Ford and Family

On July 6 we left our five week old Ford at a dealership in Albuquerque. While they first indicated that the burned up transmission would not be covered under warranty, with the help of Michael, Pruitt Ford in Burk, and the Ford Customer Hotline, that decision was ultimately and luckily reversed. Rather than hang out in Albuquerque for a week with no vehicle except our mammoth bus, we decided to head to Phoenix to see Lannas’s family.

Can you see the rain on the windshield? First time we have seen rain in a long time!

For several years we have noticed a curiosity in New Mexico. They have what they call a “Safety Corridor”. It is a stretch of road, maybe 10 miles long, where speeding fines are doubled. We can’t quite figure out why these areas are designated, other than to collect higher speeding fines. Shouldn’t you drive “safely” all the time – not just on this 10 mile stretch? And we have never seen a law enforcement officer in these areas!

The land between Albuquerque and Flagstaff is very interesting. There are steep red cliffs, heaps of black lava rock, and huge sandstone (?) rocks with what looks like caves dug in the side. The only wildlife that we have seen is a dead coyote - too hot I guess.

It is about 6 hours to Flagstaff and the difference in temperature is remarkable. When we arrived in Flagstaff it was 62° and the next morning it was 52° - Wow!

We arrived at John and Jan’s mid-afternoon on July 7. We parked our RV in front of their beautiful home and spent four days with them. They were so welcoming and gracious to us. We ate out a few times (best fried rice since Rainbow Restaurant closed) and Jan fixed some terrific meals. Sherrie and Dale came over on Sunday and we had a great time. We were disappointed not to get to see Shawn, April and their kids, nor Rick, his daughter and new granddaughter, but perhaps another time.

On Tuesday morning we left John and Jan’s in Anthem, AZ and drove to see Sherrie and Dale in Clarkdale, AZ – about 1½ hours north unless you travel down the narrow gravel roads our GPS took us :) Sherrie and Dale have a lovely, quiet place on the Verde River with lots of big trees and hummingbirds. We had fresh vegetables from Sherrie’s large garden, fabulous Anasazi beans (very much like red beans), and Navaho fry bread to eat. The fry bread was made from a sweet yeast dough, rolled flat, and fried – out of this world! She also made zucchini bread. It was great!

Sherrie took us up to Jerome – an old copper mining town on the side of a mountain where different members of Dale’s family have shops. We sampled fudge in one and bought the first book written by his sister Peggy Hicks about a 1920’s madam from Jerome. She spent five years researching the book and just published The Ghost of the Cuban Queen Bordello. We later went to her home and she signed my book! We got to meet three of Dale’s four sisters and his mom. Dale showed us his shop where he makes beautiful jewelry from a variety of rocks and petrified bones. It’s a fascinating process and such beauty he coaxes out of sometimes unremarkable stones!

We left Sherrie and Dale’s on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Flagstaff. Spent the night there and went on to Albuquerque to pick up our car. Now they tell us it should be ready Friday morning. We picked up the car around noon and headed back to Flagstaff. We now know that 300 miles between Albuquerque and Flagstaff like the back of our hands! Tomorrow we're on our way to California!