Yep, I'm a bit achy this morning...

 

I'm moving slow, but still moving.  Shoulder, ribs, wrist, and back are feeling it, too.  The gauze Joan put on my knees stuck to 'em when I took the bandages off this morning.  My big toe didn't turn purple, so I don't think it's broke... nothing I can do for it, anyway... pretty sure they don't make a sling for your toe.  ;-)

Joan said to me, "We need to know when to say when - do we need to go home?"

"After all the work getting the coach ready to head out and closing up the house? These are scrapes and bruises - I may need a chill day soon, but we planned extra time to get there. We're good."

Once we're cleaned up and the utilities are put away, I'm heading this rig east.  Ibuprofen is my friend. 

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We rolled across New Mexico, only getting slowed down for 2 accidents (a couple hundred yards apart) while going through Albuquerque...

 Bumper to bumper, stop and go.  Mostly stop.  But, the first responders cleared a couple lanes and we were moving within 10 minutes or so.  Big city life.

Seemed like it took a while to get out of New Mexico...

Their state slogan is: Land of Enchantment.  I used to think that meant: Land of Blowing Dirt, but now I realize that Enchantment is an old Indian term meaning: shitty roads.  Seriously, their roads suck ass... swamp ass.  Which is worse than regular ass.  But, I digress.

Yes, I drove today.  I'm the driver, Joan is the navigator (we know a fellow RVer who calls his wife the "nagigator," but I would never say that about my darling wife... because sometimes she reads this.  I just mention that I drove in case anyone thought my tripping incident might prevent me from doing so.  The shit roads in New Mexico didn't help my achy back, but I'm not going to talk about that.  OK, Joan is letting me release this photo she took today, so you can see for yourself...

The elbow is covered with a bandage, so nothing to see.  Now, really, I'm done talking about it.

Back to talking about New Mexico's crap roads.  It was a relief to get into Texas today...

You can tell by the standing water, this area has had plenty of rain.  The sign makes me chuckle - "Drive Friendly, the Texas Way"... Texas is the only state where I've been passed on the right - on the shoulder!But, the roads are better than New Mexico...

We stopped for fuel before going to tonight's RV park - gas was $2.99/gal at Pilot!  ($2.94 with our discount).  Sure beats Arizona prices.  The RV park is what I would call "quaint"... old, homey, but not run down...

Not as fancy as last night's stop, but no casino (I came out $5 ahead, btw; apparently, Joan paid for some entertainment, but the nest egg is still safe).

We have good TV channels, and we can just cool our heels for the evening.  And give Murphy a chance to relax without "the house moving."  He did fine today.  Joan let him wander around a bit while we were underway.  We made reservations for what looks like a very nice park for tomorrow night and Friday night - grassy areas where Murphy may try to go for a walk on his leash.  If he wants.  No pressure.

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Since we are facing east this evening, we took the windshield covers off so Murphy could lay on the dash and look out (the boy loves to see outside... and be outside)...

Not the best light to show off his silky fur, but the boy is adapting to this RVing stuff.  Pretty windy here, or I'd see if he wants to go outside... maybe tomorrow.

Another time change today, so we're now two hours different from home (AZ)... I didn't think we've been moving fast enough to have "jet lag."  ;-)

 

So, how was the first night out?

 

Thanks for asking.  Life is different in the motorhome - compact living, for sure.  The sounds are different from being in a nice quiet house.  We went to bed an hour earlier than usual.  The bed is different from the Select Comfort (Sleep Number) bed in the house; Winnebago has their version of a Tempurpedic mattress that I find comfortable... but different.  The bed in the house tells me each morning how I slept, with a "rating" and logs any bed exits or restlessness.  It is a "smart bed," and reconforms to my body when I turn over.  The bed in the coach is dumb - it doesn't tell me anything.  ;-)

That said, I feel like I slept pretty good.  Before 5:00 this morning, the alarm went off.  Not our alarm - the manager of the park apparently has a rooster (we read about that in the reviews).  I chuckled a bit when I first heard it, then turned back over for a few more minutes... no snooze button on a rooster, though.

