The Bump in the Road

April 29, 2014

Thank you everyone who is following this grand adventure. We so appreciate you rooting for us, your comments, and definitely appreciate your prayers when the going gets tough. We definitely could have done without The Land of OZ's (the name of the trailer if you are just joining us) mishaps along the way. But that's all a part of being on the road. I use to think I needed to do my best to avoid the bumps in the road, but the bumps ARE the road! Keep breathing and stay present is my mantra.

April 25th we left Albuquerque on Route 66, and would follow it only as far as Clines Corners before heading south back down to Roswell (we spent our first night in NM here)... Headed to Bottomless Lakes State Park. We are chasing the warm weather...90 degrees! This week up near the Bisti the low temps are colder than Duluth's low!!

Billboard after billboard, announcing the upcoming Cline's Corners ... (New Mexico's version of Wall's Drugs?)
Cline's Corners is a prosperous stop along Interstate-40. It offers gas, food, and all manner of souvenirs for tourists. Ok.... yeah, I bought Route 66 magnet.

     
Roy Cline bought  land at the junction of Highway 6 and Highway 2. In 1937 Route 66 was re-aligned north of Cline's Corner so Roy picked up his building and moved with it. Once again Roy had to move when the state moved Highway 2 east. The building followed and finally settled at its final location. Today it sits at the junction of Highway 285 and Interstate-40 (once Route 66) and business looks very good indeed.

Venturing south, 50 miles or so, Gerard starts shouting, "Our trailer's coming apart, our trailer's coming apart!" I say what do you mean the trailer's coming apart? "Just what I said, the trailer's coming apart!" By then he had us pulled over and I am scrambling to grab cameras and get out to see the siding ripped away from the trailer with who knows how much insulation went down the road and the wood box underneath exposed. Geez!!!!! Seriously?

 A state trooper pulls over to see what he can do. Gerard tells him we will do our best to tuck the panels back in and duct tape it together.

Mission accomplished, back on the road for about 5 miles and dang... it's apart again. Pull over grab the tape and start doubling up again. What the reader must know is that we are in the middle of friggin' nowhere!!!! 100 miles or more to Albuquerque, 140 miles to Roswell. We are in wide open plains and high winds are about to hit the next day. We have to make it to the park!

i can see for miles and miles and miles and mile and miiiiillles

Two police officers pull over. They are concerned about us continuing on, but they know (more than we do) that there is no place to shelter from the upcoming winds with the trailer. They give us the name and number of the Chief of Police and tell us to call if we need anything else or a place to stay. Gerard sees we are running out of tape and asks where we can get more and they go to the cruiser and grab us a roll.

officers friendly

Literally, the next two towns on the map have one abandoned building each. Oh lordy.... we needed that roll of tape. We would stop two more times to reinforce.
Another guy pulled over to offer help, he was pulling a 46 year old airstream. Said we might consider buying used next time!

 At 7:30 pm, we arrive at Bottomless Lakes State Park and make camp just before it gets completely dark. Whew!

do you think we could build a trailer out of duct tape?

So it's Friday night and we know we won't get any answers until Monday. Breathe and stay present. I don't feel like I can sell OZ in good conscience. I know they won't be willing to take it back. I know they will fix it and they will want us to bring it back to Tucson....481 miles from here.... over roads we have gone 4x! No way in hell am I going to Tucson again. An alumni student, Andrew Olson, who is graduating form law school in a couple weeks, does some research for us and we are armed with the numbers of Arizona's Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General and a name and number of an Arizona attorney.

Pronghorn on New Mexico Hwy 380

After driving 244 miles across the flatest land I have ever seen, we have landed in place that is tucked in down under some limestone bluffs in a campground with pristine cenote to gaze out (more on Bottomless Lakes next post... are they really bottomless?)

To make a long story at least a little shorter– Monday the 28th  we were told we needed to bring it back to Tucson. It's a vendor issue, the siding is defective. We almost agree, but after some go around with the manufacturer, they came up with the idea to bring a crew here and repair it on site. I told them I just couldn't put the wear and tear on the car as we have discovered two issues: warped rotors and we are burning oil. (my father, retired Ostos Auto Service owner, is keeping an eye on us ...we report to him how much oil we are going through) We are burning a quart every 800 to 1000 miles. Something we will have to repair when we return.

Well that's enough for your weary eyes.... until the next post.

"Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain't got no cigarettes
Ah, but, two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means, king of the road."

