Holiday Plan 2020

Jan 4th is departure day

Our gypsy wagon just waiting for take off.

We plan to leave on Saturday January 4 , weather permitting for an adventure through Arizona and California.  Mapped out its about 10,000 klm , but 8,000 of them are just getting to central Arizona and back. Most likely we will add on another couple of thousand klm touring around. We will take the main highways to get there but after that we will be avoiding the main highways as much as possible and using the secondary roads where we can travel at a more leisurely pace, enjoy the scenery and hopefully find some interesting places to boondock and hike. Our plan is to post to this blog every day as long as we have good cell phone service. Last year we gave up on wifi and went with a Verizon data package, which was a little more expensive but was super convenient and worked well.

This is the planned route through Arizona and California

Mar 14 Arrived home

After 13,441 klm and 69 days we are back home. Probably our best holiday to date. A little slower pace, best weather we have ever had on a trip, even though the locals complained about the cold all of the time we were there.

We will need another year to complete the wish list , no Grand Canyon or Flagstaff, as it was snowed in and too cold when we were sheduled to go.

I guess we better get working on it, its only 9 months until d-day.

March 10 Drove from Collinville Misouri to Middlebury Indiana

We drove to Elkhart , the RV capital of the world. There are 3 main manufacturers of RV's, Thor, which includes Jayco and Entegra:    Forest River, owned by Berkshire and Winnebago.

Both Thor and Forest River are here. Planning a visit to the Jayco plant tomorrow.

Went for supper in this place. An Amish , Mennonite restaurant. Food was basic but delicious.

one of  these buggys was in the restaurant, it was ours for the evening

the end of a good holiday

March 09 drove from Oklahoma city to Collinsville

March 8 Drove from Albuquerque to Oklahoma city

March 7 Left Sedonna to start home , Albuquererqe

March 6 hiked to the ruins

We hiked 5 miles each way to visit these ruins. (17 KLM) . Beautiful day , bit over cast and low 20 s . This was the site of the Palatki settlement of Indians around 1100 to 1200. They built what is called cliff dwellings, in the mountains under an overhanging cliff

There houses were built of flat stones to enclose an area against a cliff. Multiple families, ranging from 60 to 100 would live in each dwelling.

This  pond is the result of water dripping out of the mountain. The walls are covered with original paintings and etching 

March 5 Hiked the Boynton Canyon Trail

as we got nearer to the top there was still snow left over from the winter

March 4 Day off in Sedonna.

Did Laundry, emptied tanks etc

March 3 Prescott to Sedona with a stop in Jerome

I forgot the camera for Jerome , but it is such a cool place to visit. Population 480 , but 2 streets of shops and restaurants. The town is carved out of the side of a mountain.


Spectacular ride from Prescott to Jerome . The road winds its way up the mountain and then back down the other side.  Drop of in some places of maybe 300 feet with in 6 feet of the side of the road. Most paces had a guard rail,unlike from Kingsman to Oatman where there was no guard rail.

No pictures because Rose couldn't look out in fear.

March 2 drove from Seligman to Prescott

While Seligman was a tourist trap. Prescott is a vibrant community with a 3 block down town that is very interesting.   Route 66, lots of antiquing, plus interesting shops of current merchandise. We stayed at the Walmart that was 3 miles from downtown , so we walked to the downdown and back .
Bummed around had lunch and came home. A grreat way tospend a day.

This sign was outside the washrooms where we had lunch. Rose insisted that I take the picture.
Not sure what the point was, I already knew that

March 1 Seligman Route 66

Seligman is another town on Route 66 that was destroyed by building I-40

Just a fun tourist trap with all of the old 60's memorabilia.   A cool place to spend some time when you have time to kill

Feb 28 Visited Hoover Dam

When we traveled in Southern Arizona it blew me away how they were using all the water from the Colorado river to grow vegetables and feed cattle in a desert. They also pipe water to Los Angeles and San Diego. Their only source.  I still have some reservations but I certainly have a new respect for the concept.  

The Colorado river before the dam system would flood the basin ,and the next year there would be no water and every thing would dry up. The Hoover dam was built , along with a whole series of other dams to control, the flow so in dry years they could let water out to keep the land fertile and in wet years to hold the water back to prevent floods. The electricity produced was a bi product not the reason it was built. There are varying stats but the Colorado valley produces around 75% of the fresh vegetables for North America. ( Especially in the cold months)

The water level has dropped 150 feet , since 1983.  If this river drys up, no Los Angeles, no San Diego. and no vegetables. This area only gets 3 to 5 inches of rain a year.

