Mrs. Kidd's FUNds Blog on RealTravel

Edmond journal: Home!

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:00:53 GMT

Home! What a wonderful trip! As I said before, if I had an RV big enough for my dogs, I could pack up again and take off for another two weeks.

Clayton journal: Clayton, NM KOA

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:53:22 GMT

Nice facility. Only fault is the cattle lot outside of town that smelled during the evening and morning.

Clayton journal: On the way home!

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:53:21 GMT

We left Mesa Verde this morning around 9:30. The weather was absolutely beautiful! I decided that if I ever moved out of Oklahoma, Colorado would be the place (other than the cost of groceries). Wolfe Creek pass was pretty awesome at about 11,000 feet. Don's parents left us at South Fork and headed to some friend's house in Creede. Our goal was to make it to Raton but when we got there, Don decided that he would rather drive another hour to Clayton, NM. The drive through this area was beautiful as well. Soft hills, cattle, and pronghorn.

Clayton had a nice RV park, except for the ...

Mesa Verde National Park journal: Mesa Verde National Park

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:54:35 GMT

We dorked around Moab until about 11:00 doing laundry and such and then headed to Mesa Verde, which put us in later than we had hoped. As soon as we got into town and situated, we took off for the park. We visited the Ranger Station and museum and then headed for the Spruce Tree House. For more than 700 years, people inhabited this area and built elaborate stone communities in the canyon walls. One of the park rangers said that at one point, there were as many as 40,000 people living in this area in the various structures. In the late 1200s, in the span of a generation or two, they left their ...

Moab journal: The Arches National Park

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:20:34 GMT

Moab is a nice community with a Pizza Hut!! We got into town about 12:30 and hung out at the pool and rested a while before venturing off to the park. We would have gotten in a little sooner except we rescued a couple of guys from a long-distance bicycle club. One of the guys fell and another ran over him damaging their bikes and banging them up a bit. This group was from Connecticut and was making their way to San Francisco. Today, they were traveling 120 miles through the San Rafael Desert. Don’s parents harbored them while we drove on to find their van and trailer.

The Ranger station ...

Hanksville journal: Hanksville, UT

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 19:31:10 GMT

Well, Hanksville is not much more than an RV park and restaurant. However, it was a place to park and sleep. We drove through Capitol Reef National Park stopping to look at the petroglyphs and formations. This area, which was named Frutia, was settled in the 1800s by Mormon settlers and continued to be a small community until the last family left in 1969. The orchards planted by these settlers are still tended to by the National Park Service. The cool thing was that they were experiencing a flash flood in this area due to rains farther up and we actually saw the headwaters as it came tumbling ...

Bryce Canyon National Park journal: Bryce Canyon National Park

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:57:04 GMT

We arrived at Bryce Canyon in the late afternoon. I went straight to the laundry mat and spent about an hour getting caught up on laundry (five people can certainly dirty a lot of clothes in just two days)!! The inn here is pretty nice and has quite a history. The Paiute Indians once lived here and called it Paunsaugunt. It was later settled by the Mormon settler, Ebenezer Bryce, thus the name Bryce’s Canyon. Homesteaders Reuben and Minnie Syret built the first lodge in 1920 and it is the location of the lodge and inn that is present today. Bryce Canyon became a National Park in 1928. The most ...

Page journal: South Rim, Marble Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, North Rim

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:48:36 GMT

What a day! We left the Grand Canyon south rim and drove the Desert View drive again on the way out of town. It was not quite as hazy as yesterday, but certainly still not as clear as we would have liked. On the drive toward Page, AZ, we passed Echo Cliffs and drove through some of the most beautiful scenery. I will have to say that I will never call Oklahoma red again! Lake Powell can be seen from Page and we saw some HUGE cruisers. After parking our trailer, we headed back south and east toward the north rim. It was 101 degrees in Page when we left. On the way, we stopped at the Marble ...

Page journal: Desert View Drive

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:21:36 GMT

Wow, I am totally mixed up on days. I thought all day today it was only Friday. We spent most of the day at the Grand Canyon. Thank goodness we went down to the canyon last night to watch the sunset. Because of fires farther north and a small fire on the north rim, it was very hazy today and hard to see much. We took the Desert View highway and stopped several times along the way for different views. On the way back, we stopped at the new visitor’s center where there was a lot of information on the formation of the canyon and the thirteen different layers of rock found there. Because of rain ...

