Sunday December 20th, 2009

Hello Family and Friends!

We’re behind on posting obviously, so I’m not going to try and recreate each day since Saturday, but will share the second day of driving.

On Sunday the 20th we set out on the road about 6:30 in the morning. We made very few stops and made it Show Low, Arizona, about 5 p.m. That’s when the fun began. Paul follows a blog from an RVer that grew up in Show Low and wanted to dine there and maybe take a picture or two. I looked up some restaurants on the Blackberry and we found several right on the highway.

Nearing the restaurant with a pirate-sounding bar, we dove into an unknown dealer new car lot to park for the meal. Issue 1: the car lot didn’t offer the ability to drive around. Instead, we got to practice unhooking the tow car and re-hooking so he could turn around in the available space. Issue 2: The restaurant did not serve beer. Issue 3: The pirate bar was upstairs from the restaurant and after making our way up all those stairs it was closed for a private party. We opted to leave the family restaurant and went across the street to a New York themed sports bar/restaurant. Food was marginal, but service was good. A couple coffees and some food and we were ready to keep on. We lost a good hour and a half from our excursion in Show Low. I don’t believe we’ll be visiting there again. Sorry Nick the blogger.

We continued on the route well after dark and found only a couple nice things about what was to come. I cannot write succinctly enough to describe to you our trek through the mountains. In the moonless dark, watching for moose, deer, cows, general animals, falling rocks, ice on the bridge, vehicles passing the center line, at least 500 35-mph hairpin turns. The bright spots are that the motor home features a grade brake and the road surface was good. It required every ounce of the coffee-fueled energy we both could muster. The Co-Pilot software Paul’s daughter bought us a couple years came in very handy. I could zoom in to the extent to see the really really bad turns as opposed to normal curves in the road. Should u ever travel this route and use GPS, the blob that appears is actually the 12-or-so back-to-back hairpin turns. I don’t believe we’ll return that way.

There’s a town whose name escapes me most of the way down that trek. Driving through town my mother called needing computer help. I was busy talking to her when Paul noticed cars were flashing lights, honking and pointing to the tow car. One of the straps from re-securing the car in Show Low had come loose. We didn’t do an interim check like he usually does. He got smart after the strap loss in Casey though, and puts a safety chain around the car’s axle. We stopped at a wide spot on the side of the road and a helpful police officer parked behind us providing extra light and safety. Thank you to that officer, whoever you are.

Needless to say we were pretty wiped after having survived that mountain drive in the dark. We got through the town and SURPRISE we weren’t done with the sharp turns and rise/falls of the mountain roads. Either they were less intense or we were immune because I don’t think I stomped my imaginary brake once.

At some point earlier in the day I realized that we hadn’t secured a place to stay that night. I got out the handy Woodall's campground directory and found a park on the southeast side where we’d be coming in. My criteria were decent Woodall’s rating and advertised wifi. We reached Shiprock RV Park in Apache Junction about 11 p.m. at night.

We pulled into the park and didn’t know where our spot was. Captain Obvious was quick to greet us and share that he knew where our spot was, but that the park didn’t like people arriving at night. Thank you Captain Obvious, I’m glad you got to share your thoughts.

We reached our spot and had to unhook. The spots here are not pull through. We’re getting pretty good at hooking and un-hooking the car so that went pretty quickly. A new neighbor helped him get backed into the spot and was very welcoming. We still had to level the unit and hook up before we could think about sleeping. The last of our hasty packing at home netted us extra copy paper boxes and laundry baskets all over the bed. Once the electricity and water were hooked up and the slides out, we had to dig out the bed. I did my best to stay out of Paul’s way. He was exhausted, I was exhausted and I had to work at 7 a.m.

I’ll close this post and create a new one about our encounters for this week. Just to pique your interest, I’ll tell you that it involves smuggling.

