Kingman, AZ
Thursday June 5, 2009
We left Tucson on Wednesday a little after noon and drove to Wickenburg, AZ that day. It was hotter than heck…some places our thermometer on the truck read 125!! Once parked in Wickenburg, at the ONLY RV park we could find, our thermometer on the trailer read 130 at 6:30 p.m!! Of course it was in the direct sun, but it had to be close to that temp! IT WAS HOT! It took the AC on the 5th wheel over 5 hours to cool down to 80 degrees! We have found hell and it is in Wickenburg!
Up the next morning early and on the wroad by 8:30 a.m. We headed towards Kingman on Hwy. 93, which we will travel until Twin Falls, ID this trip. We have never traveled this wroad and decided it would be good for a change. Let me tell you….good isn’t exactly how I would describe the wroad between Wickenburg and Kingman. Up one steep hill, then down, etc. You get the picture. However, I ran over 3 snakes…that’s 3 less snakes in the world and that is a good thing!
About 30 miles north of Wickenburg we are driving along at about 65 MPH when I hear a BANG, SHHHHUUUSSH. What was that? I slowed down, and luckily we were about 200 yards from a roadside rest area…so I pulled in. We got out and looked around the truck, trailer; under the truck, trailer; under the hood, etc. (as if looking under the hood made any sense to me…okay, the engine is still there and nothing looked obviously wrong..end of inspection!) Tires are okay, nothing leaking (my first thought was “oh hell, another transmission gone” after being on our 5th transmission) – well, things don’t go BANG, SHHHUUUSSH for nothing. We couldn’t find a thing. What to do? We decided to go ahead and see what happens. I get back out on the road and hmmm…I don’t have much power. Matter of fact, going up some of the hills I was in low gear and crawling along at 5 MPH and praying we would make it to the top of the hill!! Down the hill as fast as I can go, crawl up the next hill. This went on for over 80 miles…but Black Beauty (what we call our F350) kept going. Finally reached I-40 and we are 23 miles from Kingman, and there is a Ford dealer there. At a little after noon we crawl into the Ford dealer. I was positive Black Beauty was gasping her last breath! I was already looking at the lot to see what they had. However, the mechanic took one look as said, “You have blown a turbo boot.” Okay, what is that? It is the rubber thingy that is on a long pipe that connects the thingy to the whatchmacallit to the turbo. NOT the turbo itself, thank goodness. And yes, they have the part and we can be on the wroad in about an hour. YES!
Fortunately, there is a dirt lot next to the dealership that we can drop the trailer, which we do. In Black Beauty goes to the doctor. After they pull the pipe that has the turbo boot on it, they discover that not only did we blow the lower boot, but the upper boot is gone as well. And, of course, that part they don’t have!!!! It is on order and will be in tomorrow morning.
Now, the trailer is parked in this dirt lot, the wind is blowing a hurricane and dust is everywhere. I called Good Sam Towing Service and tell them our problem. They say “no problem, we will find you a tow to the KOA in town”…shoulda’ known it wouldn’t be that easy. All I can say, is Cortney, remember Toad River??? ARG!!! FIVE hours later, after several calls between me and Good Sam, and they claim they still haven’t found a tow truck that has a 5th wheel receiver on it to tow us (this makes no sense to me…) I am fuming mad. What good are they, I mean, the y are in the business to assist Rvers and TOW them, right? Now, remember, we have NO POWER and NO WATER. We also have no water on board in our fresh water tank (oversight on my part that I will never make again). Good Sam is saying that the only tow truck they can find that can help us, is in Las Vegas, 110 miles away and they can’t get to us for another 3 hours. That makes it 9:30 p.m. CRAP! After chewing out Good Sam (and a scathing letter will be written) we tell them to forget it. We said we would find a a tow truck and file our bill for reimbursement, but oh no, we couldn’t do that either. We finally decided to just stay here (not much choice) with no power or water and go to sleep. We had 2 gallons of bottled water, which we used to flush toilet, etc. Thank goodness it wasn’t hot, it was only 80 degrees and again, the wind blowing a gale. I think I may have gotten 4-5 hours sleep all together last night and I don’t think Al, the dogs or cats got much more.
