Welcome to Arizona

The drive to Homolovi State Park was uneventful.  We had stayed there last year on our way to the Grand Canyon.  Back then it was a first come first serve only but this year they operate through an online reservation system.  We reserved site number 20, a very long pull-thru with 50 amp electric and water but no sewer.  We'll have to use a dump station for the first time in quite awhile.

Like most places we have been for the last three weeks, the wind made it too uncomfortable to enjoy the outdoors.  We had a great view of the desert but only got to enjoy it through the windows.  But it worked out for the best, we have been needing to do some genealogy research and with our downtime in Albuquerque and now Homolovi, we have made some serious inroads in finding John's bloodline into the Cherokee and Delaware tribes.

But we were only staying at Homolovi for the weekend.  Next is a few days in Flagstaff where we will do a major shopping trip that will hopefully hold us over for our first month at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It is only a couple hours from Homolovi to J and H RV Park to the northeast of Flagstaff.  We woke without an alarm and started our morning routine for a move day in no particular rush.  Still, we were pulling out of the park shortly before 9:00am.

We pulled out onto I-40 and began our pass through Winslow, it was cool and the wind had not yet got going.  The short drive was looking to be a pleasant one.  That's when the alarms went off, the engine on Big Gulp was overheating, and not just little bit.  I pulled off the highway as quickly as possible, just as steam started pouring out from under the hood.  Uh, oh.

I got out and popped the hood to see if it was a radiator hose, hopefully something easy and cheap to fix.  No such luck.  The hoses were in perfect shape, the steam was blowing by the radiator cap.  This means something internal.  Time to call the emergency roadside service.

Within an hour a truck, a big truck, was pulling up alongside us.  He picked up the front end of Big Gulp, disconnected the drive shaft and pulled truck, trailer and all back to the Ford dealership in Winslow.  At first we were hopeful that it would be something that could be fixed same day and be on our way but ultimately it was not to be.  After a couple of hours of digging around they have determined that a seal has failed on the exhaust gas return cooling system, deep in the engine.  They think it will be a couple days to fix it.

This is where the full-timer lifestyle gets complicated.  The only vehicle we have to drive is out of commission and our home is sitting on the back lot of a car dealership.  We are afoot with no home to go to.  For a price all of this is fixable.  We rented a car and found a tow truck that can move a fifth wheel.  Although it did take two towing companies before one had a configuration that worked.  The first guy's truck bed was so long that he could not turn without the corner of the bed hitting the front of the trailer.  The second guy had a giant Peterbuilt tow truck, usually used to rescue eighteen-wheelers.  With everything hooked up and heading down the road to the RV park we were about 80 feet long.

We got situated in a ratty little RV park alongside I-40 in Winslow.  The power is borderline on voltage and 30 amps maximum with no breakers, we'll have to be careful about using more than one appliance at a time.  Water is okay and the sewer hookup is little more than a hole in the ground.  But we are happy to have it.  Looks like we'll have more time to do genealogy research.  Oh and we'll be stretching the legs on that little Ford Focus rent car.