The Laredo has landed (in Tucson)

Twin Arrows Resort and Casino

Notes to self: Bring lock de-icer every year to the trailer storage. Remember that Arizona does not observe daylight savings time when resetting trailer clocks. Remember that God is good all the time.

 Each year my travel planning routine is the same. I look ahead at our route and plan exactly where we will be each night on our trip west. Using an online hotel booking service I reserve our stops at places we have been before or a brand chain we have stayed in before. This may sound a little over-the-top but I know within a few miles each place I will stop for gas.

The one thing that I can’t plan for is the weather. It has its own plans and I just go with that. About a week out from our trip I begin to watch the Weather Underground site for various places along our route to see if there are any weather concerns or obstacles to my route.

San Francisco Mountains near Flagstaff

This year we seemed to hit a window of good weather through much of the route with the only lingering weather concern in Flagstaff on Tuesday, Jan. 3. For a week there were predictions of cold and snow, including as much as 5-inches on Monday, Jan. 2. We prayed that it would work itself out.

As we traveled across the country I checked the weather site every night and each day saw an improving weather picture for Flagstaff, although snow was always in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday right up until we arrived in Flagstaff Monday night and the weather broke. The one day without snow if Flagstaff for a week was Tuesday, the day we planned to pick up the trailer. Think what you want but I’m taking prayer.

Joan actually came out a little ahead of the Navajos Monday night at the casino, so that was a plus. It wasn’t enough to pay for our hotel, but in the world of casinos a break even is pretty much a win.

We were up early.  Temperatures outside the resort was 32-degrees. Unfortunately that would not be the lowest temperature of the day.

Snow in Flagstaff

One of the things that we do each year is when I store the trailer I retrieve the 12-volt battery and bring it home. Otherwise it would either be gone, or dead as a door nail when we arrived back. I keep it on a trickle charge at home and then lug it all the way back with us in the winter. With the cold nights on the road the battery is one of the pieces of luggage I bring into the hotel room with us at night.

So when we left our four-star room at the Twin Arrows Resort and Casino I lugged the battery in and out of the hotel. It received a little bit of strange look from the bellman who came to help us with our luggage.

As I already said weather was cold, but I was buoyed by the fact that we had dodged the snow. We drove the 30 miles from the resort to the storage yard, stopping first to top off the gas tank for the trip down the mountain to Tucson. We arrived at the storage lot and found that while we had dodged the snow from the sky, we were not completely dodging it on the ground. There was a few inches of snow and ice on the ground at the storage facility in Bellemont, Arizona and the temperature was 25-degrees.

Heading down the "hill"

Here's where it got interesting. We checked the inside of the trailer and found only minor evidence of a rodent visit (the storage owners have been aggressively using exterminators to lessen that problem) and I set to work the hooking up of the trailer. Both storage doors on the trailer were solidly frozen shut along with the latches and locks. Not wanting to break a key off in the lock I took some bottled water we had in the car and began using it to melt the ice around the latches and locks. It took a few minutes but that worked.

I also needed a flat head screwdriver to scrap ice out of the channels of the storage doors which were also filled with ice. The good news was that the battery had held a good charge and worked the trailer stand like a champ even in the good weather.

At this point I had to remove my gloves to do the delicate work of hooking hitches and sway bars from the trailer to the car. Very quickly my hands were frozen to the point of numbness which made it very difficult to work my fingers.  

Removing the tire covers (sun is a tire killer so I have UV covers that protect the new tires we just bought last year) required that I lay down in the snow so I could reach the cover ties behind the tires and release them so I could remove the covers.

More snow as we head down

Of course I should have taken photos during all this, but completely forgot so I have no photos of our predicament at the storage area.

Joan in her infinite wisdom brought snow boots just for this one occasion. I, on the other hand, decided to just bring tennis shoes. So I was frozen both top and bottom while I worked outside to hook up the trailer. As I was just about finished I noticed that the breakaway device on the trailer tongue had been removed. (This device locks the trailer breaks if for some reason – and God please don’t let this ever happen – the trailer should find itself separated from the Tahoe in flight).

The device was not only removed it had been damaged. I don’t know if it was a malicious or accidental thing, but whatever it present a problem because with the device not in the slot, the brakes of the trailer are locked. So I pushed the device as far into the electric receiver as I could (about halfway) and the brakes released. Not wanting to drive 300 miles in this condition I stopped about a mile down the road at a “Camping World” outlet, the same one that winterizes our trailer each year and sought help.

The folks there were very helpful and sold me a new breakaway device and I was on my way 20 minutes later and $10 lighter.

At 5,000 feet the snow is going away

Despite all the recent snow and ice, the freeway (I-40 and then I-17) were dry and clear. Normally I am a very courteous person and brush all the snow off the top of my car before proceeding, but with an 11-foot high trailer the snow piled up on top and the fact my body was frozen it had to be removed by the wind which undoubtedly ticked off a lot of motorists behind me who were bombarded by the snow shower coming off the top of the trailer. In case you were behind a 2007 Laredo travel trailer on I-40 about 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 3, I sincerely apologize.

