The 120-mile trip from Kingman to Williams (Population: 3,100) was a piece of cake---especially when compared to the previous day. We arrived at the Railside RV Ranch about noon, and were assigned to a nice end-site with a clear view of the surrounding area.
We've been here before. It's a bit funky, and certainly not posh, but the people are terrific and we're very comfortable here. We had dinner at the Branding Iron Restaurant in Williams. It came with high recommendations from Trip Advisor, but was disappointing. Becky's spare ribs came to the table cold. And our server, Christine, was trying hard but was not at all professional. The owner, John Moore, who is the Mayor of Williams, and a part of the cadre of locals who work with or for the Grand Canyon Railway, came by our table and we had a chat about what's happening with the Xanterra folks.
Sunday was a lazy day, mostly. We wandered around Williams a little, savoring the Route 66 history. (It was the last city on Route 66 bypassed by I-40, in 1984.) Then we hit the Safeway for some vittles, and also picked up two excellent movies at the Redbox there: Standup Guys and A Late Quartet, both of which starred Christopher Walken.
The first one also had Al Pacino and Alan Arkin, and the latter also had Catherine Keener and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The movies were quite different, not only from each other but also from the usual run, and well-worth watching. We had dinner in---Becky's shrimp curry. Delicious.
Monday lunch was at the Grand Canyon Coffee & Cafe in Williams, with Linda Popp, an old friend of ours from South Rim days. Linda was one of the sitters for Daisy when we would go away.
She is currently working at Big Bend National Park near Terlingua, Texas. It was fun catching up with her. And the food was pretty good; Becky and I both had Chinese Chicken salads. Then we stopped at the local True Value hardware store to browse. We consider that to be an exciting activity. I bought some paint to spruce up our wrought iron outdoor furniture.
Becky attended a late-afternoon workout at a nearby gym on Monday. She has enrolled herself in its three-times-a-week Boot Camp. Christian is the Boot Camp leader.
We thought we had dentist appointments in Flagstaff on Tuesday, but found out just before we left that the appointments are for the following Tuesday. We went to Flagstaff anyway. We ran errands at Ace Hardware, New Frontiers (a health food store),
PetSmart, Camping World, and Peace Surplus (a sporting goods store). At Peace Surplus, Becky bought a new pair of hiking boots. At a local clinic, I got blood taken for a periodic test. That illustrates the different nature of our respective attempts at fun.
We ate lunch at Pato Thai, our favorite Thai restaurant. We had the usual---Pad Thai (Becky) and Cashew Chicken (me). As usual, they were wonderful.
On the road to and from Flagstaff (I-40) and in the city, itself, there were a zillion Arizona Highway Patrol cars pulling trucks over, and all commercial trucks were required to stop at the Rest Stop outside of town. We learned that they are conducting an extensive safety inspection for three days in the Flagstaff area as an experiment. I'll bet the truckers are just thrilled at the intrusion.
I spent a long time on the phone with DirecTV on Tuesday, trying to upgrade our equipment to High Definition. It always throws them for a loop when I tell them we are in an RV. I have to insist on talking with a supervisor since the regular folks don't have a clue what the company can do with RVers. Wednesday I was able to place the order. We'll see how that turns out.
Also on Wednesday, we spent two hours at Bearizona, a 180-acre drive-through and walk-through wild animal park in Williams that opened three years ago. It was terrific; a very nice setup.
Thursday was largely a relaxing day for me, while Becky and Ramsey went for a few long walks. Late in the afternoon, we went to the Railway Hotel to have adult beverages with Kathy and Mike Drahos, two RVers we first met at the RV park in St. George and who are here for just a few days on their way to Texas. Mike recently retired after spending 40 years as an electrician for the Santa Fe Railroad. It was his first and only real job. Wow!
On Friday we took Ramsey for short walks (he’s been limping a bit lately due, we think, to slightly injuring one of his paws on the sharp cinders that abound here) at two nearby lakes---Cataract Lake and Kaibab Lake. The county park at Cataract Lake has been open for only two months, and is beautiful.
It’s adjacent to the local golf course and a development of expensive homes. Kaibab Lake is a small federal recreation area with lovely campsites (with, though, no utilities). There was a vanload of “developmentally-challenged” kids fishing there. It was cute watching their excitement when one of them caught something.
