Advertisement
Published: July 13th 2013
The one about making a good decision that cost me a day and THE DOG
Happy Birthday, Aunt Judy!!
I took Thursday off from writing. I needed a change of pace.
MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL THE WAY PAST MY CLOSING TODAY!!
I am getting used to being up before 6am. The biorhythms of this fluffy east coast girl are too embedded to change. 6am is really 8am. When I go to bed at 10pm that is really midnight. I am getting more sleep than I am used to, and I guess that is a good thing. Nice night for sleeping. Windows open, fan blowing on me, and when I woke up the temperature was 72.
I was up and out early to get to Camping World for 8am. As I waited to turn left onto Old Historic 66, what do you think buzzed by? That same yellow Camaro. I swear. I saw the bumper sticker. It was eerie. CW doesn’t do appointments, it’s first come first serve. I was second; not bad. 3 hours later I was still there. I was antsy. Winston was antsy. I was sitting in a nice canteen style waiting area,
free coffee and popcorn, a favorite of Winston’s – the popcorn, not the coffee. Wifi was wonderful; I spent the time plotting my next course and searching for campgrounds. As hour 1 approached, a couple my age came in, with a suitcase, a small canvas dog carrier, and a laptop. She looked haggard, he looked annoyed. When Winston realized there was a dog in that carrier, he had to say hello; that opened the conversation door. Sue and Bob (like that, Susie T??) were from TN in their 15 month old Thor Class A with NO tow car. They have been on the road about 3 weeks now, just toodling around with no particular itinerary. A week ago while driving down the road their door flew open; they pulled over and saw that the door latching mechanism had disintegrated. DISINTEGRATED?? Those are mighty strong words. They bought their rig at a Camping World, saw that Albuquerque was the closest, thought (wrongly) there might be some type of warrantee left on it. A few bungee cords strategically placed and they show up on CW’s doorstep. I don’t want to bore you with all the details I got, just let me say
CW played with them. Each morning they arrived, each evening they left, with little to no work being done. Their first night they stayed where I was at Enchanted Trails, and didn’t like it, so they opted to go to the KOA clear across town. I don’t understand that move at all, as they could have walked back to ET and sat at the pool or in their air-conditioned rec room instead of CW, but different strokes for different folks. During all this relocation, their rear hydraulic levelers broke, so at least CW had something they could fix, replaced the seal, and added fluid. Wednesday morning a whole new assembly was ordered and overnighted from Thor on Thursday, and I was at the desk when it arrived. The CW service rep told Bob there was no way any of his techs could get to it in the remaining time on Thursday. Bob picked up his parts box (which he had to pay for prior to it getting overnighted) and he and Sue were going to drive to OK City CW. IMHO, these 2 had no common sense. If it was not in warranty, why go all the way to OK
City when there was another HUGE RV dealer/service right next door. I would have driven in there to see if they had someone capable of installing the new assembly. Most annoying thing to them was they couldn’t go out to eat, didn’t want to leave the door unlocked or closed with bungee cords. As it was their only door, they couldn’t even secure it from the inside and get out another way, (crawling thru the window was not an option). And, they didn’t have a tow car to go anywhere anyway. No wonder they were haggard and annoyed, I would have been, too, I just would have made other choices. Their dog was a 4 month old Maltese that ate rocks.
At the 3 hour mark I was back at the service desk. Service rep, Grant, told me my rig was ready, but he was too busy fighting fires in the work area, I would have to wait. No one else would check me out. CW surely does have an odd system, I have run into this at their facility in Lakewood, NJ – same deal. I am retired, I have nothing to do, I waited another half an
hour for Grant. I paid my $114 for the oil change. Well, $65 for the oil change, and $37 to clean my backup camera lens. WTF? My bad, I should have asked how much that was going to cost, I was hoping they would do it out of the goodness of my heart. That is similar to my RV dealer at home wanting to charge me to help me adjust my mirrors, after I had just spent $600 there. Never again, Camping World. Oh yes, and I spent $94 in their store on stuff I really needed – the biggest part, I had to replace the lantern that Tim & Gretchen gave me as a present several years ago. I broke it, and really needed/wanted a new one, especially since I am going to be camping in a remote National Park with night time wildlife. I want a lantern!!!
I checked out at 11:30, and I still needed to get gas and grocery shop. I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me, and I was just not in a frame of mind to do that. I leisurely got gas, $3.199, at a Circle K, bad experience, and went
to the nearest Wal-Mart I could find, which was a Wal-Mart Market – grocery store only, never saw one of them before. I made the smart decision to spend another night at Enchanted Trails. I checked back into the same nice site under the tree. It was 75 degrees with a nice breeze. I got to watch GH and just enjoy the nice peaceful afternoon, and continued to plot my next course.
A long trailer parked next to me about 7. This was one tricked out trailer. 28 to 30 feet towed by a blue extra cab F150. The truck was loaded with bicycles, a grill, a boogie board, etc. Hanging off the back were 2 adult bicycles. Mom, Dad, 7 year old boy, 4 year and 2 year old girls. All stunningly handsome individuals. Two car seats and a booster seat in that extra cab portion. OMG. He cranked down his jack levelers, and opened up the back right side to reveal a full outdoor kitchen. I got a glimpse inside, bunk beds, couch – really nice. Dad and kids headed for the pool with their swimmies and tubes around waists. Mom stayed behind. They live in CA,
on a 5 week round trip to Colorado Springs visiting friends and relatives the whole way. Out of nowhere, we are engulfed in foul smelling smoke. She and I tear out of our rigs to figure out what to do next, funny, each of us was asking, where are the kids, where is the dog, where is your handbag, all girlie things, we laughed about it later. People came out of a third rig which I had not seen pull in. No flames, no noise, just this cloud of evil smelling stuff. A big gust of wind came and blew it kind of away. A look around and nothing. The cloud was moving off. Back to rigs, and kids and dad are returning from the pool. Dad announced there was a semi pulled over right in front of the campground obviously having engine problems, as it burped, then hiccupped, then really backfired, and that’s when the ugly smoke came out. It just took a few minutes for it to get from the front of the campground to our sites. My eyes started to burn and it hurt the back of my throat. I didn’t want to close the windows and
keep it inside; I turned on the kitchen exhaust fan, opened the roof vents, turned on the overhead fan, opened the windows, and lit a candle. The stink was gone after a fashion. I ended up my day by watching Big Brother and finishing the baby blanket for Cousin Audrey in Tampa. I haven’t mailed it yet, but it’s now completed. Yay!!
Friday.
Up at 6, gone by 8. Goodbye I40. Goodbye Mother Road/Historic Route 66. I headed for Aztec, NM, about 225 miles away, with a few stops along the way. First stop, Petroglyph National Park, still in Albuquerque. I pulled in, read my tour book, read the signs there. No running of generators in parking lot. No dogs on trails. 20 minute climb uphill to see glyphs. I put my engine back on and headed north again. Any one of those would have been enough to stop me; I took all 3 as an omen to leave. That was one of those places nice to see, but not at the expense of a roasting Winston. CW Service rep, Grant, told me of an alternate route around Albuquerque that ended up being a good suggestion. Bobby Unser
Road took me over the river and thru the desert and met up with US 550 about 25 miles further north and it was a nice ride. US 550 is a 4 lane, about a 6 foot paved median with wake up grids. I was in the high desert. Lots of mesas, lots of short trees, not pointing so much north today. No roadkill, no tire blow out debris. The road signs informed me when I was leaving one reservation and entering another. I passed thru Apache and Navaho land, and several other tribes the names I did not recognize. Many of the tops of the mesas on the windy side had been scoured leaving formations that look like totem poles, actually they reminded me of the hoodoos from Bryce, only not in the canyon, on top of the mesa. I saw many closed or abandoned Native American trading posts, and I just wondered if they were shut down for the summer. I wish I had the contract to supply barbed wire for this road. It is everywhere where you think there doesn’t need to be any. No cows, nothing. What does it all keep in or out???? Miles and
miles of barbed wire, both sides of the road. I saw what I believe to be are beautiful new, working, natural gas wells, and the only reason I think they are natural gas is by the logo on the sides of the adjacent tanks is the logo of a gas company. It even rained for a bit, which was a good thing, my windshield got clean!!! I pulled into a rest stop with an Indian Casino – it was not open. It was a small structure that looked like one of those big circus tents, with permanent sides. I would have loved to see the inside. At some point on this road I crossed the Continental Divide. I didn’t even know it was coming up or I would have tried to get a picture of the sign. I suspect that point was the highest elevation I have been at so far, 7300+ feet. I now wonder if Winston feels the pressure of 7000 feet in his ears like I do; if he is sleeping and we hit altitude, he wakes up and moves around, and the same happens when we go lower and the ears pop again. I will have
