The Eagle has landed - in Tucson

Bottom line - We made it safely to Tucson and life is good. Temperatures are warm, we are wearing shorts and all is well.

The day started early in Flagstaff and after our preparatory work last night we made quick work of hooking up the trailer and heading down the hill to Tucson.

Our winter home

Weather was a challenge as it was only 11 degrees when we arrived at the storage lot, but with most of the work done all I had to do was back up the Tahoe to the trailer and hook up. My hands were still pretty chilly by the time I was done because some of the work cannot be done with gloves on.

The trip to Tucson was uneventful and traffic through Phoenix was mercifully moderate for a change. Gas prices are a joy. $2.05 a gallon almost everywhere.

We arrived at Voyager Resort about 12:30 p.m. and check-in was quick and easy. Only 15 people were on the schedule for arrival today a number that will substantially increase over the next few days. Right now we have only one close neighbor in the park, but that will soon change.

Our neighbor has some spirit

After hooking up electrical, water and sewer and the most important thing - the cable television, we decided to do our grocery shopping tomorrow so we went to the resort restaurant for dinner. After dinner we took a quick walk around to make sure all our favorite things were still in place - they were - and then returned to our trailer to watch football.

There was also some major cleaning because of our little unwanted visitors to the trailer while it was in storage. They are gone and so is any evidence of them.

As per usual we always anticipate seeing our first Saguaro cactus at Bumble Bee Road on I-17 as we approached Phoenix. Although Joan through a little wrench into that by "thinking" she spotted one about 5 miles north of the road. I tried hard to convince her that it was a barrel cactus, but she is hard to knock off a notion when she thinks she is right.

I'm still going with Bumble Bee Road for the first Saguaro cactus.

Time out:7:53 a.m. (MST)
Mileage out:96041
Time in: 12:30 p.m.
Mileage in: 96322

A "breezy" travel day and a DIY dinner

(I will add photos to this post when we get to Tucson)

We breezed into Flagstaff Friday afternoon where the high was 64 degrees. Usually when we arrive here we are digging out the trailer from snow and I’m freezing my hands off trying to hook up the trailer. Not this year.  Actually this is not good news for Flagstaff as they really rely on the winter skiers to boost their economy.

Arizona here we are!

The trip from Tucumcari, New Mexico was uneventful and the temperature was 41 when we left so a major improvement over the past few days.

As per usual we encountered high winds as we drove through the high desert on the way to Albuquerque (they call it breezy on the news) so the gas mileage was a little down on this portion of the trip.

Outside Albuquerque the temperature rose to about 60 and bounced around there all day as we drove through western New Mexico. We passed a sign that usually has a great warning for us as we drive along I-40 with temps in the 60s – “Caution  watch for ice.”  Not this year!

By the time we arrived at Flagstaff the temperature had risen to 69 degrees. Before anything else we headed to check on the trailer which was sitting in the same spot we left it in April. It was apparent we had a couple small visitors and one was still inside – dead. We pitched the mouse out the door and moved our luggage and supplies to the trailer in anticipation of an early departure tomorrow.

I moved all the hitch gear to the car so all that is left in the morning is to drive over, back up to the trailer and hitch up.

Following that we went to Camping World to take back a hitch lock we purchased last year. Although you are supposed to return items within 90 days they nicely took back the item because they could obviously see that we had not used it.

Our burgers roasting on an open fire.

Our next adventure was to find a restaurant we had read about on the Internet. The Roadhouse Grill was not as easy to find in reality as it was on the Internet. Following the pointed directions of the clerk at Camping World we drove down a paved road that rapidly turned into a potted paved road and then narrowed into a two-path dirt road that was leading us nowhere.

Realizing (too late) that no restaurant would be located on such a remote lumber trail we turned around and checked into our hotel. For some reason they booked us into a Handicapper room which always troubles me because it feels like I am parking in a space meant for someone with disabilities. But that’s where they put us.

Using the directions given to us by the hotel clerk we found the Roadhouse Grill along the same road we had traveled but it was much closer to the good part of the road than where we had previously traveled.

Our handicapper room

It was a really nice restaurant and at the time we were there we were the only ones in it. We quickly found out that the unusual aspect of this place is that you order off the menu whatever meat you want and then they point you to a grill where you cook your own steak, burger, chicken or hot dog.

They had all the fixins’ and a really nice soup and salad bar so we cooked up our burgers had a nice salad and some chili and then called it a night. (I was tempted to tell them that my burger had been cooked incorrectly and see what they would do).

We went back to the Days Inn and fell asleep early watching Ohio State beat USC.

