A castle, a hole in the ground and a few repeats

The last few days, I’ve definitely done the tourist thing in Williams.  I ended up going back to the Grand Canyon on 2 different days, one of them was rainy and I had hoped to get a picture of the canyon with some lightening in it, but I wasn’t quick enough.  I also went back to Sedona to do a bit more hiking.  It was also a rainy, overcast day.  But the red rocks were still great!

One day I went to Meteor Crater, which is basically a hole in the ground.  The crater is about 570 feet deep and .75 miles in diameter – in others words it is a big hole!  The visitor center was interesting with all kinds of info on Meteors. 

That same day, I went to Montezuma Castle National monument.  It was rather interesting.  They believe the “castle” was a 20 room apartment and it is 4 stories high.  Just getting inside would be a chore.

 

I’m currently in Bernalillo, NM. It’s basically a suburb of Albuquerque.   I toured Old Town Albuquerque today.  It is mainly shops – I wasn’t there long!   For lunch, I ate at “The Range Cafe” in Bernalillo, NM.   I had one of the best meals that I have had while starting this adventure.    I might go back in a couple of days.

David asked me to write more information about living in my RV.  I don’t know how long it will take to get used to this, but I have a lot to still organize and a lot to learn.  I still have things under the dinette table, although I can now sit at the table.  I also have some things on the dinette seats.    I haven’t yet gotten a schedule like I had in my “Sticks ‘n Bricks” house.    Such as when to clean, what to clean…  I am finding that I sweep and mop much more, but that takes me just a few minutes since it’s so small.   I also need to work on a schedule for maintaining the RV – there is a lot that must be done to it.   Simple things like cleaning the air conditioner vents needs to be done every couple of weeks.  I have been in very dusty places recently so I’m guessing that’s why I need to do it this often. 

Tomorrow I’m headed for another National Monument and I am going to travel the Turquoise Scenic byway. 

Grand Canyon, National Monuments and Sedona

I arrived in Williams, AZ on Tuesday and am staying at the Grand Canyon  Railroad Campground.  Mostly pavement, but very clean and more space between sites than some campgrounds like this.  As you can see we did have a little bit of rain one night. (Don’t forget you can click on the picture to enlarge it)

Wednesday, I went to the Grand Canyon.  My plan was to take the shuttle to the far west end – Hermit’s Rest and hike about 8.5 miles back on the Rim trail.  I love this part of the trail because it is not as crowded as the part in the center of the park.   I ended up only hiking about 6 miles – another great thing about this hike is the shuttle stops not far from the trail in several places so if you get tired you can jump on and ride the rest of the way. 

The next day, I went to Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano National monument.  Wupatki pueblo was occupied  during the 1100’s.  Sunset Crater last erupted 900 years ago. 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday I went to Sedona.  I had intended to do 2 hikes, but once in town, I decided to play the tourist and take a Pink Jeep tour.  It’s great scenery and a fun 4-wheel drive tour.  After the tour, I hiked the West Fork trail  in Oak Creek Canyon.  

San Diego and Los Angeles 2

My second full day in San Diego, I went to the Wild Animal Park.  For those who don’t know about this park, it is associated with the San Diego Zoo, but is a bit different.  They have about 1800 acres so they have room for the animals to roam.  They have a “Journey into Africa tour” that I like.  I did it early in the morning as I feel that the animals are a bit more active then and you have a better chance of seeing them.  While not a great picture, it shows several different animals and that the animals roam freely.  They also have other zoo like exhibits.  I asked about the SUV in the picture below and they replied that in Africa on safaris, you often see old abandoned cars and the lions like them.  That seems to be true of this SUV, I watched a male and female lion get in and out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the walking so much at the Wild Animal park and the San Diego Zoo, I thought I would take it easy the next day.  I went to La Jolla and ended up walking about 2 hours on their path at the beach.

After leaving San Diego, I drove back to Montclair and picked up my RV.  It looks great, just like new. 

Yesterday morning I went to Will Rogers State Park, where there is a 20 mile Bike path (Marvin Braude Bikeway),  mostly on the beach.  I ended up riding my bike about 15 miles, seeing Venice Beach, the Santa Monica pier and “muscle beach” along with other interesting things.  Since I rode very early in the morning, I missed some of the interesting characters that frequent Venice Beach.  But I saw a few! I also ran into a Volleyball tournament not far from the park, which I ended up watching for a while.  When I got to the beach, it was very pretty – blue sky.  There was a strip of dark “stuff” over the ocean, which I assumed was LA smog.  I was wrong.  It didn’t move to fast, but then it seemed like all of a sudden everything was covered with Ocean fog.  In the picture below you can see the fog out over the ocean, then in the volleyball picture you can see no blue sky at all. 

Pomona and San Diego

I stayed at the KOA in Pomona, CA the 4th of July weekend because it is only 10 – 15 minutes from the Lazy Daze factory.  I had been warned that the sites were close together, but wow I have never seen them this close.  I literally could have leaned out my drivers side window and shared dinner with the people next door to me eating at their picnic table.  Anyway, it is convenient to the LD factory and the good news is that it is right next door to the Fairplex where they hold various events.  They had fireworks on the 4th, so all I had to do to see the show was walk to the edge of the campground.   I took pictures using my new camera.  I failed to bring a tripod – I should know better than

that – I’ve taken quite a few photography classes.  But the pictures didn’t turn out too bad.  The main give away is that it was close to a full moon and you can see the camera shake by the moon.

I dropped my RV off Monday morning to have the dent and a few other things fixed, then I drove to San Diego.  The weather is great here.  High 70’s to low 80’s during the day.  It’s just about perfect, especially after all those 100 + days. 

Today I went to the San Diego zoo.  This is one of my favorite zoo’s, in addition to the great animals they are also considered a botanical garden. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And watch out for those lions!!!!!

 

 

I did get a good laugh at a couple of parents explaining to their 5 – 6 year old why 2 Bonobos (pygmy chimps) were “wrestling”.  No pictures, I don’t want to be accused of distributing porn!