Hermine has found us

It's rather wet and windy here in the Dallas area. We have had non stop wind and rain for the last two days. It will mean at least a one day extension of our stay here. No way would we want to be on the road in a car let alone towing a 37 foot RV!
We are also experiencing power problems. We bought a new battery and thought that had solved the problem but it quickly drained. Some lights, the A/C (amen) and the TV run on the power at the RV park but other things like the refrigerator run off the battery. When the battery dies it sets off an alarm which is much like a smoke detector!! Not something that endears us to our neighbors LOL.
We are grateful that this has happened at the near end of our trip. If it ever stops raining we'll call a service guy out to hopefully find the problem and get it fixed. Meanwhile it is a great day for reading and relaxing!!

Deep in the heart of Texas

We crossed over into Texas today. Sad to say, haven't seen much worth taking a picture of so far. We'll be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the next 4 days so I expect they'll be some good sites there. The weather has been great the last few days. One problem has been the wind. With the wide open spaces it really blows across the road and whips the RV back and forth. With all the signs encouraging the report of drunk drivers, I'm surprised we weren't turned in. All the big rigs and other RVs were having the same problem so I guess it wiould be hard to tell who was really DWI.
We are finally back to central standard time!
We've traveled over 5000 miles so far. When we leave Ft Worth we'll have about 1300 miles to get us back home. It has been great but home sounds real good too!!

On to New Mexico

We spent Wednesday in the town of Williams, AZ - our "camp" for visits to the Canyon and Sedona and one of the main stops on the old route 66. There were many items for sale made from petrified trees. Now, we drove by the Petrified Forest and there wasn't one tree there. So my question is 'did they cut down all the trees to make souvenirs? Or were the mounds of rocks we saw there actually squished trees"? HMMM

Thursday (9/2) we left for the next leg of our trip - Dallas. New Mexico is much more scenic than the part of Arizona we were visiting. Beautiful mountains and one of the first states where we have actually seen trees!! It has amazed us how barren many of the parts of the states we have driven through are. Tonight we are camped in one of the least visually appealing RV parks we have been in so far. We laugh because it has the coldest water, the best water pressure and 4 times as many TV stations - go figure!!

Sedona

On Tuesday the last day of August we drove down to Sedona south of the Grand Canyon. The mountains here are as beautiful as Mike and Juli told us. They are a very red earth color. The small town is definitely for tourists but it was fun to explore. Unfortunately most of my pictures are taken from in the truck, through the window so the colors are muted. :-(

Grand Canyon - Impressive and disappointing

Do you suppose that is called "finger" mountain?
At the Grand Canyon most of the buildings were designed in the early 1900's and blend in with the scenery.

Many areas have no railings - scary!!

The canyon is impressive because of its size. Disappointing because I expected more color.

Another example of the buildings designed to blend in with the mountains.

On to Nevada

We left Utah on Friday (27th) and drove to Laughlin, NV deciding to by-pass Las Vegas and gamble at the casino with the RV park in Laughlin. That night they had a storm which resembled a tropical storm back home. It was obvious and later confirmed by the people at the casino that rain was not a normal occurrence there. There was no cover from the parking garage to the casino. As we dashed across the tiled walkway I heard a squeak, squeak, squeak followed by a "Barrrrb". I looked back to see Jerry flat on his back. The squeaks were his attempt to keep his footing in his crocs on the wet tile. Fortunately he was not hurt, only very wet and I was able to hold my laughter until he was back on his feet. The next morning there were roads closed because of the mud and rocks washed onto them. The RV rocked and rolled in the strong wind.
Jerry did pretty well playing "Let'm Ride" and since they had penny slots it took me a long time to lose my money.

Entering the long state of Utah

As we entered Utah from Idaho it appeared to be as flat and barren as the previous states but greener. There were mountain ranges on each side. The wind was horrific at times. As we got closer to Salt lake city there were miles and miles of actual cities!!

The southern part of Utah is beautiful! We spent the day at Zion Nat'l Park yesterday. Jerry likes it the best so far. It has given us a taste of what we expect the Grand Canyon
to look like.

Tomorrow ends our 4 days of rest. We are off to the Las vegas area to lighten our wallets a bit

:-(