The first week back in the Whale

Early morning departure out of Boston had me land in Phoenix by 9am – it was already 85F (which was a bad sign).  Got to the storage facility and all was fine - I was expecting a heap of molten metal - what with record temperatures in AZ the whole summer.  By the time I had the batteries connected and everything squared away, it was 11:30am and 105F, but the Whale started first time – really amazing machine. 

As one does when it is this hot, I drove the Whale about 200yards to the bar next door to re-hydrated.  Bonus was that I could watch some world cup rugby, US Open tennis and BundesLiga soccer. Turns out the RV park where I wanted to stay for the night was full, so I put the Whale back in storage, and took the bicycle to a nearby hotel to stay for the night.

What Saturday taught me was that  I was not going to survive in the Phoenix area for any amount of time, so headed out to Prescott which is about 100 miles north west of Phoenix and 5000ft higher – and 20F cooler on average.  Great campsite in the granite glens around Prescott.

 

The first night in the Whale was great – slept like a log and was woken by the screech of the cicadas – and there are many of them.  Apparently there had been lots of rain and the insects where everywhere.  Weird part was that there were not that many birds… not sure why.

Fun part was that the cycle path to the Fry’s grocery store went down a nature trail – about 3 miles of it.  Was beautiful except that I made the mistake of cycling back just before sundown.  It was as if I was cycling through a rainstorm of bugs.  Took me at least 15 minutes to get all the bugs off me once I got back to the Whale.

A snake along the cycle path.

 

Big news was that on Monday morning ‘I got the call’.  BNY was going through another round of ‘lets make the family smaller’ and I was on the list.  Was not unexpected, but it was a bit earlier than I would have liked.  Any case, what it did was mess up my whole travel plan that I had just worked on on Sunday…  I could now travel on any day – not just weekends, but... I was also going to be on a slightly stricter budget.

The more unexpected change was that I would not be talking to people during the work week at the office, and suddenly I was talking to a lot less people.  All this meant was I was going to have to stick with my ‘talk to at least 1 person per day’ policy.

It also gave me time to get the Whale in for an oil change.  Luckily there was a RV dealership down the road who did a mediocre to bad job – but expensive – of doing the oil change for the engine and generator.  Will have to learn how to do it myself….

Cycled into Prescott to go visit Whiskey Row - a street of 18?? century bars.

Note the swing doors.  The host had a bowie knife and a gun (lets hope it was fake)

On Friday I packed up and headed to Meteor Crater east of Flagstaff.  Went from 5000ft to 7000ft with some serious uphills to Flagstaff.  Meteor Crater is in the Navajo tribal lands with a great informative visitors center that is on the rim of the crater.  The joke there is ‘Amazing how the meteor just missed the visitors center’.

 

The crater - amazing.  Did not quite wipe out the dinosaurs, but did cause a lot of havoc

Going up the escarpment to Flagstaff

Local pulling a 5th wheel (caravan) with the slide-out still out and a ATV behind that... only in Arizona

From there on to Winslow, Arizona.  Sad little town and if it was not for the Eagles and ‘Standing on the corner’, it would be much worse.

Slept at the Twin Arrows Casino next to I40 that night – large number of RVs were sleeping over.  Seems some of them were there for more than an overnight as well, but I suppose it is free, and all the casino facilities are there to use.

Older lady with 2 dogs - looks like she is there for the season

The Whale at the Casino

 Saturday was a quick stop in Flagstaff for provisions and then along Rt180 to the Grand Canyon.  Beautiful road through pines in the high country.  Bought myself the best bargain in America – the ‘America the Beautiful’ pass.  Lets you into all National Parks in the States for 1 year.

The Canyon – well, just AWESOME.  It is crazy.  If you have not been here, you need to come see for yourself.  Just simply amazing.  I did the rim walk of about 2.5 miles in the middle of the day – at 7000ft it is at least below 90F but I definitely felt the altitude effect. I have a 1000 photos, but here are a few

Lots of Elk all over the South rim

The lodge

Hydrating with a view

There is the river

Had to re-hydrate after all that.

Headed out of the park to Tusayan to find a boondocking site for the night.  Boondocking == going off grid normally on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land.  Ended up on Long Jim Loop just on the outskirts of the town - about 6 miles from the canyon.  Dirt road with quite a number of mainly car campers staying overnight.

The bicycle path from town to the rim was actually along the Arizona Trail - an 800 mile trail from Mexico to the Utah border through Arizona - which means it dips through the canyon.  To be honest, I prefer doing the trail in the Whale... hats off to Jack.

 

Met 2 couples - both 70+, one couple in a small caravan and they come here every year for at least 2 weeks from Virginia to walk the forest roads.  The other couple had a 34ft Mercedes sprinter van and travel around because the wife was scared to stay at home with hubby that was retiring...

 And so ended week 1