MA to AZ and beyond

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We went to UPS to check the mail. There was one piece of mail that's probably unimportant. I haven't even opened it yet. But I was expecting a package. No luck, so we left. We needed a couple groceries, so we went over to the grocery store to stock up on the missing items. Then, we parked on a side street to take a walk. We followed a trail along the creek downtown, which we had walked earlier with Mandy. But I wanted to see how far it went.

Just past the turnaround point, there was a map. A rather useless map, actually, because the "you are here" point was right at the edge of the map. So, I could see that the trail continued, but I got no information about how far. But while I was standing there, a woman walking a dog the same direction as us caught up. I said hi, and she said, "Are you going to hold your dog?" Well, yeah, that's the protocol, isn't it? And I already was clearly holding his leash. The assumption should be I'm going to continue to, no? I only thought those things. What I said was "yes", and I showed my hands holding his leash. About 8 inches from his collar. I had shortened the leash quite a bit so they could pass by without him interfering well before she asked. And then she asked AGAIN. Yes, lady, I'm going to hold my dog. So, then they walked by very slowly. And Loki barked once and pulled towards the dog. He didn't move more than a few inches because I'm stronger than him. Her dog barked once and pulled towards Loki.
Standard.
Dog.
Behavior.
She was PISSED. "That's exactly what I DIDN'T want to happen! God damnit!!" And she stormed off.

And that basically ruined my morning. I mean I know that I didn't do anything wrong, and she was just a crotchety old hag. But I still feel like my existence made her upset and that doesn't feel great. So, we got off the trail and walked around downtown instead. Eventually I got a notification that my package had been delivered, so I went to retrieve it. We walked back to the van and drove to UPS.

There was a package, but it was much smaller than the one I was expecting. From my sister. I totally forgot that I'd asked her to ship my tire deflator. But now that's here, so that's cool. I unpacked it and found it a home in the van and then we went to a park to burn some time until UPS was able to process the other package and get it into my box. We walked around a bit, but mostly just chilled and read in bed. I'm almost finished with The Witcher series. I felt like it started off maybe not quite on par with A Song of Ice and Fire, but I take it back. It's as good, I think.

Anyways, we went back a third time to finally get the package. It was ready to be picked up, I grabbed it, and went to a different park to unbox it. I feel a little paranoid lately about overstaying our welcome so I'm trying to make myself scarce. The interactions with locals are increasingly negative and I just want to get out of here. One more month til Mandy's contract is up. Anyways, we got a portable air compressor because shipping the one I forgot in NH cost more than the value of that compressor. So, we upgraded. That one was old anyways.

We got a Smittybilt 2781 air compressor. I thought it was a similar size to the one I left behind. It's way bigger. Oops. It's portable, but it's also able to be hard-mounted somewhere dry. I have an idea, but I'm not exactly sure how to hard mount it yet, or how I'll make the mount (or have it made). I don't exactly have the workspace anymore, and a lot of my fabrication tools are in New England. I'm going to ask around some local fab shops and see if it would be reasonable. If not, I'll see if I can come up with a bracket design I can execute with what I have on hand. If not, we'll just use it portable, and store it in the trunk. I just think it would be easier to use it if it's hardwired and mounted. In that case, we can just hook up the hose and flip the switch and that's it. But it's not the end of the world if we have to unpack it to use it.

After that, we went to the VA to wait for Mandy to get out of work. Once she was out, we began rinsing the rice for dinner, figuring it could soak while we drive to somewhere for the night. It was raining, so we figured we could just stay in and watch a movie or something. Some friends wanted to FaceTime, so we did that first. By the time we got off the phone, we were hungry, so we went straight to cooking. We made yellow curry chicken with the rice. And Brussels sprouts because we had them. The Brussels are just okay, and the rice came out hard again for some reason. The chicken was good though! We cleaned up and by the time we left the VA, it was around 7:30 or so. Much later than we planned, I think. We topped off our water tanks and found a spot downtown to park for the night. We just watch a show and then went to bed. No movie night. Oh well.

 

[rob cote]

The poopy rain weather persisted through the night and into the morning. It was forecast to quit raining sometime midmorning. We found a new park to mind our business until the rain broke. Loki and I watched some episodes of F1, patiently waiting. There was no real break in the weather to speak of. It stopped raining a few times, but not for more than about 20 minutes at a time. And it never warmed up out there.

I washed the windshield and front windows. Who knows why. It was covered by dog nose prints again by the time we drove across town to pick up Mandy after work. I washed the sink also. It gets smelly after a few days. Luckily the cutting board keeps the smell inside the sink. It's just impossible to keep it dry all the time.

We got Mandy and she decided we should try out Alto Pit. It's an OHV park, so I was a little unsure since the run-in with the ranger. I didn't know if we should use it, since we don't currently own any OHVs. Would we be considered as properly using the space or just taking up room that other better people should be using? But there were several sites available so, whatever. We checked in and took a walk around the trails, since it had cleared up and didn't look like it would rain on us, keeping a keen ear for any approaching dirt bikes. We heard none the whole time. We walked a loop around about half of the OHV park area. Ir made me want another dirt bike. The trails look like a real good time.







When we got back to the van, we heated up some leftovers for dinner. While we ate, we came up with a plan for the weekend. After we cleaned up, we watched Margin Call. Again. We forgot that we'd seen it until it started playing. But we forgot how it played out, so we watched it through anyways.

 

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As we were waking up and getting breakfast and all that, I noticed the water pump kick on a handful of times. I made a mental note and started thinking on it. It could be air inside the heat exchangers expanding and contracting with temperature, but it seemed like it was more frequent and didn't really coincide with the temperature swings when the heating system would kick on and off. I couldn't rationalize it away.

