Arizona is not California

Monday, December 29, 2008

We are now 2700 miles (4331 Km) from home and about three quarter of the way to our final destination. You’ve got a lot of driving to do yet, Ramiro. I have not tried driving this rig yet. It’s been too busy everywhere. I had no problem driving the old RV but am not sure if I can handle this one with its air breaks.
The RV has a Cummins engine with a Freightliner Chassis and is built for long distance trips, just like a bus or 5 wheeler truck. But we don’t want to take any chances and need to stock up on extra parts such as belts, hoses, switches etc. The RV also needs to be checked for other mechanical issues, such as water leakages from city water hook up, which turned out to be as a result of the freeze up back home.
We drop off the RV early at the dealer next to the RV park, hopefully we’ll have it back before they close today.
It’s a good thing we are in Preoria and not in Phoenix. Everything is close by and we are starting to get to know our way around here. Of course the GPS is a great help to find the places we need to be at. One of those places is a UPS store, where we ship a suitcase that was left behind by the Roberts.

We notice, that every single store here in Arizona is modern and everything is a franchise or chain store. No private little corner stores or nice cozy restaurant with outdoor patios like you will find all over California. Arizona has definitely a style of its own. I can't say it is pretty. I prefer California. The people are super friendly however and the service is excellent in most cases.

Since we are not able to have lunch in the RV we treat ourself to a Mexican lunch at “On the Border Mexican Grill”. We may have been better of eating a North American lunch, because we’ll be eating Mexican food for the next two months.
Mind you, I don’t think we’ll be eating out all that much, we’re on a tight budget. The fuel tank is eating up our cash pretty quickly at $ 300.00 a tank of Diesel.

We spend several hours at Walmart. I never thought I would be spending this much time in this store, but they seem to have everything we need to furnish the rest of the RV and other parts Ramiro needs.

We return to the RV park, and leave our car at the lot, while Ramiro walks to the Goodwill store to browse for bargains, I find a chair in a sunny spot and read up on my camera instructions but I keep falling asleep. I am awaken by a charming prince who kisses me on the lips........ Oh, it’s Ramiro.

We get a call from the RV dealer that the rig is ready for pick up. Perfect, just before closing time.
We pack all our purchases away and decide to get back on the highway for another two hours to bring us closer to the Mexican border.
I find that my eyes are burning and my throat is sore. I hope I’m not coming down with something. Then I see the sign on the highway, encouraging people to car pool or take the bus. Pollution level is high. Now I get it, that’s what the problem is. This will go away as soon as we leave Phoenix.

Of course we forget that it is rush hour and we have to drive right through the city, whether we like it or not. The bonus is the beautiful sunset we have seen here ever single night. It’s difficult to take pictures out of a driving vehicle, but trust me, it’s a beautiful sight, that red sun reflecting on the sky scrapers downtown.
Sorry there are no more pictures for today. I’m sure you’re not interested in seeing us shopping at Walmart. Oh, yes, I did take a picture of Ramiro eating his Burito at the restaurant, but the picture did not turn out. Need to practice with that camera a bit more.