Surprise, surprise......

7:14 am - Sunday - January 27th - Winslow, AZ - 24º F, 71% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southeast......clear blue skies today with a forecast high of 54º F.....a virtual heatwave!

We only had 41 miles to travel to our destination for Saturday.....Winslow, AZ.  Winslow has an Elks Lodge with 20 & 30 amp service (I thought)....no water, or sewer, but only 50 miles from Flagstaff.  Way back when we began our trek back to the west my thought had been to stay here at the Elks Lodge which is at a much lower elevation than Flagstaff, therefore a little warmer, and commute to my doctors appointments.  The added bonus is that the Elks Lodge is located on old Route 66, just a short walk from downtown, and they only charge $10/night.  The parking for RV's is just a large dirt lot, but it is extremely easy to get in and out.  The Elks own the entire square block, and have been on this site since 1937.....

Google Street View

.....as we drew closer to Winslow I began to see very cold overnight temps in the teens and 20's.  At the time I thought they had 20 &30 amp receptacles.  When we were in Winslow back in April of 2018 we walked by this Elks Lodge and checked out the electrical hookups, and for some reason I came away thinking they only had 20 and 30 amp.  With overnight temps in the teens and 20's 30 amp would mean we could only run the basement electric heater, and one electric heater inside, so I had figured we would just hang out a day, or two and then head up to frigid Flagstaff where I knew we could get 50 amp service, but at a premium price of $50/day......I really, really did not want to stay in Flagstaff at 7,200' elevation in the winter.....I had enough of that last winter at the Grand Canyon....:-).....

 My 'Street View'

 Constructed circa 1937

Benevolent Protective Order of Elks - Lodge 536

....we were in no hurry to leave Sun Valley, AZ until the temp got out of the 'teens', and at least into the 30's, and that did not occur until about 11 am.

It took us about 45 minutes to cover the distance into Winslow, and we were parking our home just before noon time.  As I approached the power pole where the electrical outlets are I discovered they did, indeed, have a 50 amp outlet (50 amp is really 100 amp as each 'leg' of the plug carries 50 amps)....surprise, surprise.....

.....with 100 amps you can run a lot of electric heaters, and when it is this cold overnight we prefer electric heaters to the Suburban gas heaters as the electric heaters are much quieter at night.  Typically an electric heater on low draws about 10 amps....we have 4 electric heaters we run in this kind of weather (one in the water bay, one in the salon, one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom) so we are drawing 40 amps at any given time, which would not work on 30 amp service.

At any rate, we were set up in about 30 minutes, and had immediately determined we would be staying in Winslow and commuting to Flagstaff for my appointments......plenty of electricity here at $10/day....easy choice.....plus there is no snow on the ground!

About 2 pm we took the VW out of the trailer and drove up to the Walmart to do some shopping....TLE wanted to make some of her world famous salsa, and I will never attempt to talk her out of that notion!

Around 4 pm we walked inside the Elks Lodge to pay for our stay and met Brian, the bartender.  He gave us a tour of the lodge, and talked a lot about the local area.  This is one of the things I love about Elks Lodges as you can spend time talking to locals about the area and learn what to do, and see from their point of view.

So, we are settled in for about 5 days......once we know the date of my surgery we will make a decision about whether to stay here, or move into Flagstaff....thanks for stopping by!

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'My cup runneth over......'

6:46 am - Saturday - January 26th - Sun Valley, AZ - 18º F, 84% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south by southwest....clear skies today with a forecast high of 51º F.  Ironically, in Flagstaff which is 2,000' higher in elevation it is 30º F this morning!

As Friday morning wore on more and more pictures began to appear on social media as family members began to arrive at the hospital to welcome Crosby Mark into the world....

Back row, right to left: Tim (father), Cynthia (grand daughter), Jennifer (Laila's mother), Rochelle (daughter-in-law), Chris (son) Front row, right to left: Crosby, Laila, Cathy (Laila's grand mother), Alexis (cousin of Laila)

 The happy, but exhausted parents and Crosby

......'My cup runneth over....'

We planned to roll our wheels a little later in the morning so we would not arrive at our destination too early in the day.  The Jello plan was for us to roll our wheels out of the Route 66 Casino RV Resort around 10 am, and then 'pay the rent' at the Route 66 Fuel Station at the entrance to the property.  Their CASH price for diesel was $2.71, and that is about the best we can expect for a while.  We took on just shy of 111 gallons for $300, and that will probably be the last time we fill up for a while as we are within 100 miles of our destination....Flagstaff.

We were merging back on I-40 around 10:30 am with clear blue skies from horizon to horizon, and no wind whatsoever......

......the driving was easy, and traffic was light.  We began gaining elevation almost immediately and eventually found ourselves crossing the Continental Divide for the last time in along time at just under 7,300'......

.....of course with the elevation gain we began to see snow on the ground, and I had to turn on our chassis heater to keep us warm.....

.....between us and our destination was the Petrified Forest National Park, emphasis on 'National'.   We had passed by this National Park several times over the years always telling ourselves we would stop 'next time'.  Well 'next time' was Friday.  Regretfully, the park was closed, except for the Visitors Center, due to the Federal government being shut down.  Nevertheless, we decided to stop and check out the Visitors Center, see the ubiquitous movie that is always offered at most National Parks, and then take a short 2.5 mile hike to the Painted Desert vista point.....

....the vista point was spectacular, and I wish we had been able to drive into, and through the park, but alas that will have to be 'next time'......

 Click on this pano to enlarge.....

 Hopi House

.....we arrived at the Visitors Center around 1:30 pm and did not leave until almost 3:30....our 2.5 mile round trip hike took us about an hour of that time.  We were only 17 miles east of our destination for the day, a Passport America park in Sun Valley, AZ (just east of Holbrook, AZ)......

......we chose site #2 which faces away from the Interstate and gave us a great, unobstructed view of the giant horizon....after I finished setting up for the night I sat down and just stared at the view......nothing like the high desert near sundown......

Old sign on premises...you can just make out the words....'GAS Sold Here'.....very cool!

.....my medical appointments in Flagstaff are on the 29th and 30th, so we will continue on to Winslow, AZ Saturday where we will hang out at lower elevations for a few days before heading up to frigid Flagstaff (4,300' elevation versus 7,200' elevation).

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.