Southwest Lazy Daze Campout

Thursday, April 3^rd.

We were invited to join the Southwest Lazy Daze Club for their campout at Roosevelt Lake, AZ from today through Saturday. Roosevelt Lake is Central Arizona's largest lake, located northeast of Phoenix in the upper Sonoran Desert within the Tonto National Forest. We left Payson about 8:30 stopping by Wal-Mart then filled up with propane. Arrived at Roosevelt Lake about 11am. There were 16 LD’s by the end of the day. In the evening there was a cocktail hour with snacks then a campfire. We both thoroughly enjoyed the company. On Friday there was a pot luck supper, on Saturday an ice cream social in the afternoon then another cocktail hour that evening. Carol & I had the most wonderful time as we always do at these functions. We took a ride on Friday and found a nice lakeside area to park. Gopher had a nice swim. We were invited to join the California Lazy Daze Caravan Club at their big campout in Parker, AZ on the 16^th of this month. We’re looking forward to that. There are supposed to be over a hundred LD’s there.

Winslow to Payson, AZ

Left the campground at Homolovi Ruins SP about 9am heading for Payson, AZ. A clear, cool, not windy day. After seeing nothing but brown desert landscapes starting in West Texas, the mountains and pine & juniper trees growing on the Mongollon Plateau were a welcomed change. All brown gets old after a while. We both agreed we prefer the green of trees. The elevation at times, was just over 7.000'. There were patches of snow here & there.
We stayed at the Houston Mesa Campground in the Tonto National Forest. The campground is just inside the city limits of Payson. An attractive campground, heavily wooded but located right on the highway. OK for our use as an overnight stop, but too much traffic noise. We chose it because it's right on our way to the Lazy Daze Camp-out on the Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Spend the afternoon trying to identify different birds, trees and flowers with our reference books.

Standin' on the Corner

Winslow, AZ.

Drove into Winslow this morning. Went grocery shopping then to the Downtown area.

Visited The Standin on the Corner Park. The name is from the #1 hit,Take It Easy,sung by the Eagles in the early ‘70’s. The first line of the song is

“Well I’m runnin’ down the road tryin’ to loosen my load”

The second stanza continues

“Well I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,

Such a fine site to see,

It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.

Etc.,etc. Look at the mural in the photo and you’ll see an eagle and the girl in the flatbed Ford.

We toured the Old Trails Museum. Very interesting. Items from the old Route 66, the Anasazi, the Santa Fe Railway, cowboy days, etc. After that we spent the morning at the McHood Park & Clear Creek Reservoir. Gopher had a good swim. Stopped by the Flying J to fill up with water and dump the tanks. Back to the Homolovi SP for the night.

Holbrook, Az

Holbrook, AZ & Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, AZ

We left our campsite in the parking lot of the gift shop about 9am. Headed for Holbrook, AZ. The windshield got hit by a rock in Texas and had a dime sized chip. The GPS unit located a place in Holbrook where they repaired such things. Turned out to be a very interesting side trip. The guy who repaired the chip was a local. He worked out of the garage at his house; a double wide modular home. At one time he sold cars at a local car dealership. Whenever a tradesman came into the dealership to work on one of the cars he would ask them how much money they made doing what they did. He soon realized he could make more money by being self employed. Besides repairing stone chips, he was a locksmith and did window tinting as well. Charged $30 for the repair. I would have thought $50 a fair price. He said he was always looking for other trades to add to his list of things to do. Had six children ranging from 5 to 25. His wife said no more kids. :-)

Asked him if there was a bakery in town. He said there used to be a great one but the women who ran it died and took all her secret receipts with her to the grave. No more bakery. I asked if there were any interesting sites to see in town. He said the jail was nice. Once his uncle was in jail on the second floor cell block. He would go down to the jail and throw apples up to the window for his uncle to catch until the jailers noticed and ran him off. We drove around the downtown area. Nothing of great note.

After that we looked for the Cholla Lake County Park; our destination for the day. We found the park but it was closed so we continued to the Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow. Turned out to be a great choice. The attached pictures & signs tell the story.

