Packing the motorhome for a four-month road trip was harder than either of us imagined. I’m sure there will be situations where we say, “I wish I had brought XX along.” It’s a learning experience. Before, we traveled with all of our belongings. Now with the cargo trailer gone, we have to be more selective and there’s no reason to try to bring everything we own.

On Wednesday morning, Donna dropped me off at the 202 RV Valet storage facility, then she went grocery shopping. I moved our coach to the end of the row where there was a water spigot and hooked up our filtration and filled the fresh water tank. We planned to boondock for a few nights and I wanted a full fresh water tank. I didn’t take it back to our place at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort because the only water spigot there is located behind the house at the rear of the property – I would have needed about 75′ of hose.

By the time I filled the 100-gallon tank and drove the coach back to Viewpoint, it was 11am. I had to obtain a 48-hour parking pass to park the coach on the street by our park model home. We began the process of loading the coach right after lunch and worked until dark.

On Thursday morning, we continued the process. Just packing all of the pantry supplies, spice cabinet, refrigerated and frozen foods was a big chore. I also put the Midget up on jack stands and removed the front wheels – I put the wheels in the double-locked storage shed to make it very difficult for anyone to steal the car while we’re away. I loaded Donna’s bicycle in the bed of our Nissan Frontier – I had made a cable locking system for it. I also loaded the Sea Eagle inflatable kayak in the truck, then I assembled the tow bar.

It was nearly 2pm before we were ready to hook the truck up to the coach. Our neighbor came out to help. Honestly, although I appreciated him, I didn’t really want the help. It was the first time hooking up the truck and I wanted to do it methodically and check each step of the process. We got it done and headed out.

Our plans went awry within half a mile. I had driven down the 200 lane and had to make a right turn onto the main street of the park. The person living on the corner to my right had placed a large rock cairn on the corner of their property. Due to a large palm tree in the center median on the street, my ability to drive deep into the street before turning was limited. The truck right front wheel struck the rock cairn. I was stuck. I had to disconnect the truck and move it, then reposition the coach on the main street and reconnect the truck. Not a great start.

By then it was 100 degrees out and 98 degrees in the coach. I fired up the generator to run the roof air conditioner as we drove down the road. Our route took us over Usery Pass to Bush Highway and AZ87 (Beeline Highway). Did I mention it was very hot out?The climb to Payson had me watching the engine coolant temperature closely. Any time it went over 195 degrees, I slowed and geared down to keep the engine rpms up and the load lower. Payson is 5,000 feet above sea level.

From Payson, we took AZ260 east. A little more than halfway between Payson and Heber, we found the Mogollon Rim Visitor Center. By the way, Mogollon is often mispronounced. People say “Moh-geh-yon” but the Arizona State Historian says it should be pronounced “Muggy-yawn.” We parked at the visitor center briefly. Donna texted our friends, Mike and Jodi Hall. They preceded us to the area and were meeting up with Frank and Kelly Burk at a camping area about 15 miles into the Sitgreaves National Forest.

I unhooked the Nissan and Donna drove it across the highway to Rim Road, I followed in the coach as we entered the national forest. The road was wide and paved for the first few miles, then it was graveled dirt – the dirt was fine powder, almost talcum like. It was dusty!

We made it 12 miles into the forest and found the cutoff for the spur road where we were told they were planning to set up. I left the coach on the main road and we drove about a mile down the spur road before we decided it was no go for the coach. The road had sharp rocks and potholes that would be hard on the tires and cause the coach to sway excessively – I could imagine everything falling out of cabinets.

We found a nice camp site just off of the main road – I think it was Forest Service 300 road (FS300) at the FS76 spur. Unfortunately, there was no cell service so we couldn’t let the rest of the crew know where we were. We had a peaceful, quiet and very dark night in the woods. Most people don’t envision pine forests when they think of Arizona, but northern Arizona has them, especially on the rim. We were 7,880 feet above sea level. Donna heard a cow elk calling near our site.

We decided against hanging around and trying to find our friends – we weren’t sure we had the right cutoff road or if we did, how far down they might be. We moved out of there at 9am Friday morning. Donna had spent a full day cleaning the interior of the coach last weekend, but now everything had a layer of fine dust, Same for the Nissan. Once we neared the highway, we regained cell service and I had a voicemail from Frank. We were on the right spur road to find them, but they were 3 miles down – too far to go back and forth every day on a rutted, rocky road, even in the truck.

