Hello Everyone,
We had a blast of winter the minute we arrived in Flagstaff Arizona. It was dumping snow and cars were sliding off the road. Coming from Zion national park, this was a shock! The weather in Zion was in the low 60's, so freezing temperatures weren't fun. Yesterday, it was in the upper 50's, so we found a nice patio to chill on for the afternoon. We got to see my old friends, Jerome and Jill Naleski and their two daughters. I've known these two since 2003ish when I lived here in Flagstaff. Good peeps!
Driving has been the biggest challenge since we left. Rough roads, wind, rain and now snow, have made it difficult to handle the travel trailer and truck. The highway that takes the win is highway 1 on the coast of California. Holy moly! That road is not set up for travel trailers. The grade in some sections and tight switchbacks with steep drops and no guard rails, was so very sketchy. We decided to head east at Jenner California because the road was literally at least a 1,000 feet up, no guard rail and all you could see is blue ocean. The road was narrow and the truck/trailer barely fit as cars passed in the opposite lane. It was quite the experience.
We stopped in a little town called Guerneville for lunch after leaving the highway 1 sketch behind. The brewery we found was called Stumptown Brewing. It was really good but weird that they forced everyone to buy from a food truck out front before allowing you to go in. It was a great taco truck, so that's nice.
Adapting to living in a camp trailer has been a learning curve. For those of you that struggle with daily chores, this life may not be for you. If you get behind in dishes or cleaning, it becomes a hassle because you can't eat if your limited dish ware is dirty. Getting in the habit of cleaning as you cook and hand washing dishes after every meal is crucial.
Another thing that has been a change is dealing with our septic system. Not many people have to dump their septic and waste water systems everyday. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it isn't as good as I'm making it out to be either!
Daily we have to follow a routine so that Henry stays on his eat, wake, sleep cycle, while keeping our dog Oby away from Henry during his awake time. It's all new but entering our third week, we have a pretty good routine now.
Today, we are heading south to Sedona for a day/night. We found a campsite off I-17 outside of Sedona. It's a displaced camp on BLM land, which is free! All the places we've stayed up to this point have been RV camps, which costs anywhere from $45.00 to $80.00 per night. We are trying to mitigate this by using the The Dyrt app on our iPhones. This app is very helpful because it shows not only pay-to-camp sites but also free sites. Laura found this resource because she's awesome.
From Sedona, we are planning to head to Tucson Arizona. It is summer down there and will be in the 80's and low 90's. This will be our reality for the next few weeks. We will hug the southern border of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, then New Orleans, all of which are similar temperatures this time of year.
We have a lot of travel left and both Laura and I have decided to do 2 days of travel weekly and relax wherever we land for a couple of days. We've found that settling for a little bit helps the stress from driving go away.
I hope you all have a great week!
Nate
Sounds like a pretty good trip. Hope you loved Tucson, that's where I grew up. It was a great place in the 70s.stay safe and enjoy your journey. Love and miss you guys!
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed Tucson! The heat was different here. In Idaho the heat feels hotter for some reason. It was 90 here today and it was comfortable. Miss you all too!
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