Grand Canyon

[Toedtoes]

I am making a placeholder for SFine to report back on his trip to the Grand Canyon...

[Sfine]

Hi Elizabeth !
I'd love to share my G.C.Trip....not sure how to access where to post.
I'll keep looking.
Missing the clipper rallies... Work trumps play, and work has been plentiful.
Hope you are well
Steve

[Toedtoes]

You can post it right here!  I made this thread just for your trip report. 

[Sfine]

Thanks Toes!!
Our Grand Canyon trip went flawlessly in every respect. Started out in San Diego to do a small window installation, turned into a entire exterior paint job...which funded the entire trip!
From San Diego we left very early in the AM to avoid traffic, and did.  From I 8 to I 10,  We followed along the boarder controls who didn't find any hidden Mexicans beneath our rig with their mirrors, but missed all 12 that we had stashed inside ! lol.   Straight to Tucson to visit a high school buddy. It's December   Mid month and cold, cold. Even San Diego was unseasonably chilly.  The dessert is a great to visit in the winter, although the lac of wild flowers is apparent, it cool enough to hike around in the mornings looking for the elusive Peckary, or javelina. Since I never actually saw a single one, I decided that they are much like the California "snipe" whom we've all hunted for, but do not exist!!
To cold to even golf. Arizona...go figure!
Then we worked our way up I 17 thru Phoenix and into Sedona where we stayed for a few days in cottonwood creek. That was Christmas Eve.  We woke up to our neighbors in a very similar rig to a Clipper, but not, fully decorated in lights and a big tree warped in a candy cane of LEDs. Inside their window was a little  Xmas tree, decorated for the day. Quite a sight.!  We hiked and biked throughout the immediate area for a few days and then headed north to the Canyon. We came in by way of 89 to the rim at hwy 64 around the eastern entry and followed the rim to where we stayed in the only RV park on the rim. It was clean and close to anything you needed. We walked to the rim often from the RV site during many different times of the day, and rode the bikes the entire 9 mile rim, and then some.
The clipper is proving itself very reliable and road worthy. We have been thru rain, snow, sleet and high winds, now freezing temps (17 degrees at night) we have been cumfty and cozy the whole time.
This is one trip where we don't mind the engine heat coming up thru the cab at all!!!
Gas has been under $3.00 since we got to Arizona...feeling rich!
From the canyon we headed south west to Parker, on the Colorado river.  Hwy 89 thru Prescott . Then 71 to hwy 60 to 72  Parker. Stayed right on the water at La Paz county Park.just below lake Havasu. Very nice . We met some snowbirds who live there in their Mammouth RVs . Ours looked like a toy next to theirs. But in the life a RV er. Were all created equal, right ?!
Then on to Borrega hot springs state park, don't remember now we got there. Spend New Year's Eve there with a friend who met us for the day. Clear and quiet in the desert especially on a N.Y. Eve!
Final and best stint of the trip was Joshua Tree. So ugh more of a people friendly environment than Tuscon, where it can be brutal just walking around.  Joshua and it's massive boulders showed us some fabulous bike rides, hikes, sunrises and sunsets. No hook ups in Joshua ! Actually not very RV compatable, fortunately the Clipper is small enough to fit into most sites that are other wise off limits to larger rigs.
As all good things must end..we headed north back home to Murphys. Some 1800 or so hundred miles we averaged 8 miles to the gallon. No incidents or accidents to report . I'd say it was a successful and harmonious trip. 
We love the Clipper for taking us on a safe trip and being our shelter in foul weather, security on the open road, and memories to keep forever.  Funny, when I got up the first morning after our arrival home, I walked out to where the Clipper  was parked and left in the late hours. And it seem to be sitting a little higher in its position, with its chest puffed up, looking proud of what it had just been thru...as if to say.....how do ya like me now!?!?!?