Finally got our RV out of the shop and back home. Just in time to load up and head to Flagstaff later this week to watch Miss C compete!
WOW it is already Wednesday and I have done nothing to get ready for our trip! Tracey did come back in the house last night and say the batteries in the RV seem to be charging just fine and holding their charge. You see when we picked it up from Freightliner he was getting a low voltage alarm. We were hoping it was simply that the batteries had gone dead sitting on their lot. We were unable to pick up the RV due to Freightliner waiting on payment from the warranty, once they paid we paid our portion and were able to pick it up. Needless to say it sat a little longer than we would have liked. But good news is it all seems good now (yay since it takes like 6 batteries!!!)
We are planning to leave tomorrow………………….. guess I better get moving!
Well I really didn’t get anything done:( We normally do a little each day for several days to a week ahead of departure day in order to be ready to go. We have been so busy with Miss C being back in school, her ice skating clubs big competition, and running down to Tucson working on our house there (almost ready for Airbnb, but ready for friends and family to rent!!!) So this was a first for us, being so unprepared.
It is now Thursday and we are leaving today. Good thing is we have no set schedule, no time we have to be anywhere. So we grab clothes, computers (gotta work on the road), dog supplies and a few other necessities and toss them all on the bed in the RV. Something else we never do, I always load the RV and put everything away in its place. Partially because I like to be able to move about the RV without tripping over things, but mainly because once we get to where we are going I like to relax. So this is a first, leaving everything out and having to “work” once we get to our destination. The dogs are going crazy, and have been since yesterday evening when I packed a bag with their food and treats and sweaters (its cooler up north). They were just being nosy and staying under foot until I grabbed their leashes, then they went crazy. They know what those mean and they want to go NOW. So even this morning they are still high strung and circling our feet as we try to carry stuff out to the RV. We finish loading and unplug the RV, yes we can do that now with our awesome RV garage 🙂 Tracey pulls the RV out into the now massive driveway, far enough that we can get the jeep behind us. We go back in the house and make sure we have everything. We grab the last few items and tell the dogs they can now come with us, and they all but bowl us over getting to the door. Both dogs take off at a high rate of speed out the door and into the garage. As Tracey is calmly telling them to wait, wait…. they round the jeep and head passed my car and Zeus stops behind my car, spins in circles and Max rounds the car and comes back up between the car and RZR. Both dogs now confused look up at Tracey and I. You see the past few times they have gone with us, we were going down to work on the house in Tucson and we took the truck. The truck is currently in the RV garage where the dogs can’t see it, so they are lost and don’t know where to go. The RV is sitting in the driveway running, but I guess they missed that! So I load up the dogs as Tracey pulls the jeep up behind the RV and hooks it up. As he is finishing, I get in the jeep and follow the steps to make it towable and now we are ready to pull out.
As Tracey puts the RV in gear, “wait” I say, “did you see my purse? did I bring my purse out?” Back into the house I go where my purse is sitting all alone on the kitchen table. Good thing my head is attached.
We have a guy trim our trees to be high enough to clear the RV, our neighbors don’t…….. they don’t have RVs lol. So as we are pulling out of the driveway discussing the clearing of the neighbors trees, we notice a truck parked in the street under the tree that is overgrown. Ugh. Tracey thinks he will clear it even with the jeep in tow so we proceed. (Everyone on our street has a huge driveway so why park in the street??) It is close but Tracey clears the truck and the tree and the jeep doesn’t run over our landscaping, I think it was my sucking in my breath and pulling my knees up and leaning to the left that enabled us to make it!!
We are stopping to top on our fuel about 2 miles from our house, nice that Fry’s put in a nice big gas station near our home with more than one diesel pump! It is unusual to find, just like all places we go, somewhere big enough for us to get in and out of. During one of our conversations today on our drive Tracey and I agreed that it isn’t that we can’t get IN most places, because we can but we can’t get OUT of most places once in. Especially when towing the jeep as we cannot backup. So we pull into the Fry’s and low and behold there is a car blocking our way to the pumps. She is just sitting there, totally oblivious that she is in the middle of a driving area and there is a big huge RV waiting to get by. So Tracey turns across the front of the station and squeezes past the pump on the far end and all the way around the back to get to the pump right where we entered the station. As we are fueling up, Tracey remembers he didn’t leave a way for his brother to get into the RV garage in order to work on his RV while we are away, and his brother is out of town on business. So he calls his dad and his dad drives over to the gas station. Tracey gives him a remote to the garage and instructions on how to get into the RV, and now we are off on our way.
As we get onto the 101 heading north we both realize that we are very hungry and not sure we can wait the 2 1/2 hours to Flagstaff. We try to come up with ideas of where we can stop, remembering we can’t get in and out of many places. We never go anywhere without grocery shopping and having food in the RV, so another first for us. Realizing we are hungry, we are sorry we didn’t shop before we left. So as we round the 101 near Scottsdale Rd we decide there might be a place near that outside mall on the north side of the 101. Neither of us, know what exit that is at or if there is anywhere we can stop. So we drive. We see the mall and decide to exit. By the time we exit and pass the “mall” we were thinking of discovering there is nowhere for us to even attempt to pull in, we realize this was a mistake. Not just no where to eat, but nowhere to pull in, nowhere to turn around. Uh oh! So we continue north on what we now discover is Tatum Rd. Neither of us know where Tatum goes. So I do what every smart person does , I google it. As I am trying to decipher on the google map on my phone, where Tatum goes and how to get back to a freeway it hits me…………………………… a better idea. I hit the little google microphone “navigate to KOA Flagstaff”. Now we got it, google telling us where to go!!
Google takes us down Pinnacle Peak to Cave Creek to Sonoran Desert which turns into Dove Valley and out to the I-17. Not a way I would have ever gone, in fact don’t think I have ever been on these roads. As we are driving and realizing there is like NOTHING out here, it is beautiful desert but nothing else, something catches our eye on the side of the road. No Kerri it was not a donkey! (inside joke) We are not sure what it was
you might have to zoom in to really see, but there are benches, covered benches along the road!! what the heck, pull over on the shoulder, I think I want to sit along the road for a bit, what??? As we drive a little further, we have passed probably 5 or 6 of these benches, we see down off to the side a paved pathway. So there is some sort of walking path there and we guess these are rest spots for the walking path? Oh the things you will see when you are on an adventure.
As we approach I-17 on Dove Valley we can see the next exit and there seems to be a shopping area/mall type place and some fast food type places. Not our first choice but since we have the dogs with us, we don’t want to go sit in a restaurant for an hour or so. We manage to find parking room in the Kohls parking lot and walk across to an In and Out. We get some food and head back to eat in the RV.
After finishing lunch we head back to the I-17 and we are once again Flagstaff bound. Pretty uneventful drive except for the usual dumb drivers who think we can stop on a dime, or that we will make room for them, because what they are better than us, more important than us? crazy drivers.
As we pass Munds Park we wave and yell out hello to Steve and Sara Bowyer! See you Sunday at Church.
This is what we see now 
We are thinking we are in for a bit of rain! Sure enough. The first rain drop to hit, I swear was the size of a softball LOL. Some very big raindrops came down. Didn’t last too long, drops got smaller, and then lighter and then just a sprinkle as we exited the 40 to head to the KOA.
We pulled in, I registered and paid (Nice remodel of the office Flagstaff KOA) and we find our spot and pull in. First things first, dogs have to be taken on a walk. They have really been good on the drive. As I walk the dogs Tracey unhooks the jeep and positions the RV. I take the dogs inside, Tracey places leveling blocks under the jacks. Then I hit the button, yep it is a button, and the RV levels itself 🙂 Once level, Tracey hooks us up to sewer, water and electric. I push a button or three and put the slides out. Now we are talking, nice and roomy. Tracey works on getting the satellite to work, it is nice he can ping it by signing in on line, since directv deactivates it regularly due to inactivity. I begin putting ALL the stuff we did bring away into its proper place. Once done we sit to relax and pet the dogs. I have all the windows open and we are enjoying the nice cool breeze, something we won’t enjoy at home for another two or more months.
It doesn’t take us long to realize we are getting hungry and hey we have no food. So off to the grocery store we go. We return to put away the groceries and make up some dinner,
Well good morning! It is day 2 in Flagstaff and we are a tad bit cold. Slept great except for Max jumping up on the bed several times throughout the night, he must have been cold too. A lazy relaxing morning. Tracey took the dogs outside for their morning business and it didn’t take 30 seconds and they were barking at something 🙁 I could here Tracey saying “shhh, quiet, no barking, hey, no one wants to listen to that” all in his gentle hushed voiced. They only barked a few more times so it worked I guess.
As I begin getting together some breakfast for Tracey and I, coffee for Tracey and tea for me, Tracey mixes up the dogs food. Long story but Zeus has to eat special food and a prescription powder has to be mixed in the food. You see his pancreas doesn’t work and he can’t get nutrients from his food unless we do this. Tracey is opening cabinets and drawers obviously looking for something. He doesn’t say anything, he is a guy. So I ask, “hey hon whatcha looking for?” “the scoop” hmmm guess we forgot that, but there should be some measuring cups int he drawer we can use, so I get up and start looking for them. We find the measuring cup, but as we do we realize if we don’t have the scoop does that mean we don’t have the medicine???? uh oh. Well Zeus will have to eat food without the medicine this morning while we figure out what to do. There is no way Zeus will go without food while we figure it out. So Tracey mixes up the food minus the meds, and sits it on the counter to wait. You see once we mix in the medicine the food has to sit for 20 minutes before Zeus can eat it, we make Max wait too as it would not be fair to feed him while Zeus watches. So the dogs lay patiently by our feet waiting their 20 minutes while we eat some breakfast and drink our tea and coffee. Buzzer goes off and Tracey puts the food bowls on the floor.
We think we have a plan for getting the medicine since it is a prescription we cannot buy it in a store. Thank goodness for family and amazing friends. Tracey’s dad goes to our house (remember we left him with a garage remote) and sits the medicine outside the front door. My amazing friend Jill goes to my house and picks up the medicine and will bring it to Flagstaff with her this evening. Her girls are competing this weekend along with Miss C. Yay for Jill.
At this point we realize Max is not eating so Tracey attempts to get Max to eat his food. Occasionally he does this, don’t know why, he is not a very good traveler. We keep thinking the more he goes with us the better he will be, not so far. So Tracey pets Max and speaks lovingly to him and finally pulls up the footstool near Max’s bowl. Max takes a few bites, Tracey still trying to sweet talk him into eating now notices that Zeus has stopped eating. What is up with these pooches this morning? So knowing that sometimes because of the special food Zeus’ food sticks to the bowl, Tracey gets up and uses a spoon to loosen the food at which time Zeus returns and finishes eating. Max on the other hand is now laying at my feet away from his food bowl. Tracey gives up and begins to put the bark collars on the dogs. We are heading out for a morning walk and don’t want to disturb the neighbors. We each have a remote in hand as these are training collars, and a bag for any business we need to dispose of.
We aren’t 5 steps outside the RV and a man’s voice says, “Semper Fi Marine” to which Tracey replies “Semper Fi Devil Dog”. I glance at the RV next to us, there is a couple sitting outside in chairs with two cute dogs at their feet. The gentlemen has a Marine veteran hat on. There is just an amazing brotherhood among veterans, I can’t explain you have to witness it. We continue our walk, and before we clear the end of our row, both dogs have completed their business! I ask Zeus as he is the first, “really buddy you couldn’t wait another minute”. Why do we talk to our dogs? Do they understand us? Do we expect answers LOL. Well not stopping our enjoyment of the wonderful weather and scenery we head on towards the fenced in walking trail. As we enter the trail Tracey is commenting he is wondering how the neighbor knew he was a Marine. Did he see the license plate on the RV? Did he see the Navy medallion and assume? As he speaks the last statement he looks down, he is wearing a Marine Tshirt!! Guess that is how he knew 🙂 Here’s your sign! The trail is not that long and makes a loop, along the way there are informational signs about plants and animals native to the area. We enjoy our walk and the fresh air.
