Tuesday June 16th 2020

The wind kept the temperature today, but walking and driving were a challenge. By eight this morning the wind was building from the southwest. As the day went on it continued to get stronger until night fall. Once the sun passed the horizon the wind seem to disappear with it. Hopefully it doesn’t come back as strong tomorrow.

I got the last couple of camp setup tasks completed this morning. The bike is off the car and the rack is safely stored under my RV home. My Honda CR-V is now in touring mode. First up was a run to the local Walmart for groceries.

Walmart is my store of choice for two reasons. The primary reason is they are all over the place with a fairly consistent layout. The second reason is the prices are OK without the need to have a frequent shopper card. Today I visited a medium sized Walmart that broke the consistent layout advantage. Possibly because of limited space products were often found on aisle caps or in other featured display areas. Instead of being able to get in and quickly get what I needed, I found myself going up and down aisles and generally wandering around the store.

This Walmart was taking “social distancing” a little more seriously than the last two I’ve visited since the start of the pandemic. At the entrance a pair of greeters were wiping down carts and only allowing one customer group at a time to enter and pick up a cart. Only after the party enters the store could the next customer pickup a cart. They also reminded everybody about keeping your distance from other customers. The majority of customers were wearing masks, but they still didn’t follow the one way arrows.

I don’t consider Walmart a high risk of infection type place, but it is one of the riskiest places I’m likely to visit. I’m not going to areas with big crowds, restaurants or bars. Whenever possible I’m not visiting indoor places at all. I’m viewing Walmart as a microcosm of the local area. This area seems to be more virus aware than others. The fact that it is located on the edge of the Navajo Indian Nation that has suffered heavily from the virus is probably the reason.

Again this evening the smoke from the forest fire in the Tonto National Forest was visible on the southern horizon. The smoke is probably thirty miles away and the wind is carrying it more westerly toward New Mexico. The actual fire is much closer to Phoenix than here. I’d guess it is about 100 miles south and a little west of here. The fire called the Bush fire is currently the largest forest fire in the country and is zero percent contained at this time.

Monday June 15th 2020

After a week in Holbrook AZ, today was moving day. I relocated to the Homolovi State Park outside Winslow AZ. This park is actually thirty five miles in the wrong direction. When I made the reservation New Mexico was just beginning to open up. I chose to spend an additional two weeks in an Arizona State Park.

I departed the Holbrook KOA just before the 11AM checkout time. The wind heading west on Interstate 40 was very strong out of the southwest. It is a good thing I only had a short distance to travel. Wind hitting either of the front corners of the RV is a real fight with the steering wheel. I went an extra exit west into Winslow to top off the gas tank. It was primarily to kill time, but it will save me a fuel stop when I leave. I got to the Homolovi State Park before the noon checkout time. Luckily my site was available.

The campground is located in open high desert land near the Little Colorado River. Very few of the little more than fifty sites are occupied. My site is on higher ground with a couple of little shade trees and view for miles. The wind blew very strong all afternoon. Toward evening a dust cloud or possible smoke from the forest fires in the Tonto National Forest to the south was visible off to the southeast. This is going to be an interesting location for the next two weeks. I expect lots of sun and lots of wind.

Sunday June 14th 2020

The wind today was a little weaker than yesterday. The temperature peaked in the low nineties with very few clouds in the sky.

I returned to the Petrified Forest National Park today. I passed through the northern area of the park that I visited last Wednesday and started touring in the area to the south. This part of the park I remembered a little better than the northern part from my visit in the fall of 2017. Standing at the high overlooks and walking the trails was difficult in the wind. It is hard to imagine how bad it must have been during yesterday’s stronger winds.

Most of my time in the park was spent hiking the Crystal Forest loop trail. The area is covered with pieces of petrified wood from a rain forest 225 million years ago. This area of land was near the equator before continental drift brought it to this latitude. There are some impressive specimens to see. Some are still in long logs and other pieces have cracked off into prefect slices. The color of the quartz in the petrified wood is dramatic. Here are a few of the many pictures I took today.

Back at the RV park in the afternoon, I started to get ready for a travel day tomorrow. I’m not going far, but I still have to pack up the weeks worth of clutter I produce living in the RV.

