When we were planning our grand adventure, I discovered a number of accommodation options for RVers. Tonight we are staying at our first Harvest Host location, a working 300 acre farm about half way between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. Other Harvest Host locations include wineries, historic properties and roadside cafés across North America.
We are essentially boondocking for free in the parking lot of Mortimer farms, which also has a bakery, café, kids play area and country store selling meat, preserves, wine, and seasonal vegetables. The staff couldn’t be more friendly and welcoming!
For lunch we had sandwiches on steaming freshly baked buns, and finished 
with fresh tasty pastries. I picked up both grass fed and grain finished rib eye steak, and am really looking forward to comparing them at our next official campsite in Williams, Arizona.
In fine-tuning our itinerary, we now ensure we consider Harvest Host locations, especially since plugging into shore power isn’t a requirement. Yeah solar!
Another great addition to our overlandish odyssey. Cheers!
those occasions on our overlandish adventure when an exclamation was more than appropriate. We have just returned from the Grand Canyon and are trying to put words to what we have just seen. In an unusual turn of events, words escape us both! LOL
Of course everyone who has been raves about this one of seven natural wonders of the world. Ya, ya, can the reality live up to the hype? Well, yes it can! I limited myself to 87 pictures from the southern rim of the canyon, which stretches 446 river km long, up to 29 km wide, and 1.6 km deep. This post only includes seven pictures, but we’re not yet ready to delete the rest!
to be seeing it differently each time. The way the light changed throughout the day; the variations in rock formations; the changing colouring and striations on the cliffs, all affected our visual experience. It was one “wow” moment after another for the 20 km we hiked today. Ya, it was a great workout!
On return to our campsite at the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel RV Park in Williams, Arizona, we selected the pictures to add to this post, knowing that none of them fully capture the panoramic experience at the cliff face.
from Williams, others see the park via helicopter or mule ride down a steep path in the cliff. Some hire 4x4s to take them to the bottom, while others go white water rafting down the Colorado River at the base of the canyon. All of these are expensive propositions, and we have to admit to connecting to our thrifty Scottish roots and our fixed income.
We used the America the Beautiful pass purchased in New Mexico, so entry to this National Park didn’t cost us anything extra. We used our Passport America membership at the campground, so we received half off the regular price for accommodation. We left our motorhome in the campground and drove our Smart car through the park, so parking was always convenient, and when I topped up the tank at Pilot, I was able to use my Flying J card to get 6 or 8 cents off a gallon. A very economical visit!
moving on to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, so don’t be surprised if you see more pics of this natural wonder. And don’t be surprised if you hear Bet exclaim again “That’s a frickken big hole!”
Today we decided to go back to the Grand Canyon to capture what we were told are amazing rock colourings as the sun goes down. Unfortunately, as Betty & I approached the park toward dusk, so did a big black cloud from the west. While we didn’t receive any rain, we also didn’t get the sunset light show we were anticipating.
In hopes that the sun would still appear, I set up the camera on a tripod facing one of the thousands of amazing vistas. In this post are a number of pictures taken from that single location.
again on April 30, 2020, and again November 3, 2020, so we’ll just have to hope for better sunsets then! LOL
It is a very sad time when the people, who have promised to take me on their adventures, go to the Grand Canyon not once but twice and forget me both times!
large assortment of petrified wood, which looks amazingly like both wood and granite, but would surely break any chainsaw attempting to cut it. Millions of years old, it sits in a large area of arid land, which was once a tropical forest.
In the same park is the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark. The many surrounding hills contain an amazing range of colours and shapes, as can been seen in the accompanying photos.
was more about selecting a free campsite half way between the Grand Canyon and Albuquerque, but the spectacular sights and the delicious chicken soup both turned out to be good for the soul, as well as the solar…
Ok, with supreme apologies to Dionne Warwick and the city of San Jose, I kept humming this 1968 song all the way from our campsite just north of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Santa Fe this week. Unbeknownst to me, Betty was humming the same song all the way there also. LOL!
We had difficulty finding a campground in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and ended up in the municipal Coronado Campground in Bernalillo, New Mexico, about half an hour north of New Mexico’s largest city (Albuquerque), and an hour south of its capital (Santa Fe). Of course again we 
didn’t know what to expect, but decided to book a week’s stay in order to receive a discount and have time to visit both cities.
and firepit for $21./ night, including water and electricity, in a delightful little campground on the banks of the Rio Grande River!
appropriate for this angel!
The large downtown section of Santa Fe is a very cohesive, regulated area: You won’t find any fast food restaurants with their gaudy neon signs there. With no highrises, nearly all buildings are smooth earthtone adobe structures, providing a very calming 
impression: Santa Fe style. Artwork is everywhere, and there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of art galleries in the city. (I didn’t google the exact number, which I’m sure is available, but the volume of art is most impressive!) Again, attached are just a few of the many 
galleries we passed.
part of the community.
what we can currently carry and exhibit — Some very attractive pieces by extremely talented artisans!
enough to make the urinals in a seedy biker bar at closing time smell good! Turns out our china toilet was cracked all the way around the bottom of the bowl – likely from the extreme cold and bumpy roads leaving Winnipeg. Thanks to Joseph at Sierra Mobile RV in Port Isabel, Texas, we now have a sweet new throne. LOL.
When we arrived in Dallas, the connection to our new power hose reel was leaking, forming a 4” icicle from our motorhome to the ground. Also turned out not to be a bad thing, as everyone was encouraged to leave their taps dripping a little, to prevent them from freezing in the unseasonable temperatures.
as the brakes on our Smart car were totally seized up! (I think it had to do with the damp salty sea air that deposits rust on anything metal within minutes.) A call to AAA brought a flatbed truck from Brownsville, taking our little seizer (LOL) to a “garage” in Port Isabel. I use the term garage advisedly, because it looked nothing like Canadian Tire. Of course it didn’t have the overhead either, and Dan did an excellent job of getting us mobile again. Working outside, which was his usual practice, he replaced the rear brakes, but couldn’t look at the front brakes because it was too cold! He promised to look at them for free when it warmed up, and I said I’d bring it back then. I did and he did. If you ever need mechanical assistance in Port Isabel, Dan’s Auto Specialists is the place to go.
Last week in Albuquerque, we made an appointment at Camping World to have a tire pressure monitoring system (tpms) installed. Unfortunately, the new young “technician” (and I use the term advisedly) had no idea what he was doing. It took him 5 ½ hours to do a 1 ½ hour job, and he still didn’t get it right. After complaining to the manager, the head of the service department hooked it up, admitting that the young guy had never installed a tpms before. One of our transmitters is still not working, but I hope to have it fixed in Oklahoma City, at the latest.
almost impossible to leave our motorhome. Even though we kept all the windows shut, a layer of dusty sand is now covering everything inside and outside of our motorhome. Each of our slide-outs is covered by a fabric topper, which flapped and ripped in the wind. When the wind died down, I climbed up and taped the tears, but we now have an appointment to have them replaced in Oklahoma.
neither did the levelers, slideouts, lights and radio, water pump, to name a few things in our coach. I plugged back in right away and got the slideouts in and the levelers up and started the engine. We drove to the nearest rv service centre, but being Sunday, it turned out the service area was closed, requiring me to disconnect the car so that we could turn around and go somewhere else. We called a 24/7 emergency rv repair place, and got a recorded message. We left a message that we were on our way to their shop in Albuquerque, but when we arrived, no one was there, and there was still no one answering the phone. We decided to drive to Roswell, today’s destination, and are staying at a full-service rv park until we can go to a garage in the morning.
or February they would write to the tourism departments of each of the states we hoped to visit. Then in April or May they would receive large packages of material, including maps, tour guides, and campground information. They would pore over this happy haul to determine our route for July or August. It was a most enjoyable exercise!
With the advent of the Internet, there is a much greater volume of information available only seconds away. I guess that’s a good thing, but for someone with perfectionist tendencies, one can agonize for days over whether the ideal campsite has been chosen from the myriad available. Complicating the process are sites like Rvillage.com and Campendium.com, where people describe their favourite sites. Of course, everyone has personal needs & preferences, and what is great for one may be not-so-much for someone else.
often zoom in on individual campsites, with detailed descriptions of length, width, level, shade, grass, proximity to local attractions, etc. We can also read reviews written by other campers who have stayed there: The good, bad, and ugly.
land, allows free or cheap camping on many properties across the U.S. They have an app that helps in selecting an appropriate spot, whether you are tent camping, or driving a 40’ motorhome. We stayed 2 weeks on BLM land in Quartzsite, Arizona, and would definitely choose this option again, 
now that we have added solar power.
