-Grand Canyon Railway & Outlaw Holdup
–Incredible Views of the Grand Canyon
-Marble Canyon, Lees Ferry & Navajo Bridge
The scenery from the motorhome, while driving through northern Arizona was amazing! In the distance were snow capped mountains. At times, close to the highway there were cliffs and roadside tourist shopping places. We dodged a few tumbleweeds, but we hit one of them. No damage. All good.
Our home, in North Louisiana, is 243 feet above sea level. By the time that the motorhome rolled through Flagstaff, Arizona, we were 7000 feet above sea level. What effect does that have on things? Tire pressures and other things changed. The unopened chip bags in the coach pantry were puffed and looked ready to explode. Teri was in the back motorhome bathroom and I heard her say “woooOOOH!”, as the hand lotion container lid sort-of exploded. There were other little things that we noticed, due to a major change in altitude and different pressures. Had I needed to use the onboard Onan generator, I, likely, would have made an altitude adjustment on it. When we left Louisiana and went to Texas Motor Speedway, the daily high temperatures were in the upper 80s to 90. Though we went a few thousand feet higher to Amarillo, and another thousand feet in elevation to Albuquerque, the daytime temperatures were much the same as back home. Night temps were noticably cooler as we elevated higher. But, by the time that we drove through Flagstaff, Arizona, it was freezing out, and Tom was driving the motorhome in sleet and snow (in mid-April). We continued on to Williams, Arizona (about a half hour to 45 minutes west of Flagstaff).
We filled the motorhome gas tank off of I-40, about 5 minutes from our reserved spot at Railside RV Ranch in Williams, Arizona. The temperature was cool, when we pulled in, but we got a warm, friendly, welcome at the check-in desk. We booked 3 nights at Railside RV Ranch, and one of the RV park owners, Tamara, cooked delicious waffles for everyone, each morning. Fruit, cereal and other breakfast items were available, and free, but we enjoyed those tasty waffles. We enjoyed coffee and conversation with other RVers in the clubhouse at breakfast every morning. There was a community fire pit, and another one of the owners, Patrick (Tamara’s husband) and Patrick’s brother, would load up the pit with wood and get the fire going every evening. Patrick and his brother also drove the free shuttle bus from the rv park to the Grand Canyon Railway station, or where ever else anyone would want to go in Williams, and later pick up to return to the RV park. Of course, we tipped. On the afternoon that we arrived and set up the motorhome in our spot at Railside RV Ranch, the Grand Canyon Railway train came right by our campsite. The only time that we dealt with train noise, was at 9am , when the train was taking people to the Grand Canyon, and the train would blow the whistle again at 5pm, returning folks to the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams. The rv park owners, and many of us in the rv park, would come out and wave each day, when the train came by.
We used our motorhome on-board water tank for showers, cooking etc, because the nights were cold enough to freeze water hoses. Around the campfire, during our first night in the rv park, Patrick mentioned that we might want to use our on-board water overnight. Some people would use hair blow dryers or pouring hot water the next morning, to thaw out their hooked up water hoses. We filled our water tank during the day, unhooked our hose and put it away. After over 2 decades of RVing, and dry camping (self contained) a lot at Texas Motor Speedway and other race tracks, along with other places, we’re knowledgable about good water management. Our tanks and plumbing are heated during freezing temps.
On the day that we were to ride the train, there was an old west shootout reenactment at the Grand Canyon Railway, before we boarded the train. The Cataract Creek Gang put on a great old-timey outlaw shootout show. Funny bunch! The train was comfortable, and there were entertaining musicians strolling the train cars.
Banjo Billy (Smith) in the photo played a song in front of us, and recognized our 40th wedding anniversary. Banjo Billy revealed to us that he performed near our home in Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana back in the 80s. Small world. Very nice guy!
After the train pulled into the Grand Canyon Villiage, on the South part of the Canyon, we moved from the train to a tour bus. We were driven to a place to enjoy a great lunch, that was part of the cost of this journey. At our lunch table was a couple from England, and we enjoyed the conversation with them. They thought that we spoke funny, but we thought that their speech and phrasing were odd. Our bus driver was cool, with a good sense of humor, as he spoke to the bus riders over the bus p.a. system as he drove. He took us to some of his “special” places, where the bus was unloaded at each stop, with (absolutely) incredible views of the Grand Canyon.
CAUTION: Make sure that you’re in a secure location when doing something like this. Behind us is a waist-sized rock wall, to keep us from a dangerous fall.
