Arizona Here We Come

Dad and Pat invited me to join them in visiting his granddaughter, my niece, in Phoenix. Another RV trip?! Of course I agreed. In the weeks before, in every conversation with Dad, he'd comment how glad he was that I'd decided to fly. I don't fly (for a lot of reasons) but the former fighter pilot simply couldn't help but try to persuade me by the power of his convictions that a short hop in an airplane was better than a 12-plus-hour trip in a rented RV. "Nice try," I responded.

Obviously, an enterprise as important as keeping Merlin safe over 900 miles of American freeways needed planning. Serious planning. Planning is my middle name. 

LA is a great big freeway, as Dionne Warwick sang in 1968. She forgot to add the part about a great big freeway where no one is moving at all for most of the day.

My route, besides getting from Oakland to Phoenix and avoiding LA, had one other strategic element. I wanted to look for rocks. And use my new geologist's gear. What? Yes, I've recently decided that I shall return to a love for rocks and geology. On the good old paper map, I spotted a town called Quartzsite that sounded promising for an obvious reason. Further research showed that the little town is known to millions of mineral and gem enthusiasts who each winter fill the landscape with their RVs visiting rock shows large and small. For instance, there's the Tyson Wells Rock & Gem Show that features, according to the website, "10-Day Show - A 25-Acre Outdoor Spectacular - An unbelievable variety displayed on 2.2 miles of aisle frontage."

On our first trip, I figured a compact RV would suffice. Nope. Not with a fairly tall woman and a very long German Shepherd. Merlin's nose work trainer, seeing the photos from the post of that blog, "Gypsies from the Sanctuary City," commented that it confirmed her suspicion that Merlin has no idea how large he is.

That experience taught me that I could risk driving a vehicle four or five feet longer so both of us could sleep in peace. 

See that in the back of the shot? That's a queen bed I will sleep in.

Merlin has his own bed made from the bench-seats and table set up in its dropped down configuration. We're both happy.

RVing, for me and perhaps others, is about continuous learning. 

• It took three days to track down all the clanging and rattling and my solutions:
• The screen door clanging against the outside door - electrical tape.
• The glass cover on the stove - a dishtowel.* 
• The microwave platter and turning disk - wrap them in dishtowels and put them in a cabinet.
• The provided or self-packed cooking ware - more dishtowels.
• The provided or self-packed utensils - even more dishtowels (I used a pair of shorts I brought to hang out in the RV since my legs will never see the light of day).
• The wine bottles in the beverage rack - keep resupplying them so the rack is tightly packed. This doesn't have to involve daily trips because you have storage in the back with the toolkit and other backup gear like a wire crate, crate cart, Aluminet and all of the rest your essentials.
• Flies in different states behave differently. Arizona flies are persistent critters. When we left from a rest stop, three had descended upon a yummy bug splat on the windshield. Even at 75 mph, the speed limit, they persisted. I wiped them to oblivion and I'm not ashamed. They are, however, fast. Merlin's been trying to catch the two buzzing around for a day. Lesson learned: bring some kind of bug destruction device.
• No matter how carefully you stow everything, you will spend the first three days asking yourself or, in my case, Merlin, where you put things.
• You will constantly run into things, bang your head, pinch your fingers and otherwise physically harm yourself. Buck it up, buttercup, thems the rules.
• Finally, it will come to no surprise to those with dogs, perhaps especially German Shepherd Dogs, that you can bring all the comforts of home but they will still be in the precise location to make it nearly impossible to get where you want to go.

Why yes, the shiny glass looking thing is a glass. A tumbler. Holding wine because wine glasses are way too unstable in an RV. Another RVing trip tip from me to you. Or, I just thought of it, drink from the bottle. 

* Bring every dishtowel you own. Better yet, go to the big-box store of your choosing and get dozens. AND bring every dishtowel you own.