to watch that more closely as I continue on. As I came down off the hills that were the Divide nearing Bloomfield, I saw fields of corn. Then I passed over one of those aqueduct looking waterways, and I know how that corn got irrigated. I stopped in Bloomfield looking for lunch, and I saw Blake’s Lottaburger with their big parking lot and did a repeat. Not as good as the other day, service was angry, hamburger good, onions not as crisp, iced tea awesome No cowboys here, workers with that same gas company logo, sweaty, dirty, unshaven, young…….hunks. As soon as I pulled out I saw the jammed packed Roadside Restaurant that looked just like the kind of joint I would have preferred and they had a big parking lot as well. I thoroughly checked out Bloomfield, looking at the campgrounds in case the one I had selected in Aztec ended up being a bad choice; they did not look wonderful. The downtown area was very quaint, each lamp post had a beautiful hanging basket that somebody has watered and fertilized often. Another 10 miles to Aztec, this time the road had houses along it, a massive school complex,
a ‘free (?Native American/reservation?) clinic’ and just general signs of life that I had not seen much of during the last 200 miles. Aztec is half the size of Bloomfield. It is located in almost as far north and west as you can go in the state of NM. Only remaining town is Farmington, where all the campgrounds got terrible reviews. I drove to Ruins Road CG (they really should change their name, but it really is on Ruins Road) knocked on the owners front door as instructed by signage, and a very gracious granny told me she had a site, told me which one, welcomed me, and said to come back when I settled in. I told her I wanted to see the Ruins first, and she said she wouldn’t give my site away. She gave me directions, 3 blocks up the road. Some 3 blocks, past 2 tornado magnet trailer parks and a souvenir shop, to the newly remodeled Visitor Center at Aztec Ruins National Monument, bucket list item. Free admission with my National Golden Age Pass (Best $10 investment of my life). BUT, same issue as Petroglyph. No dogs on paths, no generators in parking lots. This
time the land was level and paved. I could not pass this one up. As it was only 80 degrees, but we were parked in the sun, I knew I was safe leaving Winston for a short time. I closed him in his crate, closed the blinds and curtains and gave myself 20 minutes to tour. He was absolutely fine when I got back, I was a nervous wreck the entire time, and I did not get to read as much of the information nor tour as many of the rooms as I wanted, but I did it! I bought a sticker for Moya.
Don’t let the name Aztec fool you. This site was first inhabited by the Anasazi, made famous for me by Scully & Muldur/X Files). The name Aztec ‘probably’ comes from early Anglo explorers who thought the structures were built by the Aztec, naming them Aztec Ruins, and the name stuck. A cute story - some local business men saw the notoriety Roswell gained from their UFO sightings, and created their own UFO mystery that resulted in a book being written; I never heard of it, has anyone???
From the brochure: It is estimated this
settlement of Pueblo people built here in the late 800s to 1200s on the banks of the beautiful Animas River (which runs thru this campground). The site included a large public building, smaller structures, earthworks, and ceremonial buildings (Kiva). There are over 400 ‘rooms’ in this area, most excavated, some not, but in truly remarkable shape for being over 1000 years old. It is acknowledged that the inhabitants left this area in 1300 for unknown reasons, most probably being a very long drought dried up the river, or from being killed off by raids of enemy tribes.
As I looked at this I was amazed. There are so many rooms, brick and mortar, in perfect shape. It reminded me of Pompei, except instead of being ash covered, this was sand covered. All that is missing is the wooden/log roofs. It looks like an apartment complex, or a very large one level motel built in a circle. The ceremonial kiva, is in great shape, but with weeds on the bottom that IMHO should be cleared out. Anthropologists estimated that a quarter of the pueblo’s stones had been carted away by settlers for building material. In 1916 The American Museum of
Natural History sponsored excavations; that’s when the theft of materials stopped. In the 1930s they supervised the reconstruction of the Great Kiva, just a few feet away from the original.