We found another boondocking spot about 90 miles east at the entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park. There are free dry-camping sites at the Crystal Forest Museum and Gift Shop. We were set up there before noon and took the truck for drive into the national park. I have a lifetime America the Beautiful multi-agency senior pass. This got us into the park without paying fees – it’s usually $25 per car. The elevation there is 5,420 above sea level.

The petrified forest and painted desert are both part of the park. We stopped about a mile and a half into the park at the visitor center. There’s a hiking trail behind the center with lots of petrified tree trunk sections. Petrified wood is formed when trees are buried under silt for long periods of time – about 216 million years, give or take a few. The wood absorbs silica and other minerals as rain water percolates through the silt and quartz crystals bond with the cells of the tree – eventually making a replica of the organic tree material details in quartz form.

We drove through the park 26 miles to the north end, taking note of stops we wanted to make on the way back. The north end of the park has the Painted Desert Inn – a National Historic Landmark – and panoramic views of the Painted Desert. We stopped at Chinde Point where we we had a picnic lunch of the sandwiches Donna made.

Our next stop was at a place called teepees. The name comes from the shape of the hills formed from layers of sandstone there.

We made the driving loop at Blue Mesa. We didn’t hike much as I have a sore right knee. The last two times I played pickleball, I was rewarded with knee pain all afternoon. The pain persists now when I walk more than a few hundred yards – I’m not sure what’s up with that.

Blue Mesa is named for the layers of blue, purple and gray badlands that make up the area. Badlands aren’t just a place in the Dakotas – badlands describes an area void of vegetation with rock formations.

We made another stop and short walk to see Agate Bridge. This is a natural bridge formed from a petrified tree trunk. It was reinforced with concrete and people used to walk across it. Walking on it is forbidden now though.

We had another quiet night. The owner of the museum and gift shop doesn’t allow generators after 7pm or before 7:30am. Our Lifeline AGM house battery bank is holding up well – it hasn’t dropped below 12.5 volts at anytime on this trip.

We were on the road by 9am once again. We decided to head back to Cortez, Colorado. Donna talked to Shiree, the owner of La Mesa RV Park there and she could have a site for us on Sunday and we booked a month-long stay. The best route took us back through the national park, we exited at the north park entrance which loops back to I-40. We took I-40 about 20 miles east and hit US191 north. This took us through the west side of the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. It was much like the New Mexico route up US491, but with what appeared to be sparser population – not saying the New Mexico side is highly populated!

The road surface was great all the way to Chinde, where we had a little incident. I turned off the highway to get fuel at the Speedway station. Once I made the turn, I saw it was a trap. Getting to the pumps and back out of the station looked problematic. I looked at the GPS map and it showed the road I was on circling the station through a small neighborhood back to the highway.

I went down the block and turned right, then I saw the pavement ended a few hundred feet down the road where the road became a heavily rutted dirt road. If we had the cargo trailer behind us I would have just reversed back past the intersection we just came through and drove back to the highway. Towing a vehicle with four wheels down means no reversing. The castor angle of the front suspension would make the front wheel turn to full lock when you reverse and would result in a disaster. I had two choices – unhook the truck and get turned around – or continue slowly down the rutted lane. I opted for the latter and we made it out of there after a few choice words. Phew!

North of Chinle, the road surface deteriorated. It had whoops and rollers so bad that I had to slow to 45 mph on a road with a posted 65 mph speed limit. We eventually hit US160 and passed through Four Corners where we briefly drove through New Mexico and into Colorado. (The Four Corners Monument is currently closed due to COVID-19.) Our destination was the Ute Mountain Casino about 11 miles from Cortez. After about 250 miles of travel, we were ready to call it a day. We lost an hour as we’re now in Mountain Daylight Time. We dry camped for free once again in the casino truck lot – a large paved lot adjacent to the casino travel center. The Ute Mountain Casino sits at 5,880 feet above sea level.

This morning, we had cool temperatures – my phone app showed 40 degrees at 7am. The sun came over the mountain to the east of us and it warmed up quickly. We expect a high of 80 degrees today with the chance of a passing thundershower. We’ll gain a few hundred feet heading into Cortez and we’ll be about 6,200 feet above sea level.

I’ll close this post with a food picture. Last week I had to make my signature Memphis-style babyback ribs. I won’t be able make them again this summer – we’re traveling with just the Weber Q, no Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker-grill.

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