Tuesday, March 28
Deb, Sylvia and I went on a hike. Bell Rock is a small butte, shaped – yes like a bell. We hadn’t been able to find our hats (they were in the trailer, in the bottom of the closet – one of the things we forgot where they were put), so Deb and I bought a pair of Sedona hats for $20 each from a vendor at a table in the parking lot. We hiked up and around to the back, and partway up the bell. I was carrying the “go” camera (which turned out to not have worked) and my other cameras. We had a snack on the back side before deciding how far up to hike. Then moved on – and Deb saw a family taking pictures and did what she often does; offer to shoot their pictures. In the ensuing conversation, we realized it was the same family that gave us the coupon the night before and shared the rainbow experience! We didn’t hike much higher, had a snack and took some pictures and panoramas, then retraced our steps back to the truck as it was a lot longer and the bell was a lot bigger than it looked when we started.
We had stopped in at AT&T in flagstaff the day before when Jen
noticed the hitch problem and we had gone to Camping World. They store manager wasn’t much help and didn’t have the hotspots we wanted. We were burning through data way too fast and needed to change the plan. So, I researched where we could get a hotspot – and Best Buy Pheonix was the closest. So I ordered one online and we (Deb, Sylvia and me) headed for Phoenix. We bought that first one – that store didn’t have any more but looked up the next closest store and reserved another one. We dashed off there, and drove through Phoenix – and were regailed with stories from Sylvia had had lived there for several years about where she lived, visited, shopped and hiked. A lot had changed of course in the ensuing decades. We picked it up the second hotspot and across the street was an AT&T store. We went there – and converted the plan – very quick, efficient, all done far faster than we’d ever gotten out of an AT&T store. We switched the plan over in the middle of the month, but were well over our quota already. I braced myself for massive charges – but they never appeared. Apparently switching plans in the middle of the month when you are over on your data is the right way to go.
Wednesday, March 29
It was a long difficult day. Left 8:30 AM for Flagstaff, Camping World to get trailer hitch replaced on P&J trailer. When we were there two days before, they said they would order a replacement – we assumed they would replace it with the same hitch as was on it. Bad assumption. When they purchased the trailer, hey had a Camping World installed, Equalizer E4 on their trailer – four point weight distributing andanti-sway hitch. What was ordered was an E2 – which is really made by Fastway and is only a two point anti-sway system. After a couple of hours of arguing, complaining and telephone calls – we managed to convince everyone the best thing to do was simply drive on and get the right hitch replaced when we got back home. We drove on toward Moab, looking for a place to stay along the way. We took 89 out of Flagstaff, then 160 heading NorthEast. When we got to Kayenta, it was decision time. Either 163 via Monument Valley or continue to 160 – which was just a little bit shorter. Because of the late time, we decided to take 160 – which was fine because Monument Valley became a great place to stay later in the trip. And the views on the eastern path were quite amazing as well. We got into Shady Rest campground in Green River (an hour north of Moab) at 10:45PM Tired & and set up camp in the dark.
Shady Rest campground was another of those older, somewhat run down campgrounds. It was far enough from Moab it wasn’t very busy. They did have a laundrymat, gas station, even an RV wash. The ubuquitous train tracks were far enough away, I never heard a train horn and in the back of the camp ground – we were equidistant from both the Interstate and the highway through town. There were shade trees – but in March – there weren’t many leaves yet. It served us well, except for the fact that it was an hour away from Moab.
continued next post.