Later, we settled in to watch two movies. Becky watched Warm Bodies, a zombie movie (with no known stars other than John Malkovich, if he’s considered a star) from the Redbox, in which I had no interest. Instead, I watched An American Affair, with Gretchen Mol, a strange, Kennedy assassination-related film that I suspect went straight to video due to well-deserved lack of interest. Oh, well, we can’t always pick winners.
The highlight of Saturday was watching Safe Haven from the Redbox, starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, both of whom did OK but shouldn't hold their breath for any Oscars. The film was actually a lot more enjoyable than I expected.
The lowlight of Saturday was watching the L. A. Kings lose to the Chicago Blackhawks---in the second overtime period---after the Kings had scored a tying goal with only nine seconds left in the third period of regulation.
We decided on a field trip for Sunday---to the Arizona Snowbowl, 14 miles outside of Flagstaff. The ski resort has been there for 75 years.
Its base is at 9,500 feet up Mount Humphreys which, at 13,633 feet, is the tallest mountain in Arizona. We went there by a 125-mile circular route---first up Highway 64 through flat desert to Valle, then down Highway 180 through the Coconino National Forest
to the Snowbowl, then down to Flagstaff and over to Williams. It's a very pretty drive, and the Snowbowl facility, though small (only six lifts), is quite nice.
After we dropped Ramsey off at home, we had lunch at Pancho McGuillicuddy's Mexican Restaurant in Williams. I had a strange tostada salad (among other odd things, it contained sauteed mushrooms) and a wonderful Margarita. Close enough.
On Friday we took Ramsey for short walks (he’s been limping a bit lately due, we think, to slightly injuring one of his paws on the sharp cinders that abound here) at two nearby lakes---Cataract Lake and Kaibab Lake. The county park at Cataract Lake has been open for only two months, and is beautiful.
It’s adjacent to the local golf course and a development of expensive homes. Kaibab Lake is a small federal recreation area with lovely campsites (with, though, no utilities). There was a vanload of “developmentally-challenged” kids fishing there. It was cute watching their excitement when one of them caught something.
Later, we settled in to watch two movies. Becky watched Warm Bodies, a zombie movie (with no known stars other than John Malkovich, if he’s considered a star) from the Redbox, in which I had no interest. Instead, I watched An American Affair, with Gretchen Mol, a strange, Kennedy assassination-related film that I suspect went straight to video due to well-deserved lack of interest. Oh, well, we can’t always pick winners.
The highlight of Saturday was watching Safe Haven from the Redbox, starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, both of whom did OK but shouldn't hold their breath for any Oscars. The film was actually a lot more enjoyable than I expected.
The lowlight of Saturday was watching the L. A. Kings lose to the Chicago Blackhawks---in the second overtime period---after the Kings had scored a tying goal with only nine seconds left in the third period of regulation.
We decided on a field trip for Sunday---to the Arizona Snowbowl, 14 miles outside of Flagstaff. The ski resort has been there for 75 years.
Its base is at 9,500 feet up Mount Humphreys which, at 13,633 feet, is the tallest mountain in Arizona. We went there by a 125-mile circular route---first up Highway 64 through flat desert to Valle, then down Highway 180 through the Coconino National Forest
to the Snowbowl, then down to Flagstaff and over to Williams. It's a very pretty drive, and the Snowbowl facility, though small (only six lifts), is quite nice.
After we dropped Ramsey off at home, we had lunch at Pancho McGuillicuddy's Mexican Restaurant in Williams. I had a strange tostada salad (among other odd things, it contained sauteed mushrooms) and a wonderful Margarita. Close enough.
We left a early enough for our Tuesday dentist appointments in Flagstaff that we had time to stop first at the Riordan Mansion, a local museum that we somehow avoided for the three years we spent at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. What a great place.
The Riordan brothers were lumber barons starting in the late 19th century. They built the mansion in 1904 on a large parcel of land. The mansion is really two mansions---each housing the family of one of the brothers---connected by a common meeting room for family gatherings. The place has been wonderfully maintained, and the tour is well worth the time.
