"I'm On Vacation!" - Wednesday, June 1, 2011

"I'm On Vacation!" - Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Last night I asked Tom what time he would like to leave this morning to go to the Petrified Forest. He answered, "I have no time. I'm on vacation!" And so we are.

This is one of the more active RV Parks that we have been in this trip. I commented this morning when most of the other trailers and mobile homes that arrived at the same time we did were leaving that this is a "bedroom community." People come in to spend the night and then go on their way. I wondered how could they not go see the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert?

When we were ready this morning we went south through the rest of Holbrook, Arizona. There were more kinds of businesses there but no store with general merchandise. To correct my comment in yesterday's blog, I did find a Family Dollar store in the northern part of town. There also seems to be more residential houses and apartments off the main road. Holbrook is not very wide, just long.

After checking out a tourist trap we entered the southern end of the Petrified Forest Park and Painted Desert. We stopped at the Rainbow Forest Museum near the beginning of our trip through the Park. We followed a self-guided tour in the back of the museum building. Then we viewed a movie of the origin of the Petrified Forest.

We stopped at many turn offs to see the interesting geologic formations in the park.

[This is for all of you who are/were wondering if I could/should make this trip.] We also stopped at Crystal Forest. It featured a .8 mile loop which went up hill and down on a very windy day to show off crystal formations in the petrified wood. Tom and I walked the entire loop enjoying what that part of the Forest had to offer. I offer thanks to all of you who have been praying for me.

It wasn't until much later that I noticed the sunburn on Tom's neck and ears that I realized how long we were out. With the wind blowing so hard we hardly noticed the sun.

Two of the other places in the Park that we especially enjoyed where the Blue Mesa Loop and the Newspaper Rock. The Blue Mesa Loop was about 3 miles long and had interesting geologic formations that were not seen in other parts of the park. Newspaper Rock was a view of at least three rocks with petroglyphs on them.

At 3:15 we noticed it was 91 degrees. It didn't feel that hot. A mighty wind can do that to you.

We stopped at a store that we believed to be more reputable and bought some things for the kids,
bought gas for tomorrow's trip when we arrived back in Holbrook and went back to the RV Park to crash. The members of tonight's "bedroom community" had started to gather.

We had dinner (the wind blew out the flame on the grill a coupole of times) and did the dishes. We don't usually do this on the night before we move but we had so many in such a short time.
While we were doing the dishes we kept an eye on the sunset. When we figured it was just about right we went outside and sat in our chairs facing this show that was to be put on very soon. We watched the sunset last night too. It was a wonderful display. Afterwards Tom asked if we were going to stand up and applaud. I said, "Why not?" So the two of us stood up and applauded the sunset. Who cares if anyone else didn't understand why we did it!

Soon we were off to finishing the dishes and doing some things to get ready to roll tomorrow. Not as many as usual so I guess we won't get an early start. But the dishes are clean and put away.

Tomorrow we head east and north into Colorado. We will be spending three days there visiting Mesa Verde. We will be going into Mountain Daylight Savings Time so our clocks will go ahead one hour. Our sunsets will be one hour later and we will be wanting to do things one hour later. And just after we get used to the Mountain Standard and Pacific Daylight Times. ;o)

Thanks to all of you who are also praying for us and our trip. Please continue to do so. We are counting on you and your prayers.