Once again it was an early start by the boys. We have decided that pushing them in the
mornings to get moving early isn’t worth it, so we lazily had breakfast and the
boys had a good play. There were a few
showers around again this morning but we weren’t going to let them bother us.
We headed out just after 9am back to Walmart. All the screws had come out of the stays for
one of the overhead cupboards in the camper and we have been using tape to keep
the cupboard closed. This works for us
but it won’t be good for Cruise America.
Last time at Walmart we bought a phillips head screwdriver but the
screws were square head – grr. So this
time we bought a packet of screws. The
cupboard is now fixed. We also bought
some excellent donuts and a few other groceries.
We had morning tea in the carpark where a few other
motorhomes had actually spent the night!
I didn’t know they would allow you to do this but I wouldn’t be
comfortable doing this with children.
Steve then filled the RV to the brim with fuel and we went to Upper
Antelope Canyon. Unfortunately the Lower
Antelope Canyon was closed due to the rains and that is the most
spectacular. The second problem was
that the Navajo Reservation only accepted cash and we didn’t have any. So we went back into town, got the cash and
went back to the Canyon – probably a 15 minute round trip. When we returned, we discovered that the 11am
tour was full and we would have to wait another hour for the next trip. This timing was terrible for Rohan’s nap, so
we gave it up and hit the road.
It is about 200km from Page to Monument Valley. It is the usual up and down roads with climbs
of about 3000ft. There are handy
markers on the road for every 1000ft change in elevation.
Surprisingly there were masses of short trees
in this region which was different from what we had been seeing. It rained again.
Rohan took a really long time to fall asleep and he finally
did about 35km outside of Kayenta Arizona. Kayenta is a reasonably big town in
the desert on the out skirts of Monument valley. The road skirts the side of the town and it
is lined with fast food restaurants and petrol stations. Today we decided to give Burger King a
go. Julian and I went in whilst Steve
stayed with the sleeping Rohan.
Unfortunately when Julian and I returned, we woke up Rohan L I have to say that Burger King was not a
patch on McDonalds. Julian disagrees as
he is now sporting a Bart Simpson watch as it was the toy in the kids meal.
From Kayenta it is only 45km to the Navajo Reservation where
a lot of Monument Valley is located. We
drove up to the visitor centre/hotel complex and had a look around. The store was having a sale as apparently the
place is seriously dead from the end of October until summer. This meant that the jewellery was nearly
affordable, so Steve bought me a silver and turquoise pendant for our 9th
wedding anniversary (in 6 days). Lucky
me!. It was made by a local craftsman and it is a
lovely teal green rather than a blue green.
They also had a monument valley magnet with Julian on it, so we had to
have that too. Unfortunately there was
only Justin on the Sherriff badges as they were pretty cool. (In Death Valley they had an empty spot for
“Julian” pocket knives).
We then went outside in the cold wind to take photos of the
huge rocks. We were staying at the
campground on site, with a view down the valley, so we drove down there to
choose our site. We had afternoon tea
and then went out to enjoy the view once more.
Julian and Rohan had a great time running around and digging in the red
dirt. Rohan did come a cropper in one of
the spikey bushes, so he now has a nice scratch on his cheek.
 |
| This is the campsite! |
We then all went back to the RV for warmth and to cook
dinner. This site is no-hook up which
means we are running on the 12V supply of the RV, the LPG for the stove, the
generator for power, our water tank and waste is into our black and grey water
tanks. We are truly
self-sufficient. For dinner we had a
tomato-carrot-bean-sausage-pasta mix up with a side of corn on the cob. It was pretty good.
Both Julian and Rohan were pretty tired (from the early wake
up) so I read more of The Witches whilst Steve did the dishes. We didn’t do the shower again tonight (due to
running on tank supply) and both boys were asleep by 7:15. Rohan nearly put himself into bed, he was
that tired! It started to rain, again,
whilst we were putting the boys to bed, so there will be no stargazing tonight L We are a bit bummed about that as it was
something we were really looking forward to, away from the city lights.
I am typing this whilst the generator hums underneath my
seat. We are enjoying this RV life and
we can see why people want to do this full time. We have seen a lot of bus style motorhomes
towing small and not so small 4x4. This
would be an excellent way to see the country with all the comforts of home. We
would just need one with an extra high shower cubicle J
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