Bayfield Experience

Sunday 7am we took off from Show Low to Bayfield CO (18 miles east of Durango). The trip was uneventful even though we did hit rain for about 10 minutes (just long enough to get the coach & Lincoln filthy) and took us only 5.5 hours. We arrived at Bayfield Riverside RV Park to find out that the person I spoke with to make the reservation (actually she had called me to say they had a cancellation and that they could fit us in) didn't put it down in their system, so there was no reservation. Luckily they just got a cancellation, so we got that spot. So all worked out. We are surrounded by trees with a little pond behind us with a creek running through the park. It's nice, but rustic.

Later on in the evening, the electric power went off in our coach. No one else in the park was having a problem, just us. Then the power came back on after about 1/2 hour or so. It kept doing this, but couldn't figure out what was happening. So just let it go until we could call Newell to figure this out.

Monday, we had reservations for the Durango/Silverton Train. Had to be at the train station at 8:15 am (7:15 am AZ time) to board. We purchased tickets for a parlor car (for 21 years & older) which happened to be the last car of the train. I won't bore you with all the pictures I took (185), but just give you a sample so you can hopefully get the idea of the beauty of this country.

Our parlor car only sat 24, which a couple of table were empty. Only problem with this car was trying to take pictures through the small windows.

A view of our train as we rounded the cliffs.

 We followed the Animas River pretty much the whole route to Silverton.

The scenery was spectacular.

The trip up to Silverton takes 3 1/2 hours to go 45 miles. The train is all original steam engine on a narrow track, which means there's a lot of movement back and forth. It could lull you to sleep.

We went to Handlebars for lunch in Silverton. This was the most popular and best restaurant which we later found out. Our food was excellent after only about a 15 minute wait. The place was just packed.

View of one the main street in Silverton. We had just beautiful weather, it was in the low 70s at 9300 feet elevation. The trip back on the train as we got to lower elevation got much warmer, in fact a little too warm on the train.

This is heading back after 2 hours in Silverton. The trip back to Durango also takes 3.5 hours. It just makes for a long day. We were exhausted when we got back even though we just sat for the past 10 hours.

Jim enjoying the view from the rear of the parlor car.

We got into Durango at 6pm and headed back to the RV. Hung out for a while then went to bed.

Tues. a.m. we called Newell to ask about our electrical power issue. They indicated that when your power source has a high fluctuation of amperage the surge/trans. box will shut off. He told us to run off the generator or we would burn up the box which costs $800. So the generator is running. We informed the park of the issue and they claim that their power source could not be the problem. How do you argue the issue? So we will just see at the next park if we have the same issue, then it's probably us.

We washed the RV and Lincoln this morning because you couldn't even see out the windows they were so dirty. Then we just took a drive around the area and ended up at 3 wineries, all were good and came back with new wines for our collection.

Don't know if we will leave a day early (tomorrow) for Albuquerque because of our power issue or wait till our planned day of departure on Thurs. Will see how it goes.

Last Day in Show Low

I am posting today's post this afternoon as we are heading out early tomorrow morning for southern CO. Yesterday, there wasn't anything interesting to post. Just went for a drive then played golf at Silver Creek Golf after we had lunch there. The golf was hot and dusty - boy did that beer taste good when we got back to the RV.

Today we took the beautiful drive to Greer. As we passed by the casino, the Lincoln just pulled right in and parked. We just felt obligated to get out and spend some time there. Another 20 minutes we walked out with our lunch money again of $26.

It's about 30-40 miles to Greer from the casino, but the elevation goes up to around 8000 ft. from 6500 ft. at Show Low. The temp was just perfect around 78 degrees. Stopped and walked to the little creek that runs along the side of the road through Greer.

With the $26 burning a hole my pocket, we stopped at a neat little diner in Greer.

 With such beautiful weather temp wise, how could you not sit outside to enjoy the beautiful trees and scenery.

We both had a mesquite hamburger that was absolutely delicious and filling - no dinner for me tonight. The bill came to $25.40 (another great

Now back at the RV, we are enjoying a quiet afternoon in the A/C thinking about getting things ready to pull out tomorrow a.m. heading north to Bayfield, CO.

