrified with fear as painted desert and forest zombies and other creatures would jump out and scare us. I was on edge the whole trip!” Another amazing and unique place. After a few hikes on a couple of recommended trails we headed westward towards Winslow, AZ and the Homolovi State Park.

Before touring the National Park, we had lunch at the park restaurant, gas bar, gift shop, and information centre. We both ordered the lunch special of Italian Wedding soup and a fish (Pollock) sandwich. Once again, don’t order seafood in the middle of the desert. When will we learn? Actually, it wasn’t too bad and the soup was excellent and the cafeteria ladies were very friendly. Julie notes “Maybe we were very hungry, or the square fish patty was cooked perfectly because we gobbled it up. But it was the fancy advertising outside the cafeteria of ‘Cap’n Jacks catch of the day’ fish sandwich with all the fixings, that got us. We instantly forgot we’d been travelling through desert and badlands, no water in sight for miles when they dangled the bait, caught us and reeled us in like the suckers we are. There was also another beautiful gift shop there with some different and interesting items than we have seen so far. We decided, for a change, to think about it and come back after the tour if we decided we still wanted the items. We didn’t realize the route is one way so we didn’t go back. A good way to save money but sorry for all the folks that were going to get gifts from there. (So basically there will be no gifts for anyone, just a heads up.)”

The road winds through the park for about 28 miles. There are numerous overlooks and side trails to explore but no campgrounds within the National Park. We chose, based on some ranger advice, the Blue Mesa trail (1.0 miles) and the Crystal Forest trail (0.8 miles). We also stopped at a few of the overlooks and Newspaper Rock where you can view some distant petroglyphs through binoculars. Another stop was the Jasper Forest filled with remnants of the petrified forest that is left behind after erosion exposes the forest.

We carried on past the town of Holbrook to the State Park near Winslow, AZ.

I-40 parallels the Sante Fe railroad through the desert and through the largest Indian Reservation in the US. It is Navajo land.

The painted desert. Julie notes “Sorry, this humble photographer did not portray the beautiful reds, blues, oranges, greys, etc. in the following pictures that we saw with the naked or rather progressive lensed eye, so we suggest you all need to come and see for yourself. I am pulling out the ‘spectacular’ word Barb.”

The Painted Desert Inn. A famous landmark within the park. Julie notes “Notice the speed we are going past this. There is a museum within and Brad didn’t want to chance me jumping out and going for a ‘quick stroll’ through the exhibits. I did not attempt a tuck and roll out of the truck due to the speed and the unfriendly landing areas. Next trip perhaps. I will tell him there is a beer parlour, a BBQ pit and a camping supply store there that sells firewood.”

The highpoint at the start of the decent into the Blue Mesa trail.

The trail descending into the badlands valley where the exposed petrified wood is visible. Julie notes “Again put on your rose/blue/purple coloured glasses and look at these. Then you will see the colours pop.”

A view of the exposed petrified wood littering the ground.

Your guides through the Blue Mesa trail. So far no one has signed up for our tours. We can’t figure out why? J

A view of the valley and trail below from one of the overlooks.

One of the logs being exposed in the Jasper Forest. Julie notes “Again, the colours of this wood/stone is wonderfully varied in oranges, browns, reds. The areas look like a giant came with a chainsaw and cut them into chunks, piles of small petrified pieces as if he had chopped up some wood for a fire, big long logs that looked like just fell and broke into segments. And beautiful stumps that would make the best coffee tables.”

The Crystal Forest. Julie notes “This area, and the rest of the park were plundered and stripped of most of the crystal and train loads of the petrified wood, even after President Roosevelt declared it a National Monument. It is now a National Park and according to the park records, people are getting much better at leaving for other’s enjoyment. We could see the temptation though.”

Chopping up some petrified wood. Julie notes “Finally a chance to use our karate moves.”

More petrified wood. Julie notes “We have about 90 more pictures of Brad’s wood fetish if anyone is interested.”

No one was looking when I loaded this baby into the camper but Julie made me put it back for others to enjoy. Julie notes “I had to convince him it would be hard on his axe and even harder to light. Plus there was the old ‘take only pictures, leave only footprints’ rule we were abiding by. (plus it weighs a ton, literally).

Oh, you didn’t think I would forget to put in a windmill shot, did you? This one in a town square in Holbrook, AZ along historic Route 66. And the image number from our camera is #666. Coincidence? Julie notes “hmmm that is kind of WTF! (Way Too Freaky!)”

On the road, I-40, to Winslow, AZ.

