Made It!

I made it to Yuma in one piece.  Very easy drive but a tad hot!  It's 10 pm and still 97 degrees out.  Humid too.  I didn't know toes could sweat.  Thank god for swimming pools.

Tomorrow will be a busy day - got to get the Beast all tucked away for 3 months and catch a flight at 6 pm.  Went grocery shopping today and the cashier immediately asked if I was Canadian.  Seems we have an accent.  Who knew?

The El Paso Curse Has Lifted!

I made it through El Paso without any undue delays.  This makes a nice change from the previous two visits;  in the first, we were stuck for 3 hours on the side of the road when a spark plug blew out and then we had to spend 2 days in town waiting for repairs; in the second, they shut down the freeway and rerouted us through town, leaving us to guess how to get back onto the freeway.  Today, the GPS said there were delays everywhere but nothing materialised.  Yay!  It was a longish day (9 hours of driving) but I made it to Benson in one piece and found out that I gained 2 hours!  So now I'm really tired but it's only 8 pm so I don't dare go to bed.

Tomorrow, I arrive in Yuma and will be heading home on Sunday.  It's been a good trip overall - slightly rushed but good roads and good weather.

The Kindness of Strangers

Wow it's been a good day....with a few moments of terror thrown in.  My mirrors have been a problem since I left Sudbury.  As a precaution, I was tightening them before driving anywhere and would touch them up whenever I stopped.  So, I stopped outside Indianapolis, tightened the two mirrors and off I went.  Naturally, the right side mirror waited until I was on a five-lane highway and had to make numerous lane changes to catch various exits to begin to spin around.  Just to make things really interesting, the GPS told me to stay in a far left lane and then, at the last minute, told me to take a right-hand exit.  Naturally this necessitated a short tour around Indianapolis to get back to the right exit.   Sigh....I came close to clipping one guy but otherwise I got out of there unscathed and made it to Effingham, IL.

That's where the day took a dramatic turn for the better.  I called Chad, who runs a mobile RV service.  He came out within 20 minutes, fixed the mirrors and, for good measure, fixed my fridge (which hasn't been working on gas since Sudbury).  He remembered me from the last time I was here. Then my neighbours, who arrived at the same time I did, came over and invited me for dinner:  steak, mashed potatoes and corn.  Yummmmy!!!!  They are a very interesting couple from Missouri who gave me all kinds of tips on what to see and do out there.  Definitely have to go out to Silver Dollar City now!

So, I have a working fridge, stable mirrors and a full tummy.  The weather is beautiful, the roads are good and the travelling has been fairly easy.  Oh yes, and I gained an hour somewhere along the way.  Tomorrow, Arkansas!

Sitting in a Parking Lot, Sweating

That's what I'm doing right now.....It's been a very long day.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I met a lovely family at the Soo KOA.  Karen and Brent and their kids, Bri and Jordan, invited me over for a fire and we talked and talked.  It was such a nice evening!  The kids are provincial champion figure skaters (you can tell, because they are Fit!!!)  Brent even came over to look at my batteries, which are not sparking enough juice to keep the fridge going when I travel.  Doesn't matter - I have no food in there anyhow.  Which also doesn't matter because I have no appetite - this stupid bought of bronchitis is excellent as a diet aid.

I left the Soo at 9:10 a.m. and was through the border by 10:10, which I thought was pretty good for a holiday weekend.  The trip south, according to mapquest was going to take 6 hours.  Maybe in a Ferrari.  In a beat up old RV, it took just a tad longer.  Especially when you have to stop every few miles to tighten the mirrors, which keep coming loose.  I didn't bother stopping for lunch.  All I have left is a taco shell and one slice of baloney - and that's for breakfast tomorrow.  The 2 frozen meals are completely thawed but I'm saving them for dinner.

So, by 6:15, I arrived at the campground that I had to beg for 2 days to reserve.  I got there and found a dirt road with a sign saying that big rigs should not go down into the gully.  There were 4 derelict RVs parked at the top of a small hill, across from a porta potty.  I called the office, told them where I was and they told me to go to the top of the hill and park in spot #18.  There was no spot #18.  I found 16, which would have fit a hamster cage.  The look of the place did not inspire confidence.  The road out was a swamp and I almost got stuck in the muck on my 3rd trip around the loop looking for #18.  Fortunately, I had seen a sign for Yogi's Jellystone camp just a couple of miles up the road.  Unfortunately (this being a holiday weekend), they were full up.  But they did allow me to camp in their parking lot, which also has electric and water hookups.  And WiFi.  It's 90 degrees out and humid.  I finally got settled by 7:30.    But then they wouldn't let me take my mobility scooter into the park to go for a dip in the pool.  Might have been the homicidal look in my eyes.

So here I am, sitting in a parking lot and sweating.  But I feel much happier being here than in a field full of muck and a porta potty.   My quest for tomorrow will be to find a campground which is near a grocery store.

Tomorrow, I'll be in Effingham, IL.  I'm hoping to get my fridge fixed.  Keep your fingers crossed.

On The Road Again

Well, I'm off.  I left Grundy this morning and am heading for Arizona to store the Beast until I can get back later this winter.  Of course, on reflection, it might have been better to wait until after the holiday weekend but I do love a challenge.  I hope to make it in 9 days.  Good thing I have audiobooks.

Wish me luck!

In Need of an Exorcism

We have decided that my sisters' RV is under the influence of demonic possession.  This first manifested on the trip to Texas, when the outside door would suddenly burst open even though the door was securely locked.  This necessitated having her passenger lean out of the RV at 75 mph to try to close it before the cat got out.  Then, of course, the unit was flooded with black water (aka sewage) in the only place in the Northern Hemisphere where the people were a) completely unaware of the dangers of contaminated water and b) too stupid to care.  It took 7 months to get the RV repaired and my sisters had to make a quick trip to Texas in mid-summer to retrieve it - only to find out that the toilet hoses had been grouted up, the sink wasn't connected properly and the dinette seats weren't bolted down.   This required another full month of repairs in Ontario.  But the demon wasn't through with them yet....on the way to Texas they had a high-speed blowout.  But then, in Ontario, the same car developed a slow leak which was from a unique bulge in one tire.  The tire tech said he had never seen anything like it.  So - 2 tires replaced.  Then, on the way back from the repair shop, another tire on a different car they were in went flat.  Come to think of it, I also developed a flat on my car after my sister and I went for dinner.  The tech said there was a screw in it but he had never seen one go into the side of the tire like that one did.  Hmmmmm.....One could be bad luck, but 4 tires????  We need intervention.  Anyone have the phone number for the pope?