If This Is Autumn, I'd Hate To See How Cold It Gets Here In Winter

Above, The Beast at Goulding's Campground. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

After waking up a little while ago, I took a look at my Weather Channel app on my phone and it said it is 25­° outside. Autumn?

That isn't too surprising since yesterday was in the lower 40s along with a bone-chilling wind. There will be a marathon on the valley floor today and, weather permitting, hot air balloons will take flight.

At least Sierra and I are nice and warm inside the RV. The new ceramic heater works great. It was under $20 at Wally World (Walmart). Anyone who has an RV, I recommend getting one of these as the RV heater will eat up the supply of propane. I found this out a year ago at Joshua Tree National Park. It will only work if one is hooked up to the campground's electrical outlet or if the generator is running. I only used my generator once on this trip, and that was when I stayed overnight at a Missouri rest area and needed power to make coffee.

Since I expected freezing temperatures, I had the foresight to flip on the heating system for the holding tanks to those won't freeze up and cause possibly costly problems.

Since it is bitter cold out, I think I will remain inside doing some minor maintenance to The Beast. We'll see what happens after the sun comes up.

Before I went on yesterday's tour, there were only a handful of RVs in the campground. When the tour was over, the campground was 3/4 full.

As for tomorrow, I will be heading out of Monument Valley early in the morning. I will be going to the Grand Canyon National Park. I am debating if I want to spend the last night of the trip in the Williams area again or press a little further to Kingman, Arizona. In either case, I will be back home on Sunday. It is hard to believe that this trip took three weeks to complete. It would have been under that by about 3 days had I not shredded two tires in St. Louis and had to wait for a cash transfer in order to press ahead. But, since I am retired, I was in no rush. I dread to see the pile of mail that waiting for me.

I will be cooking salmon tonight inside. It is too cold out to fire up the barbecue.