Day Two on the road

As twilight gives way to darkness, we are enjoying an "adult beverage" and relaxing after a good day.  We are outside of Flagstaff, AZ in a KOA Campground. In terms of distance, we have not gone very far.  No matter, we have come a long way from the stress of the past four months.  Light hearted and full of anticipation, we hit the road.   We use secondary roads so we can relax and enjoy the roads less traveled and more interesting too.   We saw a number of small towns with rustic character and lots of cowboy influence. These one street communities are reminiscent of the wild, wild West; surely John Wayne must be somewhere in one of these.

The road rises to climbing out of the valley upward cutting zigzag tracks across the face of the mountain.  Since our truck is still very new to us, we were not certain just how it would perform on the steep grades. To our relief, the climbs and steep downgrades were child's play for the behemoth. Farther along, the road narrows and twists right and left like a snake crossing the sand.  Since Jim was driving, I got all the views that looked straight down as the road narrowed and made tighter turns. I found myself thinking, "if we go over with this 13,000 pound plus trailer pulling us down, it cannot end well."  I thought of my friend Linda who would prefer any other route to avoid such a road. But as Churchill once said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and it certainly was in this case.

At the two hour point, we stopped to walk about and let the girls out for a run.. They are good traveling companions and share the space in the back seat without complaint.  I took the wheel and drove the final leg into Flagstaff. In the distance, we could see the snow covered mountain. I believe it is the San Francisco Peak. Jim took a good picture on his phone but Alas, I have not yet learned how to share it. 😞  No day could possibly end without drama. I missed the turn into the park. As the park is in an area near a big mall complex, finding a place to make the u-turn our GPS kept instructing me to do was not easy. Beginning to panic, I selected an entrance into the shopping complex and prayed I would have enough room to get back out. Jim keep crooning encouragement to calm my nerves but you have never lived until you have "toured" a busy parking lot in a 22 foot long truck pulling a 38 foot fifth wheel!  It seemed that every exit was going the opposite way I needed to go so I continued to wind my way through the narrow passages. Finally, I found my way out and back to the highway thankful to be out of the parking area. The KOA looked mighty good and I did not miss the turn this time!  So here we are safe and sound at the end of a good day. We are staying a couple of days to see some sites and then we will be heading out once again. I hope you join us.