We return to the RV, pleased with the dogs as they were both very well behaved and no barking. I take the dogs inside and Tracey heads to the trash can just out front of our RV near the street. As I realize it is taking a longer than it should amount of time for him to come inside, I hear voices. Yep you guessed it, Tracey is next door making new friends.
Tracey says;
“Yep, I stopped next door and introduced myself to the Marine. We talked about our times in the Corps, what we did, where we went. My new friend Dan served as infantry in Vietnam in 1969-1970. We reminisced about Camp Hanson in Okinawa Japan. Although there at different times, we had similar memories. Even though I have experiences and memories of my time in Panama, it still doesn’t compare to what I know and perceive about Vietnam. It doesn’t take long for me to realize Dan is my brother from another mother. We talk family, jobs, politics, and life in general. After a short while we realize we don’t live far from each other and enjoy many of the same things. One of which is exactly what we are doing right now, camping.”
Back inside the RV I have realized Tracey isn’t coming in any time soon, so I clean up, make the bed and take my shower. Even then Tracey is not back. I question whether I should go next door and apologize for my kid I mean my hubby talking their ears off , haha.
I walk outside and round the front of our RV and our neighbor (who I now know is Nancy) says “hi Donna, I feel like I know you already” As I walk towards Dan and Nancy I comment “ooo I am not sure if that is good or bad” as we all chuckle I reach out and shake their hands. We all sit next to their RV getting to know each other as it begins to rain just a light sprinkle. Dan whips out his remote and pushes a button and sends his awning to the out position so we don’t get wet. (Don’t ya just love buttons) We continue to talk, and are now discussing camping and RVs. Dan asks for a tour of the outside of ours since he and Tracey were already talking details. The 4 of us walk around the RV as Tracey opens each under compartment and he and Dan discuss it. We offer them an inside tour so I go in first in an effort to calm the dogs. Yeah right like I can do that. Tracey continues his tour, showing proudly our RV and why we love it.
As we exit the RV Nancy and I have a moment by ourselves and realize we have many similarities. Some not so good (divorce and ex’s), some good (grandkids, a great man, building businesses). We continue back under their awning, it is no longer raining. We sit for another couple of hours just thoroughly enjoying our new friends.
Nancy has gone inside and comes out with ice water for each of us. Guess she figures people who talk this much must be parched. We sit at the picnic table sipping our waters and STILL talking. As we are chatting, an RV is pulling down our row. We watch, cuz that is what we do, watch people. The new neighbors are having trouble turning into their assigned spot. The driver has stopped and is outside his RV evaluating his options, when Dan and Tracey head over to see if they can help.
