G-Shock in the Desert

We had just returned from our extended stay on San Juan Island in Northwestern Washington State to Bayfield CO were our RV was in storage. Since we had already stayed three weeks in Bayfield we just grabbed the RV and headed Southwest to Holbrook AZ. I picked Holbrook simply because it was in the right spot for a one-week layover on our way to the Grand Canyon. It turned out to be a fun, fact filled week in an otherwise unremarkable little town. First off it was the town that was the inspiration for Pixar’s Car’s movie, it even has one of the last remaining TeePee hotels in the county. Also, it turns out to be about a half hour from the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. As we had one extra day before we headed out to Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon, we decide to check out the park.

Holbrook and its surrounding area are barren dessert and I’m not a huge fan of the desert, I need green in my life, every day. But seeing how sunshine is the major weather pattern in the area I decided that a solar powered watch would be the way to go. Having just gotten the Casio Gulfmaster in San Juan it seemed like a natural fit to go with its GPS enabled cousin the G-Shock GravityMaster GPW1000-1A. This is a beast of a watch, big, tough and ALWAYS on time. The GPS functionality combined with the Hybrid Radio-Controlled technology means this thing is always on time. I must confess that this watch is the one that I set my other watches by unless I need to set a watch to the exact second then I use the website time.is.

The GravityMaster is solar powered and is built to G-Shocks triple resistant structure so it can truly take a beating. I have traveled with this watch to Europe and loved that I can just push the GPS reception button and get the exact time, anytime, every time. Checkout the G-Shock site here for the full specs.

As for the park I was not really expecting much, I figured it would be just a bunch of rocks, but I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting the place was. If there was any disappointment, I would have to say that the painted desert was not as exciting as I had hoped, the colors were a bit dull and muted, was expecting it to be much brighter. I think that I we had arrived in the morning after a light rain it would have been much more dramatic. What I did find interesting was the petroglyphs and the actual petrified trees. They were both amazing, especially the petrified trees, the colors and story of there creation was super cool. The trees were 280 million years old, they had become petrified by the time the dinosaurs were on just starting their reign of this planet.

As for how the GravityMaster performed for a day out on the dessert, well it’s a G-Shock so it did great, I knew the exact time all day and it did it with the signature big, bold G-Shock style. If I were to be picky the plasticky carbon fiber reinforced band got a little hot and sticky after a few hours in the sun, but it never felt gross or nasty, just hot and sweaty. To be honest, all of me was pretty much hot and sticky after being out on the dessert all day. For a travel centric adventure watch it would be hard to beat the GravityMaster.

Keep on a Watching

Edward