Obviously, I took a break...a really long break. A lot has happened and there was a good reason, to me anyway, for the break.
My last road trip started out in a very negative way, i.e., the darn engine light came on about two hours west of Tucson on I-8. I also still didn't have roadside assistance so the tow to Freightliner in Chandler was a bit pricy. I guess I didn't learn from the last tow in Utah, or I just like throwing money away. Definitely not the latter.
My friend, Cathy, and I ended up spending three days in Chandler and I dropped a ton of money before we left. When it was time to leave, on a Sunday, Cathy talked me into doing something I swore I'd never do...drive the freeway through Phoenix. But it made sense. It was early Sunday morning, not crowded and it would save us lots of miles. So I did it and I survived!!!
Prior to leaving Tucson I splurged and bought a tow dolly so I could take my Volvo with me. I wanted to go to Victoria, BC and I wanted to go in my vehicle. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, I wish I had never gotten a tow dolly. It was a nightmare for most of the trip...straps kept coming off no matter how tightly Cathy or I put them on, the deterioration of the brand new tires wasn't pretty and I ended up replacing them in Ellensburg, WA after having been up in the Seattle area for awhile. In Twin Falls, ID at the local KOA, the dolly got twisted so I wasn't able to drive up on the ramps until two gentlemen helped straighten it out.
But the big one happened in Oregon, near Multnomah Falls. We were looking for a state park and Cathy had programmed it into her GPS. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication and I ended up on a road I had no business being on, with a 40' motorhome towing an SUV behind it. Long story short, we managed to extricate ourselves, with some help, and continued on our way. Turns out that's all I can say about the experience. It still freaks me out thinking about and I don't want to relive it. We did find the state park and it was full.
And that's why I quit blogging. By the time I dropped Cathy off in Salt Lake City and headed for Tucson, I was done. I was overwhelmed with the difficulties that occurred and I wasn't having any fun. I found a cheap RV park in Cal-Nev-Ari and pulled in there for a few days.
I still had my Winnebago View and it was parked in the space where I usually parked my Alfa so I had to move it. The place I called told me there was only one space left and I needed to be there by a certain date or I'd lose the space.
I left my Alfa in Cal-Nev-Ari and drove to Tucson. Turns out the guy lied to me and there were lots of spaces.
Since things happen the way they're supposed to happen, while I was standing in the space where I parked my Alfa for the winter, a lady driving by stopped and started talking to me. I don't know why I told her my sob story and that I was ready to just walk away from my Alfa, but she informed me that she had her CDL and had driven semis, etc., etc. I hired her on the spot and she drove me back to pick up my Alfa and then drove my Alfa back to Tucson. That was the best money spent on the whole trip!!!
There's more but I'll save that for another post. In the meantime, I have to figure out how to post pictures. It seems to have changed since I last posted a picture and I can't figure out how to do it...yet.
It was great "talking" to you and I'll post more...soon.