The data signal for the internet is so slow this afternoon that it has taken me over an hour just to do this post. Hopefully it will be better where we are heading.

Terrific Thursday

Our first day in Show Low and the temp was pleasant, only got a high of 97 (much better than Tucson). We just took off for a drive with no certain place in mind. Drove down through Pinetop and ended up at the Hondah Casino. Twenty minutes of hard labor we walked out of the casino $21 richer and decided that would just the right amount for lunch. So we headed to Pinetop Lakes Country Club, where since we were already there, decided that a round of golf would be a pleasant activity. After getting a tee time, we headed to their restaurant and had 2 salads and 2 ice teas that came to $20.99. (Well we did need to kick in a tip over our $21 winnings.)

Pinetop Lakes Golf course is a par 63 short course, but the scenery and setting is quite beautiful among the pines.

Looks like it's wildcat country here too!

The course was in great shape. Even though it is a short course, many of the holes are challenging.

Some tees were dressed up with flowers.

This little guy sure knew where to get his drink of water.

Squirrels were plentiful.

Our motorhome is sitting that our patio is on the westerly side, so needed to wait until after 6pm when the sun was blocked by the RV next to us to sit outside. But enjoyed our evening anyways on the patio, BBQing and watching the basketball draft.

Today, another round of golf probably. We will experience another golf course, haven't decided which one yet.

Globe Warming

Yesterday (Wed.) we left Tucson at 11am for higher elevation and cooler weather (Tucson is expected to reach a high of 113). Our trek up the mountain tested the RV. Climbing the mountain into Globe the motorhome started to loose power, was down to 20mph at most hills. We knew something was wrong because with a 625hp diesel motor, there is enough power to cruise up any mountain. When we reached the peak and was cruising into Globe, AZ the check engine light came on. We pulled over and called a Caterpillar service center in Show Low (luckily there was one so close). We described the problem and they thought we might be able to limp into Show Low.

Well, we took off and made it only about 5 miles because we just didn't have any power. We found a paved pullout and parked (80 miles from our destination). Called Cat service again. By now it is 2pm.

Over the phone he directed us to look for the problem in the engine compartment. We found the culprit immediately. The turbo boost hose bursted. Gave the service person all the pertinent info. He said it might be around 4 hours before he could get to us.

Luckily we can sit in an air conditioned motorhome to wait as it was about 110 degrees outside. We were in a dead zone, so didn't have internet, but still had all the other conveniences. It was about 6pm when he got there, changed out the hose and off we went.

Arrived at the Venture In RV Park at 7:40, called the park hosts to check in. After they saw the size of our coach (they never believe me over the phone when I describe our size) they changed the lot they had originally assigned to us to what they said was a premium lot. Well it was an adventure fitting our RV into this "premium" lot. As you can see, we are on a diagonal just to fit.

It's a nice clean RV Park, the people are just wonderful and the temperatures are much cooler. After we got settled last night, we enjoyed wine outside on the patio. What a pleasure with the temperature around 70s. A beautiful end to a stressful day.

Today - another adventure awaits us around the corner.

Cooler Temp Trip

What do you do when the temperature is suppose to reach 108 degrees? Why of course you leave town towards higher country and cooler temps. Well that's what we did when Jim got home from work on Friday - we left town to higher country - Flagstaff. It was suppose to only be in the high 80s there, but it turned out to be in the high 90s on Sat.

We got into Flagstaff about 6pm Friday after a 4 hour drive (it took a little bit longer because of Phoenix traffic). Checked into the Hilton Garden Inn, got settled into the room then took off for dinner at a new casino, Twin Arrows, about 20 miles east of Flagstaff. Had a great burger and a couple of beers at the sports bar there, then hit the slots for a couple of hours.

Sat. morning we were up bright and early looking for a diner on Route 66 and we came upon one which turned out to be a good choice, The Crown Railroad Cafe.

A model train made trips overhead as you enjoyed your food.

Lots of paraphernalia hanging on the walls and shelves in regards to Route 66 and railroads.