It is a tight turn for a big RV and there is a tree very close on the right side. So the men have decided to unhook their tow vehicle, in order to be able to back the RV up and try to swing wider into the spot. Tracey has moved our jeep from in front of our RV to over in front of Dan and Nancy’s in order to provide our new neighbor with more room to swing wide. Dan jogs back our way to grab some tools (these Marines always have tools) and he and Tracey meet back to help new neighbor. New neighbor lady is in their tow vehicle and the guys are instructing her to put it in drive and try to move forward a tad to release the tension on the hitch. As she does that the men are using a mallet to pound out the hitch pins. Finally the pins come out and the hitch releases and falls to the ground. New neighbor lady parks the tow vehicle out of the way, and new neighbor man backs the RV up. He takes another swing at the spot only to end up way to close to the tree again. Once again he backs up and goes to try again when Tracey signals him to back up further and swing wider. With the help of Tracey and Dan guiding him, he is able to get safely and fully into his spot. New neighbors get situated and leveled, and move their vehicle to their spot. The 4 of us return to our chatting, no we have not run out of things to say, when up walks Bill to thank the guys for their assistance and offer them a beer! It is 5 o’clock somewhere right! We all introduce ourselves and begin conversation with Bill, “Are you from New York?” (license plates on RV are) “Did you just drive here from New York?” Now up walks Bill’s wife Bonnie, we make introductions all around and I remind Bonnie there is a test later! As everyone chuckles she repeats back each persons name as she points to them. She got us all correct up until Nancy where she hesitated. Nancy comments that since she was the first to say her name, she is the one Bonnie doesn’t remember. We only get to chat a short while with all our new friends as it begins to rain, and not just a light sprinkle this time, oh yeah and it is cold! We say our goodbyes and head back to each our own RV.
Tracey and I are sitting inside with the dogs listening to the lovely rain on the roof and the rolling thunder in the distance. We acknowledge how blessed we are, and what awesome people we just met.
We ventured out of the KOA and had dinner at one of our favorite places here in Flagstaff, Taverna. It was good as usual. We enjoyed the company of Joe and Peg as they are moving their youngest back up to NAU for her sophmore year. Then back to the dogs, out for a walk and in for the night as it is windy and cold! Good night all.
Day 3
Good morning from chilly Flagstaff. Slept wonderfully but it is cold this morning. We were awakened by the dogs scratching at the door and barking, so we are up earlier than we wanted to be. Dogs have been walked and we just finished skyping with our granddaughter Lilah as today is her 6th birthday. Lilah is having her party at Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels Texas. We are sad we cannot be there but Miss C is competing. So we skype and Lilah (more daddy) shows us their cabana and the water park. Looks like fun for our princess.
After Skyping with our princess, we spent an hour chatting with Dan and Nancy as they packed up to head home. Remind us next time to see you to tell you what Dan’s magic wand is, get your mind out of the gutter! Those of you with an RV without an automatic tank flush system will really want to know. We hug our new friends and they are Gilbert bound,
We feed and walk the dogs and watch a little of the Olympics. After showers we walk down abut 5 spaces and visit with our friends from Chandler Kelli and Doyle and new friend Sandy. We just sit around shooting the breeze for a couple of hours. We enjoyed watching Kelli trying to get the grill going and get the coals hot enough to cook on. She did finally send the kids to the camp store for some lighter fluid 🙂 Kelli and Sandy we enjoyed your wine sippy cups! We came back to our RV and had some lunch and walked the dogs. Then grabbed our jackets picked up Miss C’s friend Kensi and head to the ice rink.
Miss C skated well and took 4th place!! Miss C has to take off immediately with her dad but we hang around to watch her friend compete before heading back to camp. We drop off Kensi and come back to play with the dogs for a bit. We decide we are tired so fix up some dinner in the RV and watch some Olympics. By the time we finish eating the wind is blowing wildly. We take the dogs out for a walk, okay not a walk because we are freezing and just encouraging them to hurry up and do their business so we can go back inside. We have decided to hang out with the dogs tonight and snuggle up inside as the wind continues to blow. We have only seen a few rain drops today so we are really hoping for some rain tonight. Good night all, stay warm.
Day 4
Good Morning! It is early and chilly. Tracey is still sleeping and I am up enjoying the quiet and drinking hot tea. Quiet is relative I guess. What is it with people in campgrounds, they seem to lose all common sense, or at least common decency. Yesterday we were awoken to kids screaming in the playground and the usual dogs barking. Really people tell your kids to be quiet, teach them to respect others. It is not like we were sleeping in, it was maybe 7am. I get it, we wake up early when we camp too but we do our best not to disturb others. Last night as we watched some of the final Olympics we all but shut all the windows because of kids screaming. And worse than them screaming was what they were screaming, “mom”. After about the 100th time I wanted to yell out the window “would you please answer your child so they will shut up!!!” And this morning beginning about 6am there has been a baby or very young child crying nonstop! Again really people be considerate of others.