From the Park brochure “In the high grassland of the 14^th century northern Arizona, an ancient people found a home along the Little Colorado River. These people, the Hisat’sinom (known to archaeologists as the Anasazi), paused in their migrations to till the rich flood plain and sandy slopes before continuing north to join people already living on the mesas…people who are today known as the Hopi.”

The main ruin site was easily accessible by a well paved trail. In addition we were able to walk around some other areas of the park and tour the visitor’s center/gift shop. Cooked salmon, sweet potatoes & zucchini on the grill. We had a very enjoyable day.

Finally the wind died down. A nice breeze, but no more of the 40mph gusts.

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest

We left the Red Rock Campground in Gallup, NM about 8:30. There were three of us camping there last night. Apparently the campground is not staffed this time of the year. No way to pay the $20/night fee. A night of free camping with electric & water hookups. Can’t beat that! Before leaving I left a meal out for this poor, undernourished dog that hangs out around the campground. Fed her a big meal last night as well. Gopher was barking at the dog but I shut her up and reminded her just how lucky she was.

Did some laundry in town. On the way to the Petrified Forest we crossed the continental divide. Entered the Pacific Time Zone in Arizona. Except for the Navajo Nation, Arizona does not observe daylight savings time. Stopped at the AZ Welcome Center and picked up lots of brochures to help plan the next two weeks of our trip.

Another very, very windy day. A steady 20 to 25mph wind with gusts to 40mph per the weather forecast.

We arrived at the Petrified Forest National Park about 10:00 am. Toured the visitor center. Carol bought a really neat hat; lots of bright colors. See the photos.

I asked a Park Ranger about trails we could use the scooter on. He marker our map for us with some accessible trails. We then took the drive through the Painted Desert part of the park. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy so the colors were not as brilliant as they might have been. Most of the stopping places had parking areas where Carol could see things. We used the scooter to walk the Puerco Pueblo Trail where we could “Walk amidst the remains of a hundred room village, occupied by the ancestral Puebloan people between A.D. 1250 and 1400”. Saw some petroglyphs as well. After that we walked the Crystal Forest Trail that took us through “a landscape of exquisitely colorful petrified logs”. The 0.8 mile long trail was paved but in poor condition, very narrow and steep in places. Carol thought this was the most wonderful scoot. As we drove through the Park, you could see dust storms everywhere. Not a very nice day for a visit. I was talking to a Park Service maintenance man and asked about the winds. He said it’s mostly always windy around here. He lives “off the grid” in a rural area not far from here. Has solar power, a diesel generator & propane. Uses the propane for the refrigerator & heat. He’s about to buy a wind generator. This mornings local paper had an article about electric service on the Navajo Reservation lands. About 15,000 people have no electric power. This number represents about 75% of all Americans who have no power.

Toured the Rainbow Forest Museum & Gift Shop at the south Park entry. They have a small, but very interesting, exhibit about dinosaurs that inhabited this area

Tonight we’re staying in the parking lot of a gift shop on Rt 180. It’s just as you exit the National Park. There is a sign that says “Free RV Parking”. Right now there are four of us. Not much of a view but the price is right. There are no campgrounds in the Park. Tomorrow we head into Holbrook, AZ. A town that in the days of the Old West was “too rough for women and children”. We’ll see what it’s like now

Gallup, NM

We decided we had seen what we came to see in Albuquerque so we left our campsite, the Sandia Casino parking lot, about 8:30 heading towards Gallup, NM. Stayed Friday evening at the Bluewater Lake State Park near Grants, NM. The main campground was OK; nothing special. When we were driving around looking for a campsite we saw three RV’s camped right on the edge of the far side of the lake. We stopped a Park Ranger and he told us how to get there. Off we went down dirt roads and through a marshy area to get to the far side of the lake. We thought our Sumner Lake SP campsite was special. Look at the picture of this site. We’re parked four feet from the lake. Us and three other RV’s shared this entire side of the lake. No utility hookups but who needs them? We’ll take a view over an electric plug any day. This campsite rates near the top for view. It got cold last night; 35*. There is still snow visible on the tops of nearby moiuntains.