We made reservations for what we expect to be a nicer RV park tonight (gets excellent reviews).  About 5 hours driving time from here, so we're not in a hurry to get down the road.  Murphy got breakfast, Joan made us a light breakfast; we'll do our morning routine, then head on down the road.  We "lose" an hour today heading east.

We don't want to head out too early, so we don't have to stare into the sun as we head east.

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We're rolling...

I did get a camera out this morning; my Nikon DSLR, because I can sometimes shoot with one hand while I'm dri... nevermind.  The last time I used this camera was when I got that shot of the nearly full moon coming up over South Mountain.  To get an exposure like that, I have to shoot on Manual Mode.  Yeah, I forgot to switch it back to Program Mode, so these first couple shots are over-exposed and contrasty.  Not much to look at to start...

 Rolling across northern Arizona, the landscape changes...

Before heading out, Murph acted like he wanted to go outside.  I put his harness on him and, "Oh, hell no, I'm not going out there!"  We headed out, but left his harness on - he's sitting on Joan's lap early on...

The road was pretty crappy: lots of potholes and worn areas.  None of us were enjoying that.  On one particularly rough spot just outside of Gallup, New Mexico, we caught some air... in a curve.  Murph was not impressed.  Joan snuggled him in his blankie...

He did much of the ride today on Joan's lap...

That is a first.  About 15 miles from our stop for the day - yep, another thunderstorm...

This was one of those times while just holding the camera out, I missed the majority of the rainshafts on this storm.  Fortunately the road turned, and we just skirted the storm.  We may not be that lucky through the night.

We are down for the night at the Route 66 Casino/Hotel/RV Resort.  I let Steph know that we'll try not to lose her inheritance.  I'm kidding... after the move to the desert, there is no inheritance.  ;-)  I let her know the location of this place, in case she needs to come bail us out of debtor's prison.  Is that still a thing?

We haven't gone into the casino, yet.  I'm guessing we'll check it out for supper.  The buildings look nice and the RV park is definitely what I'd call "upscale."  Nice long pull-through sites with the utilities laid out to fit modern RVs, nice landscaping...

 The RV park sits back a ways from the casino, but they have a shuttle that will pick you up at your site and take you to casino and bring you back...

The RV park is further from the Interstate, so it should be relatively quiet.  And, as far as I know, they don't allow roosters.

No decision on how far to go tomorrow.  Gas was cheap ($3.15/gal) here, so we have fuel to get us down the road.

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We went into the casino to do a bit (little bit) of gambling and have supper.  When we called for the shuttle to take us back to our site, a thunderstorm was just rolling in: mostly thunder and lightning until just before we got to the coach - the rain came hard and fast.  I got out my key to get ahead of Joan and get the door open.  While making a dash for the door, I tripped on the lip of the concrete pad our motorhome is on... and went tumbling.  Old people generally lead with their head when the fall; I went down knees and elbow first, then rolled.  I lost some skin on those pointy parts and stubbed the daylights out of my big toe.

Joan helped me up, I got the door open, and we went inside.  She got out the first aid supplies and went to work on my knees and elbow... think: "road rash" on those pointy bits.  It's gonna hurt in the morning.  Just dumb luck(?) to catch a toe on the edge of the concrete.  My "dense bones" handled the fall... my old, thin skin, not so much.  I may have to put my leg modeling career on pause for a bit.  On the bright side, we weren't on a gravel site, so I didn't have to dig that out of my knees.

A half hour later, the rain was done.  I shoulda gambled longer or ate slower.

We're Off...

 

If you said, "About half a bubble?" you get 20 bonus points for having a sense of humor.

Today is "departure day."  And after sitting for so long, hoping the coach holds together as we get down the road.

We did our last minute things around the house early this morning.  Murphy looked on with interest...

 

 

He has no idea what's coming.

The yard looks very different with everything put away or covered...

With all the stuff done, we hugged Steph and Dan, and headed to the motorhome.  Our plan is to keep today easy - about 250 miles to let us get used to being RVers again.  And to give Murphy the chance to roam the motorhome once we are down (early).

