Author: Paul

Tripometer – 12,518 mi

Gas Gauge –  948.996 gal

Location – Holbrook / Petrified Forest KOA, AZ

Lodging – $34

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke this morning and ran out of the trailer in full tourist mode, grabbed a breakfast sandwich and coffee at McDonald’s and were in Petrified Forest National Park in no time flat. We had heard from several people (you know who you are) that this park wasn’t as interesting as most and could be skipped. Not deterred, and following two days of rock hunting in the Arizona hills, we were ready to view some rocks that other people have found for us.

 

We found to our delight that Petrified Forest National Park prides themselves on being dog friendly. Not only are dogs allowed anywhere in the park except buildings, the visitor center has a “Bark Ranger” program (A ‘personalized certificate’, a couple of treats and a poop bag). We were prepared to have Ranger spend most of the day in the car as per the usual in National Parks. This was a pleasant surprise. Ranger responded to this tremendous freedom by giving us a heart attack by deciding to poop within a foot or two from a tremendous canyon drop-off. Do you really need a great view to do your business?

The national park is comprised mainly of a 22 mile North/South road with a dozen different pull offs for trails, overlooks, and interesting sites. Aside from petrified wood, the National Park has a wide variety of canyons, Native American Indian petroglyphs and a memorial to old Rt 66 which ran through the park until the 80’s.

  

We expected petrified wood and lots of it, but what we didn’t expect was the tremendous variety and the stunning beauty of the petrified wood. This area of Arizona is known for their spectacular rainbow petrified wood. The incredibly wide variety of colors that can be found within one piece of petrified wood is amazing. On the other hand, there were many specimens that appeared to have little to no change from their original coloring, making them look like they fell only a few years ago. We’ve included a few pictures to give a flavor for what we saw.

On our way back to the trailer in the evening we stopped by the largest rock shop in Holbrook, AZ, Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood. The scale of this shop is beyond anything we’ve ever seen. There was probably close to an acre of petrified wood next to the shop, all of it too large to be picked up by hand. Inside the shop there was a collection of petrified wood that was clearly generations old and thrilling to look at. We want to find a beautiful piece of petrified wood for our house and spent well over an hour digging through literally piles of petrified wood behind this shop. They had many pieces inside that had been selected and worked, but we were looking for something a bit more natural looking than the cut and polished pieces selling for hundreds of dollars. After an exhaustive search that turned up a half dozen possible pieces, we decided to sleep on it and left empty handed.

Returning to camp we were surprised to see a dozen freshly planted trees in a bed right next to our trailer. Less than a foot from the trailer to be exact. The gardener had clearly been busy today. With a big day behind us and a long drive ahead of us tomorrow we went to bed early.

Special Note: Mosquitos! Climbing on top of petrified wood piles this evening we were set upon by mosquitos. We haven’t run across a mosquito since Montana over 2 months ago. We’re not so happy to run into these little blood suckers again.

 Tripometer – 12,446 mi

Gas Gauge –  939.577 gal

Location – Holbrook / Petrified Forest KOA, AZ

Lodging – $34

Cans of OFF – 4

Waving goodbye to Distant Drums, we headed out this afternoon on our way to Petrified Forest National Park. There is no camping in the National Park. The only camp sites in the immediate area are RV Parks. Based on google reviews of the local RV parks we begrudgingly made reservations at the Holbrook, AZ KOA for the night.

Today’s drive took us back through Flagstaff and we took the opportunity to visit a local dog wash. The filthy beast needs a scrubbing’. With a refreshed and fluffed golden we continued East along Rt 40 following the old Rt 66.

Kelly stopped more than a few times today at various roadside shops and stands to peer at the local wares. We both got a kick out of various locations along the old Rt 66. including the ‘Standin’ on a Corner’ monument in Winslow, AZ. If this reference doesn’t hit you right between the eyes, Google the song ‘Take it Easy’ by the Eagles. They even have a flatbed Ford parked right out front for photos. We’re not sure it’s possible for someone from our generation to pass through Winslow on Rt 40 without stopping for a picture here.

We passed through a couple of mountain passes outside of Flagstaff today that had our poor truck really struggling. One pass in particular stands out. The truck reached a low speed of about 38mph and we got passed by a Jeep Wrangler. Being Jeep owners, we can confidently say that if you get passed by a Wrangler on the highway you’re going REALLY slow.

