March 12 - Joy and Happiness

It was one year ago today that I bought this RV – March 12, 2014. Sadly, the RV is still without a name. I just haven't been able to come up with one that rings true.

In that year, I have put 12,160 miles on it and slept in it in 17 states. Not too bad, although I am trying to slow it down more and not be running so much. Tony has traveled with me through a few states, but the majority of the miles have been just Miko and me. Although I wish Tony would travel with me more, this solo traveling has been a blast. Maybe one day Tony will wake up and have the travel bug. Until then, whenever he decides to come with me will be a blessing.

Since I am traveling solo, I have really wanted to see how I would do “all on my own”. I wondered if I would get lonely, if I would be able to survive and thrive just taking care of me and my house on wheels.

With internet and cell phones, I have been able to keep in touch with people I care about. I have been able to share my day with folks back home. I think that being solo has helped me meet people on the road. When you travel with somebody, you and that somebody become a unit and people don't reach out as much. I have met some wonderful people who have shared their lives and I find that has made the road life even more interesting and fun. Meeting people on the road is sort of like having grandchildren. You love them dearly, but at the end of the day, you can go back to your own house, be quiet and rest up. Sometimes I miss having those long deep conversations that you can only have with people who know you well. Trade offs, I guess.

As far as rolling down the road goes, I have been fortunate in that all the things that have gone wrong with the rig have been relatively minor inconveniences. Nothing life threatening, nothing expensive (knock on wood). Little puzzles on how to get by with what you've got. For example, the fact that my stairs into the coach don't work – I guess I can think of it as a minor little exercise program – need to stretch those legs, make them work harder climbing into the rig. I was fortunate in this last trip that I am currently on that I started off caravanning with my friends Lou and Davey. Davey especially helped me fix some of the minor little things on the rig until I got my sea legs.

I am learning more and more how to manage this lifestyle, because that is what it is. It is not a vacation, it is a way of life. I am extremely grateful that I have this opportunity. Everyday I wake up with a certain joy and excitement about what the day will bring. Well, either that or I lounge around in bed until some obscene hour and ease into the day. I have the best of all worlds. I am one lucky girl.

We will resume our regularly scheduled blog posting tomorrow or maybe the next day – don't want to seriously commit – it would ruin my reputation. I just wanted to note the passing of a milestone.

Petroglyphs

Tuesday

Another day, another National Monument. Next up is Petroglyph National Monument. It is only about ten minutes away. There are four sections to the park, Miko can go to three sections, so we should be able to hike and get our history lessons three days in a row.

Petroglyph is named for the Petroglyphs (go figure) that are in these shallow canyons. The trail is wide and sandy and flat. There are a bunch of hills with these large black rocks which the ancient Pueblans drew pictures. Most of the activity was around 1300 and then the people disappeared. There are supposedly 23,000 petroglyphs in this area. I saw maybe 25. Not seeing it people.  This is a very urban monument area - if you turn around, you see housing developments.  Albuquerque is encroaching on the ancients.

  

As Miko and I were walking back, a bare shirted guy passed on carrying his shoes. I thought – wow, what a great idea. I took my shoes off and it was lovely. The sand wasn't that deep and it provided great arch support. I also started feeling very connected to the land in a way that I hadn't wearing my shoes. 

 

On our way in, a guy passed us. When we got to the turnaround part, he was sitting meditating in the center of a bunch of these lava rocks. When he finished meditating, he started doing some sort of spiritual doings. I felt rather bad because just as I reached this area, some people started talking to me about how beautiful Miko was and we chatted. I felt bad because our chitchat sort of destroyed the ambiance and perhaps disturbed this guy. When Tony meditates at home, I really try to be quiet so he can do what he has to do.

