And... we're back!

 

If you said, "Every radio DJ from the 60s at the end of a twin spin," you get 30 bonus points.  If you said, "What's a 'twin spin'?" get off my lawn ya damn kids.  If you said, "Is there anyone still alive who lived in the 60s?" I am going to come to your house and slap yo Momma for raising such an idiot child.  Yes, I am kidding - yo Momma probably tried her best; it's not her fault that you're an idiot child.

That said, we are back home.  A 3-night outing - not to be confused with Three Dog Night: that was a great band from... nevermind.  Three nights is what we planned.  The goal was to get more acquainted with the new Roadtrek.  We have owned RVs for decades, but each one is different, and this one feels more different from any of the others.  In a new, interesting, more tech oriented kinda way.

A brief synopsis: we were moderately overwhelmed the first night while we tried to figure out where to put stuff.  Then a day trip to the Grand Canyon, where the features of this Class B van really showed.  I'm impressed.

Night two felt more settled.  Until Murphy decided to "sing the songs of his people" starting around 2:00 am.  Like a Bruce Springsteen concert, it went on for hours.  We tried to comfort him, but he finally wore himself out.  Day three was a "chill day," where we lounged in, took Murphy for a couple walks, did a tour of Williams, had a nice lunch out, then back to the campground, where Murph got more outside time, including some "tree time."

This morning, we were ready to head out by 9:30.  A short wait at the dump station in the campground, and while I was getting out the macerator hose, a lady from the small travel trailer behind us asked, "Can I watch you do this?  This is our first time and we don't know what we're doing."  I explained that our van uses a macerator pump, so it will be a bit different.  When we were done, I moved our van, then went back to talk then through the process.  "Thank you SO MUCH," she said, "We would have messed this up!"

I told her, "It's only scary the first time."  I explained that their gravity dump is the way almost all RVs operate and told them some best practices: "Dump the black tank first, close that valve. Dump the gray tank and it will help rinse out the sewer hose after dumping the black."  There was a lot more, and the couple seemed relieved that it isn't a tough process.

We headed down the road, stopping to fuel up - the van and our bellies at a Pilot 20 miles down the road.  We turned off I-40 onto I-17 for a short time, then took Hwy 89A through the Coconino National Forest, and into the Red Rocks area on the way to and through Sedona.  We shot some video of this, and I will pull off some "snapshots" of that later.  It was a beautiful drive, and I got to use the manual up/downshift feature of the transmission on the RAM Promaster to slow our descent on some steep downhills... works great. Then, along the Red Rocks Scenic Byway, which led to I-17 once again.  And from there, it was up and down some hills, into the Phoenix area.

We are home.  It is hot.  "How hot is it?" you ask... yeah, that's an old Johnny Carson bit.  We rolled in around 2:00 pm, and it was 105º.  Joan put out the awning (with the van in the driveway), we fired up the a/c and started the unloading process... we were done in about 45 minutes.

Murphy seems happy to be home.  Joan is definitely happy to be home.  I'm thinking: "It is hotter than the gates of Hell... but I'm happy that everyone is happy."

To quote Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home."  To quote the Wicked Witch of the West from that same movie: "I'm melting!!!"

There was a stack of Amazon boxes waiting for us (Steph and Dan brought them into our house) and a few more that got delivered while we were unloaded.  Several of those packages were things Joan ordered while we were out; things for the van.  There are some things we need to do to it to make it "ours."  All in due time.  It will be a while before Joan and Murph are ready to head out again.

Check back later this evening or tomorrow for some photos of today's sights.

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As promised, some "snapshot" images from today's drive - Hwy 89A is a scenic delight...

That's a twisty road...

Pretty red rock formations...

These were shot with the DJI Action 4 camera, which has a wide angle perspective; with us driving right into the sun, there is some glare and reflection in these shots.  Still, it gives you an idea of how striking the scenery is along this drive.

Into Sedona...

It has been a few years since we've been through this area.  The RV parks are pricey around here, but I think we'll make it a point to get back this way when things cool off a bit.