Dispatch from the Road 2025

  Heading back to Los Alamos May 31 2025 Saturday We left Arizona and Pacific time this morning. This is a little confusing, Most of Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time so for part of the year it has the same time as Pacific time even though are in the Mountain time zone.  Entering Navajo reservation It's a long way thru the reservation From Kaibab National Forest we back tracked 111 miles to Tuba City. From there we turned onto 264 and traveled on it for 180 miles to Gallop New Mexico. This route took us through Hopi and Navajo Indian reservations for most of the way. It is mostly barren desert, there are no sizable towns along its length, just the occasional small Indian village. There are a few gas stations, mostly on the southern half, but you’d better be safe and calculate your fuel usage. You’d be waiting a long time for road service out here. If you’ve ever seen the Netflix series called Dark Winds, this is the area and the people that are depicted in ...

    July 2025 Just a few weeks after our visit, the Grand Canyon’s North Rim was engulfed by flames. On Saturday, July 12, 2025 the devastating Dragon Bravo wildfire tore through the area. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge, built in 1937, was one of between 50 and 80 buildings lost to the fire.  The historic Grand Canyon Lodge which had stood sentinel on this site since 1937 was burn to its limestone block walls by the unstoppable fire storm. It seemed so massive and castle like when we ate lunch there, it’s surreal that it is gone.  In the aftermath, only an estimated 15% of the original Lodge structure remained standing. Work was started almost immediately to protect the ruins from the elements, especially the freeze-thaw cycles of the coming winter. It’s future at this point is undetermined, but hopefully it will be rebuilt or replaced with something equally majestic.

 X May 30 2025 Friday Millie and I were enjoying a zero day today here at Kaibab Camper Village. We were sitting outside reading when we were startled by a pop and then loud hissing. At first, I thought it was a tire on the truck that had blown out but quickly realized it was coming from one of the propane bottles on the front of the RV. Under the tank cover I discovered a gas line had blown off of its fitting. I quickly shut off the tank that was spewing propane. The line is only about 6 months old; I changed it when the previous Chinese part developed a slow leak. It’s a good thing we were here, I just filled both tanks in Farmington a couple days ago. On my online search, I could not find any replacements that were not made in China, I ordered new hoses from a recognized brand, even though they had no country of origin in their specifications. The parts will be delivered to Los Alamos and we will install them when we get there. It's always something!

  May 29 2025 Thursday Millie and I completed another bucket list item today. We have visited the south side of the Grand Canyon several times and today we toured the north rim. The north view is just as majestic as the south side, probably more so. With a little bit of driving, you can gaze out from many viewpoints.  A couple things that I didn’t expect. I had always heard the north rim was desolate and not touristy, that’s not true. The park service has a complete visitors center with campground, lodge, cabin and a restaurant. The isolated location keeps the crowds down somewhat but there were a lot of people there.  Chinese tourists by the busload The other thing I didn’t expect is, the Bright Angel Point trail is closed and will be for the rest of the year. So, we didn’t get to hike the ¼ mile ridge trail to the best viewing point. We had a nice lunch in the Grand Canyon Lodge, a rustic stone and timber building originally built in 1937. Four weeks from our lunch here...

  The North Rim is a long way from Myrtle Beach May 28 2025 Tuesday We departed the Farmington New Mexico Elks Lodge at 9am.  We had a long journey ahead of us today, it was 300 miles to our next destination in Kaibab National Forest. Long lonely road west If you ever want to experience the middle of nowhere, take the road from Farmington to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Northern Arizona is an arid desert made up of Mesa’s, Buttes, cliffs and canyons. There are a couple small communities, but they are just pin points in the vast moon scape. The campground at Jacob Lake We reached our destination campground in Jacob Lake Arizona in the afternoon. Jacob Lake is not even a village just a geographic area just outside the boundary of the Grand Canyon National Forest. Kaibab camper Village has water and electric hookups even though there is no well or piped water at our 8000 elevation. They truck the water here in a 6000-gallon tractor trailer and pump it into a large storage t...

