Prescott, AZ: An Expensive Drive to Family
The drive from Holbrook to Prescott was supposed to be easy. About 3 hours down I-40, through Flagstaff on I-17 down the pass and up the highway into little Prescott. Easy. Well, the navigating was. Other parts less so.
During pre-trip inspections in Holbrook, where it had finally stopped raining, we noticed a couple items of concern. The tires were looking like they had uneven wear on the edges, and the bike rack - which was not rated for RV use - was starting to bend slightly and was looking like it might need to be replaced. So we scouted out a Discount Tire in Flagstaff to hit on the way, and I'd start shopping for a bike rack when we got to Prescott.
We also planned a stop to Meteor Crater, an impressive roadside attraction just off I-40. We did lunch there, and paid the (too-high) admission to see the crater and the museum, which was neat.
I do wish I had looked more closely at the bike rack when we were stopped, however, because shortly after we got back on the freeway towards Flagstaff, someone pulled aside us waving frantically. Turns out the bike rack was not, in fact, good for one more travel day.
That's going to be expensive. We're are, however, thankful that it happened how it did. We were on a freeway in fine clear weather, with room to pull over. We were able to squeeze the bikes into other places in the RV, and it looks like no frames were damaged. I took a chance with this bike rack, and used it longer than I should've, but at least it stayed attached!
Well then, on to Flagstaff to get these tires checked out. It was cool to drive into Real Mountains With Snow On Top for the first time in a while. Flagstaff is a funny little place, all college town and ski town and hiking destination mashed into one. The ski-bum vibe is strong here. We found the Discount Tire easily enough, but the turn into it from the main road was lousy with curbs, making it a tight squeeze - too tight, it turned out. We crunched Solomon’s right center stabilizer jack right into the curb. The staff came to wave us off and help us back out into the road again, and told us to come around the back way. (Of course, the back way :P) Which we did, and looked over the damages. This on top of the bike thing was a bit much. The jack itself, thankfully, was fine, but the bracket was thoroughly bent. (Ironically, the previous owner of Solomon did exactly this to the driver's side. I guess now we're even.) After all that, the tires turned out to be fine, apparently we were misreading the tread. Had we been right, they wouldn't even have been able to help us. Their pumps don't even fill tires as high-pressure as ours, and they don't carry trailer tires for rigs our size. Guess we'll be going to Big O next time!
Kristin got us some ice cream and we gathered our spirrits for the descent down I-17 into Prescott. I have (distant) cousins that have lived here for many years, with whom my parents are staying for the week while they house-shop in Phoenix. Our park is in the Fairgrounds a ways outside of town, not the best location but the area is packed this time of year. There are some younger kids to play with in the site next door, and a big field to play in right behind our site.
The first part of the week was spent visiting family and hiking a bit. Kristin and the kids got to enjoy the Constellation Trail with grandma which was wonderful. I busied myself getting the bikes fixed and a new rack ordered. Thankfully we found or shipped everything we needed in time, which was a pleasant surprise given the ongoing bike parts shortage. Thanks to a tip from our park neighbor, we even found a guy to fix our bent jack bracket! It felt pretty good to have all that fixed the same week it broke. Fast fixes are a rarity in the RV life, says the guy that still has duct tape on his porch light.
Us and several thousand others. It was quite an efficient system!
Also this week, Arizona opened up its Phoenix-area COVID vaccination sites to all comers, which man, we've waited a year for that! So I snagged us an appointment for Friday afternoon. Mom and dad watched the kids while Kristin and I spent most of Friday driving to Phoenix and back to get vaccinated. The process was pretty slick, and while it took an hour of idling in a hot parking lot, we came out successfully vaccinated and safe! It’s been said that “you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else,” and well, it felt like the right thing, finally.
They schedule second doses in the same area 3 weeks out, but we'll be in Utah by then, so... here's hoping vaccine availability opens up more, and they'll be more easygoing about second doses?
Tomorrow we head north a bit to Cottonwood, which it turns out is... further outside Sedona than we hoped, but close enough to make a day trip of it. Here's hoping for an uneventful trip over there!
