“Why have you called this one that?” “Well, look what happened to us” “Yes, but there was a lot of other stuff as well” “Shhhh, someone is reading the Blog, so we had better get on and write it” “Oh, Ok”

Well, after a very Windy start to Arizona, we got up early the next morning to visit the site of the Meteor Crater, a ‘Mile Wide’ sized hole, where a Meteor hit Arizona 28,000 years ago “Hang on, Arizona, was only created in 1912, so how could it hit Arizona, 28,000 years ago?” – “Trust you to nit-pick”

Anyway, there is this big hole, quite interesting to see, but a bit hard to visualize what actually happened, unless you watch the very interesting video in the Visitor Centre

After the visit, which only took about an hour, we packed up the RV and set off further West across Arizona towards the Grand Canyon, our destination for the day.

Once again, a very windy day, with the RV taking up about 1 ½ lanes for most of the trip (just joking), with miles and miles of very high plateau, ranging from around 5,500ft to 7,500ft, so there was nothing to shield you from the winds.

About an hour out from our destination, the clouds started to build and we thought we were in for some heavy downfall of rain, but rather than rain, we ran into a Herd of Insects, they splattered all over the windscreen and we had to get the washers and wipers going to wash them off!!!

OK, ok, we know that you should call insects a Swarm, but there were just so many, calling it a swarm just didn’t sound big enough!

Once again, we think we crossed the Continental Divide, though this time it was called the Arizona Divide at an elevation of 7335ft, so we might be wrong and it could be something else.

Turning off the I-40 into a town called Williams, we turned into the ‘Grand Canyon Railway RV Park’, where we were stopping for a few nights.

From ‘Williams’, there is a passenger train that runs up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

So early the next (very cold) morning, we went across the station at 9:00am, to catch the train, but what should you find when you get there, but a bunch of Cowboys, who appear a bit drunk, arguing about something and of course, everyone stops to watch.

No sooner had we stopped, than our intrepid Hunter/RV Driver (known from now on as ‘Mug’), was grabbed at gunpoint, by a Cowboy and forced to join in a game of cards with them in front of a couple of hundred train passengers!

How embarrassing – then to cap it all, one of the Cowboys, pulled out his gun and shot one of the others – oh heck (now what)

Just then, on hearing the sound of gunfire, the Sherriff arrived and demanded to know what was going on, whereupon, the drunken Cowboys, pointed their fingers at ‘Mug’ and told the Sherriff that he had done it – ‘what!’

Fortunately, the Sherriff thought that they were telling Fibs (lies) and called them out, whereupon, during the shoot-out, the Sherriff shot the lot of them and let the ‘Mug’ go – phew!!!!! – What a lucky escape.

After that, we all boarded the train for a 2 ½ hour trip to the Grand Canyon, with Breakfast and soft drinks being served on board.

During the journey, we were entertained by Wandering Minstrels (Cowboys) who walked up and down the very, very long train singing Country and Western songs – brilliant!

Then off the train and onto our tour busses for a trip along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Picture from the tour bus window! 

The view across the canyon, just takes your breath away and the train and bus tour are a brilliant way to see it.

Ok, train trip, breakfast, lunch and bus tour over, we climb back on the train for our 2 hour (slightly faster) return journey, with once again, food and drink was provided on board!

This is when disaster struck – a group of Cowboy Train Robbers, came riding along the side the train, forcing the driver to stop at gun point and boarded the train, whereupon, they made their way along the train demanding money – well, what can you do, we reached into our pockets, drew out $2 ($1 each) and gave it to them, whereupon they moved down the carriage to the next victim.

We were so shaken by this experience, we had to have double the usual alcohol intake on getting back to the RV to calm our shaking (from laughing so much)

A brilliant day and one we would highly recommend to anyone travelling this way.

The next morning, we couldn’t believe our eyes – looking out the RV window, it looked like 3” of Snow had fallen – We thought it was supposed to be sunny in Arizona – How wrong can we be.

Fortunately, the Sun came out and the snow started melting pretty fast, so we did as planned and set off to explore a place called Walnut Canyon, where there were more Cliff Dwellings.

Right, that’s enough, its five o’clock somewhere and the Whiskey and Gin and Tonic are calling.

By for now!!