So here we are Friday morning and the parts are in and we are waiting for them to finish the repair so we can be on the wroad again. It is 73 degrees out as I write this (10:30 a.m., Friday) and the wind is blowing strong. I wonder if the wind always blows in Kingman? The people here at the Ford dealership have been wonderful help to us. They tried to get us power, but it was just too far from their receptacle to the trailer and we kept blowing the circuit breaker. As for water, this morning they brought us 5 gallons of fresh water. I bet I drank 2 gallons of it already! They have ordered their shuttle to be at our disposal, however, there is a Golden Corral and I-Hop across the street so we have walked over there for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Al has managed to walk over there and back, with the use of his cane. It is about a quarter of a mile over and back. He has done fairly well walking it, but he is very unsteady.
To amuse ourselves, Al has read and I have walked, walked and walked, thrown the ball for the dogs so many times even Beau isn’t interested! Now, you know how many times I have done that!!!!! I have done all the crossword puzzles I had with me and I have finished one book and started another. However, I am resting!!!!
Noon, Friday and we are off. All of the power on the south end of Kingman is out, so we can only hope we can find a gas station up the wroad that has power so we can get some fuel!!
Friday, June 05, 2009 9:15 PM, Caliente, Nevada
To continue our saga, we finally found fuel just outside of Kingman and off we go. WOW…the truck has power. The wind is blowing like crazy and unfortunately it isn’t pushing us along, we are fighting a head/side wind. Traffic is light as we head up 95 towards Vegas. We decided not to take 93 out of Kingman across Hoover Dam as the wait to cross the dam is 2 hours long. We go through Laughlin instead.
We flew through Las Vegas….I was concerned as we hit Vegas at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon and I figured traffic would be awful, however, we were through Vegas and on I-15 heading north in 30 minutes.
Traveling up Hwy 93, which is called the Great Basin Highway was a surprise for us. For one thing, we figured we would see nothing but desert and more desert. Imagine our surprise to see Joshua trees alongside the wroad for the first few miles, then beautiful meadows and a wonderful, green, lush valley!!! HUH? This is Nevada, right? We are in the little town of Caliente tonight…4800 feet elevation, it was 70 degrees when we arrived…perfect! We figured this drive would be hot, so we are very happy it was 80 degrees in Vegas and cooler as we headed up 93! We are in a nice RV park, somewhat like Odessa’s RV park, lots of green and trees. Also lots of deer! One scared the heck out of Schuster tonight while we were playing ball! I don’t think he has ever seen a deer!
We have no cell service here..one place AT&T has forgotten! I have no idea when I will find a place to post this blog either. However, this has been a very pleasant drive today, very little traffic and as I said before, beautiful scenery!!
Saturday, June 6 Twin Falls, Idaho BRRRR…it’s cold! 59 degrees.
We had a very pleasant, if not wet, drive today. We left Caliente and enjoyed the scenery along Hwy 93. However, when we left Caliente, we had the discussion of should we get fuel here or not. We had ¾ of a tank of fuel and 168 miles to Ely, NV. Should be no problem! Besides diesel was expensive in that little town! So off we go. Apparently we were on the underside of the ¾ mark, as the fuel gage dropped to ½ in about 30 miles. Al is looking at the map and saying..there is nothing until ELY. Still…we should have plenty of fuel for 130 miles. Uh Huh! We kept going – again, beautiful scenery, in the middle of nowhere! By the time we made the turn onto Hwy 50/93 we were 30 miles from Ely and the “LOW FUEL” light comes on. GREAT! We are climbing over a pass at the time…so I keep going. The “Low Fuel” light stays on and we coast into Ely … we took 37.6 gallons of fuel in a 38 gallon tank! WHEW!!!!!
The rest of the day was uneventful….pretty drive to Idaho Falls, however, it has rained on us since Ely. And we have had wind the entire trip…my shoulders are sore from holding on to the wheel to fight the wind. Black Beauty is purring along just fine, happy to be well again. The dogs and I have managed to find somewhere to play ball every night, including last night during a break in the rain! Schuster has really been stretching his legs and running full tilt! He is so pretty to watch when he runs like that. Also, Al took a fall this evening trying to connect the water hose. He is okay, but it scared me! I don't have gray hair for nothing! And I keep blaming the kids for my gray hair...anyway, a couple of men in the RV park saw him fall and rushed over to help me get him up. I gotta' figure a way that I can get him up when he falls...anyone have any ideas?
June 7, 2009, Sunday Morning
After a night of pounding rain and I slept like a baby, we are getting ready to wroll. Depending on weather, we will probably go to Pendleton today and then into Odessa on Monday. Right now it is raining and windy, so it will be a slow drive today. More when I find another internet connection!
Al, Jo and pets,
THE WROAMIN’ WRASPIRS
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