Turning the "Page"

Ahhh......time to move again.....an when we are moving on a regular basis there is this sense of anticipation.....what will we see today....will Mr. Jello rear his head, or will Miss Serendipity give us a "wink", will we meet someone interesting?  That's what I love about being a nomad.....if the mood strikes you can just stay in one place for a few weeks, or months, or you can change your view every few days....no long term lease agreements to honor, no need to go through escrow.....just start moving.

Since I didn't  hook up to "city water" in Cameron....we just lived off the fresh water tank....all I had to do was refill the fresh water tank, and unhook the electrical umbilical cord Monday morning.  We had already put the car in the trailer Sunday night after getting home from the Grand Canyon, so we were on the road by 9:10 am headed further north on US 89.....new territory for us.  When I plugged our destination into Google Maps Sunday night "it" wanted to route us on an alternate road called 89-T at Gap, AZ, which I thought was odd, but decided we would just stay on US 89 all the way to Page even though it was a few miles further.  It  also appeared to me  that 89-T was a much narrower road.  What I didn't know at the time was that the "T" in 89-T stands for "temporary".  Why "temporary" you ask?  Well, we found out why when we reached the intersection of US 89 and US 89A......US 89 was closed the last 26 miles into Page.

Arrgghhh!  We just drove 26 miles past Gap, AZ where we could have followed Google Maps knowing advice and taken 89-T into Page.  Instead we rounded the bend and saw the road blocked to through traffic on US 89, had to turn around......no small feat.....and drive the 26 miles back to Gap, and then head north again on 89-T......thank you Mr. Jello....I guess I didn't notice you lurking in the background Sunday evening.  What's an extra 52 miles between friends, right?  Of course, the obvious thing now for me to have done Sunday evening was wonder why Google wanted to take us on a tertiary road and then actually find out why, but I didn't.  So, our planned 83 mile drive turned into a 135 mile day.....still not long by our standards, but I hate wasting diesel, even if the scenery was spectacular both directions.....:D

We did finally arrive in Page, AZ at the visitors center next to Glenn Canyon Dam around Noon time.  The deep turquoise color of the waters behind the dam are stunning along with all the bigger than life structures in the area.

The dam is too big for my lens

The Glen Canyon Brige

My camera did not do justice to the colors

We walked through the visitor's center an enjoyed learning a little more about the construction of this amazing structure and the exploration that took place in the early part of this century along the Colorado River to determine where dams such as Glen Canyon could, and then determining if it should be built.

Our primary reason for stopping at the visitor's center was to unload the VW and drive it up to a boondocking spot I had in mind just over the Utah border at Lone Rock Beach overlooking Wahweap Bay on Lake Powell.  We wanted to drive down to the beach so we could see if we could get there in the Newell with the road down being dirt and sand, and all.  Lone Rock beach is a National Recreation Area so whatever is charged for camping is 1/2 off for us with our Golden Age card.....in this case the regular rate is $10/day, but only $5 for us.  This NRA is about 8 miles north of the visitor's center on US 89, so we arrived there in no time.  We drove down the beach and had basically decided where we would park the coach, then while we were driving back up the hill we got stuck in sand.....I mean right up to the running boards of the VW.....as we were trying to figure out what we were going to do Kenny and Juliette drove up in a HumVee.....I mean the full on military version of the Hummer.  They were just leaving after camping there for a few days, so we lucked out at their timing.  Within a few minutes Kenny had pulled me out of the sand trap back on to solid ground......I love your smile Miss Serendipity!

Kenny and Juliette's HumVee....they saved the day!

Well, the sand incident totally changed our minds about venturing down too close to the beach, and we ultimately decided to park up the hill where the view would actually be a little nicer, and giving Mr. Jello less of a chance to work his magic.  We made the drive back into Page to get the Newell, and were back within the hour, parked and set up on our site for the next 3 days.

The view.....

So, in spite of a couple of encounters with Mr. Jello the day turned out okay after all.  Tuesday we have an appointment to take the Antelope Canyon tour Tuesday morning, which we are really looking forward to.

We spent part of the evening watching the men's NCAA basketball final between UCONN and Kentucky with UCONN just edging out Kentucky by four points.  I was for Kentucky, but in the end we were both happy it was a close game most of the time.

Thanks for stopping by!