Pulling into the KOA this evening we found the little park to be better than our expectations. It looked relatively well taken care of and many improvements were new. There was a staffed onsite concession advertising all-you-can-eat pancakes for $2.99. We might have to check that out! Of course, on an evening when we’re not worried about our cell signal for Kelly’s work the next day we find ourselves with one of the strongest signals we’ve seen on this trip this evening. C’est la vie.

Tripometer – 12,275 mi

Gas Gauge –  923.963 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

When Kelly finished work this afternoon we headed about an hour and a half East to investigate another rock collecting site from our rock hounding book. Today we’re on the hunt for fossils. The region we are headed towards is called the Mongollan Rim. 330-410 million years ago this area was at the bottom of a huge inland sea inhabited by ancient sea life. The specimens we are after are encased in the local limestone and can only be accessed by breaking open limestone rock with a hammer or similar instrument.

The weather is gorgeous and we were both looking forward to spending time in the pine forest where the fossil bed is located. It has been quite a while since we have seen full size trees and we’re both rather excited by the concept of hanging around outside in the shade instead of in the Arizona sun. We followed the dirt road avoiding the large, possibly deep, puddles and parked the car on the side of the side road to start our search. The fossil grounds were easily 2 miles from the nearest paved road, so we decided to let Ranger roam free for the first time in almost a month outside of a dog park. He lost his mind and spent the next 20 minutes doing nothing but running back and forth by us in the forest as we pounded rocks.

We found some fossils almost immediately. The limestone was, in many cases, easy to open along existing cracks in the rock. We found more than a few species of shellfish, but sadly most of it was fragmentary and certainly not something that warranted spending more time on. After looking for a couple of hours or so we were prowling around the side of a hill when Paul found a spherical rock that turned out to be a beautiful fossilized clam. What we found most amazing was the fact that it was not encased in rock but just lying on the ground like an Easter egg. We assumed for the time that another fossil hunter had left it behind. Returning to the car while patting our backs for the score, we stumbled across two more in the road bed. Some additional searching turned up the collection on the left (by this time we were being relatively selective about quality). Some research on the Googles tells us that these particular guys are from the genus Atrypa and likely from the Devonian period and over 300 million years old… Then we drove the car over 300 million year old fossils all the way out of the fossil beds.

Ranger was a tired boy on the way home tonight. It was really nice to let him free for a while. No puppy should stay this restrained for this long.

Special Note: There’s something to be said for settling into a location. We have settled into Distant Drums. We are taking electricity for granted, the water isn’t sputtering when you turn it on from air in the lines, and we know where the important things like showers and the dog park are without getting out a map or finding an access code for a door lock. Living on the road, it seems like a huge amount of daily energy goes into where the basics are going to come from. When the basics are taken care of, the mind can relax and think about something other than water, shelter, and warmth.

Tripometer – 12,190 mi

Gas Gauge –  923.963 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

One of the things that we like to do when in the Southwest is rock hounding. We haven’t had a chance to do much digging so far in this trip, but we hope to change that over the next few weeks. In Washington we stopped at a rock shop and bought two books on rock hounding the Arizona and New Mexico areas. This area is known for its gem and mineral deposits. We’ve identified a couple of areas within an hour or so of a drive that we want to check out before we leave. The first place we’re going to go to is more about its proximity to our RV park than for the type of mineral we are going to find. The Camp Verde Salt Mines are located about 10 miles from our campsite.

 

Taking Ranger, we investigated the salt mines with intent to find some of the minerals that our book suggests we might find here. The prettiest specimens we found today were of Glauberite or Sodium Calcium Sulfate. The two pictures above are of one perfect glauberite crystal and several amalgams of crystals that we found in the hills surrounding the salt mine. We both enjoy looking for rocks mostly because it gives us something to do while we hike amongst these beautiful hills. It’s like a distraction from a distraction.

Leaving with our crystal specimens we decided to find a hike in the Red Rock Canyon area just south of Sedona. Red Rock State Park was highly recommended to us by several people and we know the area to be pet friendly. Arriving at Red Rock Canyon State Park before dusk we were upset to learn that the park was NOT pet friendly AND they were charging a $10 fee per person even though we were less than an hour before close. Disgusted we travelled on to another nearby State Park recommended by the ranger at Red Rocks, only to find that they too wanted an entrance fee mere moments before closing. Apparently the park is a favorite with photographers looking to get night shots of the landscape under a full moon. The park doesn’t kick anyone out at closing, they just don’t admit anyone after closing. Not wanting to spend $20 for a 30min hike, we decided to go back into Sedona to stop by a couple of shops in the area and get dinner at a local Sushi restaurant. We did leave with a few photos of the canyons in the area.

Sedona is an interesting place. There is a huge new age movement in Sedona centered around what are called the Sedona Vortices. Neither of us know much in specific about the vortices, but we did notice a huge number of new age focused businesses in town. From salt rooms, essential oils, and incense to meditation, yoga, and spiritual enlightenment, this area is filled with people looking for more meaning in life. We were especially thrilled today when standing taking pictures at an overlook we heard a tour guide explaining to her two tourists how the tree they were standing next to had ‘male energies moving in a clockwise direction and female energies moving in a counterclockwise direction around the tree trunk’. Needless to say both tourists hugged the tree for a long while. We would have grabbed a picture but we couldn’t find a clandestine way, and we may have been inwardly laughing too hardily to take a photo anyhow.

Special Note: We have been hearing very odd animal calls at night around the RV park. Not sure what we were listening to, we asked the front desk and they confirmed that we were hearing wild pigs. That would explain the ‘Javelina Cantina’ restaurant in downtown Sedona.

Tripometer – 12,065 mi

Gas Gauge –  908.875 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

We awoke this morning to a cold and rainy day outside. Thankfully we stocked up and cleaned the trailer yesterday giving us a nice area to work in during the day. Kelly has been in a groove with work over the past couple of days and has gotten on top of her regular work as well as pounded out her yearly performance appraisal. Paul has started to turn around the 3 week backlog of blog posts on Lessintents. During one period of rain in the morning, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the area. It was an interesting demonstration of the power of the emergency broadcast system to hear 100+ cell phones across the RV park all scream the emergency alert sound at the same time.

Our RV park this week has a nice dog park located about 50 feet from our trailer. We have been using the dog park as a tool to help work on Ranger’s aggressive behavior towards other dogs. Whenever we hear other dogs at the dog park we have been taking Ranger over to play. Sometimes he is so wound up going into the park that he has to take a breather at the fence to calm down a bit, nosing the other dogs within the park through the fence. So far we have been very pleased that he seems to only be aggressive when on a leash and not when in the dog park and off leash. Specifically, Ranger has been enjoying the company of a black lab named Cricket. Cricket’s owner, we call him ‘Sarge’, is a retired military man who wakes up at crazy early hours and always has a cigar, lit or otherwise, sticking out of his mouth. By day three or so Ranger had learned that Sarge brings Cricket to the dog park at 6-7ish every morning. For the past couple of days we have been woken up by Ranger running from one end of the trailer to the other (running over our sleeping forms in the process) whining to go play with Cricket in the dog park. He sure does need his canine companionship. Kelly, on the other hand, needs her coffee in the morning before social activities. This week she has been learning how to have casual conversation with Sarge before her morning caffeine. On the upside, having Ranger fully exercised at 8am has its benefits too!

In the evening today we sat down and had a proper discussion about the next few weeks. We have decided to target the end of the year to be home in Maryland. With that being determined, we have two major stops that we are trying to cover before we head home; New Orleans & the Florida shore. On our way east we want to hit a few smaller destinations; Petrified Forest National Park, Tombstone, AZ, Rock Hound State Park, and El Paso, TX. The current plan has us hitting those destinations in that order. Paul will be working over the next few days to see if we can find a good campsite in or around New Orleans for our visit. Our experiences in LA and Las Vegas have shown us that having a campsite close to town really helps to ensure we have a good time. So many of the tourist destinations in cities aren’t dog friendly. We need to find a place where we can leave the dog relatively safely while we tour museums and galleries in the area. Oh, and the best restaurants in NOLA aren’t going to welcome Ranger either, though the doggy bags will certainly be welcome when we get back to the trailer.

 Tripometer – 12,065 mi

Gas Gauge –  908.875 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

Mondays are for chores. After goofing off all weekend we spent Monday catching up on life. While Kelly worked Paul pounded away at the blog and tidied up the trailer. Over the past week we have been eating out a lot rather than cooking in. To get back on the home cooked bandwagon, we pulled together a large list for a Walmart down the road in Cottonwood, AZ.

The AT&T cell signal that Kelly depends on for work has been so inconsistent since we entered Arizona that we have decided to purchase a Verizon hot spot. As we have struggled to find camping locations with good signal, we hope that a second cellular option will allow us more freedom to camp where we like. Verizon has two options for hot spots, a full cellular plan or a pay-as-you-go device for considerably less money. We’re not pleased with the prospect of buying a pay-as-you-go hot spot, but with only 2 months of travel time left on this trip we can hardly justify purchasing a hotspot and signing up for a multi-month cell plan.

After a fairly extensive shopping trip at the Walmart, we had a quiet night at home in the trailer with a little bit of TV and a home cooked meal. It’s nice to not be running from place to place for a change.

  Tripometer –  12036 mi

Gas Gauge –  908.875 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

No need for an alarm clock at the Distant Drums RV Park. There’s a small reginal airport located just over the hill and in a little valley near our campsite. Up until this morning the wind must have been blowing in the other direction. This morning at 8am sharp, a string of small engine planes took off right over our heads, climbing to altitude quickly as the end of the runway is aimed directly at the hill the RV Park is on. It’s been one of the more interesting aspects of our trip – What will we be camped next to this time?

We had plans to hang around camp today and talk about the rest of the trip to try and get some firm dates for our stay in New Orleans later next month. Kelly, being the football fan that she is, checked the football schedule and realized that Today’s Ravens game is at 11am our time. Travelling in the west makes it almost impossible to watch an East Coast football game. If a local bar is showing a game it is likely a nearby team on regular TV airways. To see the Ravens play you have to have the NFL network. Being right next to a casino we figured we could find the Ravens game on one of their big screens at their sports bar. We quickly packed up what we needed for the day, set up Ranger in the trailer with the AC running and the radio playing softly and took the shuttle bus from the RV park to the Casino, less than a half mile away.

Cliff Castle Casino is no mini Las Vegas but they did have a sports bar with $2.50 Budweisers for the game. About 50 feet from the sports bar entrance was a Johnny Rockets burger stand. We had everything we needed for a nice Sunday afternoon. The game was close, very close! So much so that it all came down to a tie if the Raven’s beloved kicker, Justin Tucker, could make the extra point. Justin has the title of the most accurate kicker in NFL history making over 90% of his field goal attempts. We both cackled at the look on his face when he realized he had missed this critical field goal. “Laces out!”

Several years ago we took a Sunday whilst in Las Vegas to sit and watch a football game while playing a video poker game at the casino. Neither of us are gamblers and almost never seek out gambling, but the thoughts of our last experience playing video poker together encouraged us to find a machine in the casino. We decided we would gamble with $40. If nothing came of the $40 we would tuck our tails and run back to the campsite. On our 38th attempt ($38) we struck “big,” winning $160 on 4 aces. Once we took pictures of the screen we immediately hit ‘Cash Out’ and ran to the cashier. There was no way that our luck was going to get any better than that. Here’s to free beer and food while watching the Sunday game!

Returning to camp we enjoyed the sunset overlooking the Camp Verde valley for the third night in a row. What a fantastic little RV Park we’ve found.

 Tripometer –  12,036 mi

Gas Gauge –  908.875 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

Our intention in coming to the Sedona, AZ area was to wind down from our crazy few weeks with Stratis and Dave. After finding the Distant Drums RV Park we’re both thinking we may have found our place to sit back and relax for a week and let Kelly get caught up on work after taking a week plus off. The scenery in this area is fantastic. Even in the heart of downtown Sedona, the mountains and mesas peeking out from behind traffic and shopping malls give the entire town a smaller and more comfortable feel. It’s no wonder that everything in this town is overpriced and chock full of tourists.

We drove into Sedona this morning to see what Sedona has to offer. We parked behind the community arts center at one end of town and proceeded to hike the entire shopping district. Kelly enjoyed the preponderance of jewelry and native craft stores. The selection of stores in town ranged from high end art stores with pieces targeted at the tremendously wealthy to junk shops filled with overpriced T-shirts for the not-so-wealthy. Ranger enjoyed all of the attention from passing shoppers. Towards the end of the day we shopped our way South out of Sedona, stopping at art stores and a tremendous variety of junk shops with everything from frontier antiques to 12 foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex statues made from steel. (Ranger decided he didn’t like the looks of the T-Rex and growled at it as we pulled in. After Ranger fiercely alerted us to the prehistoric prowler’s presence, he got up and sat on the other side of the truck – the “safe from a T-Rex” side of the vehicle apparently. Kelly decided that she needed to go pet the statue and stand for a picture. Ranger quietly glared as Kelly brazenly walked up and greeted the T Rex.)

