April 11, 2013

Walmart, Winslow, AZ

A wild and crazy kind of day.

We hitched up

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

and were on the road by 10:30.

     Our destination was an RV “Resort” (and I use that word very loosely) in the town of Sun Valley.  I had found this resort on our Passport America site and it had decent reviews so I thought it would be okay for a couple of nights.   I wanted to visit Canyon de Chelly and this particular resort was the closest RV camp that accepted our PA membership. 

Our route took us on 17 for 50 miles

 

 and then I-40. 

When I saw the sign for Walnut Canyon National Monument,

 

 

 

 

 

 

we took a slight detour of 3 miles.   

 

I am running out of room for stamps in my passport. 

 After showing our America the Beautiful Pass and receiving a brochure we returned to the rig to change into hiking shoes.

  I also put on long pants and grabbed my jacket because it was quite chilly when the clouds covered the sun.

We took the Island Trail, a 0.9-mile loop taking us past 25 of the cliff dwelling rooms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

        The canyon homes were situated on cliffsides facing south and east to take advantage of warmth and sunlight.  It is believed that the few sites that faced north and west were used during warmer months. 

According to the brochure, “Archeologists believe that it was the women who built the homes.  The dwellings were made from shallow caves eroded out of the limestone cliffs by water and wind.  To form walls, builders gathered limestone rocks, shaped them roughly, then cemented them together with a gold-colored clay found in deposits elsewhere in the canyon.  Wooden beam reinforced the doorways.  Finally, the walls were plastered with clay inside and out.”

 

Going down was easy but I had to rest often on our return trip that included 240 steps back to the canyon rim. 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibit in Visitor's Center

 

It had been a nice break in the trip.  Back on the road again, we continued on I-40 for another 80 miles.   

 

 

 

 

It was a boring drive past flat prairie land.  It was also very overcast making the landscape appear even bleaker. 

 

 

 

  

 

 I called Monte when my GPS reported we were exiting the Interstate in 1 mile.  WHERE?  I could see for miles and didn’t see any place that looked like it would be an RV Park.  But once we made the turn off the Interstate, we came upon the park.  The first thing I said to Monte as I got out of the car was, “I AM NOT STAYING HERE.”

I DIDN'T TAKE PICTURES OF THE RV CAMP BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO REVEAL THE NAME.

What a dump!  The place was littered with the broken down skeletal remains of ancient RVs.  When I had called earlier in the day to make sure they had availability, I had been told they were pretty full but would hold one spot for us if we could arrive before 4pm.  A couple of spots?  There was only two RV’s camping there when we arrived.

It was getting late and we were both tired so Monte suggested we go to the Walmart we had passed.   

Thirty miles later we pulled into the Walmart parking lot. 

 

 

 

 

 

  We went inside and got the okay from the manager. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked out a good spot along the perimeter of the parking lot. 

 

 

 

 

 After parking, we returned to the store and picked up a few grocery items. 

On the way out, the aroma from Subway lured us in.  Monte went with a Philly cheese steak and I went with turkey, bacon and avocado.  We both only ate half, saving the other half for lunch tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

It only took five minutes for the Satellite to find a signal and within 10 minutes of letting our slides out we were sitting down watching the news and eating our sandwiches.  It is great to be self-contained.