2015 Trip – Albuquerque, NM to Williams, AZ

Thurs. 7/9… (Albuquerque, NM)  Our last day here in Albuquerque…. Our plan was to go first to the balloon museum. Then we wanted to go back to Old Town and pick up some jewelry Lydia had spotted before.  Then we hit a Post office so we could mail something and Rick could send some photo albums to Kelli that he forgot to give her earlier. The balloon museum was priced right – only $2.00 for seniors!  It was bigger than I expected and very well done. We saw some exhibits of historical flights and learned about early balloon bombings by the Japanese during the war.  We also stopped at the Fiesta Center to learn about where the camping sites were as well as transportation (park & ride) if we camped in another location and drove in.  We decided that we would not come back in 2015 but will look into reservations for 2016. 

 

 

Afterward, we hit old town again and everyone bought something (except me) and Lydia mailed her package and Rick mailed his.  We stopped at Subway for lunch and went back to walk the dogs and rest a bit before heading out again to La Mesa RV just down the road.  We saw a few nice coaches but nothing we needed to see more of.  We came back home and watched some taped shows and then headed back out to Garcia’s Kitchen for dinner.  I had pretty much the same meal I had a few days ago just to compare.  It was very good but my favorite is still La Placita. We came back and played with Bailey before calling it a night. I did take a picture of my neighbors rig.  He's got a diesel truck/tractor pulling a fifth wheel which is pulling a Smart car.  He's illegal in California where you can't tow triples and also illegal in all other states because he's over total length.  He says no problem. He won't go to Calif and will take his chances elsewhere.  He left this morning. I also got a picture of a plant in bloom in the park....

 

 

 

 

Fri. 7/10…  (Holbrook, NM)  This morning we had 235 miles to drive so we left at 9:00am after walking the dogs one last time.  We crossed into Arizona and into Pacific Time and are now at OK RV Park in Holbrook, AZ. This park has only basic amenities (no pool) and they charge $34.50 w/Good Sam/AAA/FMCA etc.  It’s an ‘Ok’ park but a little overpriced for us.  It’s only for one night so we’re good.  After we got set up we fixed lunch and rested a while.  It is our turn to drive today but Rick volunteered to so we left the car hooked up (unplugged and ignition off!) and took off with them.  We cruised around the city a bit and found a grocery store. Lydia is fixing dinner tonight so we went in to check out things to go with her chicken/egg hash casserole thingy. We stopped at a local street fair called Cowboy Days. It was small so we walked through it quickly and then headed for home to get dinner prepped. The meal was delicious.  I helped her make a pistachio pineapple fruit salad which was good too.  We hung around a bit and then watched some more of our shows that we had taped.    

 

Sat.. 7/11… (Williams, AZ) Happy birthday Jeff! We had a short 140 mile drive today to reach our next stop.  We are now at Gran Canyon Railway & Hotel RV Park, in Williams, AZ.  I had booked this park and the train trip way out ahead so all we had to do was check in and get our space assignments.  Once we got set up we headed over to the train depot (we were told to pick up our tickets at will call today rather than wait in some serious lines tomorrow so we got that done.  We went back to put things away then we headed back to the check in desk to reserve doggy day care for tomorrow while we are on the train trip.  We decided to go back to town and have linner.  We chose the Cruisers Café 66 and all of us had hamburgers of some version.  All were very good, though not my favorite on this trip.

 

 

 

Afterward, we walked the street a bit (no funny remarks!) and bought a few souvenirs and then headed back home. Back at the rig I worked on my tow car light hookup.  I wasn’t getting a right turn signal.  I took the connection apart and found I had a loose wire so it works as of now so I think all is good.       

 

Sun. 7/12… (Williams, AZ)  Today was train day!  We got up early and ate breakfast.  We had to walk Bailey (and Daisy & Little Bit) over to the kennel before we went over to the gunfight before boarding began. The dogs will have a day of rest (if you can call it rest in a kennel with other yappy dogs!).  We have never boarded Bailey before so we’ll have to see how she does.  They will get her out for play so she’ll like that. We saw the shootout and walked back over to board the train. 

 

 

 

They are busy in the summer months so they have two trains leaving one behind the other.  We are on the second train so we leave at 9:45.  I chose the air conditioned cars over the older Pullman cars with the open windows.  I’m not sure which was better but we had good seats. You are allowed drinks so we packed a cooler and had water and soft drinks on the way in. We were on Coach D (seats 7C& 7D) and had Finn as our coach conductor (he also had double duty in Coach E). He was a young man with only a few months experience but he did an outstanding job!

 

The trip in was ok.  There’s not much to see but mesquite bushes leading to pine trees as we got into Grand Canyon Park.  You get dropped off just below El Tovar Hotel and are free to go anywhere you chose.  They offered bus tours direct from the train but we opted to just walk around for the 2 ½ hours we had there.  We took the obligatory pictures of the canyon and then went to the Bright Angel Café for lunch.  I had buffalo chili and Lydia and Rick & Janie all had the turkey sandwich plate. Both were very good.  The server was late in waiting on us and another fellow came over and asked about us and then took our table. Since we were not happy he offered us a free dessert which we accepted.  He did a great job so he got a good tip.  Afterward we walked to Bright Angel Trail and saw the folks walking down the trail.  They tend to go farther – hey it’s easy walking here! Little did they realize that they had to turn around and walk back up!  We saw a lot of young daring (stupid) folks out on ledges testing the rocks.  Scary. 

 

 

We then went over to the Hopi Village to see the Indian dance exhibition which was very entertaining. 

We walked over to the El Tovar and found some rockers out front and rested a bit before going into some of the gift shops and then making our way back to the train.  We boarded and made the trip back with no issues – oh yeah, we were robbed!  It was fun even though Finn told us what they expected and when they were coming.  You roll up a dollar bill and place it behind your ear and the guys come in and find it and take it. It’s more of a tip for their little show and it was fun.  Janie decided to put hers in her blouse and that caused them a little concern with Rick watching!

 

We got back to the station around 6:15 or so.  The day started with dropping off Bailey at 8:10 and the cowboy show was at 9:00am.  We boarded at 9:45am and left at 10:00am and left the canyon at 4:00pm and got back around 6:30 so it was a long day!!!  We went and got Bailey and walked her back home.  She sure was glad to see us.  They said she did fine but that place was something she was not used to.  On the train, we made dinner plans.  We had decided to go eat at a local pizza place in town but it was just closing (7:00pm) so we went to another Italian Restaurant called Station 66 and split a pizza and Rick and I enjoyed flights of beer from the local brewery. There were some I liked some not so much.

 

 

 

 

We got back and I walked Bailey a few laps and then came home and crashed for the night.