The day here is beautiful. It is in the 70’s. no wind, and there is a bright sun and blue sky. It’s a great day weather-wise and should be a great day all day long; however, we are starting to pack up to leave tomorrow and  we said goodbye to our volunteer neighbors early this morning . We have discovered new and lasting friendships on the road with other volunteers. Even though this friendship lasted only a few days, we were sad to see them go, hope to keep in touch with George and Jo, and look forward to volunteering with them again in the future. That seems to be the way it goes. People are always on the move in this life style. It is fun meeting and making new friends but hard to see us part. They had served two stints as volunteers at PEFO, obviously love this place very much, and will likely come back. Maybe our paths will cross again at PEFO.

On Saturday night we were having cupcakes and Chardonnay at our motor home with George and Jo and learned that they are also Lutherans. They invited us to church the next morning. There is a small Lutheran church in Holbrook that had been ELCA, and apparently George and Jo had been regular attendees. The story we understood was that the ELCA suggested the church disband since the congregation was so small. They refused to do so, and the congregation is now a member of LCMC. Despite that change, I had worried that my Lutheran membership card had lapsed after all these months of not entering a Lutheran church, but then I remembered Lutherans have no requirements for membership but do rely heavily on grace. Anyway we attended the church and sat with the other 16 people in the congregation and even used the new, relatively new, EBW Lutheran Hymnal. And, fortunately I got Shannon out of there before she could volunteer to help with the music.

Yesterday afternoon, after football was done (football starts really early on a Sunday when in AZ standard time), we walked down the road in front of our site to the gate that prevents folks, and us, from traveling through the park. There is an overlook at the gate. We can catch a glimpse of the Painted Desert from the overlook. This is about the only visual interaction we have had with PEFO so far. And at sundown, 6:06 p.m. yesterday, the shadows lengthen and the colors change. Very beautiful.

Getting in and out of the entrance gate (a different gate than mentioned above) is a challenge. The gate opens automatically when you drive up to it to leave, but there is a keypad for opening the gate when entering. The keypad is some distance from the gate and often we have to race other cars to get to the gate before someone not authorized to go through the gate gets there. Every time we have left or entered we have to pass vehicles containing disappointed at best and angry at worst people trying to get into PEFO. (What part of “CLOSE” don’t they understand…?) We have to pull into the middle of the opening and park there until the gate starts to close. Sometimes we have to shout to people that they can’t come in because the park is closed. It is no fun navigating the gate, but we are most surprised how little people understand who is responsible for running and protecting our national parks and monuments. I read in an AZ newspaper yesterday that October is the busiest month for the Grand Canyon. They average 18,000 visitors per day. With that perspective,  I think we have it pretty easy here at PEFO.