Low Temperatures---High Fuel

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

The last time we talked we were getting ready to head to Spokane, Washington. Our trip began on the Interstate system, then diverged to U.S. Highway 395 going North for about 100 miles before connecting with I-90 going East into Spokane. Actually, we were going some 12 miles North of Spokane to our campground in an area called Mead.

We were wondering about the U.S. highway, if it were going to be two-lane, rough going or some four-lane. It turned out to be a very nice, mostly four-lane, road. It was hard to tell the difference between this road and the Interstate. The only problem was finding a rest area for those needed stops. However, we have solved this “facility” problem by towing our own “Porta-Potty.” We put some water in our fresh water tank and use our on-board pump system. All we really need is a wide enough space to pullover and open the trailer. We don’t travel with much water in the tank to save on weight. The tank holds 85 gallons. Each gallon of water weights 8.5 pounds. That is a lot of weight. I’ll leave it to you to do the math.

We did, however, find a Rest Area on I-90 at which we stopped. The elevation was about 2,000 feet and the temperature was 37 degrees. Just as we stopped, the snow started flying and the temperature dropped to 34 by the time we pulled out of the Rest Area. We were hoping this was not going to affect our travel. As it turned out, the snow stopped about five miles up the road.

This was on Sunday (April 20). We found our Campground and set up housekeeping for awhile. Of course, the camp office was closed and no one around. We saw a notice on the information board that we had been assigned site number 53. We pulled into that site and found that it was very narrow with trees on either side, too close to get our three slides out. Regardless of the assignment, we decided to find another spot that would fit us better. We did, but it was also tight.

Our whole purpose of going to Spokane was to visit with a cousin of Carolyn’s. Unfortunately, she was not feeling well. She has some unknown problem with leg swelling. She had planned outings and adventures around the area, but alas, that was now out. Besides, it snowed off and on for the days we were there. The best we could do was to adventure to downtown Spokane and have a lobster dinner at a seafood restaurant overlooking the Spokane Falls.

The first picture above is a view of downtown. The brick building with the slim tower in the center of the picture is the newspaper office of the only daily paper in Spokane, The Spokesman-Review. The second picture is of our view of the Falls from the restaurant. The Third picture shows a view of the suspension bridge across the Spokane River in Riverside Park, next to the restaurant. The whole area here was host to the World’s Fair in 1974.

The city was settled in 1871 as "Spokan Falls" (without an 'e' at the end), drawing on the Native American tribe known as the Spokane, which means "Children of the Sun.” The city's name is often mispronounced "Spo-CANE", while the correct pronunciation is "Spo-CAN". Spokane's official nickname is the 'Lilac City', named after the flowers that have flourished since their introduction to the area in the early 20th century.

Spokane Falls was a gathering place for the area's indigenous people due to the abundance of salmon in the Spokane River. The first European settlement at Spokane Falls was a fur trading post operated by the British North West Company and, later, the Hudson's Bay Company. Known as "Spokane House", or just "Spokane", and located just below Spokane Falls, it was in operation from 1810-1826. Camp Spokane was established by the U.S. Army at a location 56 miles northwest of Spokane on October 21, 1880 to protect the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway, and to secure the location for U.S. settlement. By 1881, the Northern Pacific Railway was completed at this point, bringing European settlement. The city of Spokan Falls (without an 'e'; the 'e' was added in 1883) was officially incorporated on November 29, 1881. In 1891, the name was changed to Spokane.

Spokane County borders Idaho on the East and Canada on the North. It seems that we have stopped in a number of border counties in our travels north-west. Idaho-Utah, Idaho-Oregon, Oregon-Washington, and now, Montana-Wyoming (more about this in a moment). Just across the Idaho border from Spokane is the City of Coeur d’Alene. It is situated on a large lake and a seems to be a popular resort area. We only passed through it on our way to Montana. The last picture is of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

As we got ready to move on to Montana, we wondered about the conditions we would find in the high passes over the mountain ranges. We were concerned about two in particular, July Fourth Pass out of Coeur d’Alene and Lookout Pass on the Idaho-Montana border. Just the past Monday, the road was closed to traffic due to weather. The day we left Spokane it was not snowing and fortunately the roads were dry over the passes, although snow lined the roads.