The trip starts at the 7,300 foot level in Flagstaff and drops to 1,000 feet in Phoenix and then back up 1,000-feet to Tucson which is about 2,000-feet above sea level. As we quickly descended the temperatures rose and the snow on the ground disappeared. At about level 6,000-feet I pulled into a scenic overlook to check all the connections and discovered that while most of the ice and snow was gone, there was still a few icicles on the trailer. Those would be gone soon. By 4,000-feet the now had completely disappeared and the truck and trailer performed well as we hurtled down the steep grade.

About ½-way to Phoenix there is a 5-mile steep grade that always challenges the Tahoe and trailer. I fell in behind a large steel hauling semi-truck and trailer and followed him up the hill with my flashers on because my speed had fallen to about 45 mph. After that large grade it is pretty much downhill from there and very quickly after that we arrived at Bumble Bee Road where we started to see our beloved Saguaro (pronounced Sa-war-oo) cactus just north of Phoenix. The appearance of the Saguaros mark the entrance to the Sonoran Desert, the only place where that species of cactus naturally grow. In case you aren’t familiar the Saguaro cactus and the iconic tall and stately cactus that sometime resemble people with large arms.

The rest of the trip was relatively unremarkable although negotiating heavy Phoenix traffic even in off commute hours is always a little hair-raising.

The appearance in the distance of the various mountain ranges around Phoenix and Tucson always choke me up a little, even more so now that my brother’s ashes are located at high elevations and summits in this area.

There were some new signs around Phoenix advertising the unwelcome presence of wild donkeys, which of course prompted a new discussion of loose cattle by the road. Joan rejected my suggestion that she might like to learn how to drive and pull the trailer.

We refueled at our usual spot on Wild Horse Road in Chandler and then for the next 90-minutes I drafted a Fry’s Grocery store semi-truck most of the way to Tucson. They drive at a perfect speed for me and the trailer and they save me a lot of gas too.

We arrived at the resort earlier than we ever have both by date and time of day and we were quickly checked in and with help from the security folks got the trailer parked and then spent the next 90-minutes getting water, electric, sewer and cable hooked up. Our plans were to go grocery shopping and eat in, but by the time we finished with the trailer we scrapped that plan and ate at the restaurant here at the resort. Shopping will be tomorrow.

Everything in the trailer is working well. We did have one glitch as the slide-out must have gotten bent in storage and would open properly until a pulled out the bend. I still need to organize the “basement” under the trailer, but there is no hurry on that.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017: We are now completely settled. We have done our shopping trip to stock the shelves and we went to our first concert “Class of ‘67” which is actually Joan’s high school class. It was another Lonely Street production and this one included many of the biggest hits from 1967. We enjoyed the concert and were really ready for bed by 10:30 p.m.

For the second day I was up early. The first day I got up even earlier that I originally thought because Joan mistakenly set the microwave clock to the wrong time. So instead of getting up at 5:30 a.m. I was up and at it at 4:30 a.m. I found this out when I arrived at the fitness center, which is supposed to open at 5 a.m. and found the cleaning service still in the room vacuuming. “You guys are kind of late?,” I said. “No, you are kind of early,” the woman running the vacuum said, pointing up the clock that showed it was 4:50 a.m.

Treadmill injury

On Thursday morning I got up at the right 5:30 a.m. and headed back to the fitness center. Here’s where that gets interesting. As most of you know I hike a couple days a week in the mountains around Tucson. I often deal with difficult trails that threaten to trip me up all the time. So far I haven’t had a major fall or injury on a hike in the mountains.

After completing my weight work out I headed over to my favorite treadmill and before even turning it on I put my foot up on the edge to climb aboard and promptly fell opening abrasions on both shins as I went down in a heap on top of the treadmill. A lady a couple treadmills down asked it I was OK and of course I felt stupid and foolish but said I was OK. Later when I got off the treadmill and looked in the mirror I found both legs bleeding and bruised. Now I need to come up with a better story than this to explain my fall.

I did have to recount this story 16 times at the Men’s Bible Study session Thursday morning as the wounds are quite noticeable and heck, you can’t lie I Bible study.

Joan walked the park this morning and then enjoyed a lingering visit to the jacuzzi at the pool. I, on the other hand, am in the trailer putting this version of Grandma’s Recess together.

See you again in a few days.

Mileage out: 62560

Time out: 7:29 a.m.Time in: (At storage) 8:15 a.m.

Mileage out: (At storage) 62598

Mileage in: (Tucson) 62878

Time out: (At storage) 9:05 a.m.

Time in: (Tucson) 2:06 p.m.