Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

We took to the highway around 9am to beat the heat in Camp Verde.  It was supposed to be a really warm one there today.     It was a short trip up I-17 and over on I-40 to Williams,  just about an hour.   It was the low 70’s when we arrived.   Our campsite is at 6942 feet above sea level.   The highest summit on this leg was 7144 feet.   Lots of slow trucks along the way.   Williams was on the original route 66 and I-40 bypassed it about 2 or 3 miles north of downtown.   Lots of bars and gas stations, and believe it or not, there was a Safeway.    But only one barber shop and it was closed till June 1, the day we head for Kanab UT.

We are staying in a KOA,  lots of pine trees for shade,  pretty much all gravel driveways and campsites.   The most astonishing thing to me is they truck in all their water.  There is no well and they are outside of the city.    I found that out as i was checking in and there was a large round PSI gauge behind the counter.   When asked she told me about trucking in the water.  That must be expensive.   It seems like everyone out here trucks in their water.   We have this gorgeous view of the freeway out our front window if you have checked out the camera link.   But this place is really nice looking.   If only we were in the site reversed.

Thankfully we were able to get out of Yuma before it got up to 100,  guess it was about 9:30 am as we trekked over to the CAT scales to get the coach weighed prior to hitting the freeway.   We were under the limits, a hair over 6 tons on the front axle and just a bit less than the 10 tons the rear axles are rated for.    

The TOAD weighed in at 3900 lbs,  probably 500 lbs more than the Jeep.

We jumped on I-8 east toward Gila Bend, then up to I-10 and over to I- 17,  it was a fairly uneventful trip all the way to  the Distant Drum RV resort on the outskirts of Camp Verde.

What we did figure out is we need to map out where we can stop half way to our destinations.   I have found a pretty good resource listing most rest stops since getting to Camp Verde.

RVParky is my new favorite tool!  http://www.rvparky.com/

We started heading out interstate 8 east into the mountains with Yuma as the destination.   It was warm and as this was the first time for pulling Kathy’s equinox, I kept one eye on the rear camera hoping it was still there each time i looked.   After about 60 miles we topped the highest pass for this part of the trip at  4120 feet,   And then there is a long steep grade heading down to the desert floor that gets to about 50 below sea level.   I got to use my Jake on  the way down to keep the speed below 55, only had to set it to stage 1 compression which uses just 3 of the 6 cylinders to slow the coach down without using the brakes.   I am starting to wonder if I will ever need to use the 2nd stage for anything I will drive on.

As we got a few miles into the desert we noticed it was about 110 degrees outside.   Just then the tire pressure monitoring system started alarming.   After my initial “oh crap” moment i realized it was an over pressure, not an under pressure situation.   Turns out I had set the upper threshold too low.  Live and learn…. err, every day is a learning experience.   No harm, no foul and we kept trucking to Yuma.

We arrived at our destination just at 5pm, were checked in within a couple of minutes and a guy in a golf cart escorted us to the site.   Fairly uneventful except it was extremely hot,  so hot I had to turn the fridge down a few points to keep it cold.  But that’s a story i will write up later.

JFYI.  Both A/C units were on all night while in Shangri La.