Thanks for hanging out with us,
Ann

Saturday, December 19th
Tucumcari or bust
A Long, long, long day in the RV. Fortunately the seats and cockpit system are designed fairly well so when we did finally stop, Paul wasn’t all kinked up.
We left the house about 8 a.m., a little later than we wanted, but as usual we underestimated the time it would take to get things out to the RV and clean up the house a bit. The driveway is still obscured by snow, so Paul filled the RV at Casey’s and then drove to the grocery store parking lot to load the car.
We made a quick stop in Casey to check the tow straps as a safety precaution, and it was a good thing we did because one of the straps was gone. Paul prefers the straps that we had for the old car hauler because he modified them slightly to feature a security pin to keep the hook on. He found it odd that the entire strap was gone. He didn’t have to dig far to find one of the straps that came with the American Car Dolly. They don’t actually fit as well around the tire and the securing mechanism doesn’t seem as secure. The straps are a thinner compound than the old ones, however, so as it wraps around the ratchet-bar-thing (technical term), it actually wraps more times.
Paul had planned, let me repeat this: had planned, to go south down 29 to Nebraska City and then south on 75 which was a fast way to get to Topeka. The road was in fairly good shape for Nebraska and was a really good road as soon as we crossed into Kansas.
We stopped in Auburn, NE at an ancient and well-attended diner named The Darling Café. It looks like a turn of the 20th century multi-purpose building that may have contained a hotel, gas station and restaurant. We didn’t have the camera when we went in to eat, so I’ll not try and depict the restaurant through words, you would be here for days and I don’t get paid by the adjective. Paul did take a picture of the outside as we were preparing to leave.
We hit the Kansas border just a little after noon, which we felt was good time considering all the snow still on the roads. A perfect non-descript winter-gray weather day for traveling.
We blew by Topeka and didn’t stop again until Abilene where we had to get gas. There was no feeling of comfort that we could make the next 20 miles to a truck stop in Salina. There was no truck stop in Abilene so we crammed into a gas station and double-swiped. We got out of there as fast as possible and continued west to 156 on the other side of Salina. We started our south-westernly descent on 156, which continues on as 56. The roads continued to be in good shape. Although there was less snow on the ground, it was still overcast and uninspiring.
If you didn’t know, Kansas the state has the most significant elevation change between borders. That was readily apparent as we hit significant hills which used all available engine resources. Paul did well to get a running start at big hills whenever possible. It reminded me a lot of driving my mom’s worn out ’96 Mustang from De Soto to Winterset many moons ago. That car couldn’t get out of its own way, so you really had to use the hills to maintain any sort of momentum. Excuse my digression. 
Just south of Great Bend, the weather finally cleared. Warm sunshine filled the RV and blinded our eyes as the afternoon went on. We put the shades down, sunglasses on and remained happily blinded. No complaining about the sun today. It was a balmy 40 degrees and we felt rejuvenated. The snow was melting off the roof of the RV and running water down the sides and showering those behind us. It felt glorious.
We pressed on from Great Bend finally stopped again in Dodge City at the Flying J for dinner at 6 p.m. We still had quite a distance to go and had been on the road for 10 hours. As a passenger I cat napped frequently except when navigation was needed. Paul, thankfully, did not. A cup of coffee with dinner and he was still in “Go” mode.
Even though we weren’t there long, we were a little discombobulated when we left. The Flying J wasn’t where we thought we were so we had to make a little scenic route through town and significant road construction, but we made it back to the correct road.
There was very little moon last night, and I expect the combination of dark, unfamiliar roads and the long day slowed us down some. At times the road was only two lanes so it required extra concentration from Paul to avoid bouncing off oncoming traffic or barrels and cones. He didn’t hit anything though; I was very nervous but quiet.
We drove through Meade, Kansas, about 8 p.m. and I must tell you they did a superb job decorating for Christmas. All several blocks of Main Street were canopied in strings of lights, it was a pleasure to drive under them.
About 9 p.m. we reached Liberal. The next major town after Liberal (Guymon, Ok) was another 35 miles away, so although we were still a few hours shy of the Tucumcari goal, I insist it was not a bust. Bust is a relative notion when you do not really have to get anywhere within the time you have available.
The drive tomorrow will be very long as well. We still aren’t sure of the best way to get to Phoenix once we cross the border. There’s a stinking mountain range all over the state.
We are pleased to be back on the road and thanks for reading along to follow our resumed journey.
Ann

12/19 and 12/20 Interim

I created this lengthy and enjoyable post for 12/19 on Paul's laptop and the power supply has died. Grrrr!  We have arrived (albeit 11 p.m. local time) and will catch you up on the action-packed weekend hopefully today.

Ann

Back on the Road!

We are so excited to report that the family medical circumstances have improved to the extent we are able to return to the road.  The medical conclusion was favorable, so we will travel free of fear, God willing.

A flurry of activity this morning to finish re-loading items to the motorhome. We intend to make it to Tucumcary (sp?), New Mexico today which will be a very long drive. Paul expects 13 hours.

More later,
Ann

Back Home.

Well, somethings are meant to be, others not.  Our RVing Adventure is one of those things that was just not meant to be.  We received a call about noon on Tuesday of  family emergency back home that required us to return home immediately, and will require us to be home for quite some time.

So  we want to thank all of you who followed our blog, but since we no longer will be traveling, we dont see any reason to continue this blog.

Thanks again, and best wishes to all of you who have read our blog.