Heading East?....Well Kinda.....

     I can't believe I haven't put thoughts to paper since April 24th!  We've discovered that it's not easy doing all this visiting, and waving, and smiling, everyday.  It's exhausting!  Plus we've gone through the emotional trauma of Debbie leaving her PGD (Precious Grand Dog).  Oh yea...Ben and Joanne too.  The 6 weeks we got to spend with Ben, Joanne and the PGD went by way too quickly.  We had a great time. But we stuck to our plan pretty close, and headed out of San Diego on Wednesday, April 30th after enjoying Ben on his 2 previous days off.  Wait a minute!  High winds you say!  You got that right!  We were all packed up and ready to unplug when I got the crazy idea of watching the morning news.  HIGH WIND WARNINGS FOR THE SAN DIEGO MOUNTAINS!  Now I used to work in those mountains of the east county, and when they say Santa Ana Winds, it's like a snowstorm at home.  Just sit down and wait it out.  They'll calm down in a day or two. So we unpacked a little, and settled back for 2 days of 90 degree plus weather, and nice balmy winds in Chula Vista.  But as predicted, Crestwood was clocking wind gusts up to 70 mph, and it was a wise decision to wait it out.  Ben stopped by 2 nights on his way home from work and that was very enjoyable.  Friday morning arrived and we were on the road fighting the morning commuters as we headed out of San Diego and east on I-8.
     We put in a 10 hour day that day, and ended up in Williams, Az, a sleepy little town on Old Rt 66, and home to the Grand Canyon Railroad.  It's also at 6770 ft above sea level!  And very dry!  We discovered that the oxygen is a little thinner up here.  So we had to slow our pace down a little.  We had similar problems in Santa Fe, NM.   The journey up Rt 89 through Prescott, Az was a beautiful ride through high desert and mountains.  It's not something one should not try in a larger MH, but our little 28 footer did just fine.  Arriving in Williams, Az, we settled into the RV Resort associated with the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel  which features passenger rail service from Williams, Az to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It is a wonderful 2 1/2 hour train ride each way.

We boarded our luxury domed car at 9:15 AM and settled back enjoying fruit and pastries, and a spicy Bloody Mary.  It was a wonderful trip and soon we arrived at the southern edge of the Grand Canyon.  Extra special on this trip was the train being pulled by the company's 90 year old steam engine #4960.

This engine is only used on the first Saturday of the month April through September.  All along the route people were lined up waving at the train and photographers could be seen at numerous points along the route catching pictures of the steam engine in action.  Of course, no train ride would be complete without a train robbery, and on the way home, the train was boarded by several outlaws as others took care of the horses outside.  And as we pulled back into Williams, the U.S. Marshal, who happened to be on the train also, was busy chasing the bad guys home.  But he did promise to get us our money back.....someday.
     On Sunday we departed Williams, Az heading for our present location at Page, Az.  Shortly after departing Williams, I noticed a yellow dash light which I had never seen before.  As Debbie was searching through manuals, a second dash light came on.  Not good.  Two dash warning lights on a Sunday morning.  We stopped for fuel a few miles down the road, and figured out that the dash lights were related to diesel particulate filter plugged and engine exhaust high temperature warning light.  Sounds scarey doesn't it?  After about an hour of troubleshooting on the net and on the phone, we discovered that occasionally a diesel engine has to clean itself out basically.  Mine was in the middle of doing that when I pulled into the gas station.  I remembered a button under the dash that had something to do with regeneration.....pushed it.....and 10 minutes later all the warning lights had gone away.  Debbie thought I was a genius!    We soon arrived at Page, Az and located our RV site at the Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas.  We are overlooking beautiful Lake Powell which is 186 mile man made lake which is actually the Colorado River.

 The dam was completed here at Page, Az in 1963, and the lake was finally full in 1980!  Enough water to cover Tennessee with 1 foot of water.  Today it is a magnificent lake reaching depths of 400 feet here at this end.  You would never know that it's 120 feet down from the full mark!  Locals are hoping that after the snow pack melts in Colorado, there will be a 40 foot rise in the lake level.
      Yesterday we headed over to Zion National Park, located about 88 miles away.

 This unbelievable park was formed simply with the flowing of water over rocks.  Water flows and rocks melt into deep canyons.  We entered the park and shortly found ourselves traveling through a mile long cave cut through solid rock.  It was truly amazing.  Beautiful vistas were everywhere, and these few pictures truly don't give it justice.  You just need to come out here and see this yourself.  It impressed Debbie more than the Grand Canyon.

There are sights like this all around us in northern Arizona and southern Utah.  I can only hope that the battery lasts on my camera.
     Red Bay, Al has made the list of stopping points for this trip.  That's where the Tiffin factory is.  I'm hoping to get this one serviced so she's ready for next year's trip.  We also want to take their tour of the factory.  Several people have told us it's something to see.  Then of course, Nashville and Dollywood before truly heading east.