Williams, AZ to Mt. Carmel, UT

My rig, and dogs, parked just off the Highway, just south of Mt. Carmel.


I said good-by to my motorcycle lady friends and left Williams, AZ Sunday morning and headed to Flagstaff . I found the Safeway gas station that had diesel for $4.26 on Friday. Well, Sunday it was up to $4.32 but with my Safeway card I got it for $4.29. That 21 gallons of diesel only cost me $91.00.

Oliver, my little gray Cairn, is usually a very good traveler, finding a comfy spot and quickly falling asleep a mile or two down the road. Well, this morning Ollie couldn’t find a comfy spot to save him. His favorite passenger seat spot was very sunny and hot, so he looked at me forlornly, but couldn’t get comfy right up next to me and Murphy. I helped him down to the floor board which was cooler, but that didn’t satisfy him either. At a potty stop I hung a T-shirt over the passenger side window, which created lots of shade for Ollie, but that didn’t seem to make him happy. Well, half way through our trek to Page we discovered what was bothering him. He lost his cookies, or breakfast in this case. Luckily I always have a towel covering the doggie’s portion of the front seat, mainly to protect the upholstery from dog hair and dog dirt. But today the towel protected the upholstery from a different kind of mess. And a mess it was. It was miles before there was a spot to pull over, but I finally found one, rinsed out the towel and relegated Oliver to the rubber matted floor board for the rest of the day’s journey. He faired pretty well the rest of the day but was not interested in eating his evening meal. Just as well. Dogs seem to know when they don’t feel well and don’t need to be eating. He found a comfy spot in front of the Endless Breeze fan when we set up camp for the evening.

Half of the tank full of diesel I purchased in Flagstaff got me 200 miles up the road to Kanab, UT where I filled up again for $4.48 per gal. I averaged 14.2 miles per gallon (per my trucks digital computer read-out). I tried to keep my speed down to 55 MPH, which up-set only one or two drivers who were behind me for several miles until they could pass. The temperature in the Page, AZ - Big Water area ranged from 93-95 degrees. And it’s supposed to be hotter today. My temp gauge was reading only 92 degrees when I arrived at Mt. Carmel when I stopped at 3:00 PM. I found my familiar overnight camping spot (thanks to Dianna) in Mt. Carmel, found a fairly level spot, piddled the puppies and fed Murphy, then pored me an iced cold Black Toad beer. And then I discovered that I didn’t have internet service there. I probably knew that from my last stop there, but forgot. I’ll make a note of that somewhere to reference next time I’m there.


Little, seventeen year, old Oliver