We made it into a place called Anaconda, Montana and pulled into our campground. Again, no one was around to check us in. Eventually, a worker showed up and said they were not really opened yet for the season. He said to just find a spot and put $20 per night “in the box” It was extremely cold. The “worker” said it had snowed six inches that morning. We set up for the night with only 30 amp instead of our usual 50 amp service. We unhooked our water line this time, because it surely was going to freeze. We had planned two nights here, but right away, we decided one night was all we would stay. More snow was predicted.

We took off the next morning (April 25) for a place called Livingston, Montana. This was to be our jumping off place for Yellowstone National Park, which was 52 miles South in Wyoming. The drive was only 124 miles, but it was snowing off-and-on most of the way.

We pulled into our campground, and this time found someone in the office. We were assigned our spot, which had everything….50 amp, cable, WiFi, etc. Our site was the last one in the row next to the showers and restrooms. The turn was a little tight, the trailer wheels bogged down in loose mud that was a newly prepared sewer line. It took us a little while to get the trailer situated properly in the muddy ground and loose gravel. We got set up and it began snowing. It snowed off and on all that day and overnight.

As I said, the purpose of stopping here was to visit Yellowstone. The weather is not good. I called the Yellowstone “hotline” and was told that the North Entrance was open and the roads to “Old Faithful” were passable, but only with snow tires. Of course, we don’t have snow tires. I will check again tonight to see if the roads are open. We’ll see. So far, no more snow today……yet!

So here we sit. Nothing to do but blog. Perhaps this will change. Perhaps not. We’ll let you know later if we ever get to Yellowstone. It would be a shame to be this close, after traveling this distance, and still miss it. But, what is a body to do? Weather!!!

Bad Weather, Ho!

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
We left Zion National Park on April 11, Carolyn’s birthday, and headed north to Provo, Utah, some 274 miles away. Not a great way to spend a birthday, I’m sure. But when anyone asks, I tell them that for her birthday I gave her a “road trip.”

As we drove farther north, the weather seemed to get colder. Just the very thing we were trying to leave. The distant mountains were covered with snow. The closer we got to the mountains, the closer the snow got, until at last it was along side the road way as we passed. Diesel fuel was disappearing fast in the mountain terrain.

Provo is located about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City along the mountain range called the Wasatch Front. This is the snow-covered mountain range you see in the first picture above, as viewed from our camp site. Provo is the home of Brigham Young University, operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The LDS Church's largest Missionary Training Center is located in Provo.

Provo was originally called Fort Utah when it was settled in 1849 by 33 Mormon families from Salt Lake City, but was re-named Provo in 1850 for Étienne Provost, an early French-Canadian trapper who arrived in the region in 1825. Provo has a population of 115,135 —making it the third-largest city in Utah.

The weather got even colder. The prediction was for the temperature to drop to 28 degrees overnight. To keep our water pipes from freezing we allowed the faucet in the kitchen to slowly drip so we wouldn’t have to disconnect the hose. The next morning, I got up, opened the bedroom door and went down into the kitchen to get more heat going. When I stepped onto the tile floor it looked wet. I put my hand to it, and sure enough, it was wet. I then noticed that both kitchen sinks were overflowing. The water was no longer dripping. My first thought was that the drain pipes had frozen.

I got a bucket from our storage compartment under the trailer, and we started dipping water out of the sinks. We then noticed that a laundry bag full of clothes to be washed was setting on the floor and almost completely saturated with water. I went outside to check the water valve. It had been turned off by someone. Water was dripping from under the trailer and three wet spots were evident on the ground. One large one, and two smaller ones. I looked in the compartments underneath to see what was wet. That is when I discovered that the water tank valves were closed. The tanks were full and the water had backed up. I opened the valves and the water in the sinks disappeared. Normally I leave the gray tanks (two 35 gallon tanks for all water except sewer) open to allow the water to run freely. I had forgotten to open the tanks.

Most of the cities on this trek are just stopovers on the way to Spokane, Washington. So basically we just ate out a couple times and looked around the city. We had been to Salt Lake City before, so we decided, considering fuel prices, that we would not make that trip. We filled the truck with diesel for our continuing trip, at the “tune of” $120. The highest diesel price we have encountered so far was $4.43 per gallon.

To give you a perspective on how much it costs us to pull the fifth-wheel along, do this. Get several rolls of quarters, dimes and nickels. Now, every mile you drive, throw one quarter, one dime and one nickel out the window. That is about what it is costing at these fuel prices.