Grand Canyon Village journal: Arizona Snowbowl / Grand Canyon

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:07:28 GMT

The kids wanted to ride the Sky Ride at the Arizona Snowbowl so we sidetracked a bit. It was a nice trip to 11,500 feet near the top of Mt. Humphrey, the highest point in Arizona. Of course, the rain followed but fortunately didn't start until about five minutes after we got off (thank goodness)! As we left, the temperature was 58 degrees and within about 30 minutes, we had jumped 35 degrees!

The two lane scenic drive to the Grand Canyon was under construction and we had to stop twice to wait on a pilot car to escort us through. We met some people from Indiana and took a few neat ...

Flagstaff journal: Meteor Crater

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:54:34 GMT

Arizona does not observe daylight savings time so they are on Pacific Time right now. Because of this, it gets dark at 8:00 pm and the sun is up at 5:00 am. It is hard to go back to sleep if you by chance accidentally wake up at 5:00. We ate “all you can eat” pancakes this morning and pulled out about 10:00. About 50 miles from Holbrook is the Meteor Crater. This was a really neat stop. This 150 ft, multi-ton, extremely dense, iron/nickel meteor struck the earth about 50,000 years ago with a force 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb that struck Hiroshima. When the meteor struck the Earth, ...

Flagstaff journal: Sunset Crater / Wupatki National Park

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:53:50 GMT

Sorry for the delay in writing. We had to stay at a different RV park than originally anticipated and they did not have WiFi. We had to go find a bookstore and use their service and it was very slow. Today, we drove to the Grand Falls. Now, had it been the monsoon season (it starts in August by the way) we might have seen falls. However, we saw a dry canyon and goats with bells, which Hannah thought were pretty cool. It was quite a drive with about 10 miles being loose cinder road. I would recommend it if you come to Flagstaff during the monsoon season or if you have plenty of time to spare. ...

Holbrook journal: KOA Holbrook, AZ

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:38:11 GMT

Nice park. Clean pool. Friendly attendants.

Holbrook journal: Petrified Forest/Painted Desert

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:38:06 GMT

Can you believe it - it hasn't rained in Arizona for some time but it rained today! We made it to the Petrified Forest without getting wet and tolerated the heat well. It was nearly 100% but 12% humidity. Can you believe 12%?? The Petrified Forest was really cool. It was created during the Triassic period when this part of the world was part of Pangea and located at the equator. These trees were part of an ancient forest and were toppled during a flood. After tumbling and rolling for miles, the branches were broken off. The logs settled to the bottom of the river and over time were ...

Albuquerque journal: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:34:32 GMT

Nice drive yesterday. I don’t recall the Texas panhandle and eastern New Mexico being so green. I talked to one of the gentleman at the RV park and he said that they have had above-average rain this year (we wouldn’t know about that would we??). I thought that Weatherford, Oklahoma had a lot of windmills, but I think that New Mexico has it beat. The mesas on the outskirts of Albuquerque are beautiful.

We had tire trouble about 10 miles from the RV park. We picked up a bungie cord and the hook stuck in the truck tire. The rubber part did a little cosmetic damage to the passenger side. ...

Holbrook journal: Holbrook, AZ

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:44:27 GMT

We pulled out of Albuquerque about 9:30 after having a nice breakfast at the RV park. It took about an hour to get the the turnoff for the Bandera Ice Cave. The drive to the cave was really cool with a big change of scenery as we got closer to the caves. Pine trees began to appear and the landscape had a black color to it due to volcanic ash.

The hike to the ice cave took about 15 minutes. Along the route, we saw a Douglas Fir that is thought to be over 700 years old and sink holes created when lava tubes collapsed. The ice cave was created when the rain water and snow melt and seep ...

Albuquerque journal: American RV Park

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:49:33 GMT

Nice campground. Clean facilities and pool. Good continental breakfast.

Amarillo journal: We're off - slowly!

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:58:55 GMT

Well, we finally got out of town about 11:00. We had to return to the RV rental place to get the stabilizer bar that we were supposed to have. This will help the trailer ride better especially when we are in the mountainous areas. Don's parents have their own RV and are getting to travel with us.

We arrived in Amarillo at about 5:45, had dinner, and let the kids swim. Everyone is tired and looking forward to a restful night. We will travel to Albuquerque tomorrow and plan to visit the Petroglyph National Park Sunday morning before leaving for Holbrook, AZ.

United States journal: Mrs. Kidd's FUND for Teachers trip

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:10:36 GMT

June 20, 2006 - Trying to complete the intinerary for our trip. We are planning to pick up the trailer Thursday, July 12 and pull out bright and early Friday morning, July 13. Can't wait!