Saturday morning we drove into downtown Gallup. Carol wanted to get matching wedding bands. Carol had lost her original wedding band perhaps 30 years ago and had my band resized to fit her. I haven’t worn a ring since then. We went to the Richardson’s Trading Co. & Cash Pawn store. We were there four years ago when Gopher & I made this trip together and Carol flew into Albuquerque for a week. This trading post has been in business for over a hundred years. We found matching silver & turquoise bands. They write on the sales slip who made the merchandise you buy. Our rings were made by a Navajo named Virginia Tulley. I bought myself a pair of jeans at Zimmerman’s; another long time trading post. They said the jeans were made by a Zuni named Levi but they wouldn’t put that in writing. Both these store are on Historic Route 66.

From a local magazine

“The arrival of the railroads in the Southwest in the 1880’s ushered in a new era of commerce that continues today. The Southwestern trading posts, which made Native American arts & crafts available worldwide, evolved into complex business operations. With all business transacted under one roof, each trading post became a regional social center, wholesale buyer, department & grocery store, financial institution and the link to the outside world for people of the area. Artisans needed the raw materials of their crafts as well as sustenance while they handmade their labor-intensive products. There were no banks in the Southwest to lend money. Trading posts had vaults for safe storage of valuables, so an alternative banking system developed. It was known as the cash pawn, and like the trading posts themselves, it remains an important part of community life today. Traders accepted handmade items, which were called pawn, as collateral and returned them to the owner upon repayment of the loan.” The article went on to say that only a very small percentage of pawn is never reclaimed by the borrower. Even so, the quantity of merchandise that can accumulate over a hundred or more years is considerable. Pawn vaults are a good source of high quality handmade merchandise.

Browsing through Richardson’s is like spending time in a museum except everything is for sale. They have a special vault room where the really valuable merchandise is kept. The jewelry in the regular display cases topped out at about $10,000.

After shopping, we walked around the downtown area for a while then went to lunch. More very good Southwest food. After lunch we walked to an amazing bakery. Going to stop there again in the morning.

Early afternoon we went to the Red Rock State Park located off Rt 66 east of Gallup about 8 miles. Took a picture of Church Rock; a religious place for the Navajo. We were the only people there. Tried to find someone to pay but everything was closed except for the local Post Office. Right now it’s 6:30pm. It’s us and two others.

Albuquerque, Thursday

Albuquerque, NM.

Thursday:

Drove from Santa Rosa Lake SP to Albuquerque this morning. Very, very strong headwind. The weather channel said gusts to 40 mph. The winds were really buffeting the camper. I was glad when the drive was finished. We went straight to the Old Town area of the city. Albuquerque is an easy city to drive in as big cities go. There is a large parking lot by the convention center that is great for RV parking. When I was here by myself four years ago, I found an angel store and bought Carol some things. We found Angel Town again. Carol bought two bumper stickers for her scooter and a card for Izzy. I was glad to see her buy the card. Before Carol’s stroke she was always getting something for Izzy. This is yet another sign of a return to “typical” Carol. Had a great Southwest lunch at the Church Street Café. Carol had a taco salad; I had a burrito. After lunch we walked around Old Town for a while. Visited the San Felipe de Neri Church (see the picture describing the history of the church), walked around the outside sculpture garden at the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History, and the adjacent open space park. After that we drove to the Tigley Beach Park. Not really a beach, as such, but a series of three lakes. The lakes are stocked with fish. It’s all catch & release. One lake is reserved for kids under 12. Except for the Kids Lake, all the other fisherman were guys with their fly rods. Gopher & I walked around the lakes. Never saw anyone catch anything but you could see lots of big fish in the water. There were two 20# catfish released in the largest lake. There was a $100 prize for catching one of these fish.

About 4:00 we headed for the Sandia Resort & Casino; our camping spot for the night. Ate the buffet for dinner, played one dollar in the slots and called it a day.

Searched for grocery stores with the GPS. Found a Whole Foods nearby. Tomorrow we head there. Carol wants to go in to stock up on goof stuff; i.e. things I generally don’t buy.