Got to be flexible!

We were home from Chula Vista for 4 days before our next trip- just enough time to do laundry, vacuum and mop the trailer, wash the truck (we had the trailer washed and waxed the day before we came home), and celebrate Mother’s Day! The nice thing about the quick turnaround is that we didn’t have to unpack- we left clothes and groceries in the trailer!

We fixed the latches on a couple of cabinets in the trailer, and somehow the refrigerator got turned off- and we didn’t notice for several hours! Many of the items in the refrigerator and freezer had to be tossed and replaced- what a waste- and not what we had planned!

Our itinerary was to leave Monday for Las Vegas for 1 night, then on to Utah for 3 nights before going to Colorado for a family reunion. Two days before we were supposed to leave Jerry checked out the weather in Utah- the forecast was for high winds (40 mph!) and snow (hard to imagine snow since it was 100 degrees at home)! Wind like that would be very dangerous for a truck and trailer! Our motto is “It’s an adventure!” when things go wrong or we need to change plans, and this was one of those times. Rather than leave Monday and go through Utah, we left Tuesday and went through Arizona and New Mexico. I cancelled reservations and made new reservations Saturday afternoon (after the food replacement grocery store run), and we got it all figured out.

After getting the refrigerator back to the correct temperatures, we loaded it up and finished our prep on Monday (last load of laundry, made the bed, etc.). Got up bright and early Tuesday, grabbed breakfast, hooked up the truck and trailer, and we were ready to hit the road- NOT! Two of the landing gear legs were not staying up! That means they could drag on the ground as we were driving, creating horrible damage to the trailer. Jerry worked on the hydraulics for a while, ran the landing gear up and down several times, and finally, it was fixed! So we actually left about 2 hours later than expected, but we made it to Vegas safe and sound. We had a quick dinner at Tacos el Gordo (Karel’s favorite taqueria in Chula Vista- we ate there 3 times in the 2 weeks we were in Chula Vista last month), and got a good nights sleep so we could get an early start the next day. As we were leaving Vegas we went by Hoover Dam, and there was a lot more water in Lake Mead than when we were there 2 years ago! Yay!

We had a 6 hour drive to Holbrook, AZ, our next destination.

We drove through the desert of Arizona – not fun when pulling a trailer on HORRIBLE I-40! There are so many potholes and the road is so rough, that when we got to the campground and opened the trailer I found food from the fridge on the floor, and the couch cushions were all messed up- they had been bounced off the back of the couch! Luckily nothing was broken and the food was still cold and fine- it was just diet Coke, tortillas and Reeses- all the important stuff!

We spent one night in Holbrook, then another long driving day to Santa Fe. Here’s where we had to be flexible again- we planned on spending 2 nights in Santa Fe so we could explore, but we have a deadline for checking into our campground in Colorado Springs, and the driving has been taking a little longer than anticipated each day, so we changed our reservations: Only 1 night in Santa Fe (with no time to explore, darn it), then moving to another campground half way to Colorado Springs for 1 night, and then a short 3-hour drive to C Springs. Like I said- it’s an adventure!

We saw some snow in the mountains of New Mexico: