Now For The Rest of The Story...

The day is Sunday April 24, 10:40 am. Its a beautiful day, no traffic to speak of, and we are headed to Rawlins, WY for 2 nights. The travel was good, that is until we got to mile marker 115, 90 miles from our destination. We went over a bad piece of uneven road a few miles back and soon noticed the motorhome was making a strange noise and we could feel a vibration. It didn't feel like a tire but something strange has happened.  We like traveling secondary roads, which normally isn't a problem, but they don't have rest stops and pullovers like the highways. We drove a few more miles and, as luck would have it, there was a huge pull off on our side of the road.  Rob pulled over to evaluate the situation. Not good! The backend was sitting a lot lower than the front which could only mean we lost the air in the rear airbags.  Seems like deja vu. Nothing to do but call Good Sam for roadside assistance.  That was kind of useless:

1.  We were nowhere near a big town. Closest was Rawlins, 90 miles away.

2.  It was Sunday.

3.  No place around had mobile service. In order to tow our motorhome the driveshaft has to be disabled.

Good Sam said if we were in a safe location, then we should call them in the morning and they would get us some help. Thank you very much for your help Marcus Lemonis!

Luckily, we did have internet service...not always so going through the hills and farmland. I started surfing the web for Mobile Repair service.  We found 2, and not close. Called the first and closest one. His reply was he could help us maybe in a few days because he was so busy. Uhhh, I don't think so, we'd freeze to death by then. We called the second one, explained the problem and he agreed he could come out that day but he was on a service call he had to finish first. We were so thankful to find him. All we had to do was wait. And wait we did. On a positive note - the sun was shining, it wasn’t windy and the scenery was pretty. We were even blessed with a pretty sunset. 

The downside - Baxter is particular where he does his business and trust me when I say there was no place in sight. Everything was fenced and major shoulder repair on the road. We could see a National Forest road not even a half mile up the road so I put Baxter in the car and drove up the road a bit so he would have some place to walk. Have you ever walked in mud that was like cement? I got out of the car, stepped into the road and could feel squishy mud under my tennis shoes….white tennis shoes at that!  They instantly felt like I was walking in quicksand….my feet were very heavy and muddy. Baxter started walking and looked up at me like I was crazy. The look on his face said “what in the world is this stuff? I do t like it.” I immediately put Baxter in the car and looked down at my feet. All I could think of was Clarabell, the clown! Big, floppy feet. Well, I got as much mud off as possible and we made our way back to the motorhome. I left my shoes outside and we put the dog in the sink and washed his feet! My shoes are as good as new, thanks to Rob who accepted the challenge of cleaning them. Needless to say, Baxter still needed to do his business, so just before dark I drove him into the next small town, about 10 miles away so he could walk around a little and find that perfect spot. Most dog owners will know exactly what I’m talking about.

9 o’clock we turned the phones off feeling defeated and disappointed. No show and no phone call Not much we could do except start making calls in the morning. Luckily, we are self contained with a 12 volt furnace and a generator. It got cold during the night but we stayed toasty warm, thanks to Rob for monitoring everything.

Morning came sooner than we liked, but being on the side of the road listening to trucks wizzing by doesn’t afford you a lot of sleep. Rob turned on his phone and found a message from Mark, the repair guy. He had just finished his job at 12:15 am and he would call us in the morning. Fast forward, he called and made it to our place by 11:30 am. It appears the support for the rear air bags got dislodged when we hit the bad piece of road, deflated the bags and they landed on top of the support. After about an 1 1/2 hrs he had repaired it and balanced it out and the bags were inflated again. Hallelujah! We pay the bill (which was not cheap), he leaves and we get everything ready to travel and are on our way. Or so we thought. We aren’t on the road 5 minutes and Rob knows it’s not right yet. He drives a little distance but is afraid of damaging the driveshaft. He says its not level. I hurry and call Mark back, he turns around and meets us in the small town of Baggs, WY. He is able to do whatever it took to correct the matter in no time.  When he is done though, this time he says he’ll follow us a bit to make sure it’s good. I said a prayer,  crossed my fingers, and I think held my breath until we got it going and realized it was smooth sailing  once again.

Both of us were ecstatic, to say the least. We were able to keep our previous reservation and extend it another night. Boy, it sure felt good to be “plugged in” that night at the campground. This was quite an experience but not totally unexpected. Living this lifestyle you need to be prepared for the “unexpected”, be flexible, stay cool and be safe. We were all of those and we are once again happy campers.

We may need to change our travel times by not leaving on a Sunday, especially since we like to travel the secondary roads and we don’t always know for sure where we will be. We’ll see what the future holds. For right now our future will be one more stop before we end up in Spearfish for the summer. Oh, and by the way, the Fish Hatchery  just got 6-10” of snow. Now you know why we haven’t been in a hurry to get there. Wish us well. 

My next blog update will be after we have landed, gotten acclimated to our schedule and have good things to report. Thanks for “listening “ to our tale of woe. Just wanted to share it with you. Hope Spring has sprung wherever you are and you are able to get out and enjoy all the wonders God has provided us. Be happy, be kind and don’t forget to look up, it’s amazing out there.

We’re Almost There!!

 But what a journey it has been. We left Mesa, AZ on March 31st after having our flat tire diagnosed and fixed…or so we thought. Our destination is Winslow, AZ. We spend a few days there revisiting some sites and finding some new places to explore. In one day we did downtown Winslow, the 911 Memorial, Meteor Crater and Little Painted desert. The next day we drove to Holbrook, AZ and revisited the Petrified Forest. What a beautiful place.

Next stop is Gallup, NM for the night. Rob checked the tires and the same rear inside dully tire shows flat so Rob puts air in it and realize we need to have it looked at when we get to Cortez, CO. All is well and travel and weather is great. We have to keep a close eye on the weather as there is a big storm front moving across the northern states, right where we are headed.

