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September 3, 2010, a Friday
near Flagstaff to near North Rim, Arizona, USA
— Moved to get solar-electric power near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
We got up around our normal time and I had my usual breakfast. I started to work up a blog entry. J got really tired of the slow National Access signal, and because we wouldn't get much solar electric power if we stayed where we were, we decided to move up the road. We prepped the RV to move, hooked up the Jeep to tow, and got underway around 10:20.
There were some nice clouds over the mountains — the first clouds we had seen in three days.
We went to a Fry's Food and Drug in Flagstaff around 10:45. I dropped J off at the door so she could go in and pick up a few things and I topped off the Jeep with gas at $2.659/gal. After I finished, I parked away from the pumps and went online through a nice fast Broadband Access signal. I looked into the Arc'teryx Atom LT Jacket, and the sleeve length will probably be OK even though they don't have long/tall sizes. The guy at Military Morons says it has about the same warmth as a Polartec 200 jacket, but it packs down really well. Hmmm — I was looking for something to replace my Cabela's A-2 Thinsulate Flight Jacket, so I was looking for something like a Polartec 300 fleece (warmer/thicker than Polartec 200), but I like the idea of it packing down well. The Cabela's A-2 Jacket doesn't pack down at all and it doesn't breath much at all either! It's a great jacket for bumming around town, but it's not the best for stop-and-go activity while photographing. We got underway around 11:50 and headed north on US-89.
I had Clif Bars for lunch and J started to cook a surprise in the crock pot. Yes, we were going to cook something in the crock pot while we were driving down the road. That's fairly common among RVers because the chassis engine generator can provide plenty of electricity to power a crock pot through an inverter. It was the first time we had cooked something in the crock pot while driving, and I was surprised that it only took about 10A of our 12VDC electricity. I listened to an episode of Car Talk. We turned onto Alternate US-89 at Bitter Springs at 2:00.
We stopped at a roadside pullout around 2:20 to take a break and to go online. We had a nice fast Broadband Access signal. I ordered an Arc'teryx Atom LT Jacket that was on sale at REI. Then I purchased a pair of APECS MARPAT Trousers in Medium-Long through a Buy-It-Now on eBay. (I'll probably eBay the Cabela's Rain Suede pants in Mossy Oak New Break-Up because they're still in great shape.) I finished the blog entry and we got underway around 3:25.
We headed south on AZ-67 at Jacob Lake around 4:25. We turned onto a Forest Service road to look for a boondocking spot in the Kaibab National Forest north of the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. J hadn't been to the North Rim before, and I thoroughly enjoyed my one and only previous visit in late August of 2005. The North Rim has a very different environment than the South Rim because of the different elevations and the wide, and deep, canyon separating the two rims. The lower South Rim, at 6000-7000 ft (1850-2150m), has forests of Pinyon pine and juniper (boring), and the higher North Rim, at 8000-9000 ft (2400-2750m), has forests of spruce, fir, and aspen interspersed with meadows (interesting). Visitors at the South Rim generally arrive in tour busses or RVs, wait for a parking spot to open up, then rush to the overlooks to snap a quick picture without interrupting their conversations about home, whereas tvisitors at the North Rim generally arrive in cars, trucks, or motor cycles, take their pick of spots in mostly empty parking lots, mosey out to the overlooks where they stay until the sun sets, and donÂ’t talk much in order not to disturb the silence.
After driving with the Jeep still in tow for a while down the dusty dirt road, we stopped to unhook the Jeep so we could explore in it. J finished the surprise (chicken) in the crock pot while I was unhooking the Jeep and cleaning off the windows. We left in the Jeep to go look for a good place to boondock.
We came across two grouse of some kind. They weren't in a good location to photograph and we were running out of daylight, so we didn't try to photograph them. We didn't find a good spot further along the dead-end road like J was hoping to find based on her research, so we headed back and I drove the RV while J drove the Jeep. We left the RV in a decent spot and then left together in the Jeep to see if we could find a better spot. We didn't, so ...
We returned to the RV around 7:10 and set up camp. There was no Verizon Wireless signal, so that meant no internet — good thing we stopped when we did earlier.
