Lone Star Travelers Blog

Yesterday we completed training at Petrified Forest National Park and will now settle into a regular schedule as volunteers for the National Park Service here.  The last day of training was “program training.”  We accompanied one of the interpretive rangers for the day as she presented programs to the visitors in three different locations.  They were Puerco Pueblo, Painted Desert Inn and Crystal Forest.  At the end of the day we were given an outline and information on how to prepare and present our own programs.  We have a lot more information coming about this beautiful park and lots of pictures to post.

Visit our Hubbell Trading Post Photo Gallery 

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site located on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona is the oldest continuously operating trading post in the Navajo Nation.  An approximate 45 minute drive from our summer home as volunteers at Petrified Forest National Park we decided to make a day trip on Saturday May 10th and visit Hubbell Trading Post and Canyon de Chelly.  John Lorenzo Hubbell, born in 1853 was the son of a Connecticut Yankee who went to New Mexico as a soldier then married into a family of Spanish descent.  He became a trader and for half a century was also a respected, trusted friend to the Navajo people. (more…)

We have completed our first week of training at Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert.  Internet access has not been readily available until now so I am back and from now on should be posting regularly.  We have had 5 days of training and now are in the middle of 3 days off.  The first day of training was a brief orientation, a little bit of paperwork and then we were off for the day in a government vehicle with one other volunteer who is training with us to explore the park.  The second day was in a conference room with the supervisor ranger and 5 staff members including we three volunteers mainly going over rules and regulations.  The third and fourth day consisted of training in the Painted Desert Visitor Center and the fifth day training at the Painted Desert Inn.  As I learn more here at Petrified Forest National Park I will blog in detail about the various features of this park.  We will also be posting lots of pictures and a photo gallery so everyone may see how beautiful  a park this is.

Although we have arrived at Petrified Forest National Park and will begin working our volunteer positions tomorrow I want to digress on this posting back to our driving trip from our home outside of Dallas Texas, through New Mexico and on to Arizona to let any readers know who may be driving out west this summer of the opportunity to camp for free at the San Jon Municipal Park just east of the town of Tucumcari.  It will be dry camping in a large flat parking lot overlooking the park which does offer covered picnic tables and a little shade.  Tucumcari itself does have 6 RV Parks including a KOA. Nearby the next town driving west is Santa Rosa offering just one RV Park,a Good Sam at exit 277.  This is important to know because there is no more camping until you arrive in Albuquerque more than 100 miles away.

We arrived at Petrified Forest National Park midday on Monday.  We are now settled into our RV spot for the summer and will begin a two week training period on Saturday for our volunteer jobs with the National Park Service.  So that means this whole week is “off” and playtime.  The RV area consists of 6 spots.  4 others are currently occupied but 2 are about to leave.  A cold front has approached Northern Arizona with high winds and gusts of up to 50 mph ahead of the front so we really haven’t explored the park yet.  Our training consists of two weeks of four (8-hour) days orienting to the park with 3 consecutive days off together.  After that we will be on the sked 4 days on/3 days off but only one of us needs to go to work.  I say whoever DOESN’T work needs to have dinner ready at 6PM.  I think that means Bob may work most of the shifts??  Maybe.