When I got back to the parking lot, Meditation Guy was just getting there also. I apologized to him and he said no problem. We continued to talk – his name was Mick and he was from a Pueblo west of Albuquerque. He was getting ready to do a spirit quest to South America. I told him of my journeys and told him that I was heading back home and I was going through Oklahoma. I am a little scared of going through Oklahoma, tornado alley. I am thinking that March is a good time to go through, but tornados, Oklahoma and tin can living quarters are a magnet for trouble. Mick went to his car and brought me a small arrowhead on a string. He said that I should keep it close when I go through Oklahoma and it will keep me safe. I don't know if there is truth here, but I'm keeping it in my pocket as I go through Oklahoma. I was very touched that he gave that to me.

Back at Enchanted Trails, while I was walking the dog in the evening, I came across a woman who was traveling by herself in one of those campers you put on the back of a pickup truck. She was French but lived in Canada in the Northwest Territories in a small cabin with no running water or electricity. We talked about our travels, we have been to some of the same places – Zimbabwe, Malaysia. She has to be back home by April 7^th because she is flying to South Africa. She had breast cancer several years ago and her medical team is in South Africa. Interesting woman and made me feel good about what I am doing. We talked for an hour or so and I never got her name.

Wednesday

I have an appointment at Camping World at eightfriggino'clock to get a few things on my every growing list fixed on the RV. I think I spent a half hour just telling the service manager my woes.

Miko and I head out to Petroglyph National Monument again to do another one of their trails while the RV is getting fixed.

This time, I keep my shoes on because it is still only around 50 degrees. I see maybe a hundred or more different petroglyphs so it was much more satisfying. You know, it really doesn't matter if I see anything. I'm outside, it is lovely, the sun is shining.

I really wonder about these petroglyphs and why they are here. Why here? Are they the ancient version of graffiti? They take a lot of work to do - you need some stone tools to etch into the rocks.   Nobody knows what any of them mean – they can guess but it is all speculation.

Back at Camping World, they have done a few fixes.

The refrigerator, which would not work on plain LP is now working. The flame was too far away from the gas so it would not light.

The back window coverings were nailed back up

Some wood trim that was coming loose was nailed back into place.

They told me that the microwave works – he put a cup of water in for two minutes and it got hot. I came home and put a cup of water in for two minutes and it was colder than cold.

Everything else on my list, they could not fix because they needed parts which would take two to three weeks to get in. Oh well – at least my fridge is working on LP so if by some chance I want to camp where there is no electricity, I'm good to go.

Rest of day – lazing around camp. I decided I would spend the rest of the week in the Albuquerque area. No need to rush.

Miko kicking back

Els and Al - El Morro, El Malpais and Albuquerque

First of all, please go back to yesterday's blog. I've added a few more of those cool postcards that my friend Pete Lee has passed on to me. These postcards are the old-school cool ones that should be appreciated.

Moving on to the big city later today. But first, let's knock over a few more National Monuments

First up is El Morro, the oasis of the desert. This is a cuesta, a long tall sandstone rock formation that protects a small little pool of water. The pool contains about 220,000 gallons of water and starting in prehistoric times up to the 1900's, was a way stop for travelers crossing across the country who really needed to find water. While these travelers were re-hydrating, many of them carved their names into the soft sandstone. There were petroglyphs from the ancients. There were signatures from the Spaniards who came through even before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. Then there were the surveyors who came through looking for the passage to the Pacific.

Side note: These surveyors brought with them 25 camels to see how they would do in the desert. I asked the ranger what happened to all these camels and the ranger said that they all made it to California. One of them though, Ol' Douglas actually fought for the confederacy and his grave is in Vicksburg MS.

There were also signatures from the first wagon trail who came through including Sally Fox who was twelve years old at the time. A lot of these people only signed their names, but some of the signatures are extremely ornate and also include prayers and pictures.

Again, a National place that allowed dogs on the trail so Miko and I took the small ¾ mile Inspiration Trail. We thought about doing the longer two mile trail but we were a little strapped for time, not to mention that the ranger said we had to climb to the top of the mesa and it was not the most pleasant place for people that had height issues. So we missed out on seeing some pueblo ruins and a great view. Oh well.

