Meeting new and old friends and having fun in the desert

 

    In our last report Joan and I had arrived in Tucumcari, New Mexico which is a frequent stop for us on our journey west to Tucson.

Broken battery cable

    On Friday, we left our hotel and began the journey to Flagstaff where we would reunite with our trailer. This stretch of road holds a very bad travel memory as one year we were stuck in a major snowstorm that ended up costing us many hours. It took us nearly 8 hours to travel about 100 miles to Moriarity, New Mexico. This day would be much better.

   High winds greeted us again as we traveled across I-40 in the high country of New Mexico. We were treated to a herd of prong horn antelopes and a unique sighting of a luxury Lincoln pick up truck, maybe the first one I have ever seen. As it usually is when we pass by it, Crazy Creek was dry.

   The rest of the trip across New Mexico and Arizona into Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff was relatively uneventful, The eventful would come soon enough.

    I dropped Joan at the hotel about 2 p.m., but check in wasn’t until 4 p.m. so we stored our luggage in a closet and Joan occupied her time in the casino while I went the 30-plus miles to pick up the trailer. It was my choice that she didn’t come with me because setting up the trailer is pretty much a one-person job and I can get a little testy when things don’t go right. And they didn’t.

Back to the mountains

   Once I got to Bellemont, Arizona (just outside Flagstaff) I topped off the Tahoe’s gas tank and drove the short distance to the storage lot. Once inside the lot I discovered that the trailer was surrounded by about 6-inches of snow. The owner of the storage lot had plowed a path to the gate but because of the closeness of the stored vehicles there was no way he could have plowed between the vehicles.

  So I trudged through the snow depositing luggage and boxes of supplies into the trailer (I’ve learned to balance the load between the car and the trailer for smoother operation). Then I had to knell down in the snow to remove the tire covers which meant my hands and legs started to freeze.

   Here’s where everything went haywire. I have a decorative US Navy metal hitch filler that I paid $45 for. Not wanting someone to steal it I used a hitch lock to keep it in place. But when I went to remove the lock, it would not budge. I’m now laying down in the snow under the back bumper doing everything I can to make the lock turn and let loose. No luck.

   By this time it is after 4 p.m. and I’m starting to panic. If I can’t get the hitch receiver open my trailer is going nowhere, snow or no snow. So I got up off the snow, brushed myself off and headed out the gate as I remembered that there was an RV sales and service center just down the road. Remember now this is Friday afternoon, the day before New Year’s Eve and when I drove by the place it looked closed.

The weekly weather forecast

   I drove the half mile to the business and sure enough the sign on the door indicated they were not open, but I saw someone inside sweeping the floor. I entered the business (door was unlocked) and explained my predicament to the man sweeping the floor. He said they business was actually closed, but he and another employee were doing a year-end inventory and were just 10 minutes from leaving.

  Seeing my difficult spot they tried jiggling the lock, heating it with a flame, banging on it with a hammer with the same results I had. I asked them if they could just cut off the lock. The employee went back in the shop, grabbed a metal saw and in just about 5 minutes had the lock off. They only charged me a minimum amount of time for their labor and I was on my way. Arizona Route 66 RV Sales and Service are in my debt (I did give them a very positive review).

   Back at the storage lot I began the process of hooking up the trailer and discovered one of the hot leads to the battery had corroded to the point that it had broken off its connection. Now I’m getting mad. So I back the car up close enough to the trailer hitch that I can connect the trailer hitch electric lift to the Tahoe so I can use the Tahoe to provide power to the lift. That works. So I raise up the trailer, back the Tahoe and connect the trailer to the Tahoe. As soon as I’m done putting on safety chains, securing the anti-sway bars I realize that the tailgate is still up and it is impossible to shut with the trailer attached. Now I’m livid.

   So I have to complete unattach the trailer, pull the Tahoe up about 1-foot so I can close the tailgate and then redo the entire process of hitching the trailer to the Tahoe. I make a quick check of the hookup, put my cold wet self into the driver’s seat and then put the Tahoe in high four-wheel drive and pull the trailer out of it’s snowy spot.

Deb, Joan and a sunset Arizona style

   It’s now about 5:15 p.m. and I call Joan who is pretty worried that she hasn’t heard from me and let her know I’m on my way back to the hotel. By this time the wind has whipped up again and the drive back to the hotel was harrowing. Once back at the hotel, I park the Tahoe and trailer in the RV lot which is in a different zip code from the hotel and walk back and meet Joan in the lobby.

“Did you remember to bring in the cooler with my medicine?” No. So it’s another long walk in the snow back to the rig to bring back the medicine. By this time I’m ready to sell the vehicle and trailer to any stranger walking by.

  We have a nice dinner and I head back to my room to rest and watch football.  Oh, but there’s more.

  In the morning we get up early and happily the 6-inches of snow and ice on top of the trailer has melted over night (temperatures were in the low 40s overnight).  That probably reduced the weight of the trailer by a few hundred pounds.

