Evenin' Campers!
It's Silver Cliche' with you again today, this time from the Wahweap
RV Resort and campground on Lake Powell outside Page, Arizona. I know
what you're thinking... “RV + Resort” in one phrase is like
“jumbo + shrimp” or “government + intelligence”. I
understand. And generally you'd be right. Tonight you'd be wrong.
Usually in this blog, I tell our story in chronological order, just
like it happened to us (mostly) from rise to set. Today I'm going to
skip to the end with a picture of where we are now as submitted to
“View from your Airstream door” on AirForums today:
That's Diamond Head
which towers above Waikiki on the right and… oh… that's right...
we're not seaworthy and this is Lake Powell, Arizona, but it looks
like Hawaii to me.
So, back to
chronology: I think this will be brief because it was a “slow news
day” here in Arizona on the road with Silver Cliche'. We did have a
medical breakthrough or perhaps discovery this morning at breakfast.
If you remember last night's dinner included (among other delicacies)
scratch made pita cooked on a baking stone on the gas grill … I was reenacting how the Navajo cooked their bread. Well it was delicious
last night and when it came time to have breakfast it seemed like a
good time for homemade pita toast with butter. One problem… we had
no 120 v power, therefore no toaster, therefore no toast. :-( <sad
face>. Then… wait a minute… “we have a gas stove”. So,
setting a burner to “low” and steadily flipping and moving a
whole pita over it for 10 minutes I had a well warmed and properly
tanned pita which I cut in half, smeared each half with a spread of
butter and passed to Mrs. C' and I. I noted above that we may have
had a medical breakthrough or discovery. It occurred at the moment
the first bite of pita hit the last row of taste buds before taking
the Niagara plunge and it can best be described as a “toast-gasm”.
I hope to document this phenomenon often, starting perhaps tomorrow
at breakfast.
So after that, we
packed up, hitched up and left the Navajo National Monument. This was
pretty basic camping. No water, no electric, no dump station… just
a beautiful place to park.. oh, and no charge...thanks, US Taxpayers!. We headed west, still on US 160. In 15
minutes or so, we said goodbye to that road which was an unexpectedly
long and important artery on our trip. We rode her over 340 miles
through Colorado, the corner of New Mexico and Arizona. It provided a
lesson in geography, geology, pre-Columbian history and a stop to see
family. Nice road.
I did catch this action shot of us on a rural Arizona road:
The story of the day
is clearly geology. Seeing what one sees just by driving through this
part of the country is amazing. As the scenery played out from the
driver's seat, we spent the entire day in a transition zone between
the pure, salmon colored Navajo Limestone into an area of sand
colored sandstone. I didn't stop and take pics because the road (not
our friend US 160… ) we were on for 56 miles had no labeled
pull-offs despite the amazing sights. The “Silver Cliche' driving
experience” didn't produce anything of use today, so I'll make you
a commitment to work double time tomorrow. I know I can't do this area justice using a camera... but I'll do the best I can.
We stopped to shop
for groceries and supplies and left the economy of Page, Arizona and
the WalMart organization $285 richer. A benefit is that the fridge and
freezer haven't been this full since we left Florida. Here's a shot:
The trip from Page
to our campsite was only 15 minutes but it showed clearly why this is
the “Glen Canyon Recreation Area”. We crossed a bridge that was
almost directly above the Glen Canyon Dam. This dam is a concrete
arch dam (like the Hoover Dam and others in countless movies) over 700 feet tall and 1,500 feet across that impounds the
Colorado River and forms Lake Powell. If you still remember the tricks from yesterday with Google Maps "satellite view" and zooming out, try this link to the dam and zoom out to see the bigger picture: https://goo.gl/maps/azu5UCLPFVR2
The weather turned
nasty as we pulled in to Wahweap RV Resort (I'm glad I put the accent
mark on Cliche' for this blog. It feels Continental and now that we
are at a “Resort” that works just fine.). In fact, the rain
literally started as we past the “Welcome to Wahweap Resort”
sign… some welcome, but the locals at the check-in desk were
nudging each other and saying “did you see… it's raining”. For
a moment I thought I'd tell them I brought it, but I didn't know what
the initiation ceremony would be to become a Living Navajo God so I kept my
mouth shut. Our campsite is huge, fairly well separated from others,
has all the amenities and a great view. Given the rain then wind, then more rain, then brief sun, I had
to try and catch a sunny moment and climb on the tonneau of the truck to get this one panorama for the
day:
Tomorrow I have to
go back into Page to get a propane tank filled and there are multiple
points we plan to visit to get pics of the dam and this amazing
landscape. I look forward to sharing those pics with you tomorrow.
Until then….
SC'
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