Petrified Forest National Park, Holbrook, AZ - 2025

Our 2025 travels started out a little bumpy. We left Fairhope, AL on April 29. Our first night was a Harvest Host in Edwards, Mississippi. 

Our next stop was in Tyler, TX and just as we were getting to our site, it started pouring. There were some heavy storms that tripped out GFCI and we were able to figure out pretty quickly. 

Our 3rd stop was in Iowa City, TX, a very non-glamourous park that worked for the night. On the eve of our anniversary we stayed at a Love's RV Stop, we got fuel and stayed all in one location in Amarillo, TX. 

We were getting ready to head out on May 3, when our slides would not come in. We ended up having to wait a few hours for a mobile tech to come out. Ernie was able to get the driver side slides in using the emergency bypass but he wasn't able to get the long passenger slide to come in. By the time the tech was able to get the long slide in and the jacks raised it was 4pm. The diagnosis was that it was possible our hydraulic motor was shot. That meant we would not be able to put down the jacks or open the slides. Since it was Saturday, unfortunately we would not be able to order a part until Monday. We decided to make the 4 hour drive to our next stop, the time changed definitely helped so we were not driving in the dark. It was just getting dark when we pulled in to Route 66 Casino, Hotel and RV Park in Albuquerque, NM.

It was definitely an adjustment living in cramped quarters. We had 12" to 18" down the middle. Crawling over the bed was what could be considered a circus act. So, we pulled up our adult panties that night and the next morning got on the road to our next stop which was a park in Holbrook, AZ.

We a really enjoyed exploring Petrified Forest National Park. We stopped at the Visitor Center to get our stamp and then drove the entire park from north to south. We saw the Painted Desert however, the pictures were pretty washed out. We stopped to see the 1932 Studebaker that sits what framed Route 66 that once cut through the park.

The 110 ft petrified log Agate Bridge was impressive. The log spans a gully.

In the south visitor center there was a picture of this massive petrified tree that was taken by a worker that had a bolt of lightning coming down from the sky behind it, here is that massive tree.

On Monday, Ernie spent the morning finding a mobile tech who could look at our hydraulic issue. We had plans to go to the Grand Canyon for two days but decided to cancel those days in order to get to Page, AZ where we were scheduled to stay after the Grand Canyon in order to get the technician to confirm what the tech in Amarillo thought. 

Monday afternoon we decided to go to Winslow, AZ to get groceries and to recreate a picture we took 5 years ago, what a difference and we added a dog.