Preparations to Move to Our Volunteer Job

August 28, 2010. Williams AZ

The last few days have been spent primarily hanging out at the RV park. We’ve both been doing some bike riding in and around the town of Williams.  The weather has been very mild with occasional afternoon showers although it rained last night.

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that we accepted a volunteer position for at least part of the fall and winter. I occasionally check the website Volunteer.Gov which is where I had found this position.

We will be working at Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge which is on the western border of Arizona. It’s about 23 miles south of Lake Havasu City. We were looking for something out west that would be warm for the winter. I think this will fit the bill.

It’s my understanding that our jobs will be doing general maintenance and upkeep of the day use facilities and visitor center working a schedule of 3 days on and 3 days off with another couple. In exchange we will be provided with a covered RV site with full hook-ups. We accepted the position back in June and were invited to start right away. However, we declined noting the temperatures were well over 110 degrees. We told the refuge we would be there by the first of October and possibly earlier.

Well we decided to go early..about a month early and plan to be there Monday. It’s still hot at the refuge, but the month of September should bring a cooling trend. We’ve been getting a little bored hanging out in Williams so we decided to volunteer early. We plan to stay till the first of January.

Today we took a ride in the truck to Flagstaff for an early dinner and to fill up on diesel to include filling my two 5 gallon containers. At $2.95 a gallon I figured it was worth it to purchase the extra ten gallons. Diesel in Williams is $3.19 and $3.59 at the interstate exits...literally highway robbery! 

Tomorrow I’ll check the air in the tires on our Carriage fifth wheel and air up the rear duals in my truck along with a host of other chores in preparation for departure Monday. I just hope the weather cooperates as it’s raining as I’m writing this.

So I’ll report back soon and provide all the details once we arrive at the refuge.

Exploring the area, biking and window tint for the Jeep

August 23, 2010.

The fields are awash in a sea of yellow and green. Nearly every empty field in The Williams, Flagstaff area is full of sunflowers. Apparently this year they are more abundant than usual as are the flies and mosquitos! It doesn't help that we are less than a mile from the well used rodeo grounds. We purchased a smelly fly trap that we set at the edge of our site adjacent to a vacant site to catch flies. We've also hung fly paper. I keep our large outdoor fan going when we sit outside to blow away the critters. I always assumed there were less bugs out west than in Florida...I'm beginning to doubt it!

The other day we loaded up Maggie and Rico in the Jeep and took a ride off road in and around the Kaibab National Forest. 

One stop along the way was Kaibab Lake which is surrounded on one side by the Forest Service campground. It's a paved campground but there are no hook-ups...and it was full!

Rico pondering his next move!

While driving around closer to Williams and headed towards Cataract Lake, we came across this old railroad overpass. The road wasn't posted regarding the overpass height however on the opposite side scrawled on the wall it indicated the height was 13ft 3inches.

Out by Cataract Lake we found another much smaller Forest Service campground. Again no hook-ups. The area around there has many small ponds and lakes.

An old abandoned Ranch.

  

We continued exploring down some of the forest roads before heading back home. Out on some of the forest roads we found folks camping in dispersed areas. I should note that in the designated campgrounds that I mentioned above, the camping fees were $18 a day plus $9 for an additional vehicle. Rather expensive for no hook-ups! 

I've been doing some biking in the mornings in and around Williams. It seems that downtown Williams is always alive with tourists. A couple days ago we drove into Flagstaff or "Flag" as it's known locally, to get the passenger and driver side windows of the Jeep tinted. 

Not much else happening..so till next time, we'll keep you posted!

Relaxin' in Williams, AZ

August 16, 2010.
The last few days have been relatively uneventful. We've had cool nights and warms days. The last couple of days have been in the upper 80's which has created a real temptation to turn on the A/C. However, I'm still leery of the minimal voltage i.e. 112-114 volts as indicated on my meter.
The other day we drove back to Flagstaff and visited their mall. Flagstaff is a small city in my estimation. It does seem to have most of the major stores that we grew accustomed to in the Tampa Bay area. Overall, I like the Flagstaff area. We also stopped at the new Camping World on I-40, but weren't tempted to buy anything.
Williams had a car show over the weekend, so we checked out the old cars lined up on Main Street (Rte 66). Folks said it was smaller than years past, possibly affected by the economy. This is a era original gas station on main street that has been restored.

Saturday evening we rode our bicycles into town and had dinner. 

The food at the Pine Country Restaurant was average and not expensive. There sure doesn't seem to be a shortage of tourists in Williams. A good percentage seem to be European.
We've only been here close to two weeks about halfway through our paid month, but we are getting "hitch itch" (the desire to move on). 
We'll keep you posted!

Canyon Motel & RV Park, Williams, Arizona

Aug 6, 2010.
The last few days have been occupied doing domestic chores around the rig along with some short excursions. Last night we rode our bikes in the evening into Williams to sit outside and watch the people cruising the Historic Route 66 Main Street. We have very good lights for our bicycles so we felt comfortable riding at night on the way home. It was a cool and beautiful evening.
We are staying at The Canyon Motel & RV Park. It's located about a couple miles from the Main Street of Williams, Az.

The Canyon Motel & RV Park has a few rental rooms that are converted train cars..kinda neat. Most of the rooms are in the standard cottage style buildings.

The cottages and trains are near the entrance. The sloping RV park is located directly behind the cottages and the office/ retail shop. There is a small indoor wading pool in the park however, it has been closed for repairs.  Although advertised as being in the Ponderosa Pines, except for a very few sites, there are no trees in the RV park as it's an open gravel parking lot with some areas of weedy greenery. The majority of the sites are pull throughs, but be aware the sites are generally not level.

