October 2016
We began our first real long travel trip on Monday, October 17. We were excited to head to Amarillo, Santa Fe, Flagstaff (Grand Canyon and Sedona), and then on to Las Vegas. We left on time and headed to Amarillo. It is a long drive for one day, and on the way Tom noticed that the coach engine was running toward hot. We called a repair shop for our RV engine, and they could take us on Tuesday. We stayed at our RV park on Monday evening, but instead of heading for Santa Fe, we took the RV in for repair. It was a long job, and we ended up staying in Amarillo in a hotel, and not leaving until Wednesday afternoon. We went as far as we could and ended up in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. We left the next morning and headed to Flagstaff, Arizona. We totally missed Santa Fe, but hopefully we will be able to stop on the way home. We enjoyed our trip on the way to Flagstaff. It was beautiful in New Mexico and Arizona. We had never driven west except on a Young Life trip in 1969. We were 16 and 17 at that time, so it has been a little while. We enjoyed the trip, but were really glad to get to our KOA and set up the motorhome!!
The next day we drove from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. We went to the South Rim through Cameron, AZ, and really enjoyed the scenery and the chance to see the Little Colorado River Gorge. It was part of the Navajo reservation, and we talked to a lady that was an artist at the Gorge. Had a great time!
After the gorge, we headed to the Grand Canyon. We loved the chance to see this beautiful natural wonder. We started at the Desert View, and I believe it was my favorite view. We loved the Desert View Watchtower. It was built in 1936 and was really amazing.
We went to several of the lookout points, Navajo Point, Lipan Point, and Moran Point before we drove 22 miles to the Main Visitor Center.
At the Main Visitor Center we went to Mather Point. It was where you walked out on the rock, and could really see down in the canyon. We enjoyed this view, but really enjoyed the others more since they had fewer tourists. I read that only 3% of the people that see the Grand Canyon go further than the rim. I am one of those people. Don't plan to hike down in the Canyon.
After this view we drove to the older part of the park. It is called the village, and you can see the train depot and the hotels, etc. We found the cabins that we think the "young lifers" stayed in
when we went to the Grand Canyon in 1969. While driving to the village, we say an elk saunter across the road. We also saw lots of deer while we were leaving. It was a wonderful and beautiful day. We had fun reminiscing about our first trip in 1969, and enjoyed the most wonderful day today!!