Mileage out: 95518

Time out: 7:52 a.m. (MST)

Mileage in: 96039

Time in: 3 p.m. (MST)

"On the Road Again!" Tucson or bust

   Like a Willie Nelson song we’re “On the Road Again!” Yes, nine months at home flew by and with a pretty strong push by the crappy weather we left even earlier for Tucson this year.

Oklahoma!

   After Christmas Day with son Tim and daughter Elin, we quickly packed up and stored Christmas for another year and hit the road early Tuesday, Dec. 26.

   As if to give us a swift kick in the butt the real outside temperature was 0 degrees as we pulled out. The whole time we negotiated snowy roads through Ann Arbor the temperature in Michigan never got above 7 degrees.

   By the time we got to Dayton, Ohio we were in a veritable heatwave at 16 degrees. Our first stop was Murfreesboro, Tennessee to have a late Christmas with son John, daughter-in-law Nicole and the three grandchildren. We arrived at their house about 2:30 p.m. Central time and the temperature was 44 degrees.

   Like a really incompetent grandfather I took exactly no photos during our Christmas celebration there. I admit it I am an idiot.

Mileage out: 93786

Time out: 4:21 a.m. (EST)

Mileage in: 94421

Time in: 2:30 p.m. (CST)

   Wednesday started later and warmer than the previous day. It was a steamy 25 degrees in Murfreesboro and dropped to 18 degrees at points along our route through Tennessee early.

Parked outside one of our dinner stops

   I wanted Joan to find Fort Smith, Arkansas (our next destination) on a map so I could see about where we were headed as we have never driven this route before. She politely told me that Fort Smith was not on the map or listed in the city directory for Arkansas in the road atlas she was using. Then she gave me a look like “what kind of Podunk village did you book us into that it doesn’t even appear on the map.”

   When I booked our hotel there were a number of options so I was surprised that it was showing up in the atlas. Finally at one of the bathroom stops we made I grabbed the atlas and immediately found “Fort Smith” on the western border of Arkansas right next to I-40 where I asked her to look. When I politely (and sweetly) informed her that I had no trouble finding our destination she looked at the city and said “I thought you said Port Smith.”

   By Little Rock we reached 33 degrees, but never got above 37 degrees on Wednesday. We stayed at a decent hotel in “Port Smith” and once we got in our room, Joan pulled out two clothes clips that my sister Pam had given her to keep the curtains pulled closed nice and tight.

   In the morning as I was emerging from the shower I found myself in the altogether with the curtains slightly parted and me exposed to the outside world.

   “What happened to the “privacy clips” you had on the curtains last night?”, I asked.

Panhandle crystal trees

   “They aren’t privacy clips, they are only to keep out the sunlight so I can sleep,” she said. We really need to communicate better.

    My father told me that my Uncle Bill had done his initial Army training during World War II in Fort Smith so I found that kind of cool.

Mileage out: 94421

Time out: 7:45 a.m. (CST

Mileage in: 94949

Time in: 4:25 p.m.

   Woke up Thursday realizing I had left the trailer battery in the Tahoe overnight. Now hoping the overnight cold didn’t drain too much power out of it because we’re going to need it to hook up the trailer on Saturday morning.

   Had a nice breakfast at the hotel and hit the road. Temperatures are still below freezing and this region (Arkansas/Oklahoma) are bracing for a big influx of cold air coming this weekend. Fortunately, we will be long gone by then.

   During our trip through Oklahoma and Texas today the Tahoe rolled over 95,000 miles and just to remind you the Tahoe is just barely three years old.

More Crystal trees

   When we hit Oklahoma City about 10:20 a.m. we encountered some minor snow squalls, but other than being a little discouraging because we are trying to get out of that kind of weather it posed no traffic issues. Almost all the way through Oklahoma and the first part of the Texas panhandle temperatures fluctuated through the low 30s.

   The trees in the panhandle had a very beautiful coating of snow and ice that made them look like crystal figurines. That all changed as we approached Amarillo and the sun came out and the temperatures steadily rose into the low 60s (yea!). The highest temperature of the day was 64.

$2.07 a gallon

   At the gas station in Amarillo I was going to give the windows a quick wash, but all the buckets were frozen solid with the squeegees frozen in them. One great thing is how much cheaper the gas is once you get south of Michigan. We are paying 40 to 50 cents less per gallon (a pretty significant savings) once we get out of our home state.

   There was a huge gathering at “Cadillac Ranch” a kind of Stonehenge made up of old model Cadillacs standing on end.

   Once into New Mexico we had a just a short trip to our night stop in Tucumcari where I had enough time to take the Tahoe to a local U-wash place and cleaned off a pound or so of road salt and mud.

Mileage out: 94949

Time out: 7:30 a.m. (CST)

Mileage in: 95518

Time in: 2:46 p.m. (MST)