…over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick

Julie notes “He did not mention that I did the dinosaur museum at the end of the route, in under 15 minutes. I even declined the 17 minute video. So we left the park happy with visions of 4 foot long skulls of crocodile type beasts dancing in my head.”

Day 127 – Thursday, October 31, 2013

We had many errands to attend to today and Gallup has most of the services we needed. We stayed overnight at the USA RV Park that has full services, hot showers, laundry, wifi, and a store. Julie notes “It also has all the things my sister-in-law Kelly finds attractive in a campsite; it is located between a busy railroad intersection and switching yard and is practically sitting on the runways for the local airport, while situated right beside a major highway. But we are pretty accustomed to all kinds of outside noises now and I only jumped out of my jammies once when a loud small airplane zoomed over us approaching the landing strip just as I was entering that almost asleep stage.” Jim Bob o.g. says it dropped to a low of -6C overnight. After breakfast, hot showers, and laundry, email, and internet stuff, we headed into Gallup for lunch. We found Aurelia’s Diner on historic route 66 using trip advisor. It is an old style diner from the 50’s with lots of memorabilia and ranked #10 of 51. The food was all homemade and very tasty but probably not too good for you.

I found Gary’s Barber Shop for a much needed haircut. Gary runs a little hole-in-the-wall barber shop and is an interesting character. He may qualify as the slowest barber in New Mexico, if not all of the USA. There were 2 customers ahead of me waiting for cuts and by the time I was done it was at least an hour and a half. The 2 customers ahead of me and I do not have all that much hair – even less now. But it was an experience.

We found a Safeway to restock the RV and also a fuel station. Then it was back to the RV Park for happy hour. We decided to just make our own supper. It was cold so we used the little oven in the RV to roast a nice marinated pork loin and bake a yam, along with a can of Bush’s Honey & Bourbon Grilling beans and some fresh sourdough bread.

Aurelia’s Diner on Route 66.

Our waitress dressed for Halloween. Julie notes “She was a beautiful butterfly and metamorphed our orders to real food in no time.”

My Philly cheesesteak with fresh cut homemade fries. Julie notes “A couple of these fries accidentally fell into my mouth. Man they were so good! That was a good accident.”

Julie’s special of tacos and taquitos. Julie notes “Very tasty. Just the right amount of the ground beef, potato, carrot mix plus all the basics. I didn’t leave a crumb behind despite Brad’s eager eyes roving my plate after he had finished his.”

Notice Larry and Moe above me. That means I must be Curly, at least prior to my Gary’s Barber Shop haircut. Julie notes “Well in fact he looks more like Curly ‘after’ the hair cut. It’s ‘very’ nice and short now and it’s possible Gary uses Curly as his inspiration for hair styling.”

Gary’s Barber Shop.

Some customers need this after waiting so long for a haircut. Luckily, it is parked right outside his shop.

Safeway’s all have a Starbucks. Our daughter Kristin’s’ influence from her job at the Kamloop’s Starbucks is much more far reaching than we imagined. Her recommendations reach as far south as New Mexico. Julie notes “I had my easy to order venti non fat green tea latte, half the syrup, half the mache, low foam. This caused a bit of a conference because I guess sweet tea is not the norm here. But it came out perfectly. Thanks Kristin.”

The closest thing to a windmill that Julie found today. Julie notes “It’s a beauty ain’t it? Not sure if it counts since I wasn’t whizzing by it at 90 klics/hr. I see Brad did not post a windmill shot from yesterday. So I may have to check the archives for one and add it myself. He may lose his windmill man title if he doesn’t pull up his blades.”

Julie notes “Here is one from yesterday that has flipped his lid. Artist note is the reflection on the hood of the truck making it my money shot. (Plus the rest weren’t very good.)”

Which one is Julie and which one is the muleskinner? Julie notes “In our Kokapeli Halloween costumes.”

Our site at the USA RV Park. Julie notes “This tree drops giant pods that have beans in them that look like chocolate covered coffee beans. Lesson 127 “Don’t eat stuff off the ground. Most of it just tastes like dirt and not chocolate.” Luckily Brad had bought some M&M chocolate nuts ‘in case we had trick or treaters’. A couple of those will make your mouth forget the dirt beans.”

…over and out, the muleskinner and his sidekick

Julie notes “I missed not being home and decorating for All Hallow’s Eve but will not miss the clean up afterwards. Hope all the ghost and goblins out there, big and small, have an awesome night full of fun and frights and sweets!”