Now is a good time to mention that 98.1% of the photos on this website, were taken by Teri. Tom does most of the writing & describing the adventures (Teri proof-reads).
During the few hour ride on the Grand Canyon Railway, back to Williams, we noticed some cowboy-looking horse riders with bandanas over their faces riding along side the train. Not long afterwards, the train stopped. Then… there were the sounds of gunfire onboard the train. Tom’s arm hair was sticking straight out, and Tom stood up as he was going into charge & attack mode toward the gunfire. Teri quickly grabbed Tom’s arm and said “It’s okay honey. It’s just the Cataract Creek Gang”. Cool! An old-timey outlaw train robbery.
By the way, our rail car passenger service attendant was very informative when talking about the surrounding area, as we rode the train and enjoyed the scenery. This time, when we were entering Williams on the train’s return trip, the Railside RV Ranch owners and RVers were outside were waving at us, just as we had waved at the previous day’s train passengers that went by.
Teri cooked supper at the motorhome and we took an evening stroll around the rv park, while we took the opportunity to clean a load of clothes in the onboard washer and dryer. Our cat is Bubba. First name: Bubba. Last name: BadToTheBone”. Bubba BadToTheBone enjoyed looking out of the small window near the floor, next to Teri’s passenger seat, to see what we were up to outside.
The following morning, we had some of Tamara’s waffles for breakfast in the Railside RV Park clubhouse, and enjoyed more conversation with other RVers. Then, we took the Jeep to Marble Canyon and the Navajo Bridge to be directly above the Colorado River.
From there, we had lunch at a roadside restaurant near the Navajo Bridge and Marble Canyon. After lunch, we continued to Lees Ferry, which took us right down to the bank of the Colorado River.
While we were at Lee’s Ferry, we saw some interesting sites. We saw a big bird flying with a big fish in it’s claws, and it stopped to perch on a nearby power pole to eat the fish. There were two big white water rafts that were loading gear and passengers. An old-timer came up to us and told us why law enforcement officers were checking everything for those boat rides. The boat riders signed up for about a week long journey on the Colorado River, and we were told by the old-timer that there were rules and laws to abide by. The main rule is, whatever you take in, you must take out when you leave. They were packing batteries to operate the water purifiers for the journey. We noticed portable toilets were loaded onto those boats, and were told by the old-timer again that “whatever you bring in, you have take out with you when you return and leave”.
We made the drive out of Lees Ferry and Marble Canyon, stopping along the way to take some photos.
We, also, found time to stroll around the historic district of Williams along the old Route 66. Plenty of great shops and restaurants.
SPECIAL THANKS:
We need to mention a big “THANK YOU” to our son, Tim, for doing the motorhome oil change, lube and service, before we began this 2500 mile journey, as the motorhome worked flawlessly the entire time. It was slow going when the Tom’sMaHaul climbed some steep elevations, but Tom knew about down shifting, or using the tow/haul mode. No problem at all. Even during the day of 60mph winds and an extreme dust storm in West Texas, all was good. Most RVers know that there are always some sort of issues when hitting the road for a lengthy journey, but with the preparations that we did prior to the trip, we had, absolutely, no issues.
NOTICE TO RVers CAMPING IN HIGH WIND CONDITIONS:
If you’re not feeling safe while driving in high windy conditions, find a place to park and wait it out. One thing to mention is, when setting up and camping and extreme high wind occurs, to bring in the slideouts so the slideout toppers don’t tear, and certainly do not have the porch awning out. When camping in the high wind & dust storm day in Amarillo, we brought in our full wall slide, but left the smaller bedroom slide out. We have a fun memory of Teri climbing halfway up the back motorhome ladder, with 60-65mph wind blowing and throwing a rope over the bedroom slide cover, and Tom grabbed the other end and brought it down and we tied the rope together on the under side of the slide out (to keep that slideout topper from flapping up and tearing). It worked great! Where did we get that idea? Tom drove around the Oasis RV Resort campground, and noticed some of the full-timers that used that rope over slide topper trick, so we did the same. We didn’t even try that on the full wall slide, and just retracted that full wall slide out during the full day and night of high winds.
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We welcome you to check out some of the places that we enjoy exploring around the ArkLaTex region and… beyond the outer parameter. Visit our Journal page HERE
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You’re Trippin’ With Tom & Teri. Our location is a space in time. No matter where you go, there you are, and at the moment, We Are HERE.
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Tom shares some of our motorhome preparation, maintenance & projects…along with expecting the unexpected. Visit our Projects page HERE
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Also, visit us at TomsMaHauL on Facebook HERE
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