Whew, more information than you wanted, I know, but I find this stuff fascinating. I stopped at the souvenir store up the road, trading post kind of building, Native American worker, the largest collection of vintage CDs I have ever seen, some beaded jewelry, some sand paintings, and that was it. Speaking of Native Americans, the last census showed Aztec has 79% white, 20% Hispanic, and .014%, yes that is POINT ZERO ONE FOUR PERCENT) Native American. They really did disappear. I then drove from one end of town to the other and was back at Ruins Road campground just in time to see the last one minute of GH. Drat.
How many times have I said you get what you pay for. $22.50 for tonight. Water, Electric, Sewer, flat, gravel site, no tree this time. Temp 88 outside and inside. I closed the shades and curtains, turned on the A/C and let me and Winston cool off for an hour. It rained for 1 minute. Then we
took a walk. The reason I was so tentative on this campground is all reviewers talked about ‘The Dog.’ I found him on my walk. There are probably 40 sites here, reasonably close together except the 5 up front. The other 35 are filled with the trailers and fifth wheels of what must be out of town workers staying here for a job. All have older pickup trucks, and from what I have seen, all are white men. I am fine with all of that. Except for THE DOG. The 5 sites for transients like me are up front, near the house/office. I could have chosen any of four aisles to walk down. I chose the one with THE DOG. He is a massive older German Shepherd, okay, I have seen bigger than him, but he was big. Leather collar connected to about 15 feet of one inch chain secured into the ground by some mechanism I couldn’t determine. He was hidden in a hole he had dug underneath the ratty broken down trailer of his owner. Poor thing. He might have been a wonderful dog, but his bark was nasty. He was so dirty, let’s call him a cur.
So, I will review this place exactly like all others have. It has potential, get rid of THE DOG. We did make it to the river, narrow, shallow, but running steadily with some type of gizmo that looked like it was monitoring flow. (PICTURE)
On the plus side, I have 8 TV channels including Fox and ABC and the rest are PBS. AND, I have wifi! I am right next to the antenna, and no one is here, so service is relatively quick. I received an email from my library that an audio book I reserved was available. I downloaded it and another one as well, very quickly, and then synced them to my iPod! I am not happy with the one I am listening to now, something like Ten Thousand Splendid Nights maybe, an Afghan woman saga of despair, but I will finish it….and my only remaining book is a Jodi Picoult, and I just don’t have the energy to get into one of hers right now as it will drain me emotionally. I’ll let you know how these 2 new ones go.
Things to ponder. Number 1. Are the non Caucasian Hispanic looking people in NM
really native American’s, or are they really Hispanic trying to look like Native Americans…….I don’t know. Number 2. Why are my thumbs hurting? Either I am clutching the steering wheel too tightly or I am typing too much……..I don’t know. Number 3 I know the answer to. Why the products of blowing my nose is brown. The relentless dusty wind. Number 4. Why do I not have my RV legs yet? Today I stumbled twice. Once I gouged my leg as I passed Winston’s crate, good thing I am wearing pants to the wedding as I will have a scab for sure, and I have a new bruise on my forearm from hitting the corner of the cabinet underneath the kitchen sink when I bent over to get my jug of water out and caught my shirt on a hook. Clumsy.
I have gone over 2000 miles so far, have about 400 to go before Park City, I think. I should be there Tuesday. I finally figured out my gas mileage and it sucks. I will blame it on the almost 20 hours I have had to run the generator, which uses a gallon per hour. I can’t blame it on the mountains, as I really haven’t done any big ones yet, and for all the gas I use going up, I coast down, so it evens out. I figure out a daily spending rate, and it is pretty much where I thought it would be. Life is good and I am happy.
Kat out
Get Your Kicks on Route 66 Words and Music by Bobby Troup, 1946 (the year I was born!!)
If you ever plan to motor west;
Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best.
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six
It winds from Chicago to L.A.,
For more than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six
Slow you go thru Saint Louie, Joplin, Missouri and Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.
You’ll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico;
Flagstaff, Arizona; don’t forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
Won’t you get hip to this timely tip:
When you make that California trip.
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six
Advertisement
Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0919s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