Onward and Eastward

April 20-25

The blog posts are piling up in the computer. The last few days we have been without phone or internet access. So forgive me for posting one after another. We really have to figure out how to make Verizon work for us without a contract. We are currently on Consumer Cellular which has worked well for us until becoming nomads.  Verizon is the only service that works most places. However, Verizon probably wouldn't have worked in the Bisti and this little community of Prewitt that is tucked down in the hills off of I-40 about 100 miles west of Albuquerque. 

the most perfect night camping yet!

Bluewater Lake State Park is another gem of a campground at the end of the road through Prewitt. We had a nearly perfect evening camped on top of a canyon on one side and sparkling, blue lake with wild horses on the other side. As I understand it the horses are more feral than wild. The community and the state park just let them be. They have free reign.

It's a sight to see. Our other resident campers were Great American White Pelicans and four osprey.  Although, there are electric hook-ups in this park, the most beautiful campsites  were dry sites on the cliff overlooking the lake. Our solar panel is doing a great job recharging the batteries and we filled up with fresh water. I was ready to stay here for a week. Unfortunately the following day, we were blasted with gusty winds that made for an afternoon of working on jewelry inside the trailer. Late in the day, we drove out towards the highway and found ourselves a cell tower to sit under so we could check the weather and make alternative plans. The forecast was for another blustery day and temps only in the 50s. Our decision was to pack up and head to Albuquerque. We're moving towards warmer temps.

On the way back to camp, three cows were having dinner in front of the ranger station….everywhere reminders we are not in Minnesota.

the perfect campsite at Bluewater Lakes State Park

There are no state parks near Albuquerque or BLM sites anywhere. So we had to suck it up and do an RV park. A really nice RV park recommended by our new road friend Susan. We had full hook-ups, internet, laundry and continental breakfast and a discount (with our good sam membership), but still as most RV parks are located on the interstate, I question how well I slept.

Our agenda in Albuquerque was to hook-up with my friend Manan, restock supplies and take a tour at our silver and gold supplier before moving back out into the wilds.

Setting up camp is getting to be old hat and there was plenty of time to head into Old Albuquerque. This historic old part of town has been the heart of Albuquerque since the city was founded on 1706. Today, this neighborhood is the city's cultural center. A group of Spanish families in 1706 settled here , not far from the Rio Grande. The settlers organized the town in traditional Spanish style, with a central plaza anchored by a church.  When the original church collapsed after a long rainy summer of 1792, they rebuilt it and in 1793 San Felipe de Neri was completed. Today, this adobe church with walls 5 feet thick is the oldest in Albuquerque.

out for frybread tacos and sopapillas

Lori Zimney, show Ariana... Uncle Gerard had to take this for her

love the colors of the southwest

The following day allowed for chores–laundry and grocery before setting out to meet my friend Manan and his gal Barbara. He treated us to a fabulous dinner at Nick and Jimmy's. The conversation was so engaging, there was not one shutter click of the camera. How did I let that happen?

In our excursions, we discovered the Gathering of Nations was starting this very weekend. It is the largest powwow in the North America. Unfortunately for us, it was to be held inside and we have Sitka. Hard to believe we were so close to that kind of experience. So happy that Barbara and Manan were able to attend.

Our morning of departure took us to Rio Grande Jewelry Supply. Not knowing what to expect exactly, we were blown away by the experience. We are more proud than ever to know where our raw product comes from. Rio Grande manufactures and distributes tools, equipment, gems, findings, displays and packaging for jewelers.

The company continues to be run by the family of the original visionary Saul Bell. Saul was able to buy the old White Eagle Trading Post on Historic Route 66 in 1944. It was war time and silver was scarce, but Saul managed to keep his doors open to allow silversmiths to continue their work.

He extended credit to craftsmen who wouldn't otherwise been able to continue working during such hard times. Today, Saul's three children along with a leadership team and 300 associates use participative management as strive to work in as flat a hierarchy as possible. (Deming principles) I strived throughout my career to work with organizations who were willing to operate under such cooperation. I was so fascinated to see a company be successfully operating this way!

Probably all more than you wanted to read about, but I was so impressed by this company. Even more so when we found out that almost everything requiring electricity– from jewelry making and manufacturing equipment to lights and computer is powered by the sun. They installed five acres of solar panels atop their parking lot! The largest commercial solar array in New Mexico.

solar panels over parking lot
cool shaded car and energized workplace


Next: A Bump in the Road

The Bisti

The Bisti Wilderness

Easter Sunday

the view out the bedroom window at Red Rcok

 Leaving Arizona, we found the Red Rock Campground. It is a gem of a park on the Navajo Reservation. Heading east of Gallup on Route 66 or I-40, take Highway 566 and the park is just on the left. A towering cliff of sandstone frames the campsites. We left Red Rock Easter Sunday afternoon to head deeper into the Navajo Reservation. I think the universe was very specific in having us camp out on the reservation at a place with a church rock.