We were scheduled to leave Provo for Twin Falls, Idaho on Monday the 14th and spend a couple days there. The weather forecast was for Twin Falls to have rain/snow on the 16th , the day we were to leave. We decided to change schedule and leave a day early to miss this weather event. So we rearranged our forward schedule. We had half-a-day to get to know Twin Falls.

The city was founded in 1904 as a planned community, designed by celebrated Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, with proceeds from sales of townsite lots going toward construction of irrigation canals. The city is named for a nearby waterfall on the Snake River.

The original townsite follows a unique design. It is laid out on northeast-to-southwest and northwest-to-southeast roads. The northwest-to-southeast roads were numbered and called avenues, while the northeast-to-southwest roads were numbered and called streets. Only two central streets, the northwest-to-southeast Main Avenue and the northeast-to-southwest Shoshone Street, were named. It is purported that the reason this was done was to allow sun to come into every room in the home at some point during the day. This system created situations where one side of a street may have an entirely different address than the other, and where the corner of "3rd and 3rd," for example, was in more than one location. In 2003 the numbered northeast-to-southwest streets were renamed to alleviate decades of confusion.

Twin Falls became the center of national attention in September 1974 thanks to an attempt by the daredevil Evel Knievel to jump the Snake River Canyon in a specially-modified rocket cycle. Watched by millions on television, the attempt ultimately failed due to high winds and a premature deployment of Knievel's parachute. The foundation of the launch ramp, which lies on private land, can still be seen. The second picture above is of Snake River Canyon. You can see the high cliffs at the rear of the picture.

You just can’t trust the weather! Just after we made changes in our schedule to avoid the weather, the weather changed it’s schedule and arrived a day earlier. As a result, our travel day was one of bucking the wind. The wind was blowing steadily at 35 to 40 miles per hour, with gusts near 60 miles per hour. The wind was blowing from the West, and of course, we were driving West. We were glad, however, that it was blowing toward us rather than from the side. Our greatest effort was just keeping the trailer straight, and throwing more quarters, dimes and nickels out the window. Our fuel efficiency on this leg was about half of normal.

We arrived in Caldwell, Idaho on April 15th. Caldwell is located just a hop, skip and jump West of the Capital City of Boise……provided you can hop, skip and jump for about 25 miles. Above is a very colorful sign for the City of Boise. Our RV Park here seemed to be one of the very few that lives up to its billing as a “Resort.” Not only did they have terrific, large camp sites, free WiFi and Cable TV, but they also served free coffee and muffins for breakfast. They also helped with our exercise program by having a very nice, clean exercise room with six different machines.

Caldwell has a population of somewhere around 35,00 people. It seems that it’s claim to fame is mostly negative. In the 1870s and 1880s, Caldwell was home to hundreds of Chinese immigrants, but the town was central in Idaho's aggressive anti-Chinese backlash that culminated in an 1886 convention of the Anti-Chinese League in Boise. By 1890, however, every last immigrant had been driven from town by social pressures and outright violence.

In March of 1908, at the end of a series of trials relating to a miners dispute and the Colorado Labor Wars. Albert Horsley, better known by his psuedonym Harry Orchard, pleaded guilty in District Court in Caldwell to the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. The Judge sentenced Orchard to hang, but his sentence was commuted, and he lived out the rest of his life in an Idaho prison.

We departed our last stop in Idaho on April 17th for Standfield, Oregon, a distance of 224 miles. Standfield has an elevation of 592 feet and a population of about 2,000. Remember, I told you we were only making “stopovers” on the way to somewhere else. Nothing outstanding to see around here, but it does have a little history.

Originally named Foster, Stanfield is named after Sen. Robert N. Stanfield (1921-9127) who purchased the area for use as the headquarters of his extensive sheep and wool enterprises. Because of its proximity to the railroad, the site was used for shearing wool, holding sheep for shipping, and storing supplies for the operations in warehouses. (At one time, Sen. Stanfield and his brothers operated the largest sheep ranching operations in North America.)

With the development of an irrigation system serving the lands around Stanfield, Sen. Stanfield joined with a developer to subdivide the area and create the town of Stanfield, operating excursion trains to bring interested buyers to Stanfield to see the lots that were being offered for sale. Sen. Stanfield donated a number of parcels for public purposes, including the site of the high school.

The last picture above is of Hat Rock, located in a State Park of the same name, off U.S. Highway 730 along the Columbia River (dividing Washington and Oregon). Hat Rock was the first distinctive landmark passed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on their journey down the Columbia and recorded in their journal.

We are scheduled to go to Spokane, Washington tomorrow, April 20th. The Spokane weather forecast is calling for rain/snow tonight, tomorrow and Monday, with highs in the low to mid 40s. We will have some high country to go through, so we are hoping for the best. It doesn’t seem to be worthwhile to keep changing schedule. This is our last point West, before heading directly East across the top of the country. Next time, we’ll let you know how the snow blows! Did someone say it is Spring?

Vegas to Zion

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

I know, you are wondering what these pictures are all about. Hang on, I’ll get to it in a minute. First, let me tell you where we have gone. I guess you already know from last weeks blog, and I also know that you didn’t get the pictures I had promised. So, maybe I’ll have time to get those put on. Just back up to last week and see if they are there.

Onward. We left Arizona as planned and after a three hour trip (sort of like Gilligan’s “three hour tour“) arrived in Las Vegas. We made our way to the campground where we had made reservations, pulled into the drive (going the wrong way, the exit instead of the entrance) and went to the office. Guess what? We had no reservations and they had no available spots. They told us we could wait in a “dry-dock” (no hookups) till the next day to see if a spot became available. “No thank you!”

We went back to the truck to look in our directory to see if we could find another campground. One of the workers showed up and asked our problem. We explained our situation and he recommended a campground (Sam’s Town) on the other side of town, about 12 miles away. But first, we had to back out of the driveway (no place to swing the trailer around) onto a major highway with lots of traffic. The worker helped direct us to accomplish this feat, and we were on our way.

As I drove, Carolyn got on the phone to call the campground to check on the possibilities. We were told they had a spot for us. They have some 253 sites. We told them we were on the way. They did have a spot, but of course, the fee was much higher than where we had made reservations. The site was one of those crowded ones with RVs about three feet away on either side. No place to park the truck except half in the street in front of the trailer. But, we settled in to make the best of it.

That was on a Saturday. We had discovered that Carolyn’s cousin was in town visiting relatives. We were invited to have dinner with them that evening. The cousin was going back to Tennessee early on Sunday morning. We had an enjoyable, relaxing dinner with family. An unexpected pleasure.

We decided to tour the sites of Las Vegas on Sunday. We don’t gamble, but we could at least enjoy the sights of the opulent hotels and casinos. Ok, here is where some of the pictures come in. The first is of Caesar’s Palace showing the Angel Trumpeters high above the streets. The second is the Gondolier rides at the Venetian Hotel, and no, we didn‘t take a ride. We visited most of the new and popular locations including the famed “water show” at the Bellagio Hotel. We walked, and walked, and walked. Not counting the walking inside the locations we visited, we calculated that we walked 17 blocks (twice--round-trip) about a distance of eight miles. As most of you know, we are good walkers, but this was a little over-kill.

We rested our feet the rest of Sunday evening and prepared to leave Las Vegas on Monday morning. We pulled out around 9:00 a.m. headed to a campground near Zion National Park in Utah. The trip was a relatively short one, about 160 miles. We arrived around Noon and found our camping spot. Again, the campsite had no room to park the truck. There is also a hotel attached to the campground, so we were able to park in the hotel lot. A little inconvenient, but it worked.

We were continually impressed and awed by the beauty of the mountains surrounding us. I’ll tell you about the next pictures shortly. We planned to spend a day exploring the Park. The city of Springdale, Utah is located just outside the Zion Park gate. The town (population 545) provided free shuttle service to and from the park every 15 minutes. Inside the park was another free shuttle service that ran every 6-8 minutes taking one to every stop on the six mile Zion Park Road. Each stop provided an opportunity for photos and hiking trails. The trails had a hiking distance of anywhere from half-a-mile to thirteen miles, and varying degrees of difficulty.

The third picture above is a view of some of the mountain scenery found in Zion Park. However, in no way does the picture depict the actual beauty of the view. The mountains were formed over 180 million years ago by the erosion caused by water which now forms the Virgin River. The Mormons settled the area back in the 1800’s and gave the mountains their distinctive names. In the picture above, the left-most area is called the West Tabernacle. The next white formation to it’s right is called Angel’s Landing. The flat-topped area to the far right, with the red streaks running down it, is called The Alter of Sacrifice. And so it goes; Court of the Patriarchs, The Bee Hive, Weeping Rock, etc..

We took three of the hiking trails for a total combined distance of about five miles. The fourth picture above is of the path we took to The Emerald Pools, a distances of two miles……..up. As you can see the path is narrow without any signs of guard rails to keep one from tumbling hundreds of feet below. As the Park literature says, “Your safety is your responsibility.” We were lucky that day…..but tired!

