Yesterday morning bright and early I was parked at the Camping World in Mesa, Arizona letting their service people know that I was not pleased with their installation of our new tires in February, and that I wanted them to replace the valve stems and the valve stem extensions on both inner dual wheels.

Ever since we bought the new tires, both inside duals have lost air and given false readings on my PressurePro tire monitor. Several people whose opinion I respect, as well as the service manager at the Camping World, all agreed that the problem was either that the valve stem extensions they installed were bad, and/or that they had crushed the small O rings in the valve stems when they screwed on the extensions.

A little after 8 a.m. they pulled our Winnebago into a service bay, where for the next three plus hours the mechanic talked to his co-workers, jacked the rear end  of the RV up, stopped to talk to his co-workers, took the tires off the driver’s side, stopped to talk to his co-workers, wandered away for a while, came back, talked to his co-workers, told me that he couldn’t find any leaks and that it was probably the valve stems (which I already knew), wandered over to the next bay to talk to his co-workers, installed a new valve stem on one tire, talked to his co-workers…. do you get the picture?

Finally, at 11:30, I was really ticked off, so I tracked down a service manager and told him I wanted the job done now! I guess he lit a fire under the service tech, because about noon he finished the job and pulled the motorhome out, and we hooked up the van and took off.  We spent almost $4,000 at this Camping World on new tires and house batteries, and between the fact that they never tightened the battery cables down on the house batteries, they screwed up the first valve stems on both inside duals, and then the hassle getting the valve stems replaced yesterday, I won’t be in any hurry to go back there for service, or to recommend them to anyone.

From Camping World we started up State Route 89, known locally as the Beeline Highway, toward the high country. As many years as I have spent in Arizona, the state’s topography still amazes me. In two hours of driving time, we went from cacti covered desert, where it was in the upper 90s, to thick forests of Ponderosa pine trees, and temperatures in the low to mid-70s.

One of our regular blog readers asked if I could show some photos of the trip today, so Miss Terry was clicking away with her digital camera. We started out passing tall saguaro cacti, with beautiful white flowers on them.  Saguaros have long life spans, they take up to 75 years to develop one of their arms, and can live 150 years or more.

Soon the saguaros gave way to stark rocky hillsides, with sparse vegetation.

State Route 87 is a good divided four lane highway between Mesa and Payson, 75 miles to the north. The road has a lot of curves, and a lot of 6% grades, both up and down. When we drove this route to Show Low a couple of years ago in our old MCI bus conversion, we were running hot all the time, and creeping along at 10 miles per hour in some places.

This trip, in the Winnebago, we dropped down to 35 miles per hour on a couple of steep climbs, but averaged over 50 most of the time. However, I will say that I felt a lot more confident with the Jake brake in our bus than I do with the exhaust brake on the Winnebago. It did a much better job of keeping our speed down on those steep downhill grades.

A few miles south of Payson, we passed this huge bicycle junkyard. I’ve driven by this place for years and always wanted to stop. Someday I will.       

When we hit Payson, we transitioned very quickly from desert to pine trees. In Payson we got onto State Route 260, which would carry us across the Mogollon Rim and on to Show Low. This picture was taken two hours after we were driving past saguaros.

But we weren’t done climbing yet. In Payson the elevation is 4,970 feet, and 30 miles east as we got to the top of the Mogollon Rim, we were at 7,530 feet.

Once we topped out on the Rim, this rest area makes a good place to pull over for a break, and offers some great views down the Rim.

A lake in Arizona? Actually, the Mogollon Rim and White Mountains are covered with small lakes that offer excellent fishing opportunities.

Now we were driving through a beautiful forest. To me, this is one of the prettiest places in Arizona.

Most of State Route 260 is two lane, with frequent pullouts and passing zones.

At Heber we started seeing the effects of the terrible Rodeo–Chediski Fire, which burned over 460,000 acres in 2002. It will take a lifetime for the forest to recover. The inferno actually started as two separate fires, both intentionally set, that merged into one terrible blaze that destroyed over 400 homes, and did over $50 million in damage.

It makes me sick to know that all of this destruction was caused by a couple of idiots with no regard for anyone or anything.

We arrived at the Elks Lodge in Show Low about 3:30 p.m. When we made this same trip in our bus, it took eight hours, and in the Winnebago it was less than half of that.

The Elks Lodge has a campground with full hookup 50 amp RV sites, all for $15 a night, and we managed to get one that offered us a clear shot through the trees so our satellite TV dish would work, even if it is not 100% level. We do love our HWH jacks!

By the time I finished registering at the lodge, my daughter Tiffany and granddaughter Hailey were there to greet us.  Seven year old Hailey helped Grandpa hook up our water, electric, and sewer connections, and it only took me about twice as long as the chore usually does. Once we were settled in, Tiffany picked up her younger daughter, Destiny, and hubby Jim, and we all headed for dinner at Pizza Hut. I’m glad, because by then we were famished.

We’ll be here a couple of weeks, or maybe more, as we enjoy family time with Tiffany and her family before we start our summer travels. It’s a good place to be.

Thought For The Day – Learn from the mistakes of others. Trust me, you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. I’ve tried!

