Summer Trip 2015 Week 3

The start of our third week on the road had us traveling from Alburquerque to Gallup NM. Most of the journey was spent on I-40, but several times along the route we jumped on to Route 66. It was hard to find proper markings along the highway to let us know when to exit 40 and where it rejoined.  

One location we found that had Route 66 leave I-40 was Continental Divide, NM. Continental Divide consisted of 2 trading posts / gift shops and a gas station. Other than that it was just another ghost town along the highway.

In Gallup our campground was along another stretch of The Mother Road, with several little shops and strip malls along the road, although most seemed empty. The campground offered a gift shop with lots of Route 66 items as well as a very small grocery and rv supply selection. While it was nice to see an rv park with those items, we had been spoiled by the campground we work camped at last year that had a much better selection. This park had a halfway decent dog park and Rugby enjoyed running around in the dirt. USA RV Park 

Our next destination was Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon Railroad Campground.  We stayed there a few years back and chose this one for its proximity to the Grand Canyon where we had reservations for a few days later. Williams had a lot of shops and restaurants along Route 66. They claim they were the last town on which Route 66 was bypassed with I-40. The biggest drawback to the town is the location of the train tracks and the times trains pass through, blowing their horns as they cross the road, with at least one in the middle of the night. 

While staying in Williams we took a side trip over to Sedona and the Red Rocks.  We passed an open air art market and stopped to see some of the products. One vendor made metal cactus and I chose one that reminded me of the many plants and flowers we had seen thus far on our journey. Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park

After spending a weekend in Williams we headed up to the Grand Canyon and checked in to the Village RV Park, right in the heart of the Visitor area along the South Rim. While driving to the Canyon we passed through areas of rain and even sleet. By the time we arrived at the Canyon, most of the rain had stopped and we were able totravel about utilitzing the National Park’s bus system.   Our first day in the park was very cloudy with several small showers.  Our second day was bright and sunny although cold from the winds.  Grand Canyon National Park Village RV Campground

The Grand Canyon will be getting it's own blog entry one of these day - once I decide which of the nearly 500 photos we took over the 48 hours we were there make it to through the cut. Thank goodness for digital images vs print film.  You can click and click the camera as often as you want (or until your photo stick runs out of memory).

When our stay at the Grand Canyon was over, it was time for us to head further west and possibly acquire another state for our RVing map.  We drove along I-40 and crossed the Colorado River at the California border and stayed in Needles CA for the night.

Earlier in our trip, while passing through areas in Texas, we had encountered some inspection check points.  One had a dog sniff the exterior of the vehicle, the other asked a quick question as to where we were coming from and going to.  Once we crossed the Colorado River, we encountered our third checkpoint within the US - we aren't sure what this check point was about, but got the impression they were looking for boaters and trying to make sure Zebra Mussels weren’t coming into the state over that route.  (We encountered Zebra Mussel check points in Idaho and Wyoming several years back)

Ten miles from the AZ border we saw a fuel station advertising diesel fuel at $2.89.  When we crossed into CA, the price for diesel jumped to $4.39.  Oops, it seemed we made a mistake in not topping off the tank even though we weren’t 1/2 empty.

The Needles campground was lovely with purple Oleander shrubs between each site, providing privacy and also some shade from the hot sun. The odd things about this campground is they did not have an office.  Instead the host met you at the gate and escorted you to a site. His wife then came by and did the paperwork with us there.  They say people like it as it saves time from having to stop the vehicle, go in to an office to register, then return to their vehicle to set up.  Personally I like the office registration - gives me a chance to scan what they offer in terms of groceries or other local information.  With this campground’s set up, it changed our usual set up routine, taking me away from my usual duties and delaying our set up.  Desert View RV Resort

We decided that night that we would back track 20 miles to AZ the next morning to top off the tankfss before starting our California sight seeing. As we had several days each at 2 parks this week, we did not put as many miles under us as before and we ended our third week with a total of 3,000 miles travel since starting out.