NM 2 MN

We are trying to do in 3 weeks what we did in 7 months! Our RV is in repair (again) in AZ and we are planning to upgrade our truck, but this is not so simple as it may sound… We have to drive across the nation just for that!

Joshua Tree NP

Friday, April 9th, 2010 - You might be wondering what are we doing back in CA, after we finally left to AZ. Well – we are not really there, but we had to take my son home half way and meet his mom, after spending with us his spring break and the ‘half-way’ turned out to be 75% of the way, but we got to see another beautiful park, so it was not so bad after all.
 

Tragic accident in the RV Park

Saturday, April 9th, 2010 – Our Passport America discount has expired in the RV Gateway park (they give up to 4 days), so we moved to another park in town – Railside RV Ranch. The park is pretty nice and the owner is EXTREMELY nice, We liked her very much. They even offer a continental breakfast – that is a nice touch! The train is passing by few times, but this is during day time only, so it’s not that bad. The Internet is great and reception is wonderful.
In one of the campers that parked beside ours, were some young guys with a toy hauler, that came here to have fun with their ‘toys’. They had a quad and a dirt bike, and they were drinking and racing in the park trails all day long. This story did not end so nice – they had an accident, and the guy with the bike stopped breathing, he laid down with blood over his face. They had 3 or 4 ambulances in the park, and I heard they brought him back. it was not a nice sight… The other guy did not make it. They did not even wear helmets.

Going a long ways to trade our cars

Monday, April 12th, 2010 – Our slide-out is acting again. Yes, this is the same slide that they fixed on January at the Camping World in El Paso, TX. Not sure what they did, but it made weird sounds from the start, and now the slide does not come in and out evenly. So we scheduled a repair in Flagstaff, AZ and this time – we were prepared to wait for the parts. We know the drill.
So we got to Camping World – this is only a service station, no RV sales here, just store and service. We arrived a little early but they did not have enough technicians to take a look at the unit, and we had to wait 3 hours for the technician to take a 5 minute break from installing some washer and dryer, and tell us what we already knew – We need to wait for the parts…
I showed the guy what I thought the problem is, and asked them if they could store the RV for 2-3 weeks, until it is fixed. They agreed, so that was a great opportunity for us to do something we wanted to do for some time – get all our cars from all over the country, and trade them in for a better truck. We have our F-250 with us, a 300m in MN and a Durango in PA… This exercise will save us some good money in monthly payment, and insurance, something we really need these days. So as soon as we finished at the shop, we took off heading to PA through MN.

From Sand storm to Snow Storm to Thunder Storm

Our initial thought was to take the fastest route, and drive on the Interstate and freeways. We started our drive around 3:00pm, heading East on I-40 and drove for 30 minutes until we hit a traffic Jam. They blocked the road because of a sand storm. Miles of cars standing and waiting, No one knows for how long.
There was no traffic from the opposite direction (I guess it was blocked too) so I turned the wheels and drove through the dividing area (like few other cars) and started heading back.
Now this is where Road Atlas can become very handy. We picked some nice country roads that climbed through small little towns and mountains, Indian reservation, hills and creeks and wild views.

The road block and the route we took around it

So have you been to CONMAZUT?

If you haven’t – wait a short while, since it is closed. The road we took drove through the exact location of the only point in the US that is a border for 4 states. AZ, NM, CO and UT. There is actually a monument at that point – but it was closed for renovations. It was already late and we got tired. we continued to the first town we found – Cortez, CO and stopped for the night.
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 – We just found out that the four corners monument is not really there – ha ha ha… Someone did a survey few years ago and found out it is 2 miles away, but the monument is there for 100 years so they did not move it. That’s funny.

National Park On-The-Way

Shortly after we started the day, we saw the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park. It is a tribe that lived here thousands years ago, and built their homes into the mountains. We could not stay here long, so we just took the Mesa Top Ruins loop and stopped in few of the many lookouts along the way

Along Hwy 160 in Colorado

The rest of the way in CO was as pretty, especially once you entered the San Juan mountains and ride along the river. The views are amazing and the mountains and snow are breathtaking. The drive is at around 7,000ft above sea level, and at one point (mount Blanca) the height is actually 14,000 ft!

…and this one is for Al

Long Drive

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 – We wanted to get to our granddaughter birthday, and still had almost 900 miles to go. The sun was already down and we did not hit NE yet.

At that point we decided that we are not stopping, and continued driving throughout the night, a total of 1,445 miles without a stop (except for gas). We arrived exhausted on Wednesday late afternoon, and fell asleep.

Short break in Minnesota

Sunday, April 18th, 2010 – Both Patti’s daughter, her kids, and my daughter live in MN, so we decided to spend couple days here. Had a great BBQ for our Grand Daughter’s Birthday (She is turning 6) and some fun with my daughter, Reut, who works in the Mall of America, and discovering America her way.
We also stopped at the storage unit where our household is stored and tried to pick up some items we miss, but that was way too hard to find specific item in a mount of boxes. We did find some though… We also took care of Diva’s teeth, and gum infection, so she is much happier. Thursday and Friday just flew by. On Saturday morning we continued our Journey to PA where we hope to trade our car.
We drove about half way, all through highways and tolls (I don’t like driving through Chicago) and stopped in IN somewhere in the middle for the night.
We woke up at around 9:00am, had a fast coffee and hit the road again. About 600 miles to go, tired of driving, but we made it! at around 9:00pm we finally turned into the hotel parking lot in Dunmore, PA and went to bed.

The blue line is our path with the RV. The purple line is our path in the last week!

Monday, April 19th, 2010 – Nothing much really happened today, but I think we found our future truck. We woke up and had a continental breakfast (G~d knows where did they come with this name), got to our computers and started to research the dealerships around the area. We did some research before, but we needed to know what is available now.
Those trucks are hard to come by. Usually people do not trade them in, they last long and they buy them for life!
We did find a nice GMC Sierra 3500 that we liked in NJ, around 75 miles from here, and tomorrow we will try to get the deal happening.
With anticipation and hopes, we are going to bed now – follow us to see how it turned out