The last picture is of yours truly sitting beside the Virgin River in Zion Canyon. I guess you can tell by the way I am dressed that it was cool. We left Arizona with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s, and got back to the reality of temps in the 30s. From Zion Canyon it’s onward to Provo, Utah. Catch-you-up from there next time.

Moving On

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

As I type this epistle we are sitting in Quartzsite, AZ, just for overnight, then on to Las Vegas early tomorrow morning. The trip from Gila Bend to Quartzsite is only 130 miles, but it breaks up a much longer trip. From here to Vegas is some 216 miles. We don’t like to travel too far in one day. With our 55 mile per hour speed limit, and intermediate stops at a rest area, it takes us a little longer to cover the road miles.

From here to Vegas is mostly all US Hwy 95, as opposed to Interstate Highway. Part of the route is the ,old, and famous Route 66 from Chicago to LA. We leave Arizona at Parker, cross into California (through Needles), then straight North to Nevada and Vegas.

When we set up here in Holiday Palms RV Park, our ten foot water hose wouldn’t reach the faucet. We got out an extra ten footer that we have that had been patched from a previous leak. When we connected the two hoses to span the distance, we discovered the spare hose still had a leak. We set out to find a new hose. The hardware store in Quartzsite had only a 50 foot hose. Way too long for our needs. We decided to buy a coupler to fix the hose.

We brought the coupler back to the trailer to repair the hose. I cut the bad section out of the hose to put in the coupler. We had bought the wrong size. We needed to return it and get the correct size. We didn’t want to unhook the truck from the trailer to go back to the hardware store, so we walked. It took about 15 minutes each way. Not bad, but it was about 90 degrees in the bright sun. The new coupler worked, so we were back in business with the water.

This is an added paragraph to let you know that you won't see the pictures I have indicated below because I am having problems getting the website to accept my upload. So, maybe next time.

Not much news for this week’s blog, but I’ll share a couple pictures with you. The first is the Palo Verde tree in Spring bloom, residing in front of the Office at Augie‘s RV Park where we spent the winter. The second picture just shows how we carry our bikes and extension ladder when we travel.

We should have more to share with you for the rest of our 4,000 mile trip back to Tennessee. Until next time, keep good thoughts.

Final Week

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

This is it, the final week in Gila Bend. All in all, I can say that it has been a good time, or perhaps I should say, good rest. We have done very little but relax, which included a lot or reading and walking for exercise. We started out our time here walking three miles a day, two rounds in the morning and one in the evening. Now we are doing four rounds. By rounds I mean times around the perimeter of the RV Park, which comprises 42 acres. In actuality, as measured by our truck, each round is 1.125 miles. This makes our three rounds equal 3.375 miles and four rounds equal 4.5 miles. We calculate that we have walked around 400 miles since we stopped for the Winter. I don’t know where that would have taken us in a straight line, but it would have been a “fer piece.”

There is nothing unusual in my reading. Everyone who knows me knows that I seldom sit down without a book in my hand, if I’m not on the computer or otherwise engaged. Since the beginning of January, I have read 25 books. Carolyn has read something like 18 books. I am a mystery reader and partial to James Patterson, among others. Carolyn has read a lot of Nicholas Sparks novels during this time.

This week, we decided that it was time to really clean our RV in preparation for our upcoming trip. We worked on the inside, getting rid of all the dust, and perhaps sand, that had accumulated during our stay in the desert. Then, it was time to tackle the outside. So yesterday was the day. The park has an area especially for washing one’s RV which is equipped with hose, brush, etc., but we were not interested in unhooking, moving and re-hooking the RV just for the wash. Instead, we did the “bucket and rag” routine on the ladder. It took us some four hours to complete the job, but now it shines like a jewel….well, almost. Anyway, it is much cleaner.

We were talking last night, that is Carolyn and I, about our time here as relaxing. The question came up as to what the word “relax” meant. Being the reader that I am, and word connoisseur, I was ready with the answer. The word “lax” comes from the Latin “laxus” meaning loose. The prefix “re,” of course, means “again” or to “go back.” So, we are getting loose. The word is also related to “slack” and “slacks” a type of pants. It is also the base of the word “laxative.” I’m sure you can figure that out.