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Yesterday was our last day in Apache Junction, and as much as we enjoy visiting with Terry’s parents, Pete and Bess Weber, we’re ready to get back up to Show Low, where it is a little cooler, and we can get another grandkid fix.

I spent part of yesterday doing some bookwork and maintenance on our subscriber mailing lists, and logging in several vendor registrations for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Elkhart, Indiana.

As of now, we have less than 20 of the 50 amp full hookup sites left, and twelve 30 amp full hookup sites. We still have quite a few 30 amp water and electric sites, and lots of 20 amp water and electric sites, but the folks who wait too long to register, and then expect full hookups, may be disappointed.

While I was doing that, Miss Terry installed another set of the Levolor window blinds that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. These went on the small window in our bedroom, and I think they look pretty good.

A few people asked me if the blinds would rattle going down the highway. I don’t think so, since they come with metal brackets that attach to the wall or inside the window frame, depending on your installation. The bottom of the blinds slide into these brackets, which holds them securely and prevents any movement or rattling. At least that’s the game plan, we’ll know for sure after we actually do any traveling.  Plus, there is room for the blinds to pull up snugly in the header at the top of the window, where it is unlikely they can rattle.

Today we have an 8 a.m. appointment at Camping World in Mesa to get the problems with our inside dual wheels corrected, and hopefully we’ll be out of there in a couple of hours. Then we’ll head back up the hill, as local folks call it, to Show Low.

We have our choice of two routes, either U.S. Highway 60 east to Globe, and then the same road north through the Salt River Canyon to Show Low; or we can take State Route 87, the Beeline Highway, north to Payson, and then State Route 260 east to Show Low. The first route is the more scenic, with the dramatic drop down into the Salt River Canyon and the climb back up, but the route through Payson is a little easier and the road is better most of the way.

Since we came down through the Salt River Canyon, I’m leaning toward the Beeline Highway going back up, just for a change of scenery if nothing else. But I never know for sure which way I’ll go until I get there. That freedom is one of the advantages of the RV lifestyle. We usually don’t have to travel by any certain route, or be any certain place, unless we want to.

We have met a few fulltimers who are so rigidly locked into schedules that they never leave themselves any room to explore whatever comes up along the way, or even  to have a buffer in case bad weather or mechanical difficulties interrupt their trip. Most folks like this either loosen up and learn to roll with the punches, or they realize that fulltiming isn’t for them and they eventually find themselves settled down, either in a long term RV park setting, or back in a sticks and bricks house.

Thought For The Day – Everything worth knowing leaves bruises.

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I spent most of yesterday busily doing nothing, and managed to get most of it done.

Don Bingham, a faithful blog reader and newly retired Apple employee, contacted me to congratulate me on my new iPad and to tell me that he wanted to present me with three great apps; Apple Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, which are word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs, respectively. These will really help me get the most out of my new iPad, and I appreciate your generosity, Don.

The only problem was, for some reason, when I tried to download the programs directly to my iPad from the online Apple Store, I kept getting an error message. Eventually I downloaded them to my desktop computer, and then transferred them to the iPad, along with Scrabble, the iPad version of the popular board game. I also downloaded my iPod music library to the iPad.

Well, why have a new game if you don’t play it, right? So there went most of the afternoon. As it turns out, for a wordsmith, I really suck at Scrabble. The computer knows words I never heard of. I managed to beat the game a few times, but it pretty much cleaned my clock every time.

I did tear myself away from my new toy long enough to go up to the office to pay for two more days to extend our stay here at Happy Days. Or at least I tried to. As it turns out, the office is closed on the weekends, so I left them a message that we will be leaving Monday, and will catch them before we take off.

I also called Camping World in Mesa to complain that ever since we got our new tires installed, the end of February, I have been having problems with both inside duals. They are losing air, and giving false readings on my PressurePro tire monitor. The consensus of Mike McFall from PressurePro, and other experienced tire people, is that when they installed the valve stems, they either screwed the extenders down too tight and collapsed the small washers inside of them, or that the valve extenders themselves are bad. After some discussion with the service manager at Camping World, he acknowledged that they have had problems with their valve extenders in the last few weeks. So we have an appointment with them first thing Monday morning to hopefully remedy the problem.

I may have been a couch potato most of the day, but not Miss Terry. That lady is always busy doing something. Her sister Lisa had invited us to dinner, so Terry made up a big batch of refried beans to go with the tacos Lisa was preparing, and while they were cooking, she installed the new Levolor wooden blinds in the bathroom, in place of the original metal mini blinds. We are replacing all of our window coverings with the Levolors, and this was the first one so far. I think they look very nice, don’t you?

We went to Lisa’s at 4 p.m., and she and husband Jim made us feel welcome, then stuffed us with delicious food as we had a fun evening together. We don’t get to see enough of Jim and Lisa, because they have very busy schedules, so it is always a treat to get together with them when we are in town.

Back at the motorhome, I parked myself back on the couch and attacked the Scrabble game again, because I’m nothing if not persistent, and lazy. The game beat me three rounds out of four, so I finally gave up and did something productive instead, moving to the far end of the couch and giving Miss Terry her nightly foot rub. I have to do something around here to earn my keep!

Thought For The Day -A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

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