The Riordans were very civic-minded. Among other things, they founded the first local hospital, the first local Catholic church, and what became Northern Arizona University, which was built on donated land adjacent to the mansion. At this time, the university, at 21,000 students a rather large institution, virtually surrounds the mansion. Its sports teams are named, appropriately, the Lumberjacks.
The Riordan mansion was designed by Charles Whittlesley, who was, at the same time, the architect of the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon, and the two buildings had a lot of common features.
We then visited Dr. Benjamin Stark, a nice young Flagstaff dentist we last saw two years ago.
We were there for our regular cleanings, plus I had chipped a tooth a week ago. It turned out that the chip actually came off a 30 year-old crown and the crown needed to be replaced. That will require two more visits, one the next morning and a second one a week or so later.
Wednesday morning we returned to Flagstaff and Dr. Stark, followed by a side trip to see Twin Arrows, a Navajo Casino/Resort 20 miles east of Flagstaff, that opened less than three weeks ago. It‘s large (250,000 square feet of casino floor) and really beautiful.
Thursday morning, we took advantage of the free breakfast in the RV park office for the first time. There is a very limited menu, but the waffles (you make them yourself) and orange juice were fine.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxing---trips to the Safeway and the post office were the highlights. And of course Becky walked Ramsey several times.
When we returned home, we noticed on the Internet news that Princess Cruises had just lanched its newest ship, the Royal Princess, in Southhampton, England. The ship was officially launched by Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. Alan Buckelew, the President of Princess and a long-time friend of ours, appeared in some of the pictures of the launch. And his wife, Christine, was seen, as well, in one photo. What fun for us to see them.
Friday we headed for the Grand Canyon to check in with some of our old friends there, and to see how things may have changed since we were last there. Our first stop was at The Grand Hotel in Tusayan, just outside the park entrance. I worked there for the 15 months preceding our leaving the canyon in 2009.
The hotel was bought by Xanterra a year or so ago and some of its weaker points have been updated, fixed, etc. It really is a nice hotel. We spent some time talking with the manager, Rick During, who was the number two person at the North Rim starting the year after we last worked there. He seems like a capable guy, though it seems he is not be terribly popular with the staff. We then headed into the park and, after parking at the Bright Angel Lodge,
got on the shuttle for the eight-mile trip to Hermits Rest, at the west end of the property. The trip, involving nine stops, took 45 minutes, We immediately got in line at the food station to have some lunch---which turned out to be commercially-prepared sandwiches. Becky’s ham sandwich had an expiration date of July 2---two and a half weeks from now! Even though the sandwich was eminently edible, that’s spooky. I was afraid to look at the expiration date of my turkey sandwich.
When we got back to the village, we first stopped at the Bright Angel Lodge but didn’t see anyone there we recognized. We then went to the El Tovar Hotel and saw several people we knew: Beverly Garcia, the front desk manager, Jerry Smith, the concierge, Jim Wheelis, a front desk man who used to be the assistant in the Human Resources office at Bryce Canyon Lodge and who also was the environmental tool at the South Rim (and who is now divorced from his wife Patricia, whom we also knew at the South Rim), and Dick Yoder, who was a former neighbor of ours in the employee RV park at the South Rim. We learned that the El Tovar will be closed for major renovations for 3 1/2 months this winter.
On the way back to Williams, we stopped at The Grand Hotel again to have a quick adult beverage in the remodeled bar (there are 19 beer taps now) and to see Jeff D‘Arpa, the manager of the Railway Hotel and the unofficial (or maybe it’s official) Xanterra regional manager. He had stopped at The Grand for his weekly visit. Jeff was our lodge manager when we were at Zion.
We had fun seeing him, catching up on Xanterra, a lot of our old friends there, and what’s going on with him and his wife, Lisa, and his daughters, Lily and Shasta.
We arrived back home, picked up Ramsey from the local kennel (at which he seemed to want to stay), and Becky made her Vietnamese salad, which is simply delicious, for dinner.
Saturday was the second day of the two-day 3rd Annual Northern Arizona Barbecue Festival in Williams. We attended, and had a few tastes of pulled pork---which were delicious.