I dropped off Mandy, and Loki and I came back to the campsite. It was fairly warm outside, so I wanted to try to come up with a mounting scheme for the air compressor. I held it in every orientation above the ECU on the driver's inner fender. Nothing really made sense and looked easy to execute. It's certainly doable, but I'd want to be with all of my fab tools, and probably have a full day or two. It would be tricky, but not impossible. But I'm looking for easy since I have to do it with the minimum, or pay someone to do it, and hard means expensive. I also looked at below the driver's headlight. Mounting here would probably be easy if I had a nutsert tool and the bumper off. But then the switch to turn it on and off needs to be remote-mounted, or we have to reach up under the bumper every time and it's kind of awkward. I might go down this road once I've found a good spot for the switch; I don't know where makes sense yet. And it works portably, so all of this is pretty low priority, you know?

I reiterated that to myself when I heard the water pump cycle for a split second and then I set to work investigating that instead. I emptied the cabinet beneath the sink to remove the utilities access panel. If you didn't read the build thread - the floor of the cabinet is removable and grants access to our air and water heaters, as well as the water pump. I started on the pump outlet, looking for signs of water. There was a small amount under the supply line to our reverse osmosis filter. So, I started scrutinizing that hose. I dried everything and looked for where moisture reappeared. It was just outside the cabinet towards the rear of the van, so I removed the panel beneath the drawers as well. I found the line had been squished a little bit by the bundle it was secured to. I'm not sure exactly how or why. But that caused a crease and a tiny pinhole.



We went back into town to go to Home Depot. I got a push to connect union for 1/2" hose and went to work on the repair. I pulled the fuse for the water pump, then I cut the leaking hose and realized a 1/2" union was too big. Luckily, we were still in the parking lot. I went back in and got a replacement for 3/8" hose. Unfortunately, it's also a valve, because unions were out of stock. So, it's a bit bulkier, but whatever. It serves the purpose. I also got a roll of 3/8" hose in case there wasn't enough slack to just remove the squished section. Fortunately, the original piece of hose was long enough after removing the bad bits. So, we went in a third time to return the roll of hose. Loki was loving it because he enjoys the depot very much. He always gets treats inside. The view out the windshield where we parked was pretty unnerving, although it didn't photograph well. It was approximately a 70ft nearly-sheer drop:



By the time everything was back together, I needed to lay for a bit. It's not a very comfortable cabinet to work inside of. Then again, are any of them ergonomic? At the time, I didn't realize the huge mistake I'd made while I was in there. In any case, it didn't make sense to drive back to the campsite to hang out for an hour or so before getting Mandy, so we watched a movie in the parking lot. Against the Ice. I thought it was a documentary on an expedition in Greenland. It was more like a drama, that hardly focused on the expedition. I wasn't a fan. We picked up Mandy and set out on a hike on the ATV trails again. This time we did the other half of the perimeter, and again no one was out riding. It's a neat park, but I think you could ride every trail in a day, easily. Still makes me want to get another dirt bike though. Someday. It won't fit in the van (or our budget).



We, meaning Mandy, baked potatoes and carrots, and pan seared then baked a couple small steaks for dinner. It was all wicked good and we gobbled up every bite. After cleaning up, it was getting towards bedtime, so we watched The Morning Show and went to sleep.

 

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We woke up and it was a little chilly inside. We'd accidentally left the fan on a little higher than we normally do. But then Mandy tried to turn on the furnace to heat up the water for her shower. The display read: "Operation not supported". Hmmm. You know how well troubleshooting goes when you've literally just woken up. Are we out of fuel? No, we just filled up. Umm. Perhaps it was a failure to ignite. Try lowering the thermostat, and then raise it back up again. Maybe it will light off this time. We heard the coolant pump come on, but the blower wasn't working. Wait I think the blower doesn't come on until the coolant is warm.
Waiting.
Waiting..
Waiting...
Is there hot water? Yes. Okay so the furnace is on, only the blower isn't working. Either the fuse is blown (why would it be, though? And would the lights on the blower control be on? Doubtful), or I dislodged a wire fiddling around yesterday.

So, Mandy did a dry shower before work, and took Loki out for a walk while I very hastily disassembled the kitchen. Again. Sure enough, one of the wires to the blower voltage regulator had pulled out of its terminal. MY BAD. These three connections were the only suspicious terminals on the whole build. They don't have heat shrink or anything on them; I was forced to use them due to the nature of the connector they go into. I just need to clarify that it's not a thing for this build that electrical connectors are going to just start falling apart all over the place. Where possible, everything was done right. But for this component, I had to use what came with the system and it just happened to be sub-par for the rest of the build. ANYWAYS. I re-crimped the terminal onto the wire really tightly and gave it a firm pull test. It passed. I plugged it back in and the blower came on no problem. I reassembled the kitchen, threw the tools back in the trunk and still got Mandy to work on time.

I went back to our site so I could shower and everything. Loki hung out outside the van in the morning sun. And the van was parked such that I could do my thing with the slider open without exposing myself to anyone. The fresh air right after a shower is so lovely, even if it's a little chilly. I setup a chair and read outside with Loki for a while. It was partly cloudy, so the temperature was very variable. Eventually a large cloud came along, and I decided to go inside and get some cleaning done.



I swept pretty much every horizontal surface including the bed wings and under them, the bench cushions and under them, the counters, etc. Once everything was onto the floor, I just swept it out the door. Clean floors and counters are SO NICE. I hate it when I constantly have stuff stuck to the bottom of my feet when I walk around in here. So annoying.

Loki and I hung outside some more afterwards, and we walked around the campground a bit, but stayed off the trails. He's definitely less energetic when Mandy's not around. I end up basically dragging him around everywhere and feel bad, so I don't push him very hard. Eventually it was time to head into town. I went to our mailbox to pick up a package. New sneaks!



They're so comfy! I'm pumped. And they're Salomons so I'm hoping they'll last a while. I tend to wear out shoes pretty quickly. We picked up Mandy and went back to our site. We took out all the stuff to make dinner and walked over to the campground pavilion. They have charcoal grills there. We could have used the fire ring in our site, since it's basically the same idea, but the grills in the common area are on a post which puts them a few feet off the ground. Working on the grill is way easier on the back than kneeling over the fire pit.



