On to Page

After our continental breakfast, we were ready to hit the road at 8:00. Carol checked the refrigerator and it still wasn't that cold, so she changed the old adjustment.

We breezed through Phoenix and headed north. Carol was already in dreamland within ten minutes of leaving town. She missed the wonderful Saguaro forests on the hillsides surrounding I-17. The Saguaros were even starting to bloom, so it was pretty impressive. It was a great drive until we reached Black Springs. From there on, it was one mountain after another. Our poor Allegro was even down to 35 MPH on one mountain pass. It had to shift down to make the grade on one side of the mountain, and then shift down again to go down the other side. Some of the grades were so steep, it had to shift down twice on the downhill side. It's pretty cool that it shifts down automatically, but there was one point that I wanted to shift back into high. I finally figured out that I had to take it out of overdrive.

We got to Flagstaff at noon and had great burgers at Ruby Tuesday. It wasn't a fast lunch, but it provided a good break and the food was great. Then, it was the final stretch to Page. There were a couple of hills and the crossing of the anticline right outside of Page, but the Allegro enjoyed the flatness for a change. The crossing of the anticline is amazing. Even as you approach the final climb, you can't see any opening a highway could possibly fit through. But as you round the final curve, you discover a small crack that has been widened for the highway. Somehow, they fit three highway lanes through and up you go. After you reach one crest and pass the scenic overlook, you pass through a spot where they must have dynamited and hauled out at least 500 vertical feet of rock. It's like driving in a tunnel. Finally from the other side of the ridge, we saw Page and the three smokestacks from the power plant built on Indian land.

We pulled into our campsite (13) about 3:30 and enjoyed a nice view of Lake Powell out our front window. It was 88 degrees, but at least we had a great view. Our loop of the campground looks very new. The pad is so level, we didn't even have to level the motorhome. I hooked up the electrical and all the components of our water line and started filling our tank. Carol put on the gloves and started connecting the sewer hose. Surprise! It's a good thing she had those gloves on. She quickly capped it again, but in the end there was no choice but to open it and try to quickly connect the hose before too much escaped. That added a nice color and stench to the compartment. We cleaned up the mess and finished hooking everything up with no further problems. To our delight, the A/C had already kicked in when we returned to the motorhome.

In the early evening, we drove into town and explored downtown. It hasn't grown any, so we checked out the tour places in town. It seems things have changed a lot at Upper Antelope because of all the crowds. Now the tour groups take precedence and they have a policy that no one can stay in one place more than 2 minutes. Not so conducive to good photos. We may do Lower Antelope instead to escape the crowds.

And now back to the refrigerator mystery... When we checked the refrigerator, the steaks that had been frozen in the morning were thawed and everything in the refrigerator was cool, at best. That settled what we would have for dinner but raised all kinds of red flags for us. We had a lot of food in the refrigerator. Then I looked at the cold control. Carol had turned it down to the warmest setting instead of the coldest. Mystery solved? We'll know tomorrow morning.