Today was sunny and hot, temperature in the mid-80’s. This morning, before heading out to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, we went over to the rodeo grounds and stadium on the other side of the casino to watch more of the Arizona state high school rodeo competitions. What I particularly wanted to see was girls’ pole bending ( weave poles ). WOW … that’s an even better event than barrel racing. We watched about half an hour of that outdoors then went inside the stadium to watch junior boys’ calf wrestling and senior boys’ steer riding for about another half hour. Junior boys’ calf wrestling … HA HA HA HA HA ! Irresistible force meets immoveable object ! ! ! It’s a real toss up as to who’s more stubborn, barely teenaged boys or young bulls. HA HA HA !
We have been wanting to visit Boyce Thompson Arboretum almost since we began full time RV’ing almost 7 years ago. We’ve actually been to it twice but did not go in because both times that we were there it was pouring rain upon our arrival. Well, not so today ! It was a great day to visit Boyce Thompson Arboretum !
We drove west on Hwy. 70 to Globe, then west on Hwy. 60 to Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park near Superior, about an hour or so from Apache Gold Casino & RV Resort. Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park is 100 acres of desert botanical gardens. And visiting it today was especially exciting for us as we spent the entire visit dreaming and planning the cactus garden we intend to create on our lot 52 at Kofa Ko-op.
Joanne had prepared a picnic lunch for us. Around lunch time we retrieved our picnic bag from the truck in the parking lot and headed over to the park’s picnic area where a special event was to take place at 1 PM. A musical performance by a duo. “New age” relaxation music ! Her on piano, him on a variety of flutes. A guy who took himself way too seriously. She just wanted to perform music. He wanted everyone in the audience to transcend to a special place with him. Get a real job, fella ! The pied piper you’re not !
After our picnic lunch and as much of the beret wearing flute player as I could tolerate we wandered around the grounds until we were exhausted, about 4 PM, in awe of the blooming desert flowers and trees, cacti and succulents, planning our own cactus garden. What a great time of the year to be visiting Boyce Thompson ! What a great place to learn about desert gardens !
When we left Boyce Thompson we went to visit historic old downtown Globe ! Well … not really ! Old downtown Globe is a ghost town ! Beautiful old Mexican / Spanish architecture buildings, abandoned and boarded up. We drove to Superior, bought a few groceries at Safeway, then went to explore historic old downtown Superior. Unlike Globe, where the local economy seems to have collapsed, the gold and copper mines around Superior are still active, so Superior is still a thriving community. Their historic old downtown is … old and historic and alive and well ! We drove to the site of the Besh-Ba-Gowah Archeological Park, the ruins of a 700 year old Indian pueblo. It was close to closing time, and we were very tired from our long day of walking around Boyce Thompson. We could see enough of the site from the parking lot to determine that it was similar to the Casa Grande ruins we visited a few years ago. Not worth a visit at this time / on this trip.
Today was sunny and very warm, temperature about 80 degrees. Joanne wanted to explore the Apache Trail today. Since one end of it is near Phoenix and the other end is near Globe, she suggested we drive to Phoenix to take care of some shopping errands without having the burden of towing the trailer through the city, then explore the length of the Apache Trail.
We headed west on Hwy. 70 then Hwy. 60 to Phoenix. We found a PetsMart and returned a pet bed Joanne bought a few days ago in Yuma. Neither Sully nor Bo liked it. We found our way to Camping World and bought a sheet set and a new shower head I wanted. We found our way to another RV dealer to buy a coiled breakaway switch cable. All of these shopping stops were within the eastern suburb of Mesa. We drove to the edge of the city and had our picnic lunch in a shopping mall parking lot before heading out to find and explore the Apache Trail.
The Apache Trail is about an 80 mile long route up, around, through, and down the Superstition Mountains. It’s extremely scenic ( and at this time of year, lush ) high desert. The road winds and curves and goes up and down. About a third of it is little more than a rough gravel trail. By the time we finished the Apache Trail near Globe it was after 5 PM. We stopped at Fry’s in Globe to refill with diesel and buy some groceries before heading home to Apache Gold Casino & RV Resort. I was somewhat surprised to find that we had driven over 300 km. / 200 miles today. After only four, but busy and activity filled, days of travel … I’m already feeling tired !