Lubbock. Surprisingly, our campsite comes with free 50 amp service, free water hook-up, and free dumpstation! As the sign says, there are only a few (maybe 7) large pull-through sites available on a first come, first served basis, but we had no difficulty finding a spot around 2 pm, after our drive from Roswell yesterday.
We still like to pick up local maps and attraction booklets at tourism offices, usually found when crossing into a new state. But one thing is for sure, there are a lot worse activities our there. Enjoy the great outdoors!
Betty & I are just south of Amarillo, Texas, at the Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Unlike Arizona’s better known canyon — where you can look but not easily touch — Palo Duro is much more accessible, while still being extremely dramatic. It brings to mind the old family favourite hymn we sang on Sunday: “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made…” It may not be bigger in Texas, but it’s still pretty big! More on that later.
After we left our free site at Levelland, Texas, we drove the short distance to Lubbock, where we paid due homage to the shrine for Buddy Holly at the appropriately named Buddy Holly Center. The center chronicles his short life (22 years) and even shorter career (18 months), showing memorabilia from his childhood, and teenage friends & influences. It obviously highlights his 25 hit records, with music that lives on and resonates with new generations.
on a short flight between Winter Dance Party tour stops near Clear Lake, Iowa, when his chartered plane crashed, killing Holly, “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens. Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the flight, but gave up his seat to The Big Bopper, who was sick with the flu. Tommy Allsup was also slated to be on the flight, but lost his seat to Valens in a coin toss.
jerky, and of course, an opportunity to pick up some premium steak. Being a custom shop, staff will cut your steak to your specifications, with a board showing cuts from ½ inch to 2 inches thick. I really wanted to go for the 2 inch steak, but Betty insisted that would be more of a roast. In any event, this post includes a picture of the 1-½ inch steak that Betty and I shared last night with prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and a nice bottle of Valpolicella. (For those who have read this blog before – yes, we have had this paring in the past, and we will have it again, as there is more steak in the fridge and freezer. LOL)
approached a Texas State Park entrance, where we again took advantage of our annual pass, purchased in Galveston at the beginning of January. Almost immediately we began to drop into the bowels of the earth, with the thought in both of our minds “Oh sh-t, what have we gotten ourselves into now!” LOL.
The grade is extremely steep, and appears to go down forever, with switch-backs all the way down the side of the canyon wall. Of course we are now at the bottom thinking, what goes down must come back up. But will our old Boy really make it all the way to the top again? Stay tuned, because we don’t know the answer to that question yet. LOL
pictures. We have taken dozens already, but will try to cull them to a manageable number for this post. The difference, as earlier noted, is that we are actually IN the canyon, rather than just looking at it from the rim. Our campsite has amazing views in all directions, some of which are posted here.
There are also many hiking, biking, and horseback riding paths throughout the Park, rated from easy, to moderate, to difficult. Today’s hike was an easy one, with Charlie, past a cowboy dugout built into the side of a hill. Check out the cowgirl looking out. LOL.
we passed on the way back from Amarillo the other day, but went to the Crossroads Country Church instead for Sunday service. One of the things that struck us was the rows of cowboy hats on the walls leading to the sanctuary. We wondered if they were maybe decorations – until after the service when the men started grabbing them and putting them on as they left! I just had to sneak a picture as we were leaving. Unfortunately, at that point most of the hats had been picked up, but here are some that were left. Not sure if it’s only in Texas. LOL. BTW, the service was on Matthew 25, focusing on visiting those in prison, so the message was a very nice coincidence, if you believe in coincidences…
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, we sang “How Great Thou Art”, and continued to hum it as we wandered through the woods and forest glades, hearing the birds singing in the trees; looking down from the grandeur of lofty mountains; and seeing the brooks, and feeling the gentle breeze. It was another great day as our souls sang!
