Arizona Bound

After the annual maintenance and service checkup on the coach, we drove it over to Newport and stayed Oct 6-10 at South Beach State Park with our friends Rod & Lynda.  According to the weather forecast, we were supposed to have rain the whole weekend, but it didn’t turn out that way.  We all were quite pleased to have decent weather so we could sit outside and enjoy a nice campfire and visit.  Also, we had the opportunity to have an afternoon where we had fresh Oysters off of the grill.

Once we got back home, we cleaned up the coach (inside & outside) and finished loading it with what we would need in Arizona.  Once the house was secured we were ready to head out.  Pulling out was much easier this time because we decided to not hook up the Grand Cherokee and take it with us.  Since we already have a vehicle (Jeep Wrangler) in our storage shed in Arizona, we didn’t see the need to tow the Cherokee this time.  Our plan is to use the Wrangler till we fly back to OR for Christmas then drive the Grand Cherokee back to AZ after Christmas.

The morning of Oct 18 was sunny and clear.  We drove south to Coburg where we stopped and fueled up the coach.  Imagine our shock when we saw the cost of Diesel was $4.15 a gallon--we took on 95 gallons (ouch).

Just south of Eugene, we got on highway 58 and drove east across Willamette Pass.  It was a beautiful, scenic drive with many of the trees changing colors--lots of oranges, yellows, and reds along the way.  However, we had some “slowdowns” just east of Oakridge when we ran into road construction.  First, we had to wait at the “Tunnel” because crews were inspecting it for cracks, then a couple miles past the tunnel, crews were painting stripes on the newly paved road.  Each time we had a long wait because a pilot car was needed to lead traffic through on the one lane portion of the road.  Just before we crossed the OR/CA border, we had another long wait because of road paving.  Finally, we made it to our usual stop at a volunteer fire department’s parking lot in the small town of Likely.

We woke early on Wednesday the 19th and quickly were back on the road.  The drive was uneventful all the way through Reno and east to Fernley.  As usual, we always top off our tank near Fernley on I-80 at a Love’s Station.  The fuel there was $4.07 a gallon and we took on 39 gallons.  Price a little better, but still a lot more than we were expecting.  Our next stop for the night was at Miller’s Rest Area just north of Tonapah, Nevada.  We got there pretty early and were able to set outside and enjoy a wonderful glass (or two) of wine before dinner.  Well, I had the wine and Ken had his V/O.  It was a beautiful day with the temperature topping off around 75.

Thursday the 20th, we once again ran into more road construction between the towns of Tonapah and Beatty, Nevada.  This time we had to wait about 15 minutes for the pilot car to lead us through the work area.  Finally, we were back on the road and making good time to Laughlin, Nevada.  The further south we went, the warmer it got.  Las Vegas was 76 degrees when we passed through it (11:30 am) and when we pulled into the AVI RV Park (and casino) south of Laughlin, it was 90.  So nice to be able to turn the AC on once we got settled.  For dinner, we walked over to the casino and ate a wonderful dinner.

Friday, the 21st, was another great sunny day.  In fact when we left the AVI, it was already in the 60s.  Our trip took us south to Needles, CA, where we saw Diesel was $4.79.  However, when we got to Vidal Junction, CA the Diesel was going for $4.89…..that was just plain crazy!!  We crossed the CA/AZ border at Parker, AZ about 10 am and it was already 89 degrees.  There we ran into more road construction (paving) but we never had to come to a complete stop.  There were no more slowdowns, but the road south to I-10 was very rough.  In fact the entire road from Needles to I-10 was rough.  We may be thinking of another route next time we head south.

Anyhow, once we got to I-10 just south of Vicksburg, AZ, we stopped and filled our propane tank and added 20 gallons of Diesel to the tank ($3.79 a gallon).  We didn’t stop again until we got to Avondale where we filled the Diesel tank up at Flying J for $3.75 a gallon.  We then made the final trek through Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Apache Junction, and Gold Canyon arriving Queen Valley just before 3 pm.  The temperature was 90 degrees.  Since we didn’t have the Cherokee, backing into our site and getting set up was a piece of cake.  Ken quickly checked on the Wrangler and happily, it started right up.

We have now been in Queen Valley for 2 weeks and are seeing more and more friends showing up.  Our first night here we went out to dinner with friends Dave and Pat, then just this last weekend spent a wonderful day with “caching” friends from Tucson, Florence, and Apache Junction at a “Birthday Campout” held just north of Florence (south of us).  They all camped out, we didn’t.  It was just great seeing them all again and are looking forward to spending a lot more time with them this season.