Posted on

Tucson

 An uneventful drive to Arizona Radiator and Muffler shop in Tucson.  Roman and a tech had a look and admired the exhaust pipe fix the road service guy had applied.  We decided I should bring the coach back to them early tomorrow morning when they have time to work on it, they’ll make the pipe clamp more permanent, and that will conclude the repair. We’re at the KOA in Tucson only four miles away from the repair shop. It’s nice here. Chicken on the grill. Henry approves of his new lounger. The view isn’t much,…but we always enjoy having that little doggie in the window. 
Posted on

Plans Change

 Rolling down the highway, still in Arizona, headed for Deming, NM, we got a “low air” warning light and pulled over.  Can’t mess around too long with low air, because air does a lot on diesel pushers.  It not only controls the air suspension that keeps the ride height right, it is also the critical element in air brakes.  The default condition for air brakes is full-on.  It takes air in the tanks to release the brakes and drive.  Once stopped with no air, the bus is going nowhere. This happened to us the night before just as we pulled into a truck stop.  A repair guy there found the air leak and fixed it.  He didn’t have any idea why the line had leaked, but he fixed the leak.  We thought we were good to go, but today, on the freeway, we lost air again.  This time we didn’t make it off the highway, we were stranded on the shoulder.  Not a good place to be. We had a visit with the highway patrol. The Roadside Service guy came and looked it over. He found an exhaust leak right up by the exhaust manifold.  Escaping hot air was scorching the air lines until they failed.  He patched things up enough for us to move off the highway; a big improvement. …but guess where we moved off the highway to; the parking lot of The Thing! All those highway signs for all these years, me determined to never get sucked into stopping at such a blatant tourist trap, and here we are.  Judy went inside to tell them we might be in their parking lot for a while and they couldn’t have been nicer.  Judy found a ring to buy. Working from below, and through the access hatch in our bedroom, our repair guy got a clamp around the offending section of exhaust pipe.  He proclaimed us good enough to go, as long as we didn’t go too far.  Now it’s dark, so we determined to not go anywhere at all tonight, and stay in the Thing’s parking lot. Arizona trip map The closest town of any size, in either direction, is Tucson, 60 miles west.  El Paso, to the east is 250 miles away.  That’s too far.  We’re going to abandon our eastward trek and return west to Tucson. The first order of business is to get to a big-rig muffler shop that can replace a section of large pipe.  We’ve got the shop located, but no telling how long that job will take.  Once the cause of the air-line-leaks has been corrected, we can move on to problem number two at a different shop and have someone give all the air-lines a good going-over; make sure anything that needs more than a “roadside” fix is taken care of. This morning’s view at Kartchner Caverns. Tonight’s view at The Thing. Not quite the same. But we’re happy to be here.  For all the time we spend on the road, interruptions that change our plans by more than a day don’t happen very often.  We can weather this. We’ll refigure the trip home when we know more.  In the meantime, we’re happy with our home on wheels. 
Posted on

We’ve moved on

 …but not very far. Arizona trip map We’re at Kartchner Caverns State Park again.    It’s a good story about how the caverns were discovered.  Two cavers were checking out an ordinary sink-hole in 1974 on a cold day in November, when they noticed warm moist air coming from a hole under a ledge.  They widened the hole enough to get in and discovered two and a half miles of pristine cave passages.  Hoping to protect the cave from vandalism, they kept the location a secret for fourteen years.  They worked with the landowner, the Nature Conservancy, and the state of Arizona to get it established as a State Park before the discovery of the cave was made public. Other caverns in other places got discovered and opened to the public, forever changing the underground processes.  If you just blast a big door for everyone to walk through, you change the moisture level and dry out the cave, arresting any formation development. Kartchner Caverns is protected.  The number of tours is strictly limited and access is through airlocks.  It can be studied as a living cave. Here for a night, then on the road again. 
Posted on

De Anza RV Park

 It’s a nice desert park With a view of the mountains. We drove a little south to Tubac. arizona trip map …and found Arizona’s Aspen.        A drive up Madera Canyon in the afternoon to Santa Rita Lodge to watch birds.  We finished up the evening owling.  Saw the Elf Owl come out.   Drove a little higher to Mt. Wrightson Picnic Area … and heard Northern Pygmy Owl and Whiskered Screech-owl.  A three-owl night!  
Posted on

Travel Day

 Much as we enjoyed our visit with the kids, it’s time to head back toward home. arizona trip map Lunch at Picacho Peak State Park. Ocotillo in full bloom. A walk in Florida Canyon outside Green Valley in the afternoon. Dinner at De Anza RV Park. (I might have waited a little too late at night to take the picture of our campsite…)