We had a bit of a struggle getting the fire going, but pinecones seemed to work very well. Mandy scrounged unused charcoals from an abandoned site nearby and eventually, well after dark, we got things rolling in the grill. We were given a flat cast iron skillet by a great friend, Chris, and it was perfect for this task. We chopped up some red onion and bacon and got that going. Then we diced some chicken breast and seasoned them up nice and nice. Got those cooked through. Then we took everything off, flipped the skillet, and sprinkled corn meal over it. Then we stretched out a dough to cover the whole pan and let it crisp up on one side. Flip the dough once it starts to get a tiny bit of a tan. Sauce it. We used the remainder of our BBQ sauce and a bacon/onion jelly spread thing? It sounds gross but it's amazingly delicious and we will need to get more. Anyway, spread those out and sprinkle all the toppings on there and spread them out. Sprinkle some cheddar and red pepper flakes and close the cover until it feels right.

We've grilled so many pizzas this way. Well, give or take. You can do it directly on the clean grate of a propane grill on low heat. Or over a regular fire pit. Lots of variations of the same idea is what I mean. But this one was superb. It was a little spicy, but like the perfect amount. Owing to which ingredient exactly, not sure. The dough had the perfect amount of crispy and wasn't burnt at all. The onion was just right. Red onion is the way to go in this application, I think. It was pitch black out when we finished, cooking by the light of a cell phone like a couple nerds. We ate it standing next to the grill alone in the pavilion with Loki under the stars. It was outstanding.

We doused the charcoals, cleaned up all our stuff, and went back to our site to go to bed.

 

[rob cote]

Friday morning, I did laundry and got groceries. I took apart our ceiling fan (just the screen and the rotor) to give it a decent cleaning. There's still some greasy dust on the inside of the cover, but I had to draw a line somewhere, otherwise I'd have the entire van disassembled before long. Real exciting stuff.

Once Mandy got out, we headed towards Sedona by way of Jerome. There are a couple ways you can get there, but that's the way we decided to go. It's not very far to get to Jerome, actually, and it's rather boring until the last little bit when you have to go over a mountain pass. Our plan was to stop at a free campsite on a dirt road just outside the town. There's the plan, and then what happens, right? So, I completely overlooked getting fuel until we were atop the mountain pass, about to descend into Jerome. And then as we were heading out the dirt road to the alleged campsite, it was pretty rough. And I was hungry. Past hungry, honestly. I was hangry.

We know that if we have less than three bars of fuel, our heat won't work. We were sitting at 4 bars with an unclear amount of driving ahead of us. And unknown road and weather conditions. I was concerned that we may wake up cold, especially since we were pretty high up, and seemed to be climbing. We stopped on a small pull-off to make dinner. We had pork chops and asparagus and that helped a LOT. We agreed that we should just skip this campsite and find fuel, and that it was no one's fault, and wouldn't matter. So, we kept driving. Now, for whatever reason, we were under the impression Jerome was a ghost town. But it's apparently a town that has some sort of fascination with ghosts. Subtle difference. But it just meant that we were not at all prepared for the amount of people that were in the town. It's a fully functioning town with all the regular amenities (except fuel, I think). It's small, yes, but not a ghost town by any means. It was not what we expected at all. We just drove right through, though, down to the desert floor, to Cottonwood, to get fuel.

Here's where we stopped for dinner with a view:



From there, we headed out into the middle of the desert to a different free campsite. I'm not sure if we were still technically in Cottonwood, or what. Somewhere between Cottonwood and Sedona, to be sure. It was dark by the time we parked, so it was difficult to find sites that were available. Luckily, someone who was already setup verified that we were free to park nearby them, and that we weren't blocking any roadways or anything. It was a medium-sized clearing, and a decent spot for a night.

 

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We woke up precisely when we felt like it. You know the Saturday drill. Not too early, not too late. And certainly not rushed. We took Loki out for a walk along the established trails, approximately northwards. In the distance, we saw a few hot air balloons. We continued in that direction, to try to discern if they were taking off or landing. We never really figured that out, to be honest. At one point, we saw a maximum of 4, but it was like each time we glanced off in that direction, there were more or less than the previous time we looked. They were appearing and disappearing more suddenly than we expected of hot air balloons. Normally, they move pretty slowly.



Once we got hungry, we turned back to go make breakfast. Loki lazed about outside the slider as I cooked bacon and eggs. As I was cleaning up, some rangers stopped by. Mandy was outside, so she did most of the talking. But one approached the van (which is a trigger for Loki) to ask for my license. So, then I was a tad uncomfortable. We obviously complied, and ultimately everything was in order. They were just doing a spot check, I guess. We had the proper permit and had not overstayed our limits. One thing that was odd was that while the permitting is based on the honor system, the officers first assumed that we'd overstayed the limit, without asking or verifying. Some others around us were not in the same boat and were forced to leave, I think. We were leaving anyways, so that was a good cue. We collected the trash we'd gathered around us and hit the road.



We popped into Sedona proper to get some dog food because we were nearly out, and a few groceries for us that we needed. And then we went out the 525. Trail 525? Is it a route? Route 525? Maybe it's a forest road; FR525? That seems the most right. I dunno, but it's a really popular trail for camping. We pulled off at a parking lot just off the highway. We aired down the tires to about 35psi all around and set the shocks to 2.1 all around. Mandy took it slow and pulled off to be passed whenever someone approached behind us. It's a really well washboarded road, and it's a rough ride in the back. The front seats are pretty comfy, though. If only Loki would let us use his. Eventually, we found a spot that was vacant and accessible. We passed a couple that had some extreme ruts at the entrance that we probably couldn't have safely navigated. Jeeps only perhaps. But for the most part, they were all full. We pulled into the site, so we were all the way off the road, but didn't pull all the way in because the "driveway" was pretty uneven side-to-side.



We walked just for the sake of walking, and to let Loki burn off some steam, but also to look further up the road for any better options. We walked a couple miles further down the road and didn't find anything better. So, we turned back. It wasn't insanely hot, but the sun was intense. We were all feeling a little droopy by the time we got back. And thirsty! We got some water in us and moved some of the sand around in the driveway to level it out a bit. Ultimately, it didn't make a huge difference, and we probably didn't need to at all. It looked a lot more intimidating than it actually was, and we have a thing about side-hills now, ever since the Lake Havasu incident. We just wanted to be safe.