I-40 is visible and can be heard at night to the north of the park. There are at least two train tracks in the area. One north and The Grand Canyon Railway runs just south of the park. You can see the The Grand Canyon Railway train passing in the picture below which is the view from our site.

We are in Site 14 and are paying $761 for a month including electricity with full hook-ups. I've noted the voltage readings on the power are minimal. So far we haven't had the need to run the a/c and I don't plan to use the a/c due to the minimal and fluctuating voltage. At times, my AC Volt Meter is reading barely 112-114 VAC. 

Temperatures here in Williams, Az. have been very moderate with lows in the 50's and the highest at 83 degrees for about an hour.

The lower part of the park had flooded a few days before our arrival due to excessive rain. The flooding reportedly damaged the pool. Our site backs up to a residential neighborhood. The empty residential lots behind our rig are full of sunflowers that are in full bloom.

The park advertises WiFi however it is virtually non existent. We've talked to some folks in the park that return every year. They have told us that the low voltage and poor WiFi have been a problem for years. Yet this park seems to be the best if not one of the best in the area. 

All things considered we are satisfied with this park for the next month as there are lots of things to see and do in the area. We plan to take our time and relax cutting back from the fast paced touring that we've been guilty of. It's very easy to get sucked into the constant vacation mode and forget that this is our lifestyle and not an extended vacation.  We need to slow down and smell the roses!

Yesterday we drove the truck into Flagstaff, 30 miles away via interstate 40. We did some restocking of groceries and purchased a hitch from U-haul for the jeep. Back home I installed the hitch on the jeep for the purpose of mounting our bike rack and thus being able to take our bikes with us for exploring.

It's the same bike rack that we use on the kingpin of the fifth wheel. However, it doesn't fit properly on the Jeep. The latch that collapses the rack down also hits the spare tire if you try to open the rear door. However, it will work for now.

Another reason for staying a month in Williams is that we are slowly headed for our 2nd Volunteer (workamper) experience. We've accepted a government volunteer position for a few months near Lake Havasu, Az. We are expected by October 1 but we may entertain arriving earlier if the temperatures come down a bit in Havasu!  I'll post more about that position in the near future.

Travel Day to Williams, AZ "Gateway to the Grand Canyon"

August 3, 2010.
It was a cool morning and we made our final preparations before getting hitched up and pulling out. I had hoped to be on the road by 8:00, but we weren't on the way till 9:00. Our delay was in part because I was trying not to disturb our neighbors early in the morning. Our immediate neighbor usually was gone by 7:00 but today they slept in. Moreover, their truck was positioned to make pulling out of my tight space difficult. As I was making ready and beginning to hitch up another neighbor came over to talk. I enjoy the friendliness of the folks we meet in the campgrounds, but I don't like being bothered when I'm hitching or unhitching. Conversation can break the routine and cause me to miss something. Anyway, all went well.

View Larger Map

I was expecting a nice smooth ride. Or should I say I was hoping for a nice smooth ride for the 300 miles to Williams Az. By now you know I don't like to travel much over 200 miles a day and prefer 150 or so. However, there wasn't much in the way of campgrounds between Monticello, Utah and Williams, AZ. so the plan was to press on!

But instead the ride was full of beautiful scenery but also twisting turning steep canyons and this rather unusual bridge (in the desert). 

We were traveling near Monument Valley on Navaho Reservation property.

There wasn't much traffic on Hwy 191 and at times it seemed like we were the only ones out in the middle of nowhere. But the scenery more than made up for the desolation.

A few pictures from Joyce's perspective! As you know, Joyce follows the dogs and I in her Jeep.

Every few miles we would pass a little stand on the side of the road (trading posts), were the Navaho people would be selling trinkets and jewelry.

We stopped in Tuba City for a break at a local cafe that looked to have once been a McDonalds' truck stop. It turned out it was now a Native American cafe. However, it was filthy and expensive. So we didn't eat and just snacked on crackers while we let Maggie and Rico take a break. I also emptied the two 5 gallon cans of diesel I carry into my truck. 300 miles is near the maximum range which is apx. 350 while towing so, I like to have that reserve. As you know I'm not fond of pulling into fuel stations with my rig, so I avoid it whenever possible. 

As we neared Flagstaff, Az. we encountered a heavy rainstorm but thankfully we drove out of it and on to I-40 for the last leg.

We made it safely to The Canyon Motel RV Park in Williams, Az. "The Gateway to The Grand Canyon". We traveled over 300 miles in 6.5 hrs. We will be staying for a month. Now I gotta say, Joyce picked this one as she didn't like the park I picked in Utah!

I was impressed to see that the Jeep got over 23 mpg during this trip. Which is good considering the local gas stations here in Williams are at $2.85 for a gallon of regular gas. I think the good gas mileage is due impart to the fact that we drive @ 60 mph or less. I think my truck and rig got over 10 mpg, but I'll have to fill the tank and work the numbers. 

After arriving we were famished and decided to go into Williams, Az. a mile away for dinner. Dinner was good and we walked around the Historic 66 downtown district. It's a very small very touristy town, but so far we like it!

Williams, Az. and Route 66

Williams, Arizona would go down in history as being the last town to have its section of Route 66 bypassed. The original plan was to have the last section of the famous highway bypassed somewhere in Texas, but lawsuits that had been filed kept the last section of Interstate 40 from being built around Williams. After settlements called for the state to build three exits for the town, the suits were dropped and I-40 was built. In 1984, Interstate 40 was opened around the town and newspapers the next day reported the essential end of the famous US 66. The following year, Route 66 was decommissioned.

My next post will contain pictures and information on the campground. We plan to stay here for at least a month, so stay tuned!