We had dinner around 7:35 of a of a Wanchai Ferry Orange Chicken bag meal that J prepared. It wasn't very filling, but it was tasty.
After dinner, I started to work up a blog entry.
There were some nice clouds over the mountains — the first clouds we had seen in three days.
We went to a Fry's Food and Drug in Flagstaff around 10:45. I dropped J off at the door so she could go in and pick up a few things and I topped off the Jeep with gas at $2.659/gal. After I finished, I parked away from the pumps and went online through a nice fast Broadband Access signal. I looked into the Arc'teryx Atom LT Jacket, and the sleeve length will probably be OK even though they don't have long/tall sizes. The guy at Military Morons says it has about the same warmth as a Polartec 200 jacket, but it packs down really well. Hmmm — I was looking for something to replace my Cabela's A-2 Thinsulate Flight Jacket, so I was looking for something like a Polartec 300 fleece (warmer/thicker than Polartec 200), but I like the idea of it packing down well. The Cabela's A-2 Jacket doesn't pack down at all and it doesn't breath much at all either! It's a great jacket for bumming around town, but it's not the best for stop-and-go activity while photographing. We got underway around 11:50 and headed north on US-89.
I had Clif Bars for lunch and J started to cook a surprise in the crock pot. Yes, we were going to cook something in the crock pot while we were driving down the road. That's fairly common among RVers because the chassis engine generator can provide plenty of electricity to power a crock pot through an inverter. It was the first time we had cooked something in the crock pot while driving, and I was surprised that it only took about 10A of our 12VDC electricity. I listened to an episode of Car Talk. We turned onto Alternate US-89 at Bitter Springs at 2:00.
We stopped at a roadside pullout around 2:20 to take a break and to go online. We had a nice fast Broadband Access signal. I ordered an Arc'teryx Atom LT Jacket that was on sale at REI. Then I purchased a pair of APECS MARPAT Trousers in Medium-Long through a Buy-It-Now on eBay. (I'll probably eBay the Cabela's Rain Suede pants in Mossy Oak New Break-Up because they're still in great shape.) I finished the blog entry and we got underway around 3:25.
We headed south on AZ-67 at Jacob Lake around 4:25. We turned onto a Forest Service road to look for a boondocking spot in the Kaibab National Forest north of the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. J hadn't been to the North Rim before, and I thoroughly enjoyed my one and only previous visit in late August of 2005. The North Rim has a very different environment than the South Rim because of the different elevations and the wide, and deep, canyon separating the two rims. The lower South Rim, at 6000-7000 ft (1850-2150m), has forests of Pinyon pine and juniper (boring), and the higher North Rim, at 8000-9000 ft (2400-2750m), has forests of spruce, fir, and aspen interspersed with meadows (interesting). Visitors at the South Rim generally arrive in tour busses or RVs, wait for a parking spot to open up, then rush to the overlooks to snap a quick picture without interrupting their conversations about home, whereas tvisitors at the North Rim generally arrive in cars, trucks, or motor cycles, take their pick of spots in mostly empty parking lots, mosey out to the overlooks where they stay until the sun sets, and donÂ’t talk much in order not to disturb the silence.
After driving with the Jeep still in tow for a while down the dusty dirt road, we stopped to unhook the Jeep so we could explore in it. J finished the surprise (chicken) in the crock pot while I was unhooking the Jeep and cleaning off the windows. We left in the Jeep to go look for a good place to boondock.
We came across two grouse of some kind. They weren't in a good location to photograph and we were running out of daylight, so we didn't try to photograph them. We didn't find a good spot further along the dead-end road like J was hoping to find based on her research, so we headed back and I drove the RV while J drove the Jeep. We left the RV in a decent spot and then left together in the Jeep to see if we could find a better spot. We didn't, so ...
We returned to the RV around 7:10 and set up camp. There was no Verizon Wireless signal, so that meant no internet — good thing we stopped when we did earlier.
We had dinner around 7:35 of a of a Wanchai Ferry Orange Chicken bag meal that J prepared. It wasn't very filling, but it was tasty.
After dinner, I started to work up a blog entry.