We both orders what we thought was normal breakfasts, but as you can see, they were designed for hearty eaters.

 And as you can see - Jim is a hearty eater (well, I was too)!

We were finished with breakfast before 8am, so we decided to go site seeing. Drove 15 miles east on Hwy 89 to Sunset Crater.

We were quite surprised to find lava (no we did not transport ourselves to Hawaii), in fact quite a bit of lava that came from the crater that erupted between 1040 and 1100.

Here is the Sunset Crater, there were no roads up to the top, I believe there are trails that you can hike up there, but we didn't (actually we needed to after that big breakfast).

Continuing on the loop road, you run into Indian ruins. Here is the Wokoki pueblo.

We took the short hike to climb this old pueblo.

 From atop the dwelling looking out.

Next we drove to Walnut Canyon National Monument about 7 miles east of Flagstaff. Here there are many Indian cliff dwellings that you can hike to view and climb around inside the cliffs. The hike down was strenuous, using muscles you normally don't use. I believe it was about a 200 ft. drop, literally down the cliff.

Jim pointing to the blacken top of inside the dwellings most likely from fires.

 The trip up was much harder than going down (yes we burned off our breakfast calories). The ranger said there were about 240 steps with an elevation change of about 200 ft. Boy were the muscles burning and the heart pumping. We enjoyed many scenic stops along the way up the side of the mountain!

Next we went to Lowell Observatory. We looked through a special telescope to see the sun. It was a bright red ball and you could see solar flares that are actually higher that the earth is in diameter.

We went on the Mars Tour, which gave the history of the Lowell Observatory and we viewed the Clark Telescope which was built in 1896. In 1912, V.M. Slipher using this telescope discovered the first evidence of the expanding universe beyond the Milky Way galaxy.

After our fill of education we needed to change gears and headed to the Wine and Food Festival.  We got there about 2:30 and most of the food vendors were out of food, the wine vendors were close to be out of wine. But we did get to do some wine tasting and had a couple pieces of pizza. The event was from noon until 5 so we thought getting there at 2:30 was a great time - but we learned - in Flagstaff you need to get there early if you want to taste all the vendor's fares.

After about a little over an hour at the festival, we were ready to go back to the hotel and sit back and relax. We had an event filled day and our legs were hurting from that climb up the mountain. Ended up just walking across the street to Sizzler for dinner, then called it a night.

Sunday just packed up and headed home ahead of all the traffic. Now we are sitting at home enjoying the a/c while it is close to 100 degrees outside. All-in-all it was a fun quick trip. Didn't find much cooler weather, but was much more bearable than 100+ degrees here.

Memorial Day Drive

I'm a little late in getting this posted. We went for a drive up to Mt. Lemmon on Memorial Day. I believe everyone else in Tucson had the same idea. The road was quite busy both ways with holiday traffic, but it still was a pleasant drive - since we were not in any hurry and just enjoying the day. The weather was a beautiful 91 degrees at the bottom of the mountain and decreased to 69 degrees at the ski resort area. We made it just in time for lunch (boy was our timing good or what?), so stopped at the Iron Door at the ski resort for a tasty lunch of a salad and brats/german potato salad/red cabbage, which was quite tasty.

The inside the Iron Door restaurant is a rustic cabin feel. They also have a nice patio for eating outside, but we took an inside table so the wait was not as long.

 Here is a view of the ski slope from the front of the restaurant.

Then walking across the street you can take the ski lift up to the top of the mountain. We have done that in the past so didn't partake in this trip that day.

Then from the parking lot here is looking, I believe, east to the desert below.

Here is a view of driving back through Summerhaven. I was impressed with all the rebuilding after the fire up there several years ago where it took out the whole town and many homesites. The homes that they rebuilt are beautiful, big log cabins (if you could call them cabins). Plus in their rebuilding the town they added a few restaurants to draw more people up there.

Then we just followed all the traffic back down the mountain into 96 degree weather. All in all it was a very pleasant drive. Haven't been up to Mt. Lemmon since the fire and was pleasantly surprised what we found.

Memorial Day

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."

--Joseph Campbell--

And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.

--Joseph Drake--