Sitka and I wandered up and down the cliffs in silence of a perfect spring morning, letting Gerard sleep in before breaking camp and heading north about 60 miles. We were given directions through a number of rez roads …a short cut  to New Mexico's badlands. Being in Navajo country is spectacularly beautiful

The Bisti.. pronounced bis-tie needs a blog post all to itself. Gerard likens it to walking into a Salvador Dali painting.  Difficult to believe we haven't been abducted by aliens. Why has this one place on earth worn into these spires and hoodoos? It has to be a geologists dream.

Once we arrived, we set up camp...just out there no real campground as it is BLM (Bureau of Land Management Land). We set off late in the afternoon to descend into an eerie, alien world of tawny desert, stunning rock formations, towering hoodoos and fairy chimneys, fossils and petrified wood. The otherworldly landscape is something I suspect I will not see the likes of again.

The unusual -- and ever-changing -- scenery is a product of time and the natural elements. The area that includes the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness was once a river delta that lay just to the west of the shore of an ancient sea, the Western Interior Seaway, which covered much of New Mexico 70 million years ago. 

The water slowly receded and eventually disappeared, leaving behind a 1,400-foot-thick layer of jumbled sandstone, mudstone, shale, and coal that lay undisturbed for 50 million years. Then, 6,000 years ago, the last ice age receded, exposing fossils and eroding the rock into the fantastic hoodoos you see today, according to the University of Montana's Wilderness.net.

 

The second morning, we set out at daybreak. I am glad I read that it is best to take photos early or late in the day. Mid day sun would just wash out the definition within the photo. It was a walk I won't soon forget. We covered only about 6 miles. It is a place you could walk forever and never see it all.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

On the Road Again

On the Road Again

April 18, 2014

We're on the road to New Mexico…once again. We're nearing the border and back to the destinations we had hoped to see….minus Utah. Oh well…another year perhaps. I have to pat myself on the back; I made it through Salt River Canyon! I won't say it was easy, but I fared much better than I had imagined.

Salt River Canyon

Today was our first cloudy day. We left Globe, AZ at 6am, heading up Arizona  Hwy 77 and we were in Showlow, AZ by 8:10. The universe answered my prayers and I didn't hold up any traffic going my snail pace. In fact, most of the time there was no one behind us. The canyon is like being able to drive down into the Grand Canyon.

It was spectacular. Going into the canyon we were at about 3300 feet and driving up and out to an altitude of 5300 feet. I put Buddy (the Saturn Vue) into low and kept going up keeping my eyes on the yellow line.
This road had guard rails and in many places, shoulders that eased my crazed psyche.

With a quick stop in Holbrook to fill our water tank we were off to the Petrified Forest. Neither of us had any idea of what to  expect and found ourselves in awe. We were also extremely grateful that this national park loves dogs. They

are welcome on all the trails.

Wigwam Motel on Historic Route 66 in Holbrook, AZ

Before entering the park there is the Crystal Forest Gift Shop on Hwy 180 which offers free camping! Perfect for our one nights stay. No hookups, but our batteries are charged and propane tanks full. We set up camp and off we went for an afternoon of hiking amongst massive trees more petrified than me on the mountain roads.

Can you pick that log up Gerard?

200 million years ago, Arizona was located near the equator. The tropical climate and environment then couldn't have been any more different than it is today. Imagine a large basin of numerous rivers flowing through the lowland with coniferous trees up to ten feet in diameter towering almost 200 feet into the sky. Over time trees died or were knocked down by wind or the action of water. Rivers and streams carried the trees downstream. Many tree trunks came to rest on the banks of the river while others were buried in the stream channels, many trees decomposed, but some of the trees petrified. Petrification happened by volcanic ash being carried and missing with the sediments that created a solution that filled the cells of the trees, crystallizing as mineral quartz. Iron and other mineral combined with the quartz creating the brilliant rainbow of colors!

One of my favorite sites today was hiking the Blue Mesa, my photos just don't capture the feeling of the place.

Inn at Painted Desert

Painted Desert

There has been nothing but sun since we arrived in the southwest, but as previously mentioned, along with the cloudy day today, came our first rainstorm. Hoping this is it, because the roads into the Bisti Wilderness need to be dry. The Bisti is just a bit over 200 miles from here. We continue to agree that we won't push to make it someplace. Tomorrow we will overnight on a Navajo reservation a bit east of Gallup, NM. But first this morning we will drive through the national park as it is the way to I-40 and at the other end is the Painted Desert to wander through. Then Easter Sunday it's into the wild.

