Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

We got on the road around 9 am on Thursday heading for Kanab UT.  Driving back eastward on I-40 toward Flagstaff on a gloriously blue sky morning.   As the exit for highway 89 north toward Page approached, I noticed some dark clouds off in the distance.   In a little while we could see rain squalls under those clouds not far north of us and it appeared we were heading right at them.  And of course, we were.  It was a real gully washer as they say in the desert.   It was really great at washing all the smashed bugs off that large windshield.   That heavy rain only lasted about 5 or so miles, then it cleared right up and it was a beautiful and sunny day again.

Route 89 is an incredibly scenic road all  the way from Flagstaff to Kanab.   I had planned to stop for fuel at Mile Marker 498 (the only way to locate the Sinclair station)  Since we are pulling a different car, I had no idea what type of mileage we might get, and I didn’t want to run it all the way down by waiting till Kanab.   I pull into the station.   It has a 15′ clearance so we are all good.  There are 3 pump islands and at the last second I notice diesel is only on the first island.  I stop quickly and get out, only to find I am a foot too far for the hose to reach.   Backing up with a 4-wheel-down towed car (aka a  “toad”) you cannot back up.  I did back up for the foot I needed, and afterward had to go back and straighten out the steering wheels to put them straight again.  The gas pumps were the slowest I have ever experienced.  Even the dollar amount crawled.  When you have 100 gallons to put in, it really makes a difference!

There is a short stretch of “wonderment” a few miles before you get to Page Az where you go up into a tight mountain pass.   The road is carved out of the brightest reds, pinks and white rocks I have ever seen.  Unfortunately we didn’t know it was coming up or we would have been ready with the camera, all we could get was one final cut prior to reaching the summit and its all one color and Kathy’s iPhone camera didn’t do that photo justice.  (there was no where to pull over,  it was a very narrow passage with a sheer drop on one side and towering walls on the other.

Just prior to that spectacular section of road, we saw a McDonald’s sign saying RV parking.   Well,  Kathy decided we were stopping at a McDonald’s.. why, because they have RV parking.   Nuff Said.   Turns out the RV parking was one way in and out and not enough room for our size rig to get out.    I had to disconnect the toad, do a K turn, and then Kathy had to drive it till we found a wide spot in the road, which turned out to be our next stop.

My favorite part was going right past Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon dam and stopping by the visitor center… err, at least the parking lot for RV’s..   As soon as I fired the parking brake, it started to rain again, so I snapped a few pics and quickly reattached the car and got back inside to head for Kanab.

 

 

 

 

The road from Page to Kanab is more great scenery.

We arrived in Kanab late afternoon and found our campground.   It’s right smack in the middle of downtown, a very small downtown.  Two traffic lights was all I could see.    It looked nice, but there were a line of rental class C motor homes all the way out into the street.  I proceeded to follow them in and to my surprise right out the other side.   Turns out they didn’t have reservations and the place was full.    So I go back in,  this time noticing the office and checked in.   The owner told me those folks thought they had reservations for that night, but they were actually for the next night.

Turns out the owner of the campground is an IT nerd who had just installed Gigabit fiber and brand new Ubiquity meshed AC Picostations.   Man, is it blazingly fast, and he is very proud of that system.     Most of the parks we have visited have very poor WiFi.  Some places it didn’t work at all.

So this place let me download all my recorded shows from the home SageTV server in a few hours.   It was truly amazing after all the other experiences.

Long day of driving, glad to get settled in here.  Beautiful view of the red hills of Kanab!

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.