Today was sunny and very warm.
This morning before preparing for departure from the Apache Gold Casino & RV Resort I had to take care of some maintenance chores that couldn’t wait. First I removed the new shower head we purchased yesterday at Camping World so that we could return it today. We didn’t like it ! Next I had to replace a burnt out taillight bulb on the truck. Changing vehicle bulbs is not as simple as it used to be. Joanne walked over to the casino’s hotel to send a fax.
I installed a new breakaway safety switch cable on the trailer. And … I crawled underneath the truck to take a look at the driver’s side front brake assembly. I reinstalled the shower head mounting bracket that had come loose a few days ago. Since we were planning to buy a new shower head I had postponed reinstalling the loose mounting bracket because I didn’t know if the new shower head would fit it.
There’s something loose or broken in the driver’s side front brake. The trip to Picacho SRA about a week and a half ago made it worse. And the trip along the Apache Trail yesterday made it worse. And I can’t find / see it ! I’m planning to have a brake inspection in Laughlin, Nevada next Monday.
We headed west on Hwy. 60 and then Hwy. 70 to Phoenix. We returned the shower head to Camping World in Mesa. We struggled through and around Phoenix and all its adjacent suburbs, large cities in their own rights, until we were at Interstate 17. We stopped to have lunch in a shopping mall parking lot then headed north on I-17. Joanne drove for awhile to give me a much needed rest.
At the town of Camp Verde on the Yavapai Apache Reservation we got off the Interstate and pulled in to Distant Drums RV Resort. We had a bit of a dispute at the registration over the Passport America rate / terms. It was easily resolved. Give me the terms published in the Passport America directory or … we’re outta here ! We got set up in a site, rested a bit, then drove over to the nearby Cliff Castle Casino. We wandered around the casino, then drove around exploring the nearby area. Back at Distant Drums RV Resort we took Bo for a walk before preparing dinner and settling in for an evening of watching TV. WOO-HOO … first time we’ve had English language TV since Christmas Eve.
Wednesday ; Red Rock State Park, Sedona, and Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Road
This morning was sunny and warm. This afternoon was cloudy and cool, with some light rain late in the afternoon.
This morning we headed over to Cliff Castle Casino for breakfast. Every Wednesday morning breakfast is free for seniors ( over 55 ). After breakfast we headed north on I-17 and Hwy. 179 to Sedona. WOW … amazing “red rocks” … red mountains ! Sedona is a very pretty tourist town. We drove through Sedona then southeast on Hwy. 89A to Red Rock State Park. We viewed some exhibits in the Visitor Center and watched a few minutes of a video in their theater. We spent some time in their Hummingbird Room where hummingbirds at a feeder can be viewed through a “one way glass” window. We went for a hike on Smoke Trail alongside Oak Creek. We had our picnic lunch at a picnic table under a ramada near the parking lot. We went for another hike on Bunkhouse Trail.
By the end of Bunkhouse Trail I was feeling … ill. Very tired and weak. Perhaps a bit of a relapse of the flu illness I had recently ? Or a side effect of an antihistamine I took this morning ? Joanne went to watch a video on hummingbirds and I went to nap in the truck.
At the Visitor Center we saw on a 3D model of the topography of the area that the Sedona airport is located on the top of a nearby mesa. We drove from Red Rock State Park back to Sedona then up to the airport. WOW ! ! ! What a vista !
We drove back down to Sedona, through town, and out to the east, still on Hwy. 89A, now the Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Road. We drove the scenic road up, up, and still more up ! We arrived at Slide Rock State Park too close to closing time to make a visit worthwhile. Too bad. Oak Creek cascades down over the flat rocks like a natural water slide. I had brought a swimming suit, but … maybe another time. We continued on Hwy. 89A until it reached Interstate 17 at Flagstaff. The elevation was about 7000 feet and the temperature was 39 degrees, more than 30 degrees colder than “home” / Camp Verde.
We drove back to Camp Verde on I-17. Before returning to Distant Drums RV Park we went into town to refill a water jug, buy some groceries at Bashas’ and refill with diesel at Maverik. When we arrived back at the trailer I discovered that the shower head mounting bracket that I reinstalled yesterday had fallen off the shower stall wall. HMPH … guess double sided Eternabond wasn’t right for the job !
Today was sunny and warm, but very windy late in the afternoon. This morning before heading out for a day of exploring I reinstalled the shower head mounting bracket onto the shower stall wall. Yesterday I received an
e-mail from Riverside RV Park Resort advising me that the Keremeos Post Office was trying to reach me. I phoned them this morning. There was a problem with the batch of forwarded mail that our neighbour had mailed a few days ago. I hope the problem is now solved. With the Post Office … who can tell ? ! ?
We wanted to explore from Prescott to Sedona, including the mining ghost town of Jerome. We made a large “loop” of about 225 km. / 140 miles today. We left Distant Drums RV Park and headed south on Interstate 17, then west on Hwy. 169 and Hwy. 69 to Prescott. In the suburb of Prescott Valley I saw a Meineke Car Care Center and stopped to discuss the bad sound in the truck’s front end. We can get to where we want to go tomorrow by driving through Prescott Valley so I made an appointment for a brake and front end inspection at 11 AM tomorrow morning.
We drove north on Hwy. 89 then east on Hwy. 89A towards Jerome. We stopped on the side of the road to eat our picnic lunch. After lunch we drove up and over Mingus Mountain … 158 curves in 12 miles … to Jerome. Jerome is a mining ghost town built on the side of a steep sloped mountain. The mine has been closed for many years, but the town has reinvented itself as an artist enclave and tourist town. We parked the truck and wandered around the town sightseeing and browsing. At a shop that sells Dirt Shirts … shirts that are “dyed” with the local red dirt … I bought a Dirt Shirt that reads “I survived the Historic Hwy. 89A Mingus Mountain Road … 158 curves in 12 miles” HA HA HA … been there, done that, got the t-shirt ! ! !
From Jerome we continued east on Hwy. 89A to and through Cottonwood and on to Sedona. We spent a couple of hours in Sedona browsing through arts and crafts malls. Sedona is a very “high rent” retail area ! We drove back to Camp Verde down Hwy. 179 and Interstate 17. We refilled with diesel before returning “home” to Distant Drums.
Friday ; Camp Verde to Kingman, Arizona
Today was cloudy and cold. Between Seligman and Peach Springs, in a desert snow blizzard, the temperature got as low as 29 degrees !
We departed Distant Drums RV Resort this morning, drove south on Interstate 17 and west on Hwy. 169 and Hwy. 69 to Prescott Valley. At Meineke Car Care Center we unhitched Lanoire from Harvey and I took Lanoire in to have the bad noise in the driver’s side front brake diagnosed. Well … it didn’t take them very long to find that one of the two front brake caliper mounting bolts was missing ! I’m embarrassed that I didn’t find that myself. Evidently, the idiot who did the brake job on the truck about a year ago neglected to apply ThreadLocker to the caliper mounting bolts when reinstalling them, so one of them vibrated loose and eventually fell out ! ! ! And that idiot would be … me ! ThreadLocker on the caliper mounting bolts ? ? ? Who knew ? ! ? Meineke called a local supplier to supply a replacement bolt. The local supplier was … unsatisfactory ! Not only were they not able to supply a matching replacement bolt, their process of sending a driver down to Meineke to pick up one of the other caliper mounting bolts to use as a sample, return to their shop to look for a match, then return to Meineke took … an hour and a half ! I was really pissed off ! However, Meineke did an excellent job ! I told them not to bother calling another supplier. Just put the truck back together and I’ll be on my way. Yes, yes, with one caliper bolt missing. We pass Dodge dealers and automotive parts suppliers frequently. I’ll find a replacement bolt myself and install it myself. Under those circumstances, the charge at Meineke was … zero ! How nice ! I was quite impressed with Meineke Car Care Center and will use them again when I need vehicle maintenance services.
