We had decided not to push it too hard with the driving any more, both in terms of distance covered per day and types of road traveled. From now on, we would be planning our routes much more carefully...
Our first day in AZ, we decided to stop and camp in the national forest, which I was concerned we could not actually do, since the federal government shutdown was still on. But, Nate had faith that we would not only be able to camp, but we'd camp for free since there was no one around to collect fees. He was right and we found a great spot in the Blackjack Campground-- alone except for one other group of campers, way across the park, that we only saw once.
Here is our site, which was great except all the trash that had been left behind by other campers. I spent an hour picking up and figured that paid our camping fee. :)
There was plenty of firewood around the campground, so we had a great campfire. Check out the pile of cats on Nate's lap: they seemed thrilled to be staying anywhere besides the Walmart parking lot!
The next morning, we packed up and drove out along one of the most breathtaking roads we've been on (which was, thankfully, all downhill):
From there, our goal was to make it to Payson, AZ, another long day of driving. So much for taking it easy. ;) On the way, we passed lots of dry desert, some surreal cotton plantations (yes, in the desert! Who knew Pima and supima cotton came from Pima county in Arizona?!),
and then Lake Roosevelt with its hillsides full of saguaro cacti, which looked a lot like they were standing guard:
As we neared Payson, Baba G decided she'd had enough of the hills and the heat for one day. Just south of town, we had to pull off the road and let her cool down for almost an hour before we could continue! Then, a quick trash drop off in town...
~Classy!~
... and we were on the other side of town, happily finding the free campsite we'd googled up was (a) real, (b) really free, and (c) accessible. We weren't expecting it to be very nice, given the price tag, but were happily surprised to get a prime spot right next to a cute little river with a fair amount of firewood nearby. Here I am, driving across the bridge into the campground:
And here is Nate at the campfire, enjoying another microbrew (sorry, Mike... hehe):
After just one night (which was a Thursday), we packed up and moved on because LOTS of campers started arriving for the weekend. We continued northwestward to Sedona, AZ to visit the famous Red Rocks: so gorgeous.
Sedona is a pretty upscale town. So, just imagine the horror we must have caused when we brought Baba G and the paint-peeling Civic to town. (hehe) We imagined that locals and visitors alike were averting their eyes as we cruised the roundabouts in the center of town.
And then, to make matters worse, we pulled into the Safeway (grocery store) parking lot to google up a plan for where to stay next. Yes, we were really flying by the seat of our pants on this part of the journey. We were also committed to finding free camping, since we had been so successful at that, as of late. The only free camping near Sedona, however, lay up the BIG hill between Sedona and Flagstaff. So, we did the most reasonable thing we could think of: we called Mike and Diana, since they had visited Sedona just the year before.
The news wasn't good. This was no "big dirt highway." Mike and Diana both said the road was not just hilly, but also curvy and pretty heavily trafficked. We rechecked our maps. There was just no other good way out of Sedona, besides backtracking the same way we'd come in. We are a lot of things, but we are not backtrackers. ;)
So, we left the kitties locked in Baba G in the Safeway parking lot, and took a test drive in the car. We came back too late to drive the RV up that night, but decided we thought we could actually make it up the hill the next morning, if we went right at the crack of dawn.
Fortunately for me (Sherri: not a morning person), when you "camp" in a parking lot, there are plenty of natural alarm clocks to make sure you don't sleep in too late. In this case, it was a group of mountain bicyclists who were gathering before an early morning ride. We were up and on the road before 7am!
I was still insisting on driving the RV at this point, so Nate led the way in the car and let me know whenever I was ok to cross the center line going around the tighter curves (which was quite often, actually). So, for your astute types, yes, I took this picture (not very good) while driving the RV up the crazy hilly road. Safety first!
Well, as you might have surmised, we made it up the hill in one piece (technically two, since we are always driving separately...). And, we found another free campsite, but it was populated by a weird crowd and the sites were not anything even close to level for the RV, so we continued to drive north and then got on I-40 eastbound, with no real camping plan in mind yet.
When we had to stop for gas, we lucked out and found a station with a garage right next door. We had been slowly leaking power steering fluid, which was coating our left front tire and brake and posing us a serious hazard if it continued. So, while Nate consulted the mechanic-on-duty and bought some hose and hose clamps, then climbed under Baba G to fix the leak, I took some banana-pineapple-coconut bread to the mechanic to thank him for his help and got to work, looking for our next campsite.
Hours later... (I wish I was kidding)... Nate finally had Baba G all patched up and we continued east, with a destination in mind: Winslow, AZ (yes, like in that Eagles' song)-- specifically, a little city park with free RV camping!
Up Next: Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona...
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