Woke up to the roosters crowing and Jorge’s dogs coming to visit. I was not ready to get up so I tried to turn over and go back to sleep. During the night I had left the inverter on and the alarm sounded at 4 am that the battery was low, down to 10.97 W. I got up and turned it off but of course I fretted about it for hours. But I knew the solar panels were hooked up and as soon as the sun came up the battery would charge. But anxiety is not rational. I must have checked it every 15 min from 5 am on. I knew it was 5 because of the afore mentioned rooster. I needn’t have worried because by 8 when I finally gave up sleeping, the battery was at 12 W and climbing. I love solar power. We took Joey out and the dogs came back to visit. Joey wasn’t too keen on them, she felt a little outnumbered.
We left the battery charge and Keith made coffee and oatmeal for breakfast. I wasn’t hungry so I ate just a few bites of very old pizza, While we packed up we let Joey off leash and I used cheese and pizza to make sure she stayed close. Worked like a charm. Both Keith and I washed our hair in the outside shower (no place to dump) and packed up the solar panels. Final reading 13.20 W. Nice! We bumped our way out the way we came and headed for the Petrified Forest after we got gas.
We were able to drive the 26 mile stretch that follows the Painted Desert and the Pertified Forest for free because I have a lifetime pass to the national parks. I swear that $85 card was the best investment I could have made. It has saved me hundreds of dollars already. I didn’t know what to expect from the Painted desert or the Petrified Forest but whatever it was it was not enough. It was incredible. I mean truly. The colors and the formations were amazing. There was one formation called “Newspaper Rock” that has petrglyphs on it believed to date back to 1000 CE. I took a picture and was shocked to see that I could actually see the petroglyphs.
Doing the Petrified Forest, we didn’t have much time to get off the freeway to see some of the small towns along they way. One I’m really sorry I missed was Winslow. Keith really wanted to see this one and I missed the exit. There’s that hard job again. So we just continued on to the Grand Canyon. As we were approaching the park, we saw 1 male and 4 female elk as well as 2 mule deer. Awesome. We arrived at about 6 pm and after filling the water went to our site. And it was beautiful. We set up quickly and just sat and looked around. The campground was really beautiful and well maintained. All the sites had paved pads, ours was a pull-through. We took Joey for a couple of walks and she really liked it there. We had hotdogs and potato salad for dinner and then just relaxed. We’ve been tired so we went to bed early. Joey had to go potty at like 2 am, so I took her out. And the sky had 1 billion stars. More than I have seen it so long. Went back to bed and slept amazing.
Grand Day 15