El Morro

Isn't Miko Pretty?

The next monument was El Malpais. El Malpais means Bad Lands. There is a series of vulcanos in this area and El Malpais is a giant lava field. I stopped at the Information Center, talked to the ranger a little bit and decided that I would just press on as it was starting to get a little late. I don't like to get to my campground too late in the day. Three, maybe four o'clock and no later. I crossed the Continental Divide at 7886 ft and I swear I saw some snow flurries. First Flagstaff with snow on the ground and then snow flurries. Maybe Mother Nature is trying to start acclimating me for my return to Minnesota.

My destination for the night was an RV park in Albuquerque. I wasn't looking forward to it but it was cheap and fairly close to the sights I wanted to see. I took I-40 east. The thing to note is that I-40 is the replacement for Route 66, the Mother Road, the mythical road across America. There are still parts of Route 66 in place, but most of it is gone.

My RV park is called Enchanted Trails RV Park and it is about as retro as you can get. They even have old trailers that you can rent and stay in. The laundry room has an old wringer washing machine and a mangle, if you remember those. The furniture in the lounge are all fifties style. It is actually very cool. The RV park itself is not too bad, people are spaced out a little bit so that fact plus the general ambiance make me think I've got a good base for my Albuquerque explorations. Not to mention, I have WIFI and TV so all is good.

Falling Off The Log

Friday

Got on the road by 10:00 and headed north. I had to go through Flagstaff which is in northern Arizona. I went from 3000 feet above sea level to 7000 feet above sea level. The poor RV struggled a little bit – I was still going about sixty but the engine sure was whining. I went from 71 degrees to 53 degrees and horror of horrors when I topped the last hill, what did I see but snow on the ground. Not a lot of snow, maybe 4-5 inches. The Flagstaff area is considered the Snow Bowl of Arizona – they have skiing here. Arizona sure is a strange state – going from killer deserts in the south, up to high deserts in the middle and then ski areas. These areas are all fairly close to one another also. Something to consider if one were looking for a new place to live.

My first destination was Walnut Canyon to look at more real estate – seems like most of the National Monuments in Arizona are pueblos, or caves, or cliff dwellings that ancient people lived in. They sure were prolific builders.

You walk into the visitor center and you are on the top of a very deep canyon that has been cut by Walnut Creek. In it's curvy meanderings, the creek went around a solid piece of rock and made sort of an island of it. There are more than 300 cliff dwellings, most of which are a simple one room. The ecosystem was interesting here – on the south facing walls of the canyon and island, it was arid and there was a lot of cacti growing. On the north facing walls, it was all Douglas firs and Ponderosa Pines. There is a trail that takes you down into the canyon 350 feet or 250 stairs. Then you walk around the island and can peer into the rooms. After your stroll around the island, you have to walk back up all those stairs. I did mention that we are at 7000 feet, right? You could really tell that the air was a lot thinner. I met a ranger as I'm on my way back up and stopped to chat. He told me that the key is to read all the interpretive signs on the way up, not the way down to give yourself breathers. Duh!!! I didn't think of that. Anyway, the air was brisk and it had that pine tree smell – it was lovely.

A look into the Canyon

This is what one of the rooms looked like on the island

My camping spot was Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow AZ. Park is known for it's, wait for it......dwellings. I decided that I didn't need to see anymore so I passed on the Ruins. The campground was pretty empty, only a few other campers which was nice. I parked way down on the far end and had nothing and nobody around me. 

See little ol' me way over all by myself

 

I took Miko for an evening walk. As we are walking along, out jumped the biggest rabbit I have ever seen. It was almost as big as Miko. I think it might have been a jack rabbit – I don't think I've ever seen one before. Holy cow, was that thing big. I remember watching some old horror movie when I was young about giant flesh eating rabbits. I think they might have used this one as the model. We scared up a few more jack rabbits who were not quite as large but sure bigger than our little cottontails back home.