This site was fantastic. The views were gorgeous, we felt pretty secluded, and it was flat enough to park and be workable, and it was all soft sand. It wasn't perfectly flat, but we didn't even move any stones to try to get it more level. It was just fine as is. We got barefoot and played frisbee for a while. We opened up all the doors and windows and rolled the screens down to keep out the flies. We setup our chairs and just chilled in the sun for a while. It was a perfect afternoon of relaxing and playing in the sun. We took a break inside the van for a bit just to get out of the sun because we were starting to feel exhausted. We had a coffee each, and after a short while, the sun was behind the nearby trees, and we welcomed the shade happily. Once it started to cool off, we weren't afraid to start making dinner. We roasted a pork loin and some baby potatoes and Brussels sprouts. We put caramelized onion in with the Brussels which is always a good move. Unless you're allergic to onion, I guess. Then it would be a bad move. We ate and cleaned up, and then took Loki for a pre-dusk walk.



Mandy had been led to believe that there were ruins of some sort visible from the road near our site. We walked across the road to a trailhead and started walking it a bit. We had no provisions or anything, and the sun was setting soon, so we didn't go very far. The trail diminished to nothing after a few minutes anyways, so we turned around and headed back. We saw no ruins, so whoever told her that was misleading her, or she misunderstood what they had said. Who knows? We were near Palatki, but it wasn't Palatki. But it was a nice little walk to the base of the cliffs anyways. When we got back to our site, we started a little fire with the scraps that were left in the pit, and we sat in our Nemo Stargaze chairs to well, stargaze, obviously. The night sky was gorgeous, and the chairs were perfectly suited to stare at it. Normally, my neck gets stiff after a few minutes of staring up, so then I want to lay on the ground, but it's usually cold or uncomfortable. If you like stargazing, get this chair. We pointed out satellites to each other until we were too tired to continue. Mandy saved enough energy to whip up a batch of granola for the next day's yogurt, while I laid in bed with Loki and tried to stay awake. Once the granola was done baking, we went to sleep.

 

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Sunday, we got up not a moment too soon. Or too late. Actually, that's not true at all. Mandy got up at like 5:30am to setup a sunrise timelapse. And the battery died before the sun came up. Luckily, we got up for real before the sun, realized it, and swapped out the battery with a full one. We took a walk down FR525 with Loki and enjoyed the total nothingness. No people walked or drove by nor could any be heard. There were no vehicle sounds. No generators. It was glorious. This is definitely one of our top campsites of all time. Perhaps the best one we've ever stayed at, although, there's a strong contender in Yellowstone, but we obviously didn't take the van there, that was years ago. Before our van even existed. Or our marriage.





We walked back after a time. How much time? I don't know. Just, an amount. We made breakfast and did a bunch of cleaning. Mandy continued video editing. Loki laid in the sand under the van. I let some more air out of the front tires and set all the shocks to 1 before we headed out. I think we left some time around noon-ish. The ride seemed smoother on the way out, but we also swapped seats, so it's hard to be sure, really. We aired back up with our new Smittybilt compressor in the parking lot just before the pavement. I'm impressed with the compressor. They could have called it an IMpressor. It made quick work of filling our tires back up; each one was probably under a minute. We put the shocks back to 3 and went into Cottonwood for a coffee. We took our coffees up the hill into Jerome.



Originally, we were going to head back to Prescott by way of Camp Verde so we could see Montezuma Castle. But Jerome looked more interesting than we thought it would be on our way through Friday, so we wanted to actually spend some time checking it out. We parked and wandered around on foot. We realized that we were both a bit hungry, so we hunted down some food. Isn't it always the way that when we go to a restaurant, it's BBQ? No change. We went to Bobby D's BBQ. I got a Cuban, and Mandy got a cheesesteak. But their cheesesteak is made with brisket. Both were with fries, and everything was wicked good. Also, we found out that if you go to Paul & Jerry's Saloon, you can get a beer to go if you drink it in the park right across the street. So, you know we did. After a delicious lunch, we walked around the town for a while to burn it all off. It's not terribly difficult to do since everything is so steep! It kind of reminded us of San Marino, which is a country inside of Italy, but Jerome is a bit smaller. It's a cool spot and worth the stop if you're passing nearby. The views across the desert are awesome, too.



We eventually got back on the road and made our way to Prescott Valley. The PV or whatever they call it. We found a spot to dump our grey water, and we topped off the freshwater too, while we were there. Mandy got us a few grocery items that we needed, and then took us to The Barrel. AKA Cracker Barrel. There's free RV parking there. We pulled in somewhat late, perhaps around 8-ish. She finished a movie that I wasn't into, and I watched a little YouTube before we fell asleep. It was a pretty uneventful evening once the traffic on route 69 subsided. It can be somewhat loud there.

 

[rob cote]

Monday and Tuesday were not super interesting. I'm going to just kind of combine them, I think. We're staying at Lynx Campground for the week. It's a super nice campground, although the site we have is a little awkward, for dog, mainly. It's down a flight of stairs, so we can't park right at it. Sometimes he wants to be in or near the van, sometimes he wants to be down in the dirt and sun. So, I'm constantly moving his attachment point from the van to the picnic table. It's not a huge deal, just a minor annoyance.

Monday, I spent most of the day typing up our weekend, editing video, and doing some catchup work on our blog. It's SO FAR BEHIND! Loki and I went to a park, so we laid in the grass for a while and did some reading and soaking-up of the sun. It can't be ALL work. Over the weekend, Loki laid in tree sap followed by red dirt, so it looks like he got in a fight.



We checked into the campground after I picked Mandy up. We made chicken tacos for dinner. Thighs work really well for tacos. Cilantro, salsa, and guac on top. Squeeze a slice of lime, and that's it. We walked around a bit, but nothing crazy. We spotted some friends we've met out here, but they weren't at their camper.

Tuesday was kind of similar in that not much exciting happened. I worked on editing video some more and did more writing. I'm trying to get better at it. They both take a lot of time! And we don't have a very large audience, so it's easy to not prioritize it. But ultimately, it's for us to remember our adventures anyways, so it's best if I stay on top of it. I looked at our air compressor again and came up with a mounting scheme that should work and be feasible to do on the road.

Loki and I walked down to Lynx Lake. Again. We did it before, remember? This time was a much shorter walk, and we came from the opposite side. It's a little tricky because a lot of the shoreline trail is closed for repair work. It would be nice to walk the full perimeter but that's not an option this week unfortunately. Oh well. At the lake, I went in up to my ankles and Loki went in up to his belly. A moment later, a duck swam over quacking aggressively at the dog, so we left and went home. We relaxed in the sun for a bit after the walk and then went to pick up Mandy.

We got a beer to bring over to our friends' camper, in case they were still around. We walked by and verified we were welcome after dinner. Affirmative. We made skillet lasagna, which is always delicious. We were short one noodle, so this batch was slightly more watery than normal, but it was still really good. We went over to Tim and Sharon's and played Farkel with them and another couple. They are such a great time. They're set to leave in the morning, so we were glad we got to take advantage of the opportunity to see them before they head off back home. After a couple games, we went back to bed.

 

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Wednesday and Thursday were cleaning days, so again not super interesting. I dropped off Mandy at work and then returned to make breakfast. After breakfast, I spent more or less the entire day doing a deep clean of the van.

I swept everything down to the floor, and then out the door. Then, I cleaned the sink, backsplash, faucets, etc. They weren't super grimy, but it all gets water-spotted over time. And a little bit dusty. The soap dish gets most of the gunk buildup.



I cleaned all the Tooletries hanging outside the shower, as well as the shower wall and mirror. Again, mostly dust and water spots. I moved the toilet to the other side of the shower to clean all sides of it as well as the walls behind it and the floor beneath it. It's mostly just soap scum from showering. We scrape down the shower walls each time we shower, so it doesn't stay super wet in there, but it's impossible to scrape behind and under the toilet so there's some buildup there. I cleaned the shower walls and fixtures as well, but I think the scrubby side of the sponge works better for the shower walls. The stainless is tough, so it needs a bit of abrasive to come truly clean. I took the oven out of its cubby and cleaned the dust out of the inside of the cubby. Then I cleaned the outside and inside of the oven. This was the hardest but most satisfying part. Just like any oven, it gets bits of food and juices built up over time and baked on. I found letting it soak in white vinegar for about 15 minutes or so really softened up the grime and then it scrubbed off not terribly difficult. It's so nice now that the window and everything is clean!



Loki just chilled in the sun all day both days.





Friday, we parked at Watson Lake and went for a hike around the lake. Well, we tried. We didn't actually make it all the way. But it's the effort that matters, right? We started early, which I think is the ticket for Loki. Once he's settled into his chill spot, he's content to stay there for the entire day. But if you don't afford him the opportunity...Anyway, once the sun was up past about 11:00 or so, it started getting pretty aggressively hot, so we turned back. I was watching the maps along the trail, and I was pretty confident he wouldn't make the entire loop based on our rate. I turned back before it was too late.

We spent the hottest part of the day inside with the shade-side windows open and the rest of the windows covered. And the fan on about 1/3 power. It stayed about 1.5 degrees above ambient inside. It wasn't bad, really.

Once it was time, we picked up Mandy and we had a discussion about weekend plans. We had been planning to go to Wickenburg to see some friends again, but looking at the temperature forecast, we weren't sure we still wanted to. But ultimately, we decided to stick to the plan, and headed out. When we got to Wickenburg, we were pretty hungry and had no dinner plans, so we went to Anita's Cocina. It's a highly Americanized "Mexican" food restaurant. We didn't know. It's just not our favorite, but we were hungry, and it was food. After we ate, we went to meet up with our friends in the desert. We hung out in a chair circle without a fire, just some rope lights, for the night chatting. It was really nice, peaceful, and quiet. And then, eventually, we went to bed.

 

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We woke up casually Saturday morning, and we took a walk with Loki. It was a little coffee walk, if you're familiar. It's where you walk while you drink the morning coffee. It's really pleasant in a warm space, like the desert, with a cold coffee. But then it starts to get too hot, so you have to time it right. We walked back and took a cool shower as the day, and the van, were starting to warm up. I did some yoga out on the desert floor, and then Loki tried his best pose after I was finished.



We hung out with our friends for a bit, and then once everyone started moving their own directions, we headed off on our own. We went to Lake Pleasant Regional Park in Morristown. It was about a 45-minute ride from where we were staying. Not a bad ride. We weren't really sure what to expect, but it certainly was not that. It was a very unique place. I mean, on the face of it, it's just like any other beach-going experience. But the landscape made it quite interesting. See, almost every lake in Arizona is man-made. I've heard there are two which are natural, in the entire state. I haven't verified the truth to that, but every lake we've seen so far has a dam.

So, it seems like at one time Lake Pleasant wasn't there. But there was a road through the area. And I guess they didn't consider that when they decided to install a dam? Or they didn't care, perhaps? But the result is that now the road just vanishes into the lake. And if you're not careful, because there's no signage that we saw, you can simply drive right in. The yellow lines extend until they just disappear behind the water's turbidity. But it seems like most people use it as a boat launch. Although the angle is such that you have to drive pretty far into the water to get your boat floating. It's certainly not ideal, as it was clearly not designed for it. Anyways. The rest of the shoreline is rocky hillside. But people just park all around. I saw a Honda Fit on a quite steep boulder field, just above the water's edge. It was precarious to say the least. But it was like that everywhere. Unfortunately for you guys, I didn't bring my phone to take any pictures because I was swimming. But it was a wild location, and we definitely recommend checking it out. The swimming was awesome, and there's cliffs from where they cut in the road who-knows-how-long-ago, so you can jump down onto the road. It's more enjoyable because the road is covered with water, so the landing is soft.