The weather was hot and the music was loud, so we passed on the full meal that was offered and went home after just about an hour. Then we watched Snitch, a decent shoot-em-up starring Dwayne Johnson (aka "The Rock") that we got from the Redbox.
Sunday---Fathers' Day---was properly subdued. After all, it's a day of deserved rest for those of us who have weathered the joys of fatherhood. We had breakfast at the RV park office again, waffles and orange juice, of course,
followed by a valiant attempt to watch Cloud Atlas, an extremely long film with very mixed reviews and no comprehensible point. We gave up after nearly an hour of its more than 2 1/2 hour length, and hustled it back to the Redbox.
The highlight of Monday was lunch at the Red Raven restaurant in Williams (I had a wonderful Reuben sandwich) with Karen Sjobakken, one of our co-workers at the South Rim, who, along with Linda Popp, took care of Daisy when we would go away. She has worked at the South Rim for 24 years! Wow! It was nice to see her again.
On Tuesday, we finally ordered a new rooftop satellite dish so we can upgrade to High Definition television. The receiver upgrades were ordered last week, and are due to be installed on the 28th. It will be tight receiving and installing the dish in time. Otherwise, it will be chaos for a while. Our takeout dinner was tasty pizza from the Pizza Factory in Williams.
Tuesday was also the day to finally watch Side Effects (from the Redbox, of course), which we have been anticipating for quite a while. It was complicated, but very good. We followed up on Wednesday with Quartet, a thoroughly British, thoroughly charming, and thoroughly enjoyable movie (also from the Redbox). It was directed by Dustin Hoffman.
Earlier we had headed out to one of the local parks (in the Kaibab National Forest) for a Ramsey walk. Apparently because of the high winds today, and the resulting fire danger, the park was closed. Nearby alternate areas were also closed, for the same reason.
We ended up just walking him on an old dirt road by what had been a CCC camp in the '30s. He didn't seem to feel cheated.
Thursday and Friday were pretty low key. I spent some idle time pulling weeds on our site which I've been doing occasionally (an old Boy Scout thing, even though I was never a Boy Scout) and fixing little things around the rig, including replacing a broken handle on a hammer I use in the weed caper. Becky went to her "boot camp" at the gym on Thursday.
There is a rodeo area just a few hundred yards from here, and all week long cowboys and horses and RVs have been showing up to spend the weekend for a major annual event.
It's kind of exciting. Becky took Ramsey there to see some of the horses on Friday. He was a little overwhelmed by the size of the horses.
The first of the four parts that will be installed to give us Hi Definition TV arrived on Friday. I'm getting excited. If all goes well, the job will be finished by next Friday, the 28th.
Saturday was a Flagstaff day: Walmart, Petsmart, New Frontiers, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Hiro's Sushi, and Maverik (to fill up on diesel). The night before, Undercover Boss had followed the CEO of Kampgrounds Of America, the "kampground" company. Among the facilities involved was one of the two KOAs located near Williams. We stopped there on the way back from Flagstaff.
It was interesting to see it in person. It's a nice place. We rarely stay at KOAs because they are usually far more expensive than is warranted.
For the seven years since we firsr arrived at the South Rim, we have avoided the Planes Of Fame Air Museum in Valle, even though we've driven by it about a hundred times. We decided to make that our field trip on Sunday.
It was quite interesting. Among other memorabilia, it has a lot of WWII (and later) airplanes, including a few from Germany and Japan, all of which still fly. The centerpiece is a USAF Lockheed Constellation that once was assigned to General Douglas MacArthur as his personal plane.
Sunday was also the day for the dramatic wire-walk by Nik Wallenda across the Little Colorado Gorge. It was “sold” as a walk across the Grand Canyon, but that was not entirely accurate. Technically, the gorge is not a part of the Grand Canyon, but it’s awfully close---just outside the east end of the canyon---so I’m not going to quibble.
Normally, I would not bother with a stunt like this, but, since we spent so much time at the canyon and are so familiar with it and the surrounding area, I felt compelled to watch. It was pretty exciting, I must admit.
Earlier on Sunday, the wind let up for a few minutes so I was able for the first time since we’ve been here to attempt to repaint our lawn furniture. After about ten minutes, the wind came back and, simultaneously, I ran out of paint.
The local hardware store is closed on Sunday and I was not able to get any more paint, so it didn’t matter if the wind went away again. Since the wind is a largely constant factor in Williams, the project, which is now only half-finished, will probably stay that way for a while.
The highlight of Monday was running up to Tusayan to have lunch with Anesthesia Lawson, my former boss at The Grand Hotel. We had a great time catching up. We also had a great lunch at the Plaza Bonita, a Mexican restaurant, across the street from the hotel.
Tuesday morning, we left early to go to Flagstaff for my 8:00 AM appointment to have my new crown installed. Unfortunately, the lab had not delivered the crown, so I will have to return Saturday morning. I did have a small cavity filled while I was there.
Becky then went to have her hair done, while I had the truck washed. Before heading back to Williams, we had a wonderful lunch at Oregano's, an Italian bistro next door to the Riordan Mansion.
The place is terrific! The piped-in music was '50s band music (Louie Prima, Harry James; no rock & roll, no doo wop). Great sounds. We shared a Pablo Picasso salad. Tuesday night, we watched The Call, starring Halle Berry, from the Redbox. It was surprisingly good.
While we were in Flagstaff, we received notice that our new satellite dish had arrived at the RV park, so we're now ready to have the High Definition system installed.
Wednesday was a waiting game for Ward, the dish installer.
He was supposed to come first thing in the morning, but he had several "fires" to put out and ended arriving about at 1:30 PM. Whatever---the system is now functional in the living room, at least, and it is terrific. Not only is the TV picture extraordinarily clear, but the DirecTV receiver can now perform tricks I never imagined. What fun.
The rest of the project is set for Friday, when DirecTV will deliver and install the HD receiver in our bedroom.
We had breakfast at the RV park office Thursday morning, then settled in for an ordinary day---except that today is my 75th birthday and I intend to celebrate all day. We are due to have dinner at the Red Raven restaurant in Williams. I am really looking forward to that.
Dinner turned out to be delicious.
We shared two entrees: A succulent filet mignon and a perfectly-cooked salmon covered with pesto. Wonderful, and quite up to the stature of the occasion.
Friday was the day to complete the changeover to HD. Michael from DirecTV showed up on time to deliver the receiver for the bedroom and start the project to make the entire system work smoothly.
Michael tried hard, but made a few blunders that made the changeover a bit troublesome. (I added to the distress with a mistake of my own.) Finally, it all worked out, and we are delighted with the results.
Saturday involved a 200+ mile trip to Prescott and back, with a stop in Flagstaff at 8:00 AM to see Dr. Stark to get my new crown.
The Prescott trip was for two reasons: First, to stop at Costco and Trader Joe’s for the usual supplies, and second, to have lunch with Ken and Faye Ewbank, some Palm Desert RV friends who are staying at Verde Valley for a while before they head back home to Virginia for the foreseeable future. We met at Murphy’s Restaurant in Prescott. It’s our favorite place there.
The food was delicious, as always, and the manager offered us all complimentary desserts because this was Faye and Ken's first visit to Murphy's. We didn’t question his decision. Faye and I had bread pudding; Ken had carrot cake. Becky was good, and declined the offer. The desserts were huge, and I was the only one who ate the whole thing. Ken and Faye are neat people, and it’s always a treat to spend time with them.
We got back home and picked up Ramsey from the nearby kennel, where we had dropped him off Friday night. We miss him when he’s not around for even one night, and we really enjoyed seeing him again.
We had dinner at the “chuck wagon” at our RV park. (Remember, it’s called the Railside RV Ranch.) Saturday night occasionally involves a free dinner at the place, though financial contributions from the guests are accepted (actually, encouraged). The spaghetti and its usual complements were pretty good. We sat with a couple from west Texas (Odessa) who were very nice.
