Verde Valley Bound . . .
Jan and I were up about 6:30 this morning, wanting to get everything pretty much ready to go before we drove over to the IHOP on Signal Butte to have a Leaving AJ breakfast. Unfortunately, since Nick doesn’t do anything before 11am, even eat breakfast, he and Terry were no-shows. Bummer!
By the time we headed out for the IHOP about 8am, everything was done, except to let in the awnings, disconnect shore power, and crank up. By getting to the restaurant about 8:15, we had hoped to avoid a wait, but were told 15-20 minutes anyway. But they called us in about 3 minutes, so it worked out fine.
By the time we got back to the rig, pulled out of our site, got hitched up, and pulled out of the park, it was about 10:15. Once again we had no problem with the airbags coming up, so it looks like that cycling the airbag dump switch a couple of stops ago took care of that problem.
We headed west on US 60 for about 20 miles and then north on the 101 Loop for about 30 miles. This put us out on I-17, bypassing most of the Phoenix traffic. Once on the Interstate you start the long climb up through the mountains, gaining about 2500 feet along the way. The one really steep section, 5 miles of a 5% grade, we still stayed above 40, and even passed some trucks along the way.
Since what goes up, must come down, we then had about 5 miles of a 6% grade down into the Verde Valley. But our PacBrake Exhaust Brake kept us at a steady 55mph all the way down without having to touch the brakes.
We pulled into the Verde Valley Thousand Trails about 12:45, make the 135 mile trip in about 2-1/2 hours. These first two photos were taken with our dashcam.
We got the last site in the H section up top by the Club House, so we could have hopefully have decent cell/data service. But they don’t make the sites easy to get into. Nothing like having sharp, pointy trees along the side of the rig as you’re pulling in.
But we were finally parked and set up. And we do have a nice view out the windshield.
We decided to just stay in tonight and have the leftover pizza from Organ Stop Pizza the other day, and we may just have leftover Famous Dave’s BBQ tomorrow night.
Doing nothing for a while is nice.
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Thought for the Day:
“How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.” – Benjamin Disraeli
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