Spent 11 days in Williams, Arizona. Not much to do in Williams, the town claims they are the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon”. I guess because the railway depot is located here.

The rv park is nice with paved spots,not many trees but views of the mountains. We also have use of the hotels' heated pool & spa and a couple of restaurant/bars.

We were suppose to leave Monday but had a problem with the braking system we attach to the car to control the braking as it is being towed. The company sent the part overnight but UPS service to Williams is a little slow. It has been very windy here – sometimes gusts up to 50 mph. In a car it’s manageable but a little difficult in a high profile vehicle. Hopefully we will be able to leave tomorrow and the weather will cooperate.


The Monday after our Saturday arrival we took the train from Williams to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. A 65 mile trip which takes 2.5 hours by train. Once at the canyon we took a bus tour of the section that can only be toured by walking, shuttle or tour bus. The tour also included lunch at one of the famous lodges. That only left us with 1 hour to view the rest of the park on our own. We were able to view the historic hotel - El Trovar and view an Native Indian ceremonial dance.

Of course, that was not enough time so we drove back up by car on Friday and spent the entire day visiting more of the Grand Canyon Village and drove the 23 mile Desert View Drive. Saturday evening we drove back again to view the sun setting over the canyon. Words nor pictures can describe the awesome beauty of this natural marvel….you have just got to see if for yourself.


View of the Colorado River from Hopi Point. It appears tiny but is actually 500' to 900' wide at any given point.


Close up of the Colorado River


Views from Hopi Point. The canyon ranges from 14 to 18 miles wide...AWESOME!







Views from Mohave Point




Joan waiting for the sunset at Grandview Point. Ron's off talking to someone..of course!


Visitors setting up their tripods waiting for the sunset. They climbed over the wall and down about 30 feet and walked out to the edge....we think they were nuts!!


The beginning of sunset over the Grand Canyon




It's amazing how the same view can change so dramatically in just a few minutes.







Another magnificent sunset!


Our drive home.

The Grand Canyon was on both of our "bucket lists", we are thrilled we were able to view it and had a great time. Moving on to more national parks in Utah.

Hope all is well!

Are We Nuts??

We're glad we extended our stay in Hemet...the weather was great and the park was very nice.


Entrance into the RV park



Park is nicely landscaped.


Three pools


Three hottubs


Shuffleboard pavilion



These people are serious about their shuffleboard!



We made a couple of stops along the way to Williams Arizona. Our main reason for this trip is to see the Grand Canyon. For the last 5 years, anytime anyone asked Ron why he wanted to RV he always said he wanted to see his own country and primarily the Grand Canyon. So that is why we are here....in 30 degrees and snow showers. Within 1/2 hour Sunday afternoon we experienced snow showers, hail, high winds and sunshine. We left beautiful southern California and 80's for this??? Are we nuts?


Our last day in Hemet...a little chilly and windy so we had the entire pool and hottub to ourselves


One of the nice things about attending a rally with other Tiffin owners is you always learn something new. I was in a group complaining about the design of the dashboard and that the GPS and radio are positioned too far away for the passenger to control. That I have to get out of the seat belt and chair to change stations or volume. As I was going on and on finally one of the others asked "why don't you use the remote control?'. My comment...."we have a remote control?". As soon as I got back to the coach we went through the mounds of manuals etc that we received and lo and behold there was a remote control! Now I'm happy....feel alittle dumb...but happy!

We'll keep you posted as we experience Ron's dream of seeing the Grand Canyon!

Hope all is well.

Joan & Ron

Goodby Vegas hello Hemet

We arrived in Hemet California on the 10th for our first Tiffin Rally. Tiffin is the manufacturer of our motorcoach and they sponsor 2 rally's a year. Their rally's are mostly social with a few seminars. Although we enjoyed the dinners & entertainment, our preference are rally's with lots of educational sessions. We met our friends Cathie & Ray and really enjoyed our visit with them. We've met some really nice RVer's.


Cathie & Ray enjoying dinner and perfomance by the California Cowboys.


Bob & Judy Tiffin...owners of Tiffin Motorhomes.


Since we have never been in this part of California we decided to extend our stay here for another week to see some of the area. Hemet is about 40 minutes west of Palm Springs so we toured Palm Springs one afternoon and again another evening for dinner.

The high temperature yesterday was 99 degrees. Fortunately we spent the better part of the day in the high desert were the temperature at times was 20 degree's cooler. We drove to Joshau National Park. Joshau NP is land were two desert ecosystems meet - the Mojave and Colorado deserts. The Colorado Desert is dominated by abundant creosote bushes. Adding interest are small patches of the ocotillo and jumping cholla cactus - both of which were in bloom. The Mojave Desert is a high desert, slightly cooler and moister than the Colorado Desert and is the special habitat of the Joshua tree.

The park is over 1 million acres and the drive through it is 64 miles long.


Colorado Desert


The Joshau Tree is to the Mojave Desert as the giant saguaro cactus is the Sonoran Desert. The Joshau Tree is a giant member of the lily family and looks like a large yucca tree.


Joshau Tree




Mojave Desert with forests of Joshau Trees



Throughout the park are many displays of exposed granite monoliths and ragged mountains of rock formations. Geologists believe these formations were born more than a million years ago by continous movement of the earth's crust, the effects of molten liquid & erosion thus producing the mounds of uniquely shaped rocks we see today.


Rock formation




Skull rock ... you need a little imagination!


Jumping cholla garden. They get the name "jumping" because they break off easily if touched. They tell us you don't want to get stuck by one of these...very painful and hard to remove.


View from "Key View" - elevation 5134


Joan resting at Key View observation point.


Hiking path to Cottonwood Spring...that I never found...but the walk was nice.


The desert in bloom.


Caught another spectacular sunset on our way home.

We will be leaving here Thursday morning for the Grand Canyon.

Hope all is well!

Las Vegas

We extended our stay in Las Vegas one extra day to take advantage of a few of the attractions. Just walking through the casino is a tour in itself, with the beautifully appointed lobbies.


Bellagio Lobby


Glass mushrooms


Bee made from dried chrysanthemums and sunflowers




Water show in front of the Bellagio. Water formations play to music.


We saw the Terry Fator show. His career spanned 40 years as a stand-up act, not all that well known. As soon as he won America's Got Talent, the Mirage offered him 5 year contract for $100 million. His "casts of thousands" fills the stage with singing impressions of celebrities and unbelievable ventriloquism. His band and backdrops add to his performance. It is a great show and highly recommended if your in Vegas.


Opening character - the "Impersonating Turtle".



Winston


One evening we had dinner on Freemont Street and enjoyed the outdoor show. Fremont Street was the original Las Vegas Strip and still has a few older casinos, but to compete with the newer more elegant casinos they had to come up with something to continue attracting tourist. Thus the birth of the "Fremont Experince". They closed off a four block area and turned it into a pedestrian mall. It features a huge overhead canopy, equipped with a $17 million digital video display complete with 12.4million bulbs. The show runs for about 10-15 minutes every hour beginning at 7 pm. The best was Don McClean's American Pie and the other performance we stayed for was the Doors. Based on the number of people roaming around that area I think they came up with a winner.


Shot of Fremont Street





Don McCleans American Pie




The Doors


Not sure who or what this is but it's fun just to watch everything going on around you.

Hope all is well!

Tucson to Las Vegas

We received a recall on the coach (no it's not a Toyota) so we spent 2 nights last week at a Freightliner garage in Phoenix to have it taken care of as well as the first 6,000 mile servicing. We made 2 stopovers on our way to Las Vegas, in Quartzsite, Arizona and Needles, California. We were going to dry camp in Quartzsite since there are miles of BLM (Bureau of Land Managment) but were running low on water and high on our waste tanks from dry camping at the garage, so we decided to pull into a park instead. We are finding there are RV parks of all kinds. Many advertise as "resorts" but their definition of a resort and ours are worlds apart.

Here were our neighbors at the Freightliner garage:





Here's where we stayed in Quartzsite:


Pretty bad huh?



Our site in Needles was better. Each site is surrounded by 6' Oleander hedges that are in full bloom making it a very private setting. Here are views from the coach.










A beautiful sunset can make any place look better.

In Las Vegas we stayed at the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort. This is truly a resort with 5 swimming pools, tanning pool, 5 spas, tennis courts, 9 hole lighted putting course, fitness center with spa, saunas & massage rooms, on site restaurant and 24 hour security. Many of the sites are privately owned and upgraded with patio furnishings, outdoor kitchens with dishwashers & ice makers and thatch roofed huts. Hope we don't get too spoiled here....


Our spot at the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort...there's grass!!


A privately owned site with lots of upgrades.








We visited with "old" friends Gary & Suzanne who now live in Las Vegas. Gary and Ron attended high school together in St. Louis, then years later when Ron joined the Globe Democrat...lo and behold Gary was working there too in the advertising sales department. They both made the move to the St. Louis Post Dispatch and enjoyed nearly 20 years of working together.




We met for lunch at Raffles in the Mandelay Bay Resort to get caught up and they graciously invited us the next day to there home for brunch. They have a great house and we had a great visit.

It has been years since we visited Las Vegas and I had forgotten how exciting it is with all of the hussle and bussle. Unfortunately, we are only going to be able to stay a few days, but have already decided to come back to take advantage of some of the attractions, shows and restaurants.

Hope all is well!