We were originally scheduled to leave on Sunday, the 30th, to start the move to the San Diego area. It’s been very hot in the southern U.S. lately (it was 134 in Death Valley today) and we realized that our two stops on the way to San Diego (Needles and Thermal, California) were expected to have temperatures in the area of 120+ degrees for the next two days. That high a temperature is not only very uncomfortable, but is very hard on our truck---and actually threatens the smooth completion of the trek. So, we decided to extend our stay in Williams for a week
and make the trek to San Diego when the temperatures are predicted to be 20 degrees cooler. That’s not ideal, but it’s better. We spent Sunday just relaxing and trying to avoid the heat. Dinner was a repeat performance with pizza from the Pizza Factory. Delicious.
Sunday was also the day of thc start of the wildfire in Yarnell, 30 miles from Prescott, where 19 of the "hot shot" firefighters were tragically killed. So sad.
Monday and Tuesday were very low-key. A lot of catching up on reading and such. It was very warm, though not unbearable. Tuesday afternoon, the sky suddenly darkened and a thunderstorm passed through.
There was even some hail. Within 15 minutes the storm was over but the sky stayed dark and the 20 degree drop in temperature remained. The little bit of rain was welcome. It has been very dry here for a long time. The rain came back from time to time throughout the night. It included some thunder and lightning, which spooked Ramsey, of course. He visited us in the bedroom often during the night.
Wednesday was a day for a field trip. (We were suffering from a touch of cabin fever.) We chose a 125-mile (roundtrip) trek to Mormon Lake, a nearly dry lake southeast of Flagstaff.
We first went there with the Wheelers in November of 2007 to celebrate our one-day-apart wedding anniversaries. In November it's a refuge; in July it's a mob scene. There is a small lodge and RV park in the tiny village there. Parts of the drive were reminiscent of the drive to the North Rim. Very pretty. The lodge and RV park complex is operated by Forever Resorts, one of Xanterra's competitors. The manager, Scott Gold, whom we met in 2007, is still there. We had a nice reunion with him.
When we returned to Williams, we had lunch at the Dara Thai Cafe, the local Thai restaurant. I mistakenly ordered my dish (cashew chicken, of course) to be level 4 (out of 5) on the "hotness" scale. Ouch! We followed with a Redbox film, Identity Thief, which had its moments but otherwise wasn't very good.
The wind has been blowing so incessantly the entire time we've been in Williams that on Wednesday the bolts holding the mounting bracket for our flag actually broke. It called for a quick fix using some larger bolts from my vast inventory of spare parts.
Thursday was the 4th of July, of course, and we attended the annual parade down the old Route 66 in Williams. It was very "small town" in feel, quite patriotic, and a lot of fun. There were a number of nice tributes to the 19 firefighters, who were designated as the honorary Grand Marshals.
Thursday evening the RV park hosted another dinner for the guests. It consisted of traditional July 4 fare---hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, beer, and apple pie. It was delightful.
One of our tablemates, a very chatty woman named Karen, was quite open about how she and her family have mastered the art of manipulating the public and private systems providing disability payments. It was a bit disturbing.
Not long after we got our washing machine three years ago, a plastic part in the door broke, and we ordered a replacement part which was delivered by FedEx two days later. In the meantime, I had tried to fix the part by supergluing it back together. It worked, and we never used the replacement part. We just stored it behind the washer. Friday, the old part broke again, and we immediately fixed it with the replacement we had stored.
Thinking it was a good plan to always have a backup, we ordered a new replacement part---to be stored behind the washer again. That was the Friday highlight.
One of the Saturday morning trains to the canyon featured an old steam engine that has been a part of the operation for many years. The engine no longer has enough power to pull the train all the way, so there is a diesel locomotive situated right behind the steam engine. That is, the steam engine is mostly for show. It's a popular sight.
But because the steam engine is very expensive to run (due to environmental rules), the railway only runs it one day a month---the first Saturday. (We missed it in June because that was the day we arrived in Williams, after the train had left, and we were having dinner in Williams when it returned from the canyon.) Becky loves the old steam engine, and waited a long time this morning to get a good picture of it as it passed by the RV park.
That excitement was followed by a Redbox film, The Great And Powerful Oz, which I didn't bother to watch. I'm not into fantasy movies. The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up on reading and preparing to leave very early in the morning for Ehrenberg, Arizona, on our way to El Centro, California, then to the Pio Pico Thousand Trails preserve outside of San Diego. Late in the afternoon, a little rain showed up and cooled things down nicely.