Language is a funny thing, and you sure can get messed up with it. As many of you know, we spent a year in Costa Rica doing our best to learn the Spanish language. The teachers at the school refused to use English in the learning experience, so we were forced to get it or else. The classes were eight hours a day, five days a week, for twelve months. We tried to learn all the local idioms (called “modismos” in Spanish) so that we would not sound so much like a dictionary when we spoke.

One such expression in Costa Rica was, “El tiene mucha pipa“. “Pipa” is either a pipe one smokes or a green coconut. Literally translated it means “He has much pipe, or green coconut.” Which makes no sense at all. The expression meant, “he is very intelligent.” That is the way it is in most every language. We say, “It’s not my cup of tea,” which has nothing to do with cups or tea, but we know what it means.

I tried to learn all these little expressions to make the language flow and not seem so much a foreigner or tourist. The trouble was, we moved on from Costa Rica to Ecuador, South America. The occasion arose in conversation when the expression, “El tiene mucha pipa” seemed appropriate, so I used it. That is when I received a lot of strange looks on the faces of those to whom I was speaking. Astute as I am, I perceived that something was wrong. I asked, “Don’t you use that expression here?”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t it mean that he is very intelligent?”
“Noooo,” I was told. “It means, ‘He has a big gut.’” So much for trying to appear “with it.”

I have spent a good part of my life studying language and particularly words and their meaning. There are some very interesting websites that have to do with word and phrase meaning that I think any of you reading this would find interesting. One special website is called The Word Detective, written by Evan Morris, who writes a newspaper column of the same name, read throughout the U.S., Mexico and Japan. Since 1995 he has been putting his column on the internet, a new one every month. You will find Evan Morris’ column here: http://word-detective.com. Give it a look. You will find Evan to be a very humorous writer.

I am still working on the project to install a second satellite-dish receiver in the bedroom. I am almost there. I have figured out how I am now going to do it. That is, how to run the cable into the RV, which is going to involve drilling holes and installing connectors. I have the parts, but not the screws to attach the outside connector. This means that I will have to make a trip to the local hardware store today and get on with the job. I have put it off too long, so I must get to it.

The picture above is the last you will see of yours truly in the desert of Arizona, at least for a time. I have included the “after” picture on the truck tire fire which I showed you last week.

So, that is it for now. We will be leaving next Friday for points North, West and East. We don’t know what the internet availability will be on the road, but we will try to keep you updated as best we can.

Excitement

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

Two weeks from today, Friday, April 4, we will be pulling out of Gila Bend and back on the road. More about this in a few minutes. As you might be able to tell from the first photos above, we had a little excitement around here on Monday of this week. Well, the pictures won’t tell you it was Monday, but they do show the excitement.

There are a number of “workers” residing at the campground now that are doing construction work in the area. Some of them are driving very large, side-dump trucks which they park in the twenty acres at the back of the RV Park, which is in the line of sight from our camping spot. They usually get back from the job in mid-afternoon, about 3:00.

So, on Monday afternoon we happened to look out our window and saw a large cloud of black smoke rising upward from the desert. Our view was obstructed by another RV, so we pulled on our shoes, which we normally don’t wear in the trailer during hot weather, and went out to take a closer look. The first photo is what we saw. The right, rear tires (four of them) were blazing. The driver pulled his tractor away from the trailer and got on his cell phone.

The first to arrive on the scene was curious campers. After awhile (five or ten minutes) a Sheriff’s car arrived, then another. They stood around and watched the tires burn. After several more minutes a fire truck finally came roaring down the road. It took them a few minutes to get things setup, but they got the fire under control, as you can see by the second photo. The company carted off the useless trailer a few days later. Things back to normal.

On Thursday, in preparation for our coming road trip, we had to take the truck into Phoenix to get our 30,000 mile maintenance done. We have only about 26,000 miles on the truck, but close enough to have a good inspection before our trip. During the four hours it took to get this work accomplished, we walked to a near-by shopping area and spent time “window shopping.” We do very little actual shopping anymore, except for groceries and diesel fuel, which now is at $4.00 a gallon in this neck-of-the-woods.

After we picked up the truck, we went to Camping World to get some needed items for the RV and then to a very interesting eating place in Mesa (East of Phoenix) called Organ Stop Pizza. You see a photo of the outside of the restaurant above. Now here is a little bit of history on the place.

In 1972, the original Organ Stop Pizza restaurant premiered in Phoenix, Arizona at the corner of 7th Street and Missouri Avenue with a Wurlitzer pipe organ which was originally built for Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theater. This unique concept of a pizza parlor with a pipe organ was envisioned by William P. Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer whose enthusiasm for the theater pipe organ and its music led to the creation of this landmark attraction.