Loki wasn't feeling like swimming, and there were a ton of people around, and other dogs, too. We couldn't get waterfront parking, although we didn't really try. I'm sure if we showed up earlier, we could have. But it was so much commotion, that we didn't stick around super long. Just an hour or two. We left and drove just a short distance up the road to a picnic area. There were only a few people there; it was so much quieter. We grabbed a picnic table under a pavilion and had some lunch and just hung out for a bit.

Afterwards, we headed back out to the desert spot. We wanted to just hang out and do nothing for the afternoon and night. So, we did. I mean, we hung out with our peeps out there a bit. We talked about our plans moving forward. Or lack thereof. We're still trying to figure that out at this point. So are they. It feels like a turning point for all of us, kind of coming around the same time. Everyone's likely heading off in different directions and that's equal parts sad and exciting. We're looking forward to seeing where everyone ends up, and we have made great friends that we will be in touch with for a while, I think. It will be neat to share experiences, even from a distance. I'm reminded of a song lyric that goes, "Maybe we can meet again, further down the river, share what we both discovered and revel in the view."



As the evening wore on, everyone headed off to their respective vehicles to get some well-deserved rest. Us included.

 

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Sunday, we had a lazy start, even though we had a deadline to meet. It should have been an easy target. We didn't really have plans ironed out for the rest of the day. We had to do laundry, but we hadn't decided when. We decided we should try and bang it out before our meeting. Not really a meeting, that sounds too businessy. It was just a lunch date in Tempe with a couple friends who just moved to the area.

We went to a laundromat in Wickenburg to wash everything. While Mandy started the machines running, I swept the floors once more quickly, and then began actually washing them with a soapy rag. We usually call the sweeping good enough, because then the floor feels clean on our feet. For like a day. But I figured it was time to actually give it a more thorough clean. Mandy finished up the front area around the seats while I got a haircut. From myself. It's too easy to justify paying someone else to do it. But a lot of the time it's even easier to just not do it at all. Sometimes it gets a little out of hand by the time I get around to cutting it.

Once the laundry was done, Mandy drove us into Tempe well behind schedule. The chores took longer than we expected, and we started later than we would have liked. That's van life! I folded and stowed all the clothing and towels and neatened up a bit during the ride. The only thing left at this point is to wash the outside of the van and clean the inside of the fridge. We've been talking about going to a car wash for the last two or three weekends, and just conveniently haven't. Ever notice how not doing stuff is almost always more convenient?



Anyway, we went to Tostino, because they allow dogs on the patio, and it was convenient to and recommended by our friends. The food was good but my order was completely butchered. I'm not really picky, so it really wasn't an issue. I just thought it was funny that everything I ordered came out wrong. I ordered a stout which came in a can but received a different stout. In a full pitcher. I ordered a salad with a grilled chicken. Everyone else got their food, and when I was finally accepting that mine wasn't going to come at all, it showed up with grilled steak instead. It was good regardless; it just wasn't what I said. We finished up eating around the same time Loki was getting restless, so we walked around the ASU campus a bit and ended up at a brewery for another round outside. The weather was perfect for it, so what the heck. I got a flight because there were a few things I wanted to try. The beers were good which makes me feel bad I don't remember the name of the brewery, but in fairness I was given an ENTIRE PITCHER of beer.





Anyways, after that, we said our goodbyes and Mandy drove us back to Prescott. We picked a site at White Spar, since it's been quite a while and campgrounds are a little more convenient than street parking and visiting a park during the day or whatnot. We had leftover rice bowl with cilantro lime chicken and salsa and guacamole for dinner, which was easy. I worked on finishing up editing video and then we got into bed to watch Better Call Saul. I LOVE this show. I've already seen it all, but it's one of very few that holds up to rewatching. Mandy's seen some, perhaps most? of it, but with the new season just released, we figured we should take it from the top again. Because it's that good.

 

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This week hasn't been super interesting. I feel like I'm repetitive. Wake up, get Mandy to work, take a hike/clean something/read something, pick her up, hike, eat, sleep. You get it.

BUT! We have been doing a lot of researching, discussing, and planning ahead. Mandy has just two more weeks of work and then we're both 100% free to travel. We have a fair bit saved that we can use to buy food and fuel, and whatever else we need, for a while. But looking forward...is really frickin' hard! We're much better at multiple-choice type questions, but this is completely open-ended. In the whole continent, where do we go? That's so vague. And really tough to decide.

But we have some guiding parameters, and we do have some stuff figured out. There's about one week after her last day in Prescott, AZ, until we have to be at Harry Reid International Airport. Our friend has a plane ticket arriving Sunday night. We'll pick him up, and he's going to move around with us for a week, camping along the way through Utah. He hasn't got a plane ticket home yet, so we've only figured out about half of that week, because we don't know which airport to end up at, and on which day. But that's for the three of us to figure out yet.

The week in between is on my to-do list. We have some recommendations from friends and family that we've been keeping on a postage note. I say postage note even though I know it's Post-It note. It's one of those things that's like almost the same sound, and will make people wonder if they heard you right, or maybe they just think I'm an idiot, but not worth calling it out. It messes with the listener, but not to the point where they ever say anything about it. It's fun. ANYWAYS. Because of that, we "have to" go to Tucson and a couple spots near there. And the Hoover Dam. Antelope Canyon is on the list, but I don't think we'll go because Loki isn't allowed. He's not allowed at the Hoover Dam either, but I personally really want to go so we'll just figure that out. I think it makes sense to go to Hoover Dam the day before we go to the airport, because it's right there. And I think the amount of time we'd really like to have in and around Tucson makes it longer than a weekend trip, so we'll probably go there right after Mandy's done working.

So, basically, we have from Monday or Tuesday near Tucson to get to the Hoover Dam by Friday or Saturday. Can we get a tour inside the dam on Saturday? I need to find that out. There are some hot springs in Death Valley we'd like to check out, is that feasible? I need to find that out. Can we go through Joshua Tree "on the way" (use that phrase loosely here) to Vegas? I need to look at the maps. These are rhetorical questions mostly, just trying to give you guys some insight to what we're trying to resolve lately.



