After a few days in the summer heat of the Arizona Desert, you start to wonder how people adjust to the temperature. One thing that is very unfamiliar to me is running Air Conditioning at night. Just about everywhere I’ve lived with a few exceptions a year cools off at night to a comfortable temperature. RV Air Conditioning is loud, it even wakes me up throughout the night! So when I tell you that we were actually able to drive some of the days today with our windows down, it’s a big deal. I know the small things in life, right? Today we drove from Lake Pleasant to Meteor Crater RV Park. Along the way, we went from the desert to the high desert to the actual forest. Actual trees and not just the Mesquite and low bushy trees you see in the lower altitudes:
Trees and Clouds, a welcome sight.
Feeling the breeze without the drying bite that you get from hot desert air was fantastic, however, it was somewhat short-lived as we descended from the ~7,000 feet of Flagstaff down into the “lower” altitudes of the Colorado Plateau. We settled down nicely into the Meteor Crater Enterprises domain, at the Meteor Crater RV Park. The staff here are nice, and it is going to work well for a few days of family time.
USA! USA!
Wasn’t that an amazing way to end our World Cup hopes today? Again the critics of team USA beat back with a mostly great performance. Considering the cards stacked against our team I was very proud of the showing. That almost goal in the last minute of stoppage time that would have sent Belgium packing nearly gave me a heart attack. We started our day uncharacteristically early in order to watch the entire performance by team USA. Hold your heads high guys, and look at World. I see great things to come!
Meteor Crater RV Park
As I was saying the staff is nice here and it’s a decent park. The wind hit pretty hard after the team USA loss, obviously mother nature wasn’t thrilled with the outcome, either. We packed up to head 5 miles down the road to see the crater. The facilities are imposing and impressive as you drive up, and the crater itself is evident for quite some distance, we had spotted it long before we saw the signs. We had a nice visit and I had the camera going constantly, many of the pictures are in the flickr album for this trip. Now up to 281 photos and counting! One of my favorite pictures was a foreshadowing of things to come, a picture of some mesas in the distance. I’ve seen so many of them on TV for years, spotted a few from random flights but never gotten up close to any of the “great” Colorado Plateau varieties. Here are a few mesas, photographed from very far away, north of I40 east of Flagstaff. A sign of things to come!
Mesas, a preview of things to come.
Insights from Day 13
- In the summer it might be worth-while to visit the forested areas around Flagstaff and stay cooler.
- It’s good to mix things up on a long trip. The changes of pace are enjoyable and invigorating.
- A business that meets more of its customer’s needs will leave them much more satisfied.
What will tomorrow bring?
We are planning to check out the Petrified Forest and look at some super old trees. I hope you’re enjoying your day, thanks for dropping by.
Next up: Adventure Day 14 – Petrified Forest