And now, the rest of the trip

We packed up and headed home on Friday.  Our original plan was to stick it out until Sunday, but Moab was already crowded, the weekend would be worse, and Ye had a new job to start on Monday.


So there it is.  The end of an extremely wonderful trip.


We amble out of the campsite, climbed the steep hill back up to Highway 128 (aka Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, seriously) and roll on towards Moab.  The town itself still made me shutter from the travails we had experienced earlier in the week.  So I was looking forward to just rolling right through it.


Ye was not looking forward to the 10% grade near Mexican Hat, I was looking forward to the shower I was going to get when I got home!!!  Glorious hot water, shampooing my hair, rinse, repeat ad nauseum.  And it was all happening when we reached home this very evening!!  It may have been the end of our trip, but it was just the beginning of my resurrection from the greasy filth that had taken over my body.


We successfully navigated the 10% grade and continued rolling through the Monument Valley and into the thriving metropolis of Tuba City, AZ.  As we turned south onto Highway 89 from 160, the RV stumbled a bit.  Ye  revved it several times, dropped it into drive and off we rolled.


We took 89 all the way into Flagstaff.  It was time to let the dogs out for a stretch and allow them to commune with nature, so they didn't "commune" in the RV.  We wanted to give the RV a break as well. It had done a fantastic job climbing some of those hills,  so we pulled off into a Chevron gas station on the north side of town making sure to position ourselves so that we could easily make it back out onto 89 when we were finished.


I was getting excited.  We were about 3 hours from that hot, soapy, cleansing shower.  Steam coating the door of the shower from the HOT water that would be cleansing me, softening the grease and grime from my body before it slowly found it's way down the drain. . .oh! sorry, got a little carried away there.


After we loaded the dogs back in the RV, shared a little snack and visited, we stowed it all away again, climbed back into the captain chairs, strapped our seatbelts and. . .nothing.  The RV wouldn't start.


Well son of a gun!!


OK, don't panic.  We'll just give it all time to settle down, cool off, and try it again!  . . . .nothing.
pump, pump, pump,. couple of stumbles and spit before it died.
pump, pump, pump,. couple more stumbles and spits before it died, again.


OK, not funny.


pump, pump, pump, pump, pump, pump.  it slowly started. . .pumppumppumppumppump, stumble, stumble, stumble.  it just wasn't going to keep running, and we are still 3 hours away from home.  WAY too much stumbling to make it that distance.


What to do. . . .Ye had purchased Good Sam towing, now did he renew the service when it expired?  One card says no. . .another card confirms he did!!  Things are looking up!


So a call goes into Good Sam.  They arrange for a tow truck to come get us, made a reservation for us at the nearest RV park for the night where we would stay, then in the morning, the tow truck would come get us and take us to the RV repair that was a couple more miles down the road.  Sounded like a plan to me!!


And, it also meant that although I wouldn't get the long luxurious shower of my dreams,  I would be able to get an abbreviated one and at least knock off the outer layers of grime.  That is until the tow truck arrived.  .  .


They told us there was no way they could get both them, and us, in or out of an RV park.  More decisions.  Do we have them drop us at the RV park and try to limp our way in, or, do we have them take us someplace else.


My hopes of a shower were quickly dying on the vine.


I was afraid they would drop us off and then we discover that we can't make it into the park.  So the only other alternative was to have them take us to the RV repair shop.  So further down the road they take us and drop us off in the parking lot of the Flagstaff Mall.  Great.


The tow driver assured us it would be ok,  said they did it all the time.  And off they drove.  Well, time to make the best of things. . .so i rustled up some grub and we sat down to dinner.  Before too long, another rig pulled up alongside of us.  It was a VERY late model deisel pusher with all the slides, bells and whistles.  Oh geez, this is getting downright depressing.  I'm sitting in our old, broken down RV with the gray water tank filled to the brim, washing out dishes and dumping the water down the toilet so our gray water won't back up into the shower, and in the rig next door, they are pushing a button to extend their satellite, prepare their gourmet dinner and indulge themselves with a manicure/pedicure combo, or at least that's what was going on in my mind.


Within a short amount of time, another rig pulls up in between us and the Glam Squad.  Who knew the Flagstaff Mall was so popular?   Being a little on the depressed side, I decide to turn in early.  It was probably about 7.  I kid you not.  So about 10 p.m. I am awakened to the sound of a barking dog.


bark, bark, bark, bark.  seriously. bark, bark, bark, bark, bark.  Oh for crying out loud!  Why doesn't someone shut that stinkin dog up!  Waking up a bit more, I realize that is OUR dog barking and someone is knocking on our door.  Ye answers to find Mall Security.  "This is private property, you can't stay here."  To which he explains our situation. . .waiting for the repair shop to open in the morning.  That was the right answer.  "What about the other rigs?" he queries, "We have no idea." Ye responded.


About 20 minutes later, both units fire up and take off.  Apparently they were just poaching and did not have the correct answer.


All the while, there is a set of train tracks within 50 yards of the mall, and now within 50 yards of us.  Did I mention it was a very active set of tracks?  All night long, at least a couple times an hour, a train would shoot down that track.  It sounded like it would come busting through our bedroom window each and every time.  I-40 was also within 100 yards, so the sound of semi-trucks also filled the air.  It was like trying to sleep in the middle of a tornado.


So as morning dawned, we needed to decide what we were going to do from here.  So let me recap the situation:


no space left in the gray water tank, that pretty much renders using any water impossible, no operating vehicle, sitting in the middle of a mall parking lot on our way home from a trip.  yes, it could be worse, it could have been on our way there instead of on our way home.  and i was thankful for that.


We had our van in prescott, some 1.5 hours south and no way to retrieve it.  So Ye rented a truck and I drove it down to pick it up.  I left the truck in Prescott and got a ride to the camp to pick up the van.  It has a trailer hitch, so that meant we could take the dirtbikes with us.  It was a stressful situation, but once I was back with the van, we were able to offload all that needed to return to the house, including the dogs and their crates.  We left the RV to be diagnosed and fixed.  We would return at another time to pick it up.


So that night, Saturday night, after unloading the van, the first thing I did was. . .take my shower.  (insert the sound of angels singing).  It was everything I imagined it would be.


So another great trip and another great adventure.  Gotta love it!