We left Prescott Valley and headed north on Hwy. 89. At the next town, Chino Valley, I stopped at an auto parts dealer. They didn’t have the exact right bolt, but I bought one that is a ¼ inch shorter than the original, and installed it as a temporary fix. Two dollars and thirty-four cents ! When I next see a Dodge dealer I’ll go in and buy an exact correct replacement bolt. It was a great relief to have the brake noise problem identified and fixed. Especially with the weather that we encountered later in the day.
When Hwy. 89 reached Interstate 40 we turned west for a few miles to Ash Fork, then got off the Interstate and onto historic Route 66. Joanne wanted to travel historic Route 66 from Ash Fork to Seligman, then have lunch ( an extremely late one ! ) at the famous Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In. Well … we didn’t have lunch at the Snow Cap … it’s just a take out window ! We ate our lunch in the trailer. MMMMM … one of their famous Red Chile Burgers, one of their famous Green Chile Burgers, an order of onion rings, and an order of fries. Great food !
In the last week … all in Arizona … we’ve experienced temperatures from 29 to 102 degrees !
Saturday ; Kingman, Arizona to Laughlin, Nevada
The weather today changed frequently, from sunny and warm to cold and raining, back and forth.
Last night when we pulled into the Flying J I decided I would refill with diesel in the morning before departing. Last night the price of diesel at Flying J was $4.079. This morning it was $4.119. DAMN DAMN DAMN ! ! ! I refilled with diesel and we departed, passing a number of fuel stations within the first few miles with a diesel price of $3.999. DAMN DAMN DAMN ! ! ! We travelled a few miles west on Interstate 40, a few miles north on Hwy. 93, then west on Hwy. 68 to Bullhead City on one side of the Colorado River and Laughlin, Nevada on the other side of the river. We arrived at the Riverside Hotel & Casino Resort at 10 AM. We had a coupon for a week in their RV park for $89 ! They wouldn’t let us check in to the RV park until 1 PM so we parked in the casino’s RV boondocking lot and … HUH ? ? ? We were parked right beside a … competition of some sort involving … HUH ? ? ? Model A Fords ? ! ? There was a convention at the hotel / casino of the Ford Model A & Edsel club ! The model A’s were having a … “agility” competition. HA HA HA ! They were driving their magnificently restored Model A’s onto a “balance beam”. And driving over a series of pieces of lumber, simulating an old, rough road, with a glass of water perched on their running boards. And having a wooden arrow hung on their front bumper, then driving to a dart board on the pavement about 20 feet away, and having the distance from the point of the arrow to the center of the dart board measured. HA HA HA ! We watched some of the competition, then wandered around admiring the beautifully restored Model A Fords. Two door coupes, four door sedans, and … trucks. Didn’t know there were Model A trucks !
We went into the huge casino complex and explored. Big, interesting place ! We returned to the trailer in the parking lot, had lunch, then drove across the street, back to the RV park, to check in. The RV park is huge, 742 sites, on tiered sections on the side of a mountain. We got a huge site up on the top row. As we backed into our site, the temperature plummeted, the wind began to blow, and rain began to fell. I didn’t feel like getting set up in cold rain, so I went to nap with Sully. An hour later the weather had improved … again … and we got set up in our site.
We spent the afternoon slowly getting caught up on some chores. Joanne did laundry. We planned our week in Laughlin. While in the casino before lunch we had picked up information on what’s happening in town this week, and information on meal specials at the variety of restaurants in the many casinos. Laughlin is sort of a “junior” Las Vegas, similar but smaller. And certainly a lot more RV friendly. The Riverside and the Avi both have huge RV parks. And the Riverside has a huge RV boondocking parking lot. Maybe some of the other casinos do as well.
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment