Did we mention that we are excited to have full hook-ups again?

The weather was blustery with sprinkles of rain as we left Canyon de Chelly National Monument. We don't like traveling on stormy days, but we are looking forward to our next stop with full-hook-ups. For non-RVers, that means access to all the water and electricity we want. It might not sound like much, but we have been without water and electric hook-ups for eight days now. That also means we have eight days of dirty clothes to wash.

On our last day of driving through the Navajo reservation, we passed within a mile of a national historic site and we hated to drive by without stopping. It's always a concern if there will be an adequate place to park and turn around our motor home with the tow car attached. It was still questionable even after Denisa checked out the parking lot in Google maps satellite mode. We are happy to report that Mark masterfully got us in (and out) of that parking lot, and we made a short stop at Hubbell Trading Post.

This is a national historic site because this trading post has been in business continually since 1878. That's when Mr. Hubbell started trading with the Navajos that were recently allowed back into their territory after their exile and "The Long Walk." That's a whole other story, but Hubbell Trading Post became the social center for trading supplies and gathering news of the outside world.

Today it has the same creaky wooden floor and ambiance from the 1800's. Horse halters are still hanging from the ceiling. But some of the merchandise has been updated to catch the eye of the present-day traveler. Navajo rugs and jewelry get most of the floor space, but you can also buy a few groceries and candy here as well.

It was a long travel day for us--150 miles. That's way over our average. We even crossed another state line as we are now in New Mexico. The Arizona/New Mexico state line is complicated when it comes to setting clocks. They are both in mountain time zone, but Arizona doesn't observe day light savings time. But the Navajo reservation within the state of Arizona does observe daylight savings time. You have to know all this information (as well as what time of the year it is) to know if you need to adjust your clocks an hour when you cross the state line. Whew! 

We crossed this very complicated state line, and eventually landed at Bar S RV Park near Grants, New Mexico. We are a couple blocks off historic Route 66, so we had to take a picture at the photo stop in downtown Grants.

We have a good weekly rate at Bar S RV Park, and have we mentioned that we are excited about full hook-ups? Besides catching up on laundry and visiting a couple national monuments, we also discovered a good museum. The New Mexico Mining Museum is in Grants, and it gets great reviews on Tripadvisor. We found that we are in Uranium mining country, and learned much about the process of getting this special yellow powder out of the earth.

We rode an elevator down to the hands-on part of the museum. Because of the high price of mining Uranium, all the mines in this area have been closed for more than twenty years. The basement part of the museum uses real machinery straight out of the abandoned mines to explain the process. The museum has all the air vent systems, electrical wiring, narrow gauge track systems, safety posters, even the chain link fencing that was used to stabilize the walls in the underground mines.

Each station has a recording from a retired miner explaining what we were seeing, and what he did for the thirty years he worked in the mine.

We met one of those retired miners as we were leaving the museum. Jack gave us more information and opinions about New Mexico mining to supplement our educational experience. Even though we don't go to many museums, just like Tripadvisor, we would recommend a stop here in Grants. We will be here for a week, catching up on laundry and cooking and cleaning and all the things that need more water and electricity than we have had lately. We even have television! Did we mention that we are excited to have full hook-ups again?