And that's the easy part, really. Just two separate weeks, with finite beginnings and endings. After Chris flies home (if he flies home? Perhaps we'll convince him to get an RV, too, but I doubt it!), we have...I don't even know. Let's call it a year for simplicity. One year. We'd like to connect Prudhoe Bay, AK and Ushuaia. How? Some other considerations are Hot Rod Power Tour. I know it's completely off-topic, but a friend invited me to race his car, and I've wanted to attend for years and just never have. So, I'm doing that. Should we drive to Alaska first, since it will be summertime, and then fly to the event and back? From what airport? Where will we be, exactly, middle of June? Rhetorical questions. Or should we drive to the event instead? It's in Tennessee, Florida, Alabama. Then, at the end of July, we have a wedding we'd like to attend. We don't HAVE to go. But it would be great to see friends and family at it. And we could see some others along the way who won't be at the wedding. We could address a couple minor things we want to fix on the van if we go back to where ALL my tools are. We would also like to go to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Mandy's parents live right at the base of Katahdin in Maine, and we've threatened to hike it almost every time we've visited them and never have. We could finally do that on our way to or from Canada. But if we do that, it would probably be fall or approaching winter by the time we got out of Alaska, so maybe we should head towards Patagonia first, THEN Alaska afterwards, summer 2023. Or maybe we just stick to the plan we had and don't do the fun events.

There's no one to answer these things for us, and that's our struggle lately. As it pertains to you guys, what of this thread? We accomplished the MA-to-AZ part, but what does "beyond" look like? We're obviously not moving out of the van, in any of the scenarios. We're truly enjoying it, although my days have been a bit boring of late. We're really looking forward to Mandy being out of work and being able to enjoy the full length of each day. It will be similar once she's out of work, but also very different.



Anyways, a few tangible things that have actually happened this week. Loki wrecked his seat cover; two of the seams tore. I got a sewing kit at the grocery store and watched a few videos on YouTube. I pulled it off, cleaned it up and fixed it with a ladder stitch. It came out way better than I expected. Someone who's into that sort of thing I'm sure could tell it's been mended, but I can't. With my confidence up, I fixed another tear that appeared in his bed that Mandy made. It was a little suspect because the fabric had actually torn, not the seam, so I put some super glue on the back side to hopefully prevent it pulling apart again. You can slightly tell this one was repaired, but only if you're looking for it. And Loki doesn't care in the least.



I installed a SureCall cell phone booster a while back. I think I mentioned it here, maybe not. The instructions said to put the interior antenna within 2-3 feet of the normal cell-phone-using area. We weren't clear it was working for quite a while, but over the past few weeks we've confirmed it definitely helps. The issue is that the phone has to be more like within 2-3 INCHES of the interior antenna. And I put it on the ceiling in the middle of the van, by the fan. So, we have been dealing with we call "ceiling phone", where we can stick our phone inside the ceiling and it holds it there, but it's super inconvenient to use. Obviously. So, I contacted SureCall about options, and I learned that they offer extension cables. I added 10 feet of cable because I wasn't sure 5 feet would get me where I wanted to be. Anyway, I moved the interior antenna down the passenger's side wall to the counter and it's WAY BETTER now. Technically, the antenna is now more lossy, but it's way more user-friendly, so it's a net benefit. It's fine.



I also spent a lot of time thinking about how we can make our videos better. We have a little under 300 subscribers on YouTube, which is a lot, for sure. I don't even know 300 people. So that's neat. But I like to continually improve because otherwise I feel stagnant. So, I looked at new equipment, I looked at our equipment. I didn't really decide anything other than to give everything a thorough cleaning and determine to use it more, and more creatively. We've been hanging a lot on "once Mandy's done working", but I honestly feel it will be a lot easier to prioritize making time to make good videos when we can both focus on it together for longer than the couple hours we have each night while we're cooking and cleaning and everything. To have multiple full days together with daylight not just a weekend where we're kind of hurrying to slow down, will be a game changer.



Friday was a little bit rocky. Loki was in a mood; I have no idea why. We parked at a park so we could hang out in the grass and chill in the sun and do some reading and whatnot. But he started barking at me for seemingly nothing. We walked around a bunch, but he wasn't really satisfied until we went to the van. He climbed in with no coercion. So, I pulled down the big bed and opened up the windows. He just paced around watching everyone outside, and eventually barked at me again. So, we went out. He pulled me around the park aimlessly. Like he definitely wanted to walk, but he had no idea where. It was annoying. But eventually it ended, and we went to get Mandy.

From work, we headed north. We made it to Flagstaff pretty uneventfully, although the winds were pretty strong around 15mph or so. It's a lot when you're in a place with no trees. We hopped off the highway onto FR776. It was getting dark, and we were getting hungry, so we parked in the first clearing we found. Mandy set to work cooking buffalo mac and cheese for us, and feeding the dog, while I started picking up trash. By the time she was done, I'd filled two 13-gallon bags and our Trasharoo was completely full. I felt bad that I couldn't fill a third bag, but we had no way to take it out of there.

While I was picking up trash, our friend Rob who we met in Prescott called. Skipping all of the boring details, he ended the call by sending us his location, just 0.4 miles up the road. Total coincidence! After we cleaned up the dishes, we went to his site and talked around the campfire a while. That site was much cleaner as regards trash on the ground, but there was still some. It was pretty much everywhere to some extent. It's sad. We just do our best and hope that others do as well. As the small fire died down to nothing, and the coals were doused, we went to bed. Mandy slept better than me, because I could hear ATVs flying by all night, but she didn't hear any.

 

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We woke up Saturday, which was a nice bonus. Always a win when you wake up for a day. We walked around the lava pit a bit at Cinder Hills OHV Area. Not the whole thing, of course. It's HUGE. If you're following this thread specifically for spots to ride your ATV - I know most of you are here for that - skip Alto Pit in favor of Cinder Hills. You could actually spend a few days here. If I remember correctly, it was over 13,000 acres? Somewhere in that order of magnitude. Massive. Lots of varied terrain, too. It was pretty neat, but way too much to cover on foot. We let Loki run around a bit off leash, but he wasn't feeling it, I guess. He pretty much stuck with us. And that's fine. We rounded him up and headed back to the van. The winds were picking up which was crappy for video recording.