We stayed in Delores, CO for 3 nights. We have lots of time to spare since our campsite will not be available until May 1 in Spearfish, SD. While in Delores we decide to visit Durango. That never happened. What a disappointment. Expecting to find a great western town with all the illustrations of the great west, what we found was a disappointment because it was all typical tourist hype. Instead we drove a little further to the Pinkerton Hot Springs. It is a very cool roadside attraction of what is left of days gone by.

Time to move on. Rob checks the tire before we go and preforms his duty of late and fills the tire up. We make it to Cortez, CO and contact the Goodyear Tire dealer and they can see us in the morning. We promptly go over in the morning and find out it is a bad valve stem. Whew, that was good news. They replace it and we are happy campers on our way to Blanding, UT. The winds have been horrific and causes us to stay put sometimes longer than we want. Here we were worried about the snow forecast and in reality it’s the wind that is our nemesis. We make it to The Dinosaur Museum, Harvest Host, for the night. In the morning we have an appointment at Bradford tire, hoping, once again, they can find the cause of this tire leak. While they do their detective work, we take a ride into the mountains and Canyonland NP for a revisit

We drove as far as we could…didn’t want to get stuck!

We were greeted by a flock of wild turkeys crossing

the road.

We stopped by the Newspaper Rock 

in the Canyonlands.

The many petroglyphs on this mammoth Newspaper rock.

We decide to head back and check on the motorhome and get a text that they finally figured it out. Sounds like something we’ve heard before.  Now mind you, this is an old, small family run business in the small town of Blanding , UT so we weren’t sure what to expect.  But believe it or not, they fixed it! Yep, it was a bad valve extension that no one had been checking. Seems it was blocked so when air was put in, it registered the air pressure but when it was rechecked it wouldn’t register any pressure. That problem was resolved really easy. They took it off and threw it away. $30 later and we were, once again, on the road headed north. Oh yeah, and by the way, that really was the problem. 

We travel a whole 30 miles down the road to an RV resort where we plan on spending 2 nights, hoping the wind subsides enough to travel in. There is dirt and dust everywhere. This stay turned out to be a real surprise because 2 couples from Canada that we spent the winter with in Mesa (our neighbors) and had become good friends with, were already staying at the same place. We had ourselves a mini reunion. Many stories told, drinks consumed, snacks eaten and laughs galore. Oh what a great time. We will miss them dearly.

It’s now April 10 and we have traveled 777 miles and seems like 1500! Rob has put on him Mr Weatherman cap and has determined that the cold front moving across the north is going to be an issue so we best hole up someplace for awhile that is warmer and calmer. We decide that along the Colorado river would be good because it is in the valley and has warmer temps. After all, it’s wine country. We end up in Grand Junction, CO near the UT border and make reservations for a week, that soon became 2 weeks, at this new, modern resort. We chose it because of the great reviews.  It is a very well thought out campground with just about everything you need as a guest here. It even has some sites with outdoor dog kennels. The wind came up pretty strong so the first night here so we brought in our slide for the night. It started raining and sometime during the night, started snowing. We got maybe 1-2” of snow and was gone by noon. It actually was a beautiful day.

There is a lot to see around here, unfortunately because of the windy conditions, it limited us to what we wanted to do. We did a lot of relaxing and indoor stuff. We did go to the Colorado National Monument. I highly recommend it to anyone who has not been there. It is one of my favorite stops we have made,  There are many pull offs for viewing and we stopped at most of them, of course. As I looked into the canyon, I felt like I was a part of it, in it, as in many you are just there, viewing it.  Here’s just a small sample of what we saw.

We did get out and about, besides doing the mundane things of shopping, laundry, and of course, keeping up on our housekeeping chores. We walked along the Colorado river where we observed a couple eagles on their nest with eaglets, many songbirds and ducks, and great art work along the bridges. Baxter and I ventured out to a couple different parks for a change of scenery. All in all, it was a very good two week stay, but it is now time to move on. 

We have a 2 night stay reservation in Rawlins, WY so we are not sure what we are in for. I will leave you for now but hope as your winter weathers leave you, it will give you opportunities to do some more exploring. I know we are ready, willing and able. Let’s see what Mother Nature has in store for us. Remember to look up when out there, it’s amazing.

 I’m Baackk!

Trying to start a new blog on another site is harder than it should be so here I am again right where I left off….just a little further down the road. We are headed for SD but have a month to explore between here and there.

We started the day by going to the Meteor Crater about 5 minutes from us. Have passed by it before but never stopped. Wow. What can I say. It was amazing to think this happened many thousands of years ago and is so perfectly preserved. 

 

Next stop, downtown Winslow, AZ. Having been there a few years back, we were anxious to see if things had changed much. It had but for the good. Many wheee there to get their picture “standing on the corner” near the flatbed truck. 

   
  

On our way out of town we stopped to visit Winslows 911 Memorial. Pieces of steel from the Twin Towers are part of it.

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One last stop completed our day. After reading a review about this amazingly beautiful sights by visiting the abandoned county park, we couldn’t help buy check it out. Wow. It wasn’t called the Little Painted Desert for nothing. It was definitely abandoned and mistreated but the beauty could not be hidden or denied. The few pictures here will give you an idea of what we saw. If ever in the area, check it out.

  

As late afternoon approached it was time to call it quits. As we enjoyed the ride back home and was overcome with visual overload, we were ready to be done. We ended the day with a short walk in the secluded area by us before dark time set in. I must say, it was a very good day. I hope you are able to find joy in your days ahead. We have a choice each day as to our outlook on life. Remember to try to explore the great outdoors daily, warm or cold, and don’t forget to look up, it’s amazing out there.