  Overnighting at the Farmington Elks Lodge May 27 2025 Tuesday Farmington, NM Elks Lodge This morning, we hooked up the RV and left Kamp Kolman for a brief timewise but long mileage wise side trip. We are on our way to another bucket list location, the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s about 600 miles by road from Los Alamos so we’ll take two days getting there. First stop is Farmington in the upper west corner of New Mexico.  We started out on a familiar road (Hwy 84) which goes generally north to the village of Chama. In previous travels we continued north into Colorado and then west to Pagosa Springs, Durango and Cortez, but today we take highway 64 west thru the upper reaches of New Mexico. The stretch from Chama to Farmington is thru Indian lands, first an Apache reservation and the Navajo land. It is an undeveloped high desert landscape, beautiful but desolate. You wouldn’t want to have vehicle trouble out there and have to wait for road service.  The view from t...

  May 26 2025 Memorial Day Millie and I attended the Memorial Day Celebration at the Guaje Pines Cemetery here in Los Alamos New Mexico today. Celebration seems like an odd title for a service to honor fallen Service personnel, but that’s not my writing, that’s what they call it. I’m not trying to distract for the service, it was respectful and is always emotionally moving for me, as I know some of those lost souls who gave their all so we could live free in this great country.  Many service fraternity’s work together to organize the event. From the tiniest scouts to the high school ROTC cadets, there is much participation by the young. The little ones hand out bottled water, and tiny flags and the older kids handle the honor guard duties and the 21-gun salute. The VFW, the Elks, the American Legion, the fire department and even an elderly member of the daughters of the American Revolution were all represented as was the clergy and local politicians. This was our third time at...

  A very scenic but remote route thru the mountains May 19-26 2025 Los Alamos, NM   On Monday May 19 we traveled from Las Vegas New Mexico to Los Alamos NM. We chose a route that took us on a large counter clockwise loop through the mountains and entered Los Alamos from the north. What an amazing ride that was, the whole journey put us in the most picturesque landscape of mountains and valleys. Our highest mountain pass was over 9000 feet in elevation. It truly was beautiful. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures, it was two hands on the wheel route. We are now in Los Alamos at Millie’s daughters’ home which borders the Los Alamos National Forest. Millie took some pictures of me maneuvering the RV into it’s parking spot. Note the front mounted hitch I use to get it in place. The pic through the window is my morning view of the national forest. The driveway and our spot on the left. Using a front mounted hitch to maneuver the RV into its spot. Not as easy as it loooks. My Barr...

  To Las Vegas, New Mexico May 18 Sunday Las Vegas, NM We departed Roswell at 11am this Sunday morning. Traffic was light but the wind was relentless. Wind speed was a constant 20-30mph and hit us on our port beam most of the day. (Wind was out of the west and we were traveling north. At times there were gusts to about 40 mph and I was pleased to learn how stable our truck/trailer rig is in these conditions. Elevation gradually increased and by trips end we had risen from a little over 2000 feet to 6400 feet elevation. Long way from anywhere! Breakfast for lunch Me trying to order lunch on my phone! We stopped for fuel and lunch in Vaughn New Mexico. We ate at Penny’s diner; the meal was good but the experience came with a twist. Upon seating yourself in a booth you have to scan a barcode with your phone to bring up their menu and then place your order via the phone ap. One of the kitchen staff brings your order to the table. It was not a bad experience, just something new to us, b...

  Flower growing in the gravel parking lot at the Elks Lodge May 16 2025 Friday- Roswell NM  We enjoyed our non-travel day in Roswell yesterday. It was low key day with no scheduled activity. We mostly read our books, mine is about two old guys from Pittsburgh PA who bike 400 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We did go out in the afternoon to take space man pictures and along the way Millie found two thrift stores. What an amazing coincidence that we passed two of Millies favorite stores. As usual I spent more $$ than she did! We leave Roswell in the morning and journey north to Storrie Lake State Park in Las Vegas New Mexico.