The temperatures today are sufficiently high that we’re hesitant to leave Ranger in the car long enough to enjoy ourselves at the Octoberfest celebration this evening. In lieu of that we went to a local bistro in town for a nice meal. We were both repulsed at the restaurant’s description of their ‘traditional’ crab cake. Similar to our experience with the Arizona Cheesesteak offered to us in Page, AZ a few days ago, we were horrified by the Southwest’s take on the Maryland classic. Who puts gruyere cheese in a crab cake, Arizonans?

Special Note: We mentioned that the Distant Drums RV Park has groomed pads with a nice small pea gravel covering most of the camp site. It didn’t take us long to come to the decision that the risk of scorpions was sufficiently low here that we could let Ranger frolic outside the camper in the evenings. He’s ecstatic.

Tripometer –  11982 mi

Gas Gauge –  908.875 gal

Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $28

Cans of OFF – 4

After a call to Rancho Sedona this morning we realized that we were likely not going to secure a site within the city of Sedona for the weekend. Not wanting to be stuck in a hotel for the whole weekend, we quickly phoned the casino RV Park and made reservations until Sunday. Kelly worked until around noon (late checkout) and we packed up and moved everything to the Distant Drums RV Park about 10 minutes up the highway. Wow, were we wrong about this place.

We’ve seen a lot of RV Parks on our trip. Good to bad, most parks leave something to be desired. The Distant Drums RV Park was fantastic. We checked in with the wonderfully friendly staff at the front desk and were led to our campsite by an employee in a golf cart. The site pad had been raked and the concrete pad swept before our arrival. The view of the surrounding valley from our site was better than most views we’ve experienced and our site was a little removed from most of the sites in the RV park, making for some well needed seclusion. We could not have been happier. Over the next few hours we discovered that not only were we about 40 feet from the individual shower / bathroom combinations (a huge luxury on the road) but also the coin laundry and dog park! Most amazingly, this RV park was charging only $28 per night, simply an unheard of rate for a site with electric and water. We’re probably going to spend more than a few nights here and we’re both kicking ourselves for spending two nights in a hotel 10 minutes away.

After Kelly finished working with a fantastic cellular connection, we drove into Sedona to get the lay of the land. Our first stop in town was a small store called the Clear Creek Trading Company. We had plans to investigate a good part of town tonight but this one store occupied us for well over an hour. Neither of us have ever seen such a tremendous collection of neat things. The store sells a large variety of Indian goods; leather, furs, skulls, music, instruments, beads, blankets, jewelry, books, knives, and even Jackalopes. We simply got lost in this store. Paul’s favorite bin in the beading section was labeled ‘Assorted Vertebrae’. This is not your average bead shop! If this is an example of the things we’re going to be seeing during the rest of our stay in Sedona, we’re going to have a great time here.

Returning to camp we spent the remainder of the evening unpacking the trailer for an extended stay and enjoying cable TV for the first time since we left home. Little things like a news channel playing softly in the background are enough to make us feel like we are home in a way that we haven’t felt in a long time.

Tripometer – 11912 mi

Gas Gauge –  908.875 gal

Location – Days Inn, Camp Verde, AZ

Lodging – $100

Cans of OFF – 4

Paul contacted the Rancho Sedona RV Park a half an hour before the hotel checkout time this morning. Sadly, there have been no cancellations for the weekend and therefore we have no destination for tonight. We need a plan.

Kelly got in a great day of work yesterday, owing in large part to a quiet hotel room with a solid internet connection. The hotel room is easy and it isn’t hard to appreciate the shower 10 feet away with scads of fresh clean towels that we don’t have to take care of. We decided fairly quickly that it would be nice to let Kelly continue her furious pace and catch up on some longer term projects at work that she’s been procrastinating. Given our frantic pace for the past few weeks, Paul wanted to get caught up on some personal finance, photo, blog, and trip planning work as well. We truly settled into the hotel room during the afternoon, barely saying anything to one another as we sunk into padded chairs, real mattresses and cable TV. Ranger slept.

We didn’t bother to disconnect the truck from the trailer for the past two days, opting for restaurants within walking distance of the hotel (not the wisest or tastiest decision on our part). We had every intention of walking the 0.5mi to a local brewery down a little side street from our hotel tonight. As soon as we had turned the corner out of the hotel parking lot and walked all but about 100 feet, we decided that walking home after a few beers on this street would likely not turn out well. Every home on the street was abandoned and more than a few of them has soft glows coming from candles or small lamps being used by the homeless people on the inside. We ended up going to the WORST Mexican restaurant that we’ve been to since Washington State right next to the hotel. Honestly, this taco joint was embarrassing for Arizona.

We will try again for the Rancho Sedona RV Park in the morning.