Celebrating National Park Week and Our Trip Eastward

Usually we aren’t anywhere close to a National Park during National Park week but this year we really hit the bonanza. I got to visit Zion and Bryce the week before and then as we left Utah, we headed back to Arizona to visit two more parks during National Park Week. After a quick overnight stop in Vegas, we headed south and east to Williams, AZ for a 3 night stay.

If you aren’t aware, you can take a train ride from Williams to the Grand Canyon. We seriously considered the train but thought it would be too long of a day for Tim and Trent. We were there during the work week so we didn’t expect big crowds, but knowing it was National Park week, we knew it could get crowded. We left early and arrived at the Grand Canyon around 9 AM. It was a perfect time to arrive, not too crowded yet; although we did pick the slowest line at the entrance.

Although we have been to the Grand Canyon before, it still amazes me on that first glance. Definitely an awe inspiring place. I took a bunch of pictures from various vantage points along the rim and really enjoyed walking around the rim trail. We decided to park in a couple of places where you can drive to, then stop and walk along the rim. It worked out well for us and we lucked into parking each time. We ended the day with lunch at the Harvey House Tavern, in the Bright Angel Lodge, before we drove back to Williams. When we left, the line at the entrance was probably at least a mile long so it was good that we went early.

The next day, we enjoyed walking around the quaint town of Williams. This is a Rt 66 town with many of the businesses still open, as opposed to many of the towns we stopped at along Rt 66. I guess due to the train and proximity to the Grand Canyon, this town still gets many tourists. Of course there are many Rt 66 relics in the town so it is fun to browse around. The RV park recommended a diner in town for pie, so we stopped for pie before lunch. It was sort of a second breakfast. Good thing we got the pie first; the pieces were huge so we didn’t even get lunch later! After a little shopping, we stopped in the Sultana Bar & Theater. This bar has been open since 1912. Definitely worth a stop if you are in Williams.

i liked These signs that are at both ends of town as you enter Williams.

Williams, AZ

pie and coffee. tim went with the traditional apple pie but i had the banana peanut buter chocolate cream pie. it was delicious!

this bar has been in business for 112 years

lots to look at inside the bar

cars! this was a gift shop with a bunch of old cars out front.

After Williams, we headed to Holbrook, AZ for the next couple of days. This town is close to the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert. I thought these were two separate parks but they are both contained in one park. Even though all of the parks we visited have red rock formations, they were all unique in the rock structures. This park was the same way,; very unique and again beautiful vistas as you drive through the park.

the painted desert

In the Petrified Forest, you can see the colorful painted desert, petroglyphs, petrified wood and remnants of ancient dwellings. We started the drive at the Painted Desert Visitors Center and drove south through the park stopping at all of the view points. I was amazed at all of the various rock formations that this park has to offer. If you find yourself traveling across I-40 in Arizona, it is definitely worth a stop.

petroglyphs

a petrified log bridge

more petrified wood

After our visit to Holbrook, we had planned to head East across I-40 taking about 2 weeks to make our way back to visit Kim and Greg in Cincinnati. Well, the day we visited the park, there was a train derailment at the Arizona/New Mexico border. There were at least 6 cars carrying propone, some of which exploded and caused a huge fire. So they closed I-40 for 3 days while they were putting out the fire and clearing the wreckage.

I researched our options, and it looked like there was a long detour on a bumpy 2 lane road or go back west and then south to take I-10 across. The second option would add a few extra days to our trip but was probably safer traveling with an RV than the other option. We were planning to do that when Tim came down with a stomach bug. Since he wasn’t up for traveling, we just stayed put in Holbrook for a couple more days and by the time he was feeling better, I-40 was open.

I didn’t find much to do in Holbrook. It is another Rt 66 town but many of the old roadside attractions looked rundown or closed. The WigWam Motel looked cool though. They had old cars parked out in front of each of the WigWams. I thought it was no longer in business just an attraction to look at but it looks like you can book a stay online.

As we started back east, we started hearing about severe storms and tornados causing alot of damage and flooding in the mid West. That made us nervous about our trip. We checked the forcast every morning to decide how far to travel and where it was best to stay. Overall, we did well and avoided the storms, even traveling across the Texas panhandle, through Oklahoma and into Missouri. There was only one day, when we left Tucumcari, NM and traveled through Texas, where it was pretty windy which made driving the motorhome a bit challenging. Luckily the winds died down after an hour or so on the road and the drive got easier.

Most days we were on the road 4-5 hours and we did this 7 days in a row. That is alot for us. Usually, we drive about 3 hours at a time for day or two and then stop for a few days. We really couldn’t do that this time. We arrived at Will Rogers Downs KOA in Oklahoma on Friday, the day before the Kentucky Derby and initially the weather looked good. We thought we would stay 2 nights and enjoy the live racing on Saturday and their Kentucky Derby festivities. Well, we when checked the weather Saturday morning, it had changed and they were calling for storms on Sunday morning with the potential for hail, high winds and possible tornados. That convinced us to leave. Luckily the KOA was great about it and gave us a refund for the second night. I was disappointed to miss the horse races though. We had a site that backed up to the racetrack so we would have had a great place to watch the races. Oh well, maybe next time.

That ended up being a very long day. We kept moving to get as far east as we could to be out of the severe storm path. We traveled for about 8 hours and pulled into a Cracker Barrel in a suburb outside of St. Louis, MO just as a storm with intense lightning and heavy rain hit. Luckily, there was no hail or high winds, just lots of rain. We headed into Cracker Barrel for dinner and got permission to spend the night in the parking lot. There weren’t any more storms that night so all was well.

We are now at the Thousand Trails Indian Lakes RV Park, in Batesville, IN which is pretty close to Cincinnati, OH. It is our second day here and guess what? We got a severe storm alert here, for heavy rains, high winds, hail, and possible tornados. I guess it is just that time of year. So for now, we are spending at least tonight and possibly tomorrow night at Kim and Greg’s house, We thought it would be safer to be in a house instead of the RV. I am hoping that the rest of our 2 week stay here gets better and we have some nice weather for our visit.

Stay safe out there!