   Off we go on I-40 and then connect with I-17 in downtown Flagstaff for the long drive down the hill. At this point we are at 7,000-feet and heading to Phoenix which is at 1,000-feet. Things are going well, but then it turned not-so-well. Just outside Flagstaff the fog kept getting thicker and thicker which meant I needed to slow down. In just a very short time you could not see the taillights of a car 50-feet in front of you. Fortunately most everyone had slowed way down, but trying not to out drive your headlights was impossible. And of course I was worried about vehicles coming up behind me and not seeing me in time to stop.

   It took nearly 40 miles for the fog to lift, but eventually it did and the drive was much easier after that.

  We had the usual stupid drivers who don’t understand that with a 33-foot trailer behind me I am unable to stop on a dime, but they still pull out in front of me at speeds much slower than I am going.

Phone line Trail in Sabino Canyon

   But we made it to Voyager RV resort in the early afternoon and with the help of a resort employee were backed in and parked by 2 p.m. The weather was beautiful and in the low 70s.

   In case you have forgotten ( and there is no reason you should have remembered) when we left Tucson last April we discovered at the last day that our water heater had sprung a leak. We were able to isolate it and shut it down, but there was no way to repair it before we left.

   Among our luggage and supplies was a large square box that I purchased in October that contained a new RV water heater. Problem was that the installer was not available until Tuesday, Jan 3. So we knew we would be without hot water until then. (More on that later)

  So we put away some clothes and then discovered that while the trailer was stored in Flagstaff that some local mountain mice had had a party in the trailer. We ended up spending two days throwing out the linens, blankets and pillows they had destroyed and thoroughly cleaning the trailer. Fortunately for them they had departed the trailer before we got to Tucson. My only hope is that they departed while I was traveling at 60 mph on the freeway.

   We also made a quick Walmart run to pick up some food to eat on the holiday weekend.

    Being that it was New Year’s Eve some friends of ours at the resort (Joe and Sharon) had purchased us tickets to the Albert Galli dance. Some other friends (Mike and Suzy) also joined us and we had a wonderful night catching up and dancing.

  We woke up Sunday morning and went to chapel services here and met many of our old friends. We also did a week’s worth of travel laundry.

   Once back at the trailer it began to rain and rain and rain. So we continued our cleaning efforts and watched some football and consumed some of the goodies we bought at Walmart the day before.

   On Monday, we spent our time setting up our snail mail post office box at the resort, picked up our concert tickets and did even more cleaning. I also had breakfast with my friend Les who is leaving the resort for good to live in Florida near his daughter. Then Monday night, the rain let up a little and we headed downtown with our friends Joe and Sharon to complete our first Meet Me at Maynard’s of the season

The view from our camp spot

   We went to dinner at HiFi a local sports bar and had an unusual encounter with a bartender who lost my credit card when I went to pay for dinner. He insisted to me that he had given me back my card and I knew he had not. At one point he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away from me.

   Another employee walked by and I spotted my credit card on the floor behind the bar under the cash register. When I pointed it out to him he picked it up and examined both sides of it like maybe it wasn’t mine. Finally he handed it to me without apology. HiFi is not on our list of restaurants we will visit in the future.

   Tuesday is usually hike day around here, but the wet rainy weather was still here so that hike was postponed until next week. The rest of the day was spent waiting for the water heater installer and then we went to our first Pot Luck dinner of the season in the dining room.

  On Wednesday we went to our first concert – The Arizona Highwaymen – and it was really good. Once again I am on the table and chair set-up team and have reconnected with many of my old friends.

  In case I didn’t mention it I am again leading the Thursday night Bible class and facilitating the Thursday morning Men’s Bible study. That keeps me very busy with study and research.

   Joan is active in water exercise, rumba classes and is once again making polymer clay jewelry. She is very active here and has many friends. 

  Lots of our friends are arriving from out-of-state and it is such fun getting reacquainted and catching up. Our friends Bob and Karen from Lapeer are here for two months (they first came for lunch with us a few years ago and now this is their winter getaway each year). As I have said before Voyager is a human mouse trap. Two other friends Bob and Joanne just arrived from Minnesota and we are looking forward to time together with them as well.

  This past Monday – January 9 – we again went to Meet Me at Maynard’s and took our friends Joe and Sharon along with Deb a longtime friend of ours from the resort. Deb’s husband, who was a tremendous person died a couple years ago, so we love including her in our activities whenever we can. Deb and I also hike with the Voyager hiking group on Tuesdays.

  Speaking of hiking I went on a 8.3 – mile hike on the Phone Line Trail at Sabino Canyon on Tuesday and it was great to get back into the mountains.

   On Wednesday night we went to our second concert – The Piano Men – which we have seen here at the resort before but we had a great time again. The father and son piano duo do a great job with the songs of Billy Joel and Elton John.

   So Thursday I led the men’s Bible study, but had to leave early so Joan could make her doctor’s appointment at the allergist which has been in the works for months. She is allergic to just about everything and will be getting shots to help alleviate all her symptoms.

  I’ll be back soon with more fun.