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| Saturday, May 19 Sedona to Gallup | |
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We last left you in our breathless cliffhanger where we woke up Saturday morning to find the toilet overflowing and the
mohome a swamp. After bailing out, sweeping out, and mopping up we placed a frantic call to the RV rental place.
Their analysis is that the "rinse" lever on the toilet had stuck in the open position and continued to run (fortunately
clean fresh) water into the toilet and after it filled the holding tank, up and over the seat and all over the floor.
The mohome was parked on a very slight backward slant, which meant that most of the water drained back into the back
bedroom, where the carpet now goes "squish". We can't even rent a steam cleaner to suck it up because every inch of
carpet is carefully protected with heavy plastic, screwed on. I was unable to upload the Friday web page, because my ISP was not answering the phone when I went down to the main office to use the modem connection, and we couldn't wait around forever for them to come back online. Hopefully tonight I can upload both that page and this one.
What with the general inundation, and the time spent attempting to dry out the various soaked items, draining the holding
tanks, and cleaning up the muddy mess it all left, we got a late start again and felt we really deserved a sumptuous
sit-down waited-on meal.
For a long while there was nothing but natural beauty on either side of the road... probably government lands of one sort or another... until we suddenly emerged into the Land of the Billboards. One Indian handiwork store after the other screamed for their share of the tourist dollar. One promised a free look at their fantastic Cave Buffalo. And for a while, our eyes were tickled by a series of quite realistically, dynamically done statues of dinosaurs on either side of the road. It was something to see a velociraptor silhouetted on top of a rise up ahead! But unfortunately we could not get pictures, because we were driving through a violent rainstorm, with waterbucket rain and brilliant lightning and black, black skies. Very dramatic, but very difficult tense driving, paticularly when a semi blasted by at undiminished speed and totally blinded me with his "rooster tail". Based on the billboards, we decided to try one particular Indian store. Chee's Indian Store said that they were an Indian- owned store and they offered no fake discounts. Sounded honest to us! So we pulled off at the exit to Chee's Indian Store, which happened to also be the exit for a store called Indian City. Here's what we found:
A little unassuming store, who had placed its own smaller billboard-sign right smack up against its neighbor's larger one,  promising the traveller lower prices if they would step to
the left. Jeannine and I had a good laugh. Anyone care to guess what kind of relationship the proprietors of those 2
stores enjoy?!? Incidentally, at 6 PM on a Saturday Chee's was closed, so Indian City ended up getting our custom anyway,
and they did have some lovely jewelry.
Once over the line into New Mexico, we went through a beautiful district of red 
buttes and washes, running with water because of the rains. Without further blather, I will allow you to enjoy them.
 
P.S.: The Further Adventures of the Fabulous Libster
Libby is making herself quite comfortable in the mohome! She is used to riding with me in her pickup truck, where she owns the passenger seat. She has clearly decided that ALL passenger seats belong to her, even when I am sitting in the seat in question (at least, trying to). As we prepared to get back on the road after a stop today, I moved toward the seat, only to be preempted by Libby who quickly ducked under me and got to the seat first. "Dibs!" her expression said, plain as day. And Chris adds -- and she wouldn't even budge when Jeannine tried sitting on top of her! A completely mulish expression said "Mine!" just as clear as if she spoke English. | |
Chris again -- Arghh! I have to vent. Travelling in a mohome is not all it is cracked up to be! It is now Sunday morning. I have still not been able to upload anything, because by the time I finished the Saturday webpage and trudged over to the building that has the modem connection, the building was locked for the night. This morning I was woken early by the dogs barking at other dogs going walkies. I thought, "This will be a fine time to make myself a nice hot breakfast before the modem-room opens!" The morning is chill, so I turned on the waterheater, turned on the heat, and then tried to start the stove to cook breakfast. Nope-- zero gas gushed forth from the burner. And for that matter, no noticeable heat gushed forth from the vents. No, we are not out of propane. A tentative explanation is that the waterheater drawing hard has caused the tank to ice up which has reduced the pressure to next to nothing. ARGGHHH! I don't really care about the explanation, all I care is that I am sitting here in a cold mohome with the ingredients for sausage and eggs with onions sitting in a cold fryingpan on top of a cold stove! With a non-uploaded web page right handy to complain upon! Jeannine adds -- Problem solved! Apparently when the nice lady at the Flagstaff KOA checked the propane for us she turned off the propane for travel. We finally thought to check the tank, and turned the gas back on. Maybe the valve is supposed to be shut when moving; it certainly sounds like a safety item. Pity they didn't tell us about it at the rental place, though! Chris here again. I became a happy camper when I had hot water and a tasty breakfast cooking on the stove, warming up the mohome and adding the lovely perfumes of garlic, sausage, and onions to the air. Amazing how much brighter the world looks with breakfast on your plate! Now I say, this sure beats waiting until you are dressed and on the road and eating breakfast in a restaurant (or munching an Egg McDonald at the wheel). |
We were also tired of getting to our destinations so late, and so decided we would give Sedona the
go-by and toddle on over to Gallup, with perhaps a stop or two along the way to look at Indian jewelry.
So off we went, passing rapidly from scattered conifers and grassland, to empty flat expanses of nothing but low grasses.
On our right, a large fancy upscale store.
Extending from it all the way to surely what was the property line, a huge billboard-fence, advertising the wonders
within, and seemingly attempting to totally distract the tourist's eye from this:
