We’ve begun the trek to view the annular eclipse of the sun in Albuquerque, NM, this weekend. Tonight, we’re camped out in Holbrook, AZ.
Cabela and Tucker seem relaxed and content in the RV while we are resting overnight.
Vacation
RV Shakedown
We got the RV out to the fuel pit yesterday to get some diesel. It had been running low what with the weekly start-ups of the engine and monthly generator run. All went well, and everything seemed to be working during the short jaunt to get gas.
Before we head out on our next excursion, we’re going to have to get some new tires and a replacement for the main awning. We also should get it in for service for fluids, pressures and etc. New windshield wipers are a must as well as a checkup of any other essential items before a major travel segment.
We’re looking forward to being on the road maybe sometime in October, if not a sooner, longer shakedown cruise.
Grand Canyon Weekend Gridlock
Yavapai Point Webcam — South Rim, GCNP
There is no doubt that vistas like the one above are scenic wonders that beckon most people to come see for themselves in person. That attraction to tourists, however, often results in traffic lineups as depicted below. Both images were saved from the web on Saturday 11/19/2022 at about ten AM AZ time. Click to enlarge.
GCNP South Entrance Station Webcam
We regularly visit the website of the Yavapai Point Webcam when we look at our weather report and forecast each day. That also prompts us to look at the South Entrance Webcam that shows the lineup of vehicles waiting to pay the fee (or show their pass) for admission to the park. We see that these two images were taken when there were a lot of folks headed into the park on a weekend. In contrast, we have seen the South Entrance stations at off hours when there are NO vehicles visible.
We checked the webcams again today and note that there are a lot of cars and campers waiting; this being the Thanksgiving holiday week, that is understandable. Last Monday, the queue to get in was very light.
Verna and I have been to the Canyon many times, and these days, as beautiful and spectacular as it is, we do not wish to compete with the millions of park visitors flocking there. So, we’re content with viewing from a distance courtesy of the NPS Webcams.
Old Tombstone Wagon in 3D
I found myself rummaging through some old photos in the archives today and found an image pair that I took in Tombstone, AZ back in 2009. This is a very old buckboard wagon from the 19th century that was sitting along one of the Tombstone side streets. I found the image pair I took back then and today merged them into the anaglyph image above (click to enlarge).
If you don’t happen to have a pair of red/cyan glasses handy, you can view the 2D version of the image here.
Retirement Day!
On this day, October 1, 2021, we’re celebrating our twelfth year of permanent retirement. I say permanent because this date is actually my second retirement, the first being ten years prior to 2009. To make a long story short, we retired rather than take a layoff in 1999 due to a manpower reduction. I immediately found another job at a competitive company to the one from which I had retired which eventually was acquired by my first company. Thus, I retired from the same company twice and now receive two pensions from them.
IMAGE: Thor Palazzo Motorhome ready to roll. Click on the image to enlarge.
In our retirement post last year, we mentioned hitting the road sometime in 2021, but that has not happened (yet). We did not go anywhere in the spring or summer in the big RV for various reasons, but the thinking now is to at least have a two or three-day excursion semi-local somewhere in Arizona. Since I am still healing up from hernia surgery, we need the surgeon’s go-ahead for that, but plan to get it done before it gets too cold for camping.
As far as keeping the RV ready for our next excursion, we have a routine where the engine gets started up and run for a while every week. We run the 6KW generator about once a month with a load, like both A/C units running. We currently have the black and gray tanks filled with a water-bleach solution which will be purged and prepared for use prior to our next run.
We’re thinking that our destination might be in the high desert north of the Mogollon Rim, perhaps Winslow, Holbrook, Homolovi SP and Petrified Forest NP. More on that when we make final plans.
So, join us in celebrating our twelfth AND twenty-second retirement anniversaries!
Last Desert Sun Ray of the Day
The last sun ray of the afternoon shone through some of the natural desert vegetation on the west side of the house just before the sun went behind the hill over that way. There wasn’t a lot of pastel colors or any brilliant desert sunset, but a nice, mellow sepia-like photo portraying the brief event before fading to dark.
We had a great trip home from our August vacation to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. It was a lot of fun and we accomplished our objective of setting memorials on the graves of some of our ancestors. We came away with a good feeling.