Saturday June 13th 2020

The day began as a bright sunny day, but it didn’t last long. The wind picked up out of the southwest and clouds started to appear in the sky. Soon the wind was steady at twenty or more miles an hour. Gusts in the area were recorded in access of 40mph.

My plan was to return to the Petrified Forest National Park today. The wind caused me to reconsider the plan. It was hard to walk outside in the wind. There is very little high ground for many miles to slow the strength of the wind. The high desert in this region is very flat. The low humidity, high wind and warm temperatures have raised the fire danger to extreme. To the south of here a number of fires are currently burning. Tomorrow is forecast to be a little less windy, so I’ll try to go back the National Park then.

This became a this and that kind of day. I watched some TV, accomplished a few outstanding tasks and did a little more travel research. It’s time to figure out where I’ll be in July and August.

Friday June 12th 2020

Today was a little warmer and a lot windier than yesterday. The temperature peaked in the low to mid nineties and the wind blew strong out of the south. Tomorrow is forecast to have even stronger winds, but some cloud cover that should keep the temperature down a little.

The water supply to my campsite is not great. The pressure and the rate of flow are very low. To compensate for this I’ve been using my internal water tank and demand pump. I needed to add water to the tank this morning. It is simple matter of turning a valve and making sure the water from the campground is turned on. I did exactly that this morning then went back inside my RV home with the intent of turning it off in a few minutes. The water’s rate of flow was so slow that I couldn’t even here it from inside like usual. I soon got involved with other things and forgot about the water filling the tank.

Some time later, I’d guess about an hour, my neighbor came to my door and informed me that I had water overflowing out of my RV. Sure enough water was running out of several places on the passengers side of my RV home. After shutting everything down and relieving the pressure in the tank I started to survey the damage. Most of the water went out the overflow and down the side of the RV as expected, but some of the water got caught on seems and cracks and flowed back into the basement of the RV.

I spent the rest of the day removing damp or wet items from the basement. I spread them out in the sun to dry. None of the contents were ruined or damaged. The basement bay doors stayed open to dry the compartments after I sponged them dry. It was looking pretty good as evening arrived. I’ll open everything up again tomorrow morning when the sun is aimed right at the passengers side of my RV home. Hopefully, the heat and very good desert drying conditions will get everything dried out.

One other time I overfilled the tank, but that time it was only by a minute or two. This time I’m not sure how long it was overflowing. There was a good size puddle on the ground. I’m lucky that the flow rate was so slow.

Thursday June 11th 2020

The temperature climbed back into the low nineties today. That isn’t bad when compared to the one hundred and eight in Phoenix today. A little wind during the middle of the day helped keep the shade comfortable.

Today was dedicated to catching up on chores and maintenance tasks. In addition to general sweeping and vacuuming, I had a couple of days of dirty dishes and a couple of weeks of dirty laundry to deal with. I got the cleaning and the dishes done, but only about half the laundry. I need more quarters to feed the mechanical beasts. I haven’t been making enough cash transactions to acquire quarters in the normal course of things. Buying some quarters is back on my list of things to do.

My exercise for the day was a couple of walks around the campground. There continues to be a wide variety of states of origin for the campers. Today I added Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina and Oklahoma to the list of states that have stopped in this campground. There are also an ever increasing number of rental RVs stopping for the night. RV travel has clearly resumed.

Wednesday June 10th 2020

Today was a little warmer, but still a very nice day in the mid eighties. The trend is for increasing temperatures over the next few days.

I got a late start to my day of touring. It was after 11AM before I set out for the Petrified Forest National Park. This was my second visit to the park. My first visit in the fall of 2017 didn’t produce a lot of memories, but when I got to the park they started to return. The section of the park north of Interstate 40 that is part of the Painted Desert was one of those faded memories. I remembered it when I got there, but I wasn’t connecting it with the Petrified Forest National Park in my recollections. I stopped at several of the overlooks and took pictures, just like I did last time I visited. Maybe I’ll remember to look at the pictures before my next visit.

I spent most of my time today at the Blue Mesa area. There is road construction on the main park road just to the south of the Blue Mesa road that had traffic backed up. I’ll return later in the week to do the area south of the construction.

At the Blue Mesa I took the mile long hike into the Blue Badlands area. The last time I visited the park I stayed on the loop road around the mesa. The trail is a paved path that starts and ends with a steep climb, but it is well worth the effort. The rocks and surfaces are more white and gray than blue with more than a few pieces of petrified logs scattered in between. It makes for a very striking landscape. I took plenty of pictures.

Tuesday June 9th 2020

Yesterday’s wind brought cool overnight temperatures. It may well have been in the fifties before the sun came up this morning. The wind was much calmer today. It allowed the daytime high temperature to reach the low seventies. It was a beautiful weather day.

I started the day with a very low energy level. Probably because of the stress of yesterday’s drive, I really didn’t get going very fast this morning. Eventually I finished the setup tasks I didn’t get to yesterday afternoon. The bicycle and rack are off the car and it’s ready for touring in the area.

Walking around the campground I found a lot has changed since my last visit in the fall of 2017. At the time it was just a big level gravel field with RV hook ups. Since then evergreen trees and tall fences have been added between some of the sites. They have also added more cabins and fancy patio sites. It seems to be working because they are getting lots of nightly guests.

The RV park had a lot of overnight travelers last night and more tonight. I spotted RVs from all of the surrounding states as well as Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Washington. People are traveling. I was primarily seeing Arizona and California plates the last couple of weeks at the state park, but out here on the side of Interstate 40, a major east west route, there are a lot of travelers. That is encouraging for my summer travels and maybe just a little bit frightening. Communities that develop a fear of travelers is my biggest concern.

Monday June 8th 2020

Today was a travel day. It was also the windiest day of the last few windy days. The temperature was also the lowest it has been in the last few weeks. The temperature peaked around eighty in Cottonwood and was even cooler at my destination.

I pulled out of my campsite shortly after eleven, but it was almost noon when I left the state park. The line up at the dumping station took all the extra time. After working my way through traffic and eight rotary traffic intersections I reached Interstate 17 in Camp Verde and turned north. Interstate 17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff is one of my least favorite Interstate routes. The section from Camp Verde north begins with an eighteen mile climb on four to six percent grades. There is only one short section that isn’t a steep climb. Camp Verde is at about three thousand feet in altitude and Flagstaff is over seven thousand feet. Most of the altitude change is in the first eighteen miles. Adding to the mix today was a strong cross wind all the way up to Flagstaff.

At Flagstaff I turned east on Interstate 40. The wind became a tail wind on this section of road. It was either directly behind or coming in on the passenger side rear corner. The wind blew at a constant twenty miles an hour or so with some gusts that were much heavier. Tonight’s news reported 30 MPH sustained winds with gusts in the forties for Winslow Arizona about thirty miles from here. I had the new experience of having to dodge tumbling tumble weeds along the Interstate.

I arrived at the Holbrook AZ KOA about 3PM. I was glad to be off the road. I stayed here in 2017 to visit the Petrified Forest National Park. During my weeks stay I will probably visit the national park again. My primary reason for this stop is to use the laundry facilities at this commercial campground before returning to a more primitive state park for the following three weeks.

The wind finally quieted down toward sunset. Tomorrow is forecast to be a little warmer with a little less wind.

Sunday June 7th 2020

Today’s weather was a clone of Saturday. The temperature was in the mid eighties and the wind was powerful. It was a nice day overall.

This is my last full day at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. My two weeks are up tomorrow. I’ve enjoyed my stay here. The trails in the desert and the along the Verde River provide good recreation opportunities. Pandemic related shutdowns prevented visiting some of the other attractions in the area. I’m afraid that’s going to be normal during my travels this summer. I need to stay at places with plenty of outdoor recreation activities, because I can’t count on the area attractions being available.

In addition to watching NASCAR on TV and taking a couple of hikes around the park, I did more travel research today. I have places booked through the 29th of June in Arizona. I’d like to book my next stop to include the Fourth of July weekend in New Mexico, but it is slower reopening than other states in the region. New Mexico State Parks are not open for camping yet and the open private campgrounds are expected to limit capacity. Texas and Oklahoma further to the east seem to be less restricted. I continue to hope things will open up more as the summer continues, but travel will be a challenge.

I have some of the packing complete for tomorrows travel. In the morning I’ll complete the preparation and get on the road north and east about one hundred and sixty miles. Hopefully, the wind won’t be as bad as the last couple of days.