When we first checked routing, I-17 was closed north of Phoenix.  We had planned to go north to Flagstaff, then head east.  Joan checked backroad options... shorter miles, but two lane and curvy; great for riding the scoots, but they are riding behind us in their trailer.  When we were ready to roll, I-17 was open again - back to the original plan.

I didn't unpack a camera, so most of the following photos are courtesy of Joan from her iPhone.  Traffic was typically heavy going through Phoenix, but got lighter as we left the Valley of the Sun behind us.  It is pretty much an uphill run from Phoenix (elevation around 1,000') to Flagstaff (elevation around 7,000')... well, a lot of up and down.  There was one sign on the road that said, "Keep your engine from overheating - turn off your air conditioner."  Did you catch that "Valley of the Sun" part earlier?  Yeah, the temperature in Phoenix is close to that on the surface of the sun.  As we all know, the outside air temperature drops with elevation - about 3º for each 1,000'.  Still we ran the dash air and had the generator running to run the house a/c.  We kept the house a/c on until we were an hour or so out of Phoenix (it was still in the upper 80s).

Along with the change in traffic and elevation, there is a change in vegetation as you go north.  We went from desert (and I've posted plenty of photos of that) to seeing trees and lots of greenery...

Murph rode in his carrier most of the way.  The furry boy settled down soon after we were rolling, but we wanted him to have that carrier as his "safe haven"...

He's in that blue carrier behind me.  He sounded a bit like something from the Exorcist when I carried him out of the house, but quieted down once we started moving.  This is a whole different experience for him.  Joan did take him out of his carrier for a bit...

He is not big on lap sitting, but he doesn't fuss when in Momma's arms.  We stopped at a rest area so he could get down and look around the motorhome a bit.  Very curious, but no fussing.  Joan made us lunch, I gave Murph his lunch.  I did a walk-around - the motorhome and the bikes in the cargo trailer are all doing fine.

Heading east from Flagstaff, the terrain changes pretty quickly from heavily forested with pine trees to high desert as you descend from 7,000' to 5,000'...

Our intended RV park for the night is in Holbrook, AZ.  It's an OK place - it has to be, it's in the name: OK RV Estates.  Unlike the info from their website, they don't have cable TV, but Joan set us up with Hulu, since the only over-the-air channels are both screaming TV preacher channels... and they come in clear as a bell.  I was concerned we might have to engage in conversation all evening.  ;-)  I'm kidding, of course, it was a delight to have my navigator in the coach with me, since we've driven separate when RV traveling since we got the Equinox.

About 20 miles out from the RV park, we could see a thunderstorm cell south and ahead of us, complete with lightning.  When we pulled into the RV park to register, I was pretty sure I was going to get wet while hooking up.  If necessary, we can just plug in electric and not worry about water or sewer since our fresh water tank is full and the holding tanks are empty.  A lady from the office escorted us to our site in a golf cart, and pointed out where the water, sewer, and electricity are located.  You'd have to be a very novice RVer to need that info, but I smiled and thanked her.  And as I plugged in power, the sprinkles started.

Looking at the sky, it appeared that the storm would past mostly east of us, but we did have a bit of rain on and off for the afternoon.  This place isn't fancy, but it's... OK.

 There were plenty of sites available when we pulled in just after 2:00.  The sites around us filled up after 5:00, when people want to get off the road.

We have reservations for our stay in North Carolina, but we generally tend to wing it while enroute.  I had called this place yesterday to make sure they'd have sites.  We've done the same for tomorrow night... but it sounds like that RV park will be more than just OK.  ;-)

Joan is making supper - nice to be able to have the a/c going and the convection oven (helps to have actual RV hookups).  Murphy has settled in, after checking out the view from each window.  This was Izzy's favorite place for an afternoon nap in the coach...

It's a cat-size perch and window that has just a bit of seclusion.  Looks like Murph is enjoying it, too...

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This morning before we left, one of the weather weasels on the local morning show said, "June 2024 was the hottest June on record in Phoenix."  Felt like it.