Is it the fact that I don’t have any kids with me? Am I just getting old? Perhaps both of those play into it, but I taught my children common courtesy and respect for others. And you can hear us to this day whispering to the dogs , shhhh, no one wants to listen to that. (yep we talk to the dogs)
So quiet is relative, but Tracey is sleeping and the dogs are cuddled up on their blanket and I am enjoying this time. However must put an end to it and get things rolling if we are going to make it to church this morning!!
We made it to church on time! Unfortunately we did not get any time with our friends Kelli, Doyle and Sandy this morning before they had to pull out and head home:( Hopefully we will adventure together again soon.
As we exit the freeway at Munds Park the church parking lot is filling up fast. We find a spot to park and walk toward the Church. We receive some smiles and glances from other attenders. I notice a car with a Vietnam Veteran sticker on the back window and point it out to Tracey. “I bet there are quite a few of those here” is Tracey’s response. As we look around we fall in the bottom of the age bracket of those we see. We enter the church lobby, are greeted pleasantly and handed worship folders. As we enter the sanctuary we are greeted by Pastor Steve. Steve is head pastor of Munds Park Community Church, he is also my sister’s husband’s sister’s husband. Got it? I had actually messaged ahead to Sara, Steve’s wife that we were going to try to attend their church this week. Sara and Steve suffered a tragedy in their family this week, so Sara could not be at church today. Sara and Steve’s son and wife lost a baby, their second child, their first son. God took him home at only 16 weeks gestation. Please pray for this amazing family as their grieve their loss and Heaven’s gain.
We hug Steve, he thanks us for coming. Steve briefly speaks to Tracey about the website and logo, a project Tracey did for the church when Steve first came to the church. We find some seats with the help of an usher and proceed to sit. As we begin to sit, we are asked to move over two more to allow another couple in the row. As we now go to sit down Tracey is shaking hands with a gentleman who is thanking him for the logo and website. Come to find out Tom is an Elder and Admin at the church. They are all very pleased with the logo and website. We, or Tracey mainly, are very blessed we were able to help.
We enjoy the service and the sermon preached by Steve. We were blessed to attend and witness the ordination of a new pastor.
Now back at the RV relaxing and hanging out with the dogs 🙂
So we felt a little guilty about leaving the dogs so much these past few days that we decided to hang with them all day. We took a long nature walk, practicing the dogs listening skills and they did pretty well. After which we sat outside and let them wander as long as their leashes would allow. They only had one brief incident where they didn’t listen on the first time. Once back inside we curled up on the couch and watched the 3rd movie in the Bourne series. You see I want to see the new one out in theaters right now, but have never seen any of the others. So Tracey told me I had to watch them all before I could see the new one!! We have one more to go. Took the dogs for another walk and came back just in time to fix a quick dinner and watch the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.
I did spend some time today reorganizing the kitchen cabinet above the sink. It seemed every time someone opened it something fell out. And we purchased two coffee mugs this morning from Munds Park Community Church as the mugs had their logo on it which we created for them. So I needed room to put two new mugs. It looks much better and even found additional room in there somehow!
We are feeling a bit lazy today so just hanging out. I was hoping for a torrential down pour and all we got was some thunder. It appears they got the storm at home. It figures it always rains up here, except when I am here and it never rains at home, except when I am away. SO we relax, enjoy the nice cool breeze, take in the last of the Olympics. Tomorrow we will pack up and head home. Good night all.
On our final morning we take the dogs for a walk, clean the bathrooms in the RV, organize things for travel, and have a quick bite to eat. We load up and head for home. It has been a great trip, very relaxing. The weather was wonderful, I would have liked a little more rain but all in all it was great. We hope you have enjoyed this adventure with us.
Be sure to check back soon for our next adventure!