It wasn't a benefit for driving, either! We were heading north from Flagstaff towards Page. I was able to keep it on the pavement, but between the lines was a bit more of a challenge. There were no incidents, it was just a little sloppy. Other than that, the drive was pretty uneventful. We're discovering that Loki is more relaxed if his window is up while we drive. He looks at it sometimes, then looks at us, like he wants it down. And as soon as it goes down, he shoves his head out. But if we ignore him, he lays down on the seat sometimes. So maybe there's progress there.

We got into Page and we stopped to get a couple grocery items as well as look at some electronics that we're considering. There was one of those ultra-Wal-mart jobbies in town, so we went there to see what was good. I went in. I haven't been inside a Walmart in years. Like close to a decade, probably. I forgot how wild they are. Oh my gosh there's literally everything inside there. Except the electronics we were looking for. That hunt continues. And some of the groceries, too. HA! Oh well, I guess they don't have everything. We got enough to get by, so it wasn't a total waste. Mandy and Loki hung out in the parking lot and worked on lunch. Leftovers from last night's dinner. I think the mac and cheese was better leftover than originally. Or maybe I was even hungrier. Anyway, we continued on our way towards Lake Powell. You can camp on the beach there. How awesome is that!? Probably more awesome when there's not 20+mph sustained winds.

We drove until the hard-pack became lost under loose sand. Here, we parked the van, so as not to get stuck out there. We walked the rest of the way down to the water, which was probably further than we should have. I just really wanted to swim, even for a second. Which I did. But at what cost? We got sand-blasted most of the way. And sandy eyeballs. Sandy everything, honestly. We hurried back to the van and high-tailed it out of there. Unfortunately, we'd already paid the camping fee. But it wasn't worth it to stick around for that. At least it was free-fee day. We knew it was windy, but we hadn't considered the sand-blasting aspect of it. $14 lesson learned. Those people with tents set up on the beach not so much. We drove down the shoreline just a bit to Wahweap Campground. We found that there was a bit less wind, and more importantly, much less sand. There were even a few trees! We checked in and washed our laundry here.





Around nightfall, the wind began to die down some, which was a very welcome change. We went to bed pretty early for a couple reasons. One was because it wasn't really enjoyable to be outside with the incessant wind.

 

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The other reason we went to bed early was that we planned to get up super early. Like quarter of five, I think. We packed up somewhat quickly - mostly just the bedding - and hit the road. We only had about a twenty-minute ride or so to get to our destination. We parked and hopped out and made the short walk down the path to Horseshoe Bend overlook. We wanted to get there for sunrise because we thought it would be cool (and less crowded!). We were right. Sunset may be a little more picturesque, because of the path the river takes relative to our solar system, but sunrise was cool too. We got to watch the sunlight slowly creep down the monstrous walls into the canyon and feel the day slowly warm up. There were other people there, but it was hardly crowded. Although, as we were leaving, there were a lot more people arriving. We said the cliche - "We got here just in time" because you have to whenever it's applicable.



We left and drove back the way we came. We grabbed a coffee, which was in itself an endeavor, on our way to Hanging Gardens trail. This hike was pretty neat, actually. And I'd never heard of it. It's an easy one, and it goes to a pretty neat, well, hanging garden. If you can believe that. After walking back out from the hanging gardens of Babylon, we drove down Scenic View Road to check out the view of the dam from there. This was pretty cool. I wondered about the depth pressure of the water at the bottom of the dam, because it looks pretty tall. I calculated on the order of about 300psi. (not considering the significant recent drop in depth of the lake). Not a crazy pressure, but definitely a lot. It would be really uncomfortable to be under all that water, for sure.





From Page, we hit the road back south towards Flagstaff. We wanted to check out a few things in REI, so we spent some time browsing there. All we ended up with was a pair of shorts for me when we left. We checked out some tents, which we're still considering picking up someday. We're back and forth. It would be a lot of fun to do some backpacking from the van. But we're trying to figure out if it'd get enough use to be worthwhile. It's hard to quantify. ANYWAYS. We got hungry, so we grabbed a light lunch at Whisk & Whisky. It was pretty decent food, and Loki got to hang on the patio with us, and there was no one else around. The waitress showed us pictures of her new puppy, who was a freaking adorable shepherd mix.

Then we drove back to Prescott. We filled and dumped our waters, and headed over to The Barrel (Cracker Barrel, that is) to park for the evening.

 

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Mundan- er...Monday, was pretty typical. Loki and I dropped off Mandy and then we went to White Spar and parked in the day use area. We set off on a hike bright and early with the goal of completing the loop around Lower Goldwater Lake. We did it! It was like 3 and a half hours overall, but we tried out a couple new trails we had never explored, and one of them was a dead end. I sat and read for a while a couple times in the middle of the woods to give dog a break and to just relax. It was awesome.









There is one minor change for this Monday; that's where we're staying. We're trying out Boondockers Welcome. We found a host in Prescott, and so Loki and I headed to their house. We met the hosts, a lovely couple named Barry and Cathy. They're awesome. Super friendly and very welcoming. I was going to try and clean the floors and all the other surfaces of all the sand that got blown in here from Lake Powell, but we ended up chatting so long that I didn't accomplish much during the day. That was more enjoyable than cleaning anyways, so no big deal. I did get to sweep the floors at least, so most of the sand is gone.

We picked up Mandy and came back to Barry and Cathy's place. We made some pork chops and asparagus for dinner, and then we took Loki for a walk around the neighborhood. On our way back, our hosts were headed out to a show by a local Grateful Dead cover band and invited us to tag along. We politely declined; I just really needed to lay down for a while and do nothing. But we were delighted at the invite, anyways. We just relaxed in the bed for a little bit and eventually fell asleep. A nice, quiet evening in.