Saturday

Going to hit Petrified Forest National Park today. National Parks are usually impressive. They can only be created by Congress which means that Congress has to agree on something.

I had read that the Petrified Forest was RV and pet friendly so I drove the RV and dragged the car down to the south entrance. Ok, let's just say that I was a little bit underwhelmed in the beginning. There are a bunch of logs lying around on the ground, yeah, they are stone logs, but it still looked like a logging operation in Minnesota. Miko and I were walking around the logs at the visitor center when a busload of Asian people showed up with their cameras. When I would sit Miko down to take her picture, three or four of them would be snapping away. Miko was very gracious although she eventually got this look on her face like 'Enough, already'.

Maybe I'm just not understanding the significance here

Miko's photo shoot

Miko and her new friend Zero at the Crystal Forest

There is a 28 mile road through the park with various turnouts. Miko and I did a walk through the Crystal Forest which is where the innards of the logs were all quartz – sort of pretty, but still I'm underwhelmed. As we move north, it is mostly grasslands and then we come to the Blue Mesa. When I first started through the Blue Mesa, I'm thinking “ok, but not as cool as our badlands or Teddy Roosevelt's park.” But then I got into the thick of it and it really was pretty. Then we go a little further thru more grassland and then Wowser – I have arrived at the Painted Desert. This is a huge canyon where the walls are about every color of red that you can imagine. Of course I have no pictures of this part of the park, but take my word for it. If you see nothing else, you need to see the Painted Desert.



Blue Mesa

Hopped on I-40, which according to my Route 66 scholar, is over much of the old Route 66. Of course, since it is all freeway, there is not much charm. I left behind Arizona and moved into New Mexico. I spent almost exactly one month in Arizona and only scratched the surface. I will definitely have to come back.

My campground for the night is Red Rock County Park just a little bit east of Gallup NM. Twenty six miles from the Arizona border. The red rocks are pretty, but the whole campground is nothing but thick sand and pretty unlevel sand at that. I had a hard time making any sense of how this campground was laid out – it seemed like the electrical/water was just put about willy-nilly. It took me three different sites before I could get the rig level. But, I'm settled now for the night. There are only three other campers here.

Red Rock Campground

I Think I Could Have a Long Term Relationship (with Sedona)

Wednesday

I only have two days left here at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park and I still haven't been up to see Sedona. I tried to get a couple more days here but the park is booked solid, so it was no-go. There are two things that I want to do in Sedona – I want to visit the art galleries and I want to hike as many trails as possible. I decided that today I would head up to Sedona without Miko and do the gallery thang.

I headed up Highway 179 which goes through Oak Creek which is south of Sedona. I had also heard that this was the most scenic way into Sedona and I heard right. You go over the crest of a hill and there are all of these red rocks in just amazing formations. I stopped at the National Forest Station to talk to them about possible trails that would suit my minimal hiking style. They had a short movie playing at the Forest station which was basically just a bunch of still pictures of all the beautiful natural rocks in the area. I wish I was staying longer so that I could see them all. I left the station with a bunch of maps and headed into town. I stopped at a few galleries and before I knew it the afternoon was done and I had only visited two sites. There was some rather unique art – I found a wonderful glass shop. I am partial to glass. One artist had taken thin strands of glass and laid them down as though she was weaving. There was a distinct warp and weft. She then fired the glass and when it came out, she manipulated the shape so it became vase like. I haven't seen this before, weaving with glass.

When I got back to Dead Horse, I got some mail from home which was nice. That is one advantage to staying places a little longer – you can get some of those niceties like packages from home.

