St. George to Winslow

Saturday, 9/17/22, our 39th anniversary!

We woke a little late, so scrambled to load our stuff back into the Goose from the hotel room. That includes the cases of wine we’ve collected, but couldn’t leave in the Goose due to Goose’s internal temperature without AC. Also, we don’t have suitcases, so all our clothing and other stuff were in shopping bags. Fueled the Goose and rental car and made the return to Avis. We’re feeling chary of the Goose’s engine, so crossed our fingers and started out. We traversed the Arizona Strip for the seventh time and climbed the mountains up to the Kaibab Camper Village outside of Grand Canyon NP. We arrived at noon, Arizona not keeping daylight savings time. We considered staying the night at the Village, as we did have a reservation. However, we thought we could make it to our next stop near Winslow AZ that day, so canceled the reservation and took off.

Driving down the mountain on US-89A was pretty hairy, but the scenery was gorgeous. The southern approach to the North Rim passes the Vermillion Cliffs, so called due to their color. We crossed the Colorado river at Marble Canyon, then a lot of up and down across valleys and rolling desert. We’ve seen several kinds of desert by now: brown grass; creosote bush and sage brush; Joshua trees; bare dirt/ minerals; grassy range land; and others. All depends on altitude and rainfall.

We rejoined US-89 at Bitter Springs and drove on. US-89/ 89A hold the rank of second roughest road we’ve been on, with that road in SC still leading. We climbed at Gray Mountain and at the San Francisco mountains north of Flagstaff. We joined I-40 and headed toward Winslow AZ. While traveling, Debbi arranged a camp spot at the Homolovi state park east of Winslow, where we already had a reservation for tomorrow night.

We stopped in Winslow long enough to stand on the corner, take a few pictures and look at the La Posada hotel, which was designed to house rail passengers and reportedly the most glamorous hotel on the Sante Fe railroad.

Driving a few more miles, we registered at Homolavi SP and decided to tour the ruins tomorrow. Some difficulty backing into an angled camp site, requiring one fly around to get the right angle. We are tired from the long day, and are glad to report that the Goose had no problems today. We are very glad to be married to each other and to still like each other after nearly four months in our 200 square feet!