This is not a discussion  of wither the problem is man made or a natural climate cycle , it is a case of humans building a system that has no regard for the future.

Scary thought. Blow up the 2 pipes  yes 2 pipes and canal systems and Los Angeles and San Diego are with out water

The messsage on this boad is that water levels have been decreasing since 1983. Theyare down 150 feet.

This is the view above the dam. The white line above the water is the original water level. 150 feet above the present water level

The dam is 726 feet deep.   

the view below the dam

This is the row of turbines that are creating the electricity

One of the turbines being repaired

Feb 27 Drove to Boulder

Camping at the Government Wash  , a BLM.

Looking out over the North shore of Lake Mead

We have seen every possible type of RV , old 60's all refitted, old 1960's falling apart, school buses or city buses converted all the way up to million dollar Class A's. This was the first time we say a Tiny Home . It was all decked out. Even air conditioning. This most likely was not a traveler but a local person moving from BLM to BLM living rent free.

When Rose went out to do her 15000 daily steps , which she has achieved every day , she countered these 2 coyotes. It looked like some one had left out some food beside a campfire from the previous evening. 

area

Feb 26 Oatman

Oatman is a village of 78 permanent residents and only 125 residents in their Zip code. The main street is about 1/2 mile long lined on both sides with tourist businesses all related to route 66. 

It was a ghost town with only 3 residents  for a number of years until it was revived as part of the historic 66. We camped on the BLM just over 3 miles out side of town. It was a beautiful day so we hiked the 3 miles into town and back.

These buildings along the road we walked into town is what remains of the gold mine from around 1800. They claim this area was one of the richest goldstrickes during the Gold Rush.

Burros that were let loose at the end of the mining era , still  live in the ssurrounding mountains and wander into town. There were at least 1/2 a dozen or more wandering around the town, They have become very tame due to the attention and food that every one gives them.

One of the burros was having a rest on the side of the street. After the 3 mile walk I decided I needed a rest as well.

Just a couple of donkeys hanging out

These pictures were taken inside of the hotel. The ceiling, walls, posts etc ,every square inch of space is covered with one dollar bills, that people have left. They estimate that there is over $200,000 of them.

On the way back to the camp we met 17 burros along the highway. This guy was alone but most were in groups of 3 or 4.

Feb 25 Kingman

The weather is finally warming up a bit so we decided to move on and explore part of the famous Route 66. We went to Kingman first because it was a higher altitude and then moved on to Oatman for the evening where it would be a bit warmer. The towns along route 66 all became ghost towns or close to it when the mining shut down for world war 11 and the creation of interstate highway 40 . 

The museum here was very good . It documented the history of the region from the time of the Indian's, the gold rush, which we always hear about as the California Gold Rush but Arizona takes claim for a lot of it, to the wars, building of the railroads, and the interstates.

The one think for sure is Americans celebrate wars, they are and have been a waring nation since the beginning of time. They will have a statue for everything or anyone who gets shot. They tell the stories about how they beat the Indians, the Mexicans and even their own during the civil war. 

Even today they are at war with themselves fighting one another rather than trying to make piece. 

At the flea market they sell pictures of their own people to be used as target practice.

Snow on the mountains as we are driving to Kingman

First gas station when you enter town is called Canada Mart. Wasn't able to get an explanation

Most of the businesses have been restored to look like old route 66

I never saw this before. The apparatus hanging on the window was a funnel shape with a turbine in it. It captured the out side air and blew it inside to cool you off .

Not a good picture but this was a display of various electric vehicles maybe 25. The one on the left is Willie Nelsons electric golf cart with a replica Rolls Royce body. It came complete witha  bar including a water tap. It also had a special ash tray that would be more legal today  than then. His wife Connie gaveit to him as a present.

Feb 23 Hiking Sarah's Crack

There is no shortage of wonderful places to hike in Arizona. The Sarah's Crack trail is in Sarah's Park  and is a five mile return hike to Lake Havasu through the mountains but there is about 1/4 mile that goes trough a very narrow crack in the mountain and thus the name. We were not able to complete the hike down the main trail because due to the recent rainfall there was one hole that had water that was too deep for us to cross. We back tracked a bit, scaled the side of the crack to the top and continued on a parallel trail that crosses over the top of the mountain

1/4 of the trail is through this narrow crack in the mountain. The crack is around 100 feet deep in places

Lake Havasu in the back ground

Chelse Sleep and Matt Boekel  from Canmore Alberta.  We hiked most of the trail with them.

The end of the trail