The phenomenal success of the Phoenix restaurant prompted plans to open another Organ Stop in Mesa. It opened in 1975 near the corner of Dobson and Southern Avenue with a Wurlitzer organ from the Denver Theater in Denver, Colorado. In the theater, the Denver instrument had 15 ranks, or sets of pipes. The instrument was totally rebuilt, and the decision was made to enlarge the organ to 23 ranks for its debut in the new Mesa Organ Stop.

The success and popularity of the new Organ Stop Pizza mirrored that of the Phoenix location. In 1984, Bill Brown decided to retire from the restaurant business. The Phoenix Organ Stop was sold to a real estate developer, who sold the pipe organ and demolished the building in favor of an office complex. Incidentally, that instrument was sold to a couple in Downers Grove, Illinois, for installation in their home! The Mesa Organ Stop was sold to longtime employee and manager Mike Everitt and his partner Brad Bishop. Under the new ownership, improvement of the pipe organ became a high priority. Over the course of the ensuing years, careful acquisition of rare pipework and percussions were made, culminating in what is now the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the world. With the change in ownership, the restaurant continued to gain in popularity. Inevitably plans were made to move into a facility twice the size of the original in order to accommodate the ever increasing number of patrons and ever-expanding organ. This new mega facility, located at the corner of Stapley Drive and Southern Avenue, was designed specifically to accommodate the expanding scope and size of the Organ Stop Wurlitzer. Construction of the new facility began in May of 1995 and the grand opening was Thanksgiving weekend of that same year.

In its new and improved location, Organ Stop Pizza and its “Mighty Wurlitzer” have come to be known as the biggest and best in the world as attested to by many of the world's finest theater organists and, more importantly, the hundreds of thousands of patrons who visit each year. There are continuing efforts to make additions and improvements to the organ, endeavoring to fine tune the instrument closer and closer to perfection.

The restaurant doesn’t open until 4:00 PM. We got there about 4:15 and the place was already crowed. You order and pay for your meal (pizza, salad, soup, drinks, etc.) and wait until your order is prepared. For us it took about 30 minutes, so in the meantime we found a table (which is shared by others) and waited for our order number to appear on the electronic board in the eating area which consisted of a down-stairs and an up-stairs balcony along the sides and rear. We chose the right side balcony close to the front.

The front area had a large circular stage out of which rose the Wurlitzer and the organist, on this night it was Lew Williams. The whole front wall, floor to ceiling, and a portion of each side wall, comprised the pipes, drums and bellows. The organ music starts at 4:30 and lasts throughout the eating hours, with a break now and then. The organist plays a variety of music and takes requests from the audience which are placed in a basket on the stage. You see a picture of the organ and Lew Williams above. The food was nothing special, but the music and atmosphere was nice and enjoyable. They even had a sing-a-long.

The trip for the day was a total of 207 miles, at four-bucks a gallon, not cheap. One has two choices: go or stay. We choose to go awhile, then stay a while. So, up coming is our going part. Before we reach Tennessee again, we will be stopping in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois (Chicago) and Indiana. Our trip will be about 4,000 miles and eleven new states. We plan to arrive back in Tennessee toward the end of May.

The rest of the year is already planned, but more about that another time.

Cotopaxi

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

The story I am about to tell involves the mountain above, Cotopaxi, a stratovolcano, also called a composite volcano, a tall, conical shape composed of many layers of hardened lava and volcanic ash. These kinds of volcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions. The lava that flows from them cools and hardens before spreading very far. Cotopaxi has a summit elevation of 19,388 feet. It has erupted 50 times since 1738. The 1877 eruption melted snow and ice on the summit, which produced mudflows that traveled 60 miles from the volcano. The most recent eruption of Cotopaxi ended in 1904. Reports of an eruption in 1942 have not been confirmed. Loosely translated from the Quechua, Cotopaxi means "Smooth Neck of the Moon"

At the time, around 1970, we lived in the town of Latacunga, at the base of this volcano. You can locate it on the map above, some 50 miles south of Quito. The city had a population at the time of about 20,000, and we were the only English speaking family in the city. We were home-schooling our daughter, Debbie, through the Calvert System out of Maryland. We taught her at home in the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades. I am not sure which school year it was, but her geography book stated that the world’s highest, active volcano was one in Hawaii. We knew better, because we lived at the foot of the world’s highest, active volcano. We wrote the school and told them their text book was wrong. The school wrote back, after some research, and acknowledged that we were correct. They said, “I guess we will have to take the Parsons family as the authority on volcanoes.”

