Vegas, Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater, and RV Trouble

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I'm doing this blog a little in reverse order to cover the most notable event first. Well it was bound to happen sooner or later and it did. The alternator on the RV seized up broke the belt and overheated the RV in the most isolated spot in Arizona along the NM border. Luckily, we've been keeping up with our Good Sam Roadside Assistance policy and it sure saved us here. It turns out nobody within 100 miles tows RVs, so Good Sam had to contract with a towing company about 130 miles from us to tow us back about 50 miles. Not sure what it cost, but it could not have been cheap. Anyway, the rig was dropped off at ACE Truck Service in Gallup NM a little before they closed for the day. The technicians there were really friendly and did a quick assessment to tell us it was the alternator that seized. So we found a very nice Fairfield Inn to set up two nights in a hotel, it's kind of nice to stay in a hotel for a change, but we don't want to make a habit of it. We got the RV back today, Wednesday, and decided to head off to our next stop, Grants NM.

So back to the trip. We stayed 3 days in Las Vegas but never went to the strip...except when the iPhone GPS routed the RV down the strip instead of the freeway as a joke. After all, why would we want to go on the interstate when we could drive up the strip in heavy traffic? Anyway we made it to Nellis AFB's Family Camp and that was our Las Vegas strip sightseeing. We did make it out to Hoover Dam and had a good time taking pictures and walking across the top of the dam. I highly recommend anyone coming here visit the Dam and Death Valley. Mi Hyon took a few minutes to walk out onto the new really-high-rise bridge to take some pictures while I washed the windows on the Colorado. They were dusty enough to prevent me from walking out onto the bridge. On our last day here we visited Samantha and her partner Dario, Sam is Justin's dearest friend and someone we love too. Dario is born and raised in Italy with the cooking genes to prove it...so we really enjoyed the pasta lunch and seeing them made the trip to Vegas well worth the time.

After Vegas we traveled to Williams Az, a famous Rt 66 town and the best place to stay when seeing the grand canyon. They have a train to and from the canyon right in the RV park and Hotel complex. It was too cold to spend time in along Rt 66 and since we had visited the town in 2013, we just rested up.

On Monday, we had a short travel day scheduled to allow us to visit a 50,000 year old crater created by a 150 foot wide iron/nickel meteor traveling at 26,000 MPH. Had to have been a really big bang. You'll see from the pictures how high the crater's edge is when looking back across the plains toward snow-covered Mt. Humphreys, the highest point in Arizona. After leaving there with RV we headed on to our overnight stop in Holbrook AZ and experienced the first signs of coming RV troubles, it sounded like a squeaky bearing but nothing too serious. After settling in we headed out to Petrified Forest National Park, for some reason I've always wanted to go there. I guess it goes back to middle school when we studied the Triassic Period some 228 million years ago when the area was covered with jungles and enormous rivers. The area in and surrounding the park is home to huge deposits of fossils and petrified trees, all of which can be bought at hundreds of roadside rock dealers. Some of the larger polished pieces go for well in excess of $10K, but we opted for the smaller $10-20 dollar pieces. While staying in Holbrook we ate at a hole-in-the-wall looking Mexican restaurant named Aliberto's and had the best Mexican dinner ever! It was so good we came back for breakfast and I had the best chorizo burrito ever made and Mi Hyon had a carnita burrito also amazing. Wasn't too sure looking at the place from the outside, but were rewarded for not judging by the cover.

The rest of the way home we'll stop to see some Rt 66 stuff, but no big points remain on our list. I think the RV is telling us it's time to get off the road for a while ;-)

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Photos

RV Trouble
At this time I knew it was a broken belt caused by some frozen pulley, but no idea what which one. Also the rig got very hot very fast so I was worried I may have caused other problems.

Big Tow Truck
Mi Hyon always wanted to see one of these rigs up close. Well she got her chance.

On Top of Hoover Dam
On the Arizona side of the dam.

Beautiful Water
I think the water is sometimes up to the white water mark. But it has been a long time.

High Bridge Selfie
Had to be a selfie, I had to stay at the car and clean the windshield.

Comments

[Julie]

RV troubles
Glad it wasn't anything more serious with the RV. Heading home to Maine?

[Mike and Mimi]

Rv Troubles
Yes, we were lucky it didn’t damage the engine. It got hot very fast! We’re going to Ohio first, Mi Hyon has jury duty in April.

[Susan]

Sorry to hear about your RV! Gallup NM is in the poorest county in America. I know this because our best man at our wedding Dan Berg worked at a hospital on an indian reservation in Gallop for 4 years to pay off his medical school loans. I remember visiting Hoover Dam on a family trip many years ago, but I have never seen the crater or the petrified "forest" which are both very cool! Danny has seen the crater on a trip with his family growing up.

[Mike and Mimi]

RV Trouble
Gallup looks like it’s a poor area, a lot of Native Americans walking about and they seem to be impoverished. I remember Dan, I hope he is well. We didn’t see much in Gallup, but the RV repair shop was great.