Lake Powell

We thoroughly enjoyed our two-week stay at Lake Powell. We thought it would be hotter than when we normally visit in early-September, but it wasn’t quite as hot as we expected—only in the mid to upper-90s and low-100s, but no humidity. The water temperature was in the low-80s and perfect to go swimming.

Our friends Ron and Kathy from Titusville, Florida arrived on Tuesday with their motorhome and stayed in the same campground loop we were in. They had arranged to rent a 62-foot houseboat for 5-days with three other couples but came in a few days early to get ready.

On Saturday we boated out to Padre Canyon to where Ron and Kathy’s houseboat was beached. They were all having fun on the houseboat with its upper deck hot tub and wet bar, swimming, riding the two jet skis they rented and boating with the runabout boat they rented.

We enjoyed dinner on Wednesday night with Ron and Kathy and a card game of Golf.

One big difference we noticed on this visit to Lake Powell were all the rental RVs coming and going from the campground every day and the larger crowds of tourists shopping at Safeway and Walmart and eating at one of the several restaurants in Page.

We saw many couples and families on vacation from across the USA and also saw many foreign tourists from Asia and Europe. There are some rental RVs and tourists in September, but it seemed there were many, many more this time of year.

Thursday night we went out for dinner at the local BBQ joint and were shocked that the inside seating was completely full and only a few seats remained outside.

Gunsight Butte

Camel rock

Big Johns Texas BBQ

Steve & Julie Cornelius 

Grand Canyon

We arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon on Monday, July 10^th for a 5-night stay inside the national park at Trailer Park Village. We had a long campsite with full hookups. On Monday night we saw a young, buck elk walking through the campground. We didn’t see him the rest of the week but saw many elk cows.

We walked along the rim of the Grand Canyon during the day and enjoyed the views, but the best views were in the evening about an hour before sunset. The early-evening sunlight on the rocks really brought out their colors.

On Friday night, we enjoyed dinner at the El Tovar Hotel, the lodge in Grand Canyon Village, open since 1905.

We got up early last Saturday morning to leave the Grand Canyon and drive to Lake Powell in Page, Arizona. Although we had reservations, it is first-come, first served for campsite assignments. We had a good idea of which sites were double-wide for a place to park the boat and also had great views of the lake. We arrived around noon and snagged a perfect campsite for our two-week stay. We got settled in and the drove up to Big Water, Utah to pick up our boat where we store it.

Our picture window view

The lake is up 15-feet from the same time last year and we could see the difference. It’s our first time here in July and we knew it was going to be hot. Triple digit air temperatures but the lake water is only a cool, refreshing 80-degrees.

Wahweap campground at Lake Powell

Steve & Julie Cornelius 

Standin’ on the corner in Winslow, Arizona

On our way to the Grand Canyon, we stopped to overnight at Meteor Crater RV Park, about 18 miles west of Winslow, Arizona on I-40. We’ve stayed here several times before because it’s about half-way between Albuquerque and Las Vegas. It’s a very nice, well maintained RV park.

We arrived around 2PM and as usual, we were messed up on the local time because Arizona does not go to Daylight Saving Time.

We disconnected our pickup from our motorhome and drove back to Winslow to visit the famous “corner” and also the historic La Posada Hotel. The corner was made famous with lyrics of The Eagles song “Take it Easy”. You can see the reflection of the girl in the flatbed Ford on the wall behind us in the photo of us.  

The historic La Posada Hotel is two blocks down the street on historic Route 66. The La Posada Hotel is a national historic landmark. It was built in 1929 by the Fred Harvey Company on the Santa Fe Railway line. It was the last hotel-train depot complex built in the southwestern U.S. as collaboration between Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe railway. Today Amtrak provides daily service to Winslow on its Chicago to Los Angeles route.   

The Turquoise Room, the hotel’s restaurant, was ranked as one of the top 3 restaurants in the U.S. by Conde Nast in 2009. We enjoyed dinner there and it was really good.

Steve & Julie Cornelius 

Colorado-New Mexico

We made our way back to the USAF Academy family campground in Colorado Springs on Wed, June 28^th for a short stay and to take care of some appointments. Our 10-year old cat Shasta had some hair mats that we couldn’t get out, so we took her to a groomer for the very first time.

We met our friends Rick and Diana to catch up since we’d seen them a month ago in Raton, NM. We enjoyed dinner at a small Mexican restaurant in our old neighborhood that we used to eat at once in a while when we were still working. The food was just as good as we’d remembered.

We drove to Westcliffe, Colorado to see our friends Vince and Lisa and catch a sunset from the deck of their house.

Our friend Wendy met us in town for a fund raising pancake breakfast and the annual July 4^th parade.

We left Colorado Springs on July 5^th and headed south to Raton, NM for an overnight, on our way to Albuquerque.

We enjoyed seeing our friends Kris and Jan last night at Starr Brothers Brewing Company for dinner. We leave Albuquerque tomorrow and head west. We're on our way to the Grand Canyon for a 5-night stay. We’re hoping it is much cooler there than the heat we’ve had the past week or so.

Steve & Julie Cornelius