We slept warm and toasty last night with the heat on. I wanted to get up early this morning to catch the sunrise from the back of our camper. There was a cloud bank/cold front at the horizon that would be bringing our cooler weather for the next few days.
 |
We had to wait a little longer for the sun to rise above the clouds, but it was worth the wait.
 |
Our drive today would only be 71 miles so we were in no hurry to get moving. With the morning temperature a cool 47 degrees, we also wanted to let things warm up a bit before we started to pack up. The campground in Williams, AZ told us that we could not get into our site until at least 11:30, so around 9:00 we started to get things ready. The wind started to pick up too, so that might be an issue driving in the open areas. We noticed that the campground security truck was riding around the park this morning. He told Bob that he was warning campers that if they were planning to stay tonight, that they would need to unhook their water hoses because the temperature was supposed to drop to 29 degrees and he didn’t want anything to freeze up. Yikes! We pulled out around 9:30 and took a slow drive west towards Flagstaff. We got a view of the highest point in Arizona–Humphrey’s Peak at 12,621 ft.
 |
It is supposed to have 2 ski resorts and as we got closer we could see what we thought were the ski runs.
 |
We continued to climb towards Flagstaff at an elevation of 6855 ft. The topography changed from high desert sagebrush to pine forests. Now it felt like we were in the mountains!
 |
We had plans to stop at Wal-Mart just off the highway in Flagstaff. Bob wanted to check out a new grill and we needed a few groceries. We had time to kill anyway, so it was no big deal. We got into the Wal-Mart parking lot and parked next to a few other RVs. This one was especially interesting. If you’ve ever wondered where Wal-Martians come from, this is how they get there. Bob said the frame was broken and the body of the RV was buckled so much that the door was jammed. It had a temporary license plate so that means that someone just bought it. Only at Wal-Mart!
 |
We spent about 45 minutes in the store and then were on our way again. Just an observation—there seems to be so many homeless people in Flagstaff. They were everywhere—at every exit and entrance ramp, even asking for gas at the gas station. From Flagstaff, we crossed the Arizona Divide at an elevation of 7335 ft. and started our descent into the valley toward the town of Williams.
 |
We stopped for gas at the Pilot truck stop and gas was $2.34 with our discount. We have seen gas in New Mexico and Arizona to be $2.39 almost everywhere. It’s been weird that the price has been so consistently the same. At the gas station, that also had a McDonald’s, we saw this all terrain vehicle at the drive thru. It made me chuckle.
 |
We arrived at Williams and followed our GPS into town towards our campground. We had to drive right through town to get there.
 |
Our campground, Grand Canyon Railway RV Park, was part of a larger resort complex. It was a huge facility with all sorts of amenities.
 |
While Bob went inside to check us in, I noticed these trees outside the office that were starting to change colors with the coming of Fall. They were so pretty and it reminded me how much I miss seeing the changing of the colors.
 |
 |
The wind was chilly, but sitting in the sun out of the wind wasn’t bad. The temp had risen to 59. The weather will be a little on the cool side during our visit here, but that’s OK. We’ll just have to break out the jeans and sweatshirts, but we’ll hold out with shorts and sandals for as long as we can. We’ll have chicken tacos for dinner and make our plans for what we’ll do while we’re here.