Painted Desert National Monument

"Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again."

Back to Square One (written about 2 weeks ago)

A week ago we were headed for destinations north in New Mexico. We made it only about 50 miles from Truth or Consequences when we discovered another issue with the trailer. A side panel had come out of the S-lock.

yep, duct taped together

A call to the manufacturer and we were told we needed to return to Tucson.... DAYUM! So frustrating.

To make the best of it, we chose to take scenic byways and what extraordinary country we passed through. However, I am still struggling with the windy, twisty mountain roads with no guard rails and sheer drop offs with 10mph u-turn turns! I wish I could just relax into it. There's so much to see and do out here. We will only scratch the surface.

VLA (Very Large Array) out on U.S. 60 in New Mexico

Unbeknownst to us the way the trailer and car were riding, all kinds of problems were developing. The car was nose up and we were not riding level. The trailer was just being shaken apart. In the end, we would be very grateful that we returned to Tucson. There was no real way to know, (though I am not entirely sold about that, Gerard kept questioning how the car looked before we pulled away the first time). Anyways, the cabinets were coming apart from the ceiling,

cabinets falling down

the outside panel had come apart, we were still having issues with the hybrid bed arms and finally, on our first boondocking experience in the Dragoon Mts, the pipe to the grey water tank separated from the tank.

bolted hybrid door arms

grey water pipe separated from tank

No way this would all be fixed in a day. We spent one night at LaQuinta as we were too tired to drive to Phoenix and be rescued by family. (I should be really racking up those LaQuinta points) They would need to keep the trailer for 5 days. My aunt and uncle (Ronnie and Chuck)came to the rescue and we had a soft place to fall. We continue to be shunpikers and took the state highway through a beautiful blooming desert.

What a wonderful visit all ways around. They took us to dinner and 2-stepping, but we didn't venture out on the dance floor with all those cowboy hats. Had a great visit with my cousin Matthew who cooked up a fabulous steak dinner.

We also and made a drive up to Prescott to visit my girlfriend Mary We had a great day catching up and fabulous sushi lunch at her husband Jerry's favorite haunt.

Once we returned to Tucson, as I suspected, it wouldn't be easy getting back on the road. The trailer was in good shape. They had jacked it up so we have higher clearance and installed a load leveler. Fixed the cabinets and figured out that the hybrid bed arms had been installed incorrectly, so that is what was causing the latches to fail. Just as we were leaving a part on our car failed and a new tail light splitter had to be installed. It took 6 hours to get out of there. We made it to our campground just before dark. (Up a dirt mountain road...geesh).

Peppersauce Canyon Campground was a pretty spot up on Mt. Lemon about 50 miles from Tucson. We were the only ones there...well the only ones camped there. Unfortunately, there was a boys behavior camp at the end of the campground. Early morning traffic of shift change was a certain surprise. I realized the drive to Holbrook would just be too much so I convinced Gerard to pack up and head to Globe, AZ up Hwy 77 to break it up. I just can't pull through these mountains and cover much ground. I found a conservation corp campground to go to, unfortunately, there is no camping allowed there anymore, after having missed the turn and realizing we were heading up the mountain on a dirt narrow road with no way to turn around. I was a basket case and I bailed. I called the Chamber of Commerce who had given us directions and was told there was a wide space up top the mountain where GERARD could turn around.

up the mountain he goes while I hang back quaking in my shoes

Seriously, I was shaking and in tears. When Gerard came down the mountain, he said I had made a wise choice to get out of the car. My brave man saved the day! The Chamber told us the fairgrounds had a campground. Turned out it was perfect. Yes, big parking lot but amazing mountain views and prison view, but no complaints as we had full hookups and wifi for $10 a night because they didn't come collect the money for the 3rd night!

so we also had a view of the prison... interesting to say the least

parking lot camping at the fairgrounds... not a bad view

I can now say we are officially back on the road. We hope to be in New Mexico again maybe in two more days.

Historic Dominion Copper Mine

downtown Globe, Az

Chotchkie heaven

I've never seen this purple glass

Tonto National Monument

Ruins of the Saldado people at Tonto Nat'l Monument

Tonto National Monument with Roosevelt Lake in the distance

Movin' me down the highway
Rollin' me down the highway
Movin' ahead so life won't pass me by