On the road again

The mechanics did a great job once they got all of the parts.  We were on the road again by about 12:30 pm on Wednesday.  Decided to make a good push for the day and try and make up some lost time.  The weather was much warmer and a lot less windy.  We took the scenic route through the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest which was totally AWESOME!  We have seen so many different landscapes in the short time we've been traveling, but this was by far the most spectacular. It was rather late in the day and there was hardly anyone there, but the road is open until 7:30 PM.  There was a Mini-Winni with a young Polish couple ahead of us and we team tagged all the way through.  That and maybe 5 other cars and another motor home comprised all of the traffic.  So cool to have a place like that practically all to your self!   As we were coming out the end of the Petrified Forest it was getting dark and the moon was coming up!  It was so beautiful.  We made it to Holbrook, AZ so that helped in out timing for the trip.

I was able to contract Juli (my granddaughter) and her husband Jordan first thing Thurs. morning.   They had started their trip back to Yellowstone where they will be working for the summer.  As it turned out they were in AZ as well, about equal distance as us from the Grand Canyon so we invited them to join us.  They met us at the campground just at the entrance to the Grand Canyon where we camped together for the night.  They have to head off today, but we had a nice dinner together and went to the IMAX theater across the street to see a movie about the history of the Grand Canyon.  It was like being at Disneyland, on a ride, it was spectacular.  While we were having dinner two huge elk came right in to the campground to graze about 200' from us, but maybe 15' from another motor home.  They were beautiful and huge, but other campers seemed to forget they were wild and walked right up taking flash pictures of them.  Made us really nervous, but they didn't budge.  I'm sorry I didn't go take a picture, but decided to not take any chances.  Too far yet to go to get run over by an elk!!

Juli and Jordan are coming for breakfast and then will give us a ride in to the Canyon.  They have to get on the road, but Fred and I plan to spend the day riding the shuttles through and seeing as much as we can.  The shuttle will also bring us right back to the IMAX which is right across the street so that works out really well.  We'll be here another night and then it's off to Bryce and Zion.