Today was EASILY the longest day of the trip, both time-wise and emotionally. What was supposed to be a 5 hour 50 minute drive turned into just over 9 hours. Let's get into it...
Today started like every other day of the trip. We were all up and ready by 8:00, and we pulled out of the KOA around 8:30. In trying to find a place to stay for tonight, I had to look 30 minutes past Flagstaff to find one that had availability for two nights without having outrageous prices. Our total drive time was slated to be 5 hours 50 minutes. With pit stops for gas and lunch, we figured about 7-7.5 hours total. Boy did we mistake that.
One of the challenges of this trip, for me, at least, has been needing to drive slower than the freeway speed limit due to the giant parachute behind the truck we call the trailer. I don't want to overwork the engine, especially since I've blown an engine in this truck before and had to pay over $5,000 for a new one. Because of this, I'm a little pedal-shy when it comes to speeding up. The elevation profile for today didn't help. We had a very long, gradual climb to the Arizona border, a barely noticeable but long decent, and another big climb into Flagstaff. With the air temperature in the high 80's and low 90's, we couldn't afford to NOT have the A/C running, but that sucked just enough power from the engine that we averaged no more than 55mph the entire time. When the posted speed limit is 75, it makes for a long day. I spent a lot of time driving with my hazards on so semi's and other cars would have enough time to get over before crashing into my back bumper at full speed. I felt more like an obstacle than another vehicle on the road. It definitely took a toll emotionally today. I'm not just tired from the 9 hours of travel, because that will take it out of you anyways, but the stress of the drive itself. It was a long day.
 |
| Elevation profile for the day |
To top it all off, I got to change my second ever flat tire!!! Both of them just happened to be from this trip. Funny how that works. Thankfully, we had the foresight to get the spare changed out last week when we blew the last one, so we had a brand new spare to put on it. However, this meant that if we blew another, we wouldn't have anything to put on it. The road from Gallup, NM to Flagstaff, AZ is not the best paved road I've ever driven on, so it added to the stress of the day. We found a place in Flagstaff called Soto Brothers Tires that got us fixed up real quick. They were a very friendly and quick place, and if you are ever needing anything and are in the Flagstaff area, I'd recommend them.
When we finally made it to our KOA for the night, things settled down. It turns out this is quite the location, with over 140 RV sites, 'covered wagons' that you can sleep in, tent sites, and cabins. There is a go-cart track, mini-golf, cafe that serves breakfast and dinner five nights a week, indoor heated pool, GREAT gift shop, and plenty of tree cover. We are only maybe 100 yards from the freeway, but there are enough trees to muffle it out. And, BONUS, because Arizona doesn't follow daylight savings, we put the kids down at 7:15 local time because they thought it was an hour later. Yes, it means they'll be up early tomorrow too, but we are wanting to get to the Grand Canyon before all the crowds anyways, so it works in our advantage.
So yes, tomorrow we are going to the Grand Canyon. The south entrance is the only open one, so that's where we are going. We don't know how long the kids will manage looking at a whole in the ground, so we kind of plan on coming back after lunch. We'll see how it goes. Until then, thanks for reading!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment