Headed Home

Well the last few days have been a whirlwind getting everything ready for our return trip home to Alberta.

Karen and Dave abandoned us to go on a little holiday in Sedona...., we had to make sure all the paperwork was in order for the Jeep export, organizing the rig of what we were taking and what was staying, cleaning the rig, prepping the site and saying goodbye to all our new friends. Thank you one and all for such a great winter!

Visiting with Terri & Richard

We planned to pull out at 9am so 930am wasn't too bad, we knew it was going to be a loooong drive yesterday to get to Saint George, UT where we have an oil change booked this morning. What we didn't know was that it would be 36C in Las Vegas! Wowsers.

I managed to catch a pic at 33C

Nevada

Las Vegas

'The Strip' just off the highway

Helping Daddy drive

We had supper here at the Cracker Barrel where we spent the night and even with the highway traffic and the city ordinance issue we managed to sleep through the night. I did have to put the fantastic fan on during the night though because it was sooooo hot.

Today we are getting the oil changed in the rig and heading towards more friends - Bob & Barb, perhaps you will remember them from the Ranch a couple of months ago.

MasterCard and Disillusionment

We had a relatively long day of driving yesterday, about an hour of which was spent dealing with MasterCard. We stopped for gas mostly to dump our tanks but while we were at it thought we'd fill up so wherever we ended up we would know we were good.

The damn credit card would not work. The American banking system is totally different from the Canadian, everywhere we go the chip reader is not working on the pin pad. It must be swiped but ours does not like to be swiped so it must then be entered manually at the till which naturally sets off all kinds of red flags within the MasterCard system and our card keeps locking. We did call them prior to leaving home to advise that we were going on a very long trip and that is not the problem, they are aware we are travelling.

So after 4 attempts and taking the 'tech' guy in the Flying J with me he tells me that there is nothing they can do...........      REALLY?!?

The machine kept asking for my zip code, which of course, I don't have so he told me how to get around that, fair enough but it still wouldn't work.

Cut a long story short, nothing worked so no gas and the tanks were still full. I waited about half an hour until I had calmed down some and called the Customer Service again. They put me on with the fraud division who apparently got it sorted. We did stop for gas and it worked but I'm not sure if that was because they had a tapper on their machine, so likely we will find out today. Dumped the tanks with cash at the next Flying J, so at least that headache is gone.

Staying in another Walmart last night we found ourselves feeling quite disillusioned, I know there is plenty of boondocking around here but when I check the apps I'm having trouble finding something that is Class A friendly. Now, remember that we are new at this and naturally doubting ourselves (mostly me), so when the app says tents or that the road has issues I'm inclined not to drive the rig there. Yes, its a stubby rig and not a 43' with a toad but still...

So we decided last night to head straight for Quartzsite, AZ and get our bearings before venturing deep into the unknown. I know I'll get a lot of comments about this insecurity and I know I'm just being blonde but this is how my brain works so accept it and move on, I did.

We're going to try for Lake Havasu today, there is boondocking in the area and if for some reason that doesn't pan out there are also plenty of campgrounds and at least one of them has space open. No idea how long it will take us to get through Las Vegas (God help us) so here's hoping. The GPS says 4 hours which is likely to be 6 hours. We'll see.

A huge Thanks to Vickie as our text conversation last night really helped our mood. Although Brad is sure he's been hexed by her. HA HA!

Yet another lesson learned

Spent most of the day finishing our drive in Idaho and then entered Utah. Fairly clear sailing until North of Salt Lake City when we caught up to what were listed on Google Maps as 'accidents', and we did see one but whether the rest of the kerfuffle was more 'accidents' or just city traffic I can't be sure.

Beautiful scenery in Idaho

 

Brad took Robbie for a long walk along a country road in Idaho

Salt Lake City nestled along a mountainside

About 1.5 hrs in a traffic jam

Today's lesson: Don't plan your stop too close to sundown.

Due to the delay in traffic, I found a Walmart much closer than our intended stop for the night and they allow overnighting but we could't find a good spot and Brad wasn't comfortable staying there so I searched for another... 16km (10miles) down the road... off we went. I had a 6th sense and checked the AllStays app again just prior to the exit, sure enough they don't allow overnights and apparently have a towing company scouting the lot. According to the previous RVer the manager said that too many people were 'living' in the parking lot so they shut it down. Fair enough. So on the fly I had to come up with another...  after checking two others on the app, I finally found one which turned out to be the original stop I had planned for the night. Go figure. So here we are, Brad made dinner while I took Robbie out and after dinner Brad took him out again for a little walkabout. Its a dog's life around here I tell you.

Its 9pm Wednesday as I write this but I thought I'd do it now while the generator is running to top everything up. We actually went through a time change and all our clocks say 8pm, not sure if it will change back tomorrow as we head further West, so I haven't fixed them yet.

I'm nervous. Have no idea 'how' to do this boondocking thing particularly, we're in a foreign country -technically, I have seen some 'low-clearance' signs on the apps I have to find boondocking etc... I know we'll figure it out, but... sure wish I had a 'buddy' around who had done this before. I know its just a blonde thing and I'll just push through but these are my thoughts and I hope that in short order I will be laughing at my foolishness.

Onwards and Upwards my friends.