Ohio Bound

At Hon Dah RV Park

We pulled out of Picacho Tuesday, the 15th, with a tremendous sigh of relief.  We were 3 weeks overdue in leaving, knowing we could not go until I got the okay from the Ortho Doctor on the the 24th of June. The delay - long story short - we were waiting on the RV to have a new windshield replaced.  Yes, this is a new RV, but.  Took it out the end of May for a day trip to Sierra Vista and got dinged by a stone.  Nothing horrible but with the 105 plus temperatures, the ding turned into a big spider web!  And, can't drive like that.  Screw up at the RV dealer with ordering the window and then when it came in, it was broken.  Finally got it back on the 11th and got all the other stuff done (1st engine tune-up at Ford dealer; got the car tuned up; said goodbye to the kids in Chandler), then hit the road Tuesday.  In a thunderstorm.  Not just one but 2.  Drove up into the White Mountains. Pinetop/Lakeside is located north east of Phoenix, our drive here took over 5 hours due to construction and of course, can't speed in the mountains with all the hills!! Camping here at the Hon Dah Casino RV Park, located within the White Mountain Apache Nation.  Still in Arizona but 35 to 40 degrees cooler. Actually quite chilly at night - 52 degrees.  No complaints.  We are surrounded by pines and it's a welcome sight from the scruffy desert we were in.

We decided not to do any sight seeing while here this week - we really have not set up the RV since we bought it in January.  This is a working week, have already redesigned our living areas and organizing this, organizing that.  And we did not plan on the altitude sickness.  We left Picacho at 1800 feet and are sitting at 7200 feet.  That's quite a change and we felt it the first two days here.  Actually kicked our butts.  Today is the first day we are doing great.

The Apache Nation Flag Above Casino (across street)

Casino, Restaurant, Hotel

Buddy Hugging Grace

Buddy, our one year old cat (still a kitten), is giving us fits.  He is so scared.  Peed in his box the drive up here, then he found a hiding place and did not come out for hours after we sat down the first day.  Then yesterday morning while I was running the hand vacuum, he disappeared again.  Only this time he managed to sneak into a small opening up front under the dash and was wedged between the dash and the engine.  Needless to say that was way too scary for us.  Dave has since closed off that area and has gone over the interior to make sure he can't do that again.  Grace is a trooper, she is an old hat at this camping stuff and has adjusted quite nicely.  Only late in the day does Buddy come out.  Hopefully as time goes on he will do okay.  Our next test will be Tuesday when we pack up, bring in the slides, and take off.

Our goal for this trip is to head to Ohio, we need to be there the end of September.  Then take our time heading back, returning some time around beginning of December.  We both agreed that if we can, we will be gone by mid April next year.  The heat is too much for us, the days were 110 when we left and the air-conditioning never shut off.  The snake count when we left was 6 rattlesnakes, 2 gophers,  1 coachwhip, and 1 black king snake.  10 snakes too many for us!