Anyway, this is not the story. The whole story involves the area directly around the base of the mountain. The fact that we are now “camping” full-time is nothing new. We have camped quite a lot in our time, but then it was “tent-camping,” the old fashion way. At this particular time we decided to go camping around the mountain with some friends who lived in Quito. We were to search out a good area for the purpose, since we lived near by. We knew we would need a “four-wheel-drive” vehicle to accomplish this feat because the conditions around the mountain were primitive at best. Although our friends had a four-wheel-drive, we only had a Ford station wagon. So we borrowed a four-wheel-drive vehicle from other friends.

Carolyn and I took off around the mountain to search out a camping spot. Why do you suppose that the song, “She’ll be comin’ around the mountain when she comes“….has just hit my mind? I guess it is appropriate. But, as I was saying, we started out bumping over rough ground, fording streams (we crossed 14 streams in all), coming upon herds of wild horses (you see a picture of some of them above), and generally enjoying ourselves. We finally found a spot between the streams (similar to the streams you see above with the horses) that we thought would be perfect. We made our way back out of the wilderness, and no, we didn’t get lost.

We informed our friends that we had found the “ideal” spot, and we planned the date and time to go. We met at the entrance to the mountain area. It had recently rained and we knew the terrain would be muddy and slick. We also knew that we would need the four-wheel-drive. In those days, converting from two-wheel-drive was a manual operation on each wheel, no central button to push or lever to pull.

We made the driving adjustments and started off to locate our “spot.” We slipped, slide, bounced and forded the same 14 steams. We arrived at our site, setup our tents and prepared for a three-day camp experience in a beautiful, wild setting. As we were ending our preparations, it began to rain again. We had experienced rain before. No big deal. We huddled in one tent, the six of us. Our friends had a son near the same age as our daughter. We talked, tried games, then decided that we would have to cook and eat inside our tents. The rain was coming down hard. Dark had come and there was not much to do except get some sleep and hope for a better day tomorrow. We separated and went to bed. Actually, we went to “ground.”

It rained all night. Our tents began to leak. We tried to adjust the best we could, but there was not much sleeping going on that night. We were more wet than anything. The next morning, it was still raining. We fixed some breakfast, and wondered what we should do. We noticed that the streams were rising fast and beginning to encroach on our camp site. We decided it was best to get out of there while we still could. If we could!

We packed our wet tents. Loaded our vehicles and approached the stream. The water was rushing rapidly and still rising. We were not sure that we could successfully ford the streams since the water was now much higher. We made the decision and our friends started across first. They got midway of the stream, and the engine died. They were sitting in the stream, water half-way up the doors, and the engine was stalled. We were still on the bank looking on.

The carburetor was most likely wet. It needed to be dried. To do this, one would have to crawl out the window, get on the hood, step down on the bumper, lift the hood and dry the carburetor with a rag…….provided that said person didn’t fall in the rushing water. Our friends, let’s call them Bill and Marilyn, simply because that is their names, chose Bill for the honors.

We decided that Bill would tie a rope around his waist, toss the other end to me on the bank, and I would hold tension on him to keep him from falling in the stream. He crawled out the window and onto the hood. As soon as he attempted to place a foot on the bumper….down he went, into the water. My efforts at holding tension was worth nothing. So much for that idea.

Bill stood in the rushing water up to his waist, lifted the hood and dried the carburetor. He indicated to Marilyn to try the engine. Varooooom! It started. Bill closed the hood, turned his back on the car and started wading across the stream and motioned for Marilyn to drive across behind him. She did, and we followed in our car without incident. That was one stream. There were 13 more to come.

The going was tough at times and we were not always sure we would make it. There were times when I thought that we were going to turn over on some of the slick, angled paths that we had to traverse. But we made it through all in one piece. We were grateful for four-wheel-drive! It was only when we had gotten back to the main highway that I discovered that there was something wrong with the wheels of my “borrowed” vehicle. The four-wheel-drive element had not been working. I had been driving with only two-wheel drive. If I had known this during the trip, I would have been very afraid. If something had happened to us, they would still be looking for us in that wilderness. There was no one else around, and no one knew where we were going.

The things we don’t do when we are young! Until next time.