Thursday

Today is Hike Day and Miko gets to come. To top it off, the weather is gorgeous – in the sixties and sunny. We have decided that Little Horse Trail would be the appropriate trail for us – it is supposed to be only about three miles roundtrip. The trail is hard packed red sand and fairly easy with a few little ups and downs. I can't remember when I have enjoyed a hike more. The scenery was beautiful and since this was a heavily used trail, every single person out there was smiling and enjoying themselves. At the end of the trail, it is marked 'More difficult' and you have to climb for a little bit up to a place called Chicken Point. I wasn't too sure about climbing up because of that height issue that I have, but I figured this was a once in a lifetime thing, I should continue on. I am so glad I did. It was a little bit hard and my legs were getting a little wobbly but I made it. Sat myself down on the top and shared a bottle of water with Miko and ate a little lunch.

In Sedona, there is something called the Pink Jeep Tours. Big pink open-air jeeps that they put maybe eight people in and take you out into the back country to see the sights. Evidently on the back side of this Chicken Point, there is a road that you can take to get up to the top. You need a 4-wheel drive off-road vehicle to do it, but jeeps qualify. Right around the time I got up to the top of Chicken Point, not one, not two but five pink jeeps showed up. Swarms of people. They only stayed for maybe 15 minutes and then they were off for their next adventure leaving Miko and me up there alone. Alone except for the mountain bikes that were working their way up the rock. Again – everybody friendly and smiling. How could you not?

Sedona seems to be a pretty special place. There is a definite feeling of peace and groundedness that you feel. They have many many miles of trails and I only did one.    On top of that, you have some of the most beautiful scenery that I have seen. The weather, year-round ain't too shabby either. I wish I had more time here, I want to explore a lot more of the trails. I have to leave the area tomorrow. 

BTW - Little Horse Trail turned out to be 5.6 miles and 38 flights of stairs according to my FitBit.

My Sedona Hike

 

Trail on the Left Side

View from Chicken Point - I am very careful not to go too close to the edge

Bikers on top of Chicken Point

Whoot, Whoot

Monday was another rainy day. I decided to just hole up and pay bills, laze around and just basically enjoy the day. I had Katie, Joe and their dog Libby over for dinner. Miko got a little irritated at Libby when Libby moved right in and commandeered her toys, but other than that, it was still a harmonious, pleasant evening.

Tuesday I decided that I should get out and about and knock off a few National Monuments. Again, both monuments allowed dogs to visit also so Miko and I headed out the door together.

First up was Tuzigoot (said TWO-see-whoot – the whoot cracks me up). Tuzigoot is the remmantf a Sinagua village built between 1000 and 1400 A.D. It is on the top of a hill. I was a little disappointed because most of it has been rebuilt by the National Park Service which means it is more contemporary, just a replica. The site itself is real, but it was almost like the soul was gone. The interesting thing about this particular setting was that these rooms were all built with no doors or windows. The way people would get into these rooms would be through holes in the roof.

Next up was Montezuma Castle. This was a five-story, 20-room dwelling built sometime between 1100 and 1300, so pretty much the same era as Tuzigoot. This place is built in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley. This particular ruin has not had hardly any reconstruction done to it. It is remarkably well preserved. It was really impressive and rather moving to see this structure. I was in awe about these ancient people building something like this.  Nobody knows why these people here and also at Tuzigoot abandoned these homes.

Back at the ranch, there had been a little excitement. Joe had been taking Libby, his golden retriever, for a walk while he rode his bike. A huge Rhodesian Ridgeback was off leash and ran out and attacked Libby. Joe jumped off his bike, threw the bike at the dog and then picked up a rock. The owner of the attack dog came out and secured his dog. Joe got the camp host, they talked to the owner. The owner apologized and admitted to Joe that this was not the first time that the dog had attacked another dog. Joe told the camp host that he wanted to file a report with a ranger and he wanted the dog's owner either to leave the park or get a ticket. This was late in the day, so the camp host said that the matter would be taken care of in the morning. Early the next morning, the attack dog and his owners quickly left the campground. There was no excuse for this to have happened. All dogs are supposed to be on leash and especially seeing as how this dog was known to be vicious, he should have been very much kept on a short leash instead of being free.

 

Copper Venus

Weather reports all said that up in the Flagstaff area they were expecting a foot and a half of snow. Also there were supposed to be high winds. I was heading to Cottonwood AZ which is about an hour south of Flagstaff so I was a little worried on several counts. One, Snow – the main reason I'm down here is to avoid snow. Two – we all know how I feel about high winds. Three – the road I am going to travel on crosses a mountain and made it into my Mountain Directory of Roads that have big changes in altitude. I decided I was going to make a run for it and just see how it goes.

The wind was about 20 miles an hour and was pretty much a tail wind so that didn't seem to hinder me too much. When I got to Milepost 281, there were all those signs warning truckers to check their brakes, sharp decline, truck runaway area in a couple of miles. All signs that fill you full of confidence. Not.... The speed limit was 65, but I cut my speed down to 55 and even though it was seven miles at 6%, I never had to downshift and would only apply my brakes sparingly. I would say it wasn't too bad except for the big drop offs on my right side. Actually, it is times like this where I wish somebody else was driving because the little glimpses I had out the window were drop dead beautiful.

Rolled into Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Once I got settled, I disconnected the car, threw Miko in the car and headed down to the Ranger Station to ask about which trails were the most scenic. After I got my list, I headed over to the trail that went around three Lagoons. It was an enjoyable trail – it was nice to be next to some water. There were ducks in the pond – haven't a clue what type they were except they were not mallards (the one duck type I knew).

I took lots of pictures but I seem to have lost my camera. It has to be someplace in the RV but it seems to be hiding. I have 256 square feet I'm living in. You would think that there would not be that many hiding places in the RV.

It started raining at night – It is nice to hear the rain on the roof. It rained and rained. What to do on a rainy day. I could clean house. I could stay in bed and sleep in. Naw – none of those sounded appealing. Miko and I took a walk in the rain around the campground and ran into a woman from Alaska who told me about a copper art museum in Clarkdale, the next town over. Sounded interesting so off I went.

This Copper Art Museum was fantastic and informative. The museum is located in the old Clarkdale High School which was built in 1928. You start off learning about copper, what it is, the mythology around it. Copper is associated with Venus, Women whereas Iron is associated with Mars and Men. There were a couple of informational signs talking about the difference between Copper/Woman and Iron/Men.

"Venus refuses to conform to any other planet in the solar system and spins in the opposite direction of any other planet; just to be difficult"

"The high levels of methane gas found in Mars atmosphere is significant evidence to suggest that men do indeed suffer from flatulence to a greater degree than women."

Seriously though, this museum had so many different rooms dealing with different aspects of copper. Did you know that turquoise is composed to a large part of copper? Who knew. There was a room that dealt with military use of copper, helmets and such. What was interesting here was that there was something called Trench Art. Back in WWI, soldiers would take used shell casings and adorn them with flowers and grapes and religious or nationalistic themes. There was a whole wall of this Trench Art. There were rooms that had copper jewelry or copper kitchen wares. I spent a couple of hours in this museum.

Trench Art

Then it was on to Jerome. Jerome is this tiny little town perched on the side of a mountain. The town was originally a copper mining town that has morphed into an artist colony when the mine shut down. The town is so small, the back side of the houses on one side of the street plunge into the valley and the back side of the houses on the other side of the street have the valley view also. Serious mountain town. I wandered around, bought some glass coasters that were handmade.

When I got home, Miko was happy to see me. Then there was a knock on the door. A couple of folks were standing outside. I had met the man earlier that day when I was walking the dog in the rain. He and his partner had a pizza and were inviting Miko and me over for dinner. I jumped at the chance and headed over. Joe and Katie are from Fort Collins Colorado and have a 28 foot Class C. They travel with their golden retriever and two cats. Miko fit right in with the group. Excellent conversation and excellent pizza. There are a lot of really nice and generous people that show up in this lifestyle.