Happy Belated Birthday, Julie! Sorry I didn't write about it in the previous blog post! You are so kind, wise, and not judgemental, and you are my grammar cop and also my fellow reader and writer. I love you and miss you and will be excited when we get home and get to see you again! LOVE YOU BUG!
We were going to leave Tucson! Why? We had only done three things there out of our five days (the others had been relaxing, errands, and getting stuff done days), Old Tucson, Saguaro National Park and Arizona Desert Museum, and the National Park had been kind of a dud, but was pretty and had good trails. Read that blog post to find out more. But, we were leaving? The first time we came we had gone to a Spanish mission, a plane graveyard, the desert museum, Old Tucson, A Mountain, Sabina Canyon, and had seen the campus of Arizona University, among other things! Since my grandparents had been many times before, they knew what to do and what not to do in the Old Pueblo, and without them we were like four 18 year olds on the streets of NYC with no food, supplies, or money...lost. It was a big downer that Tucson had also come at a time when we needed to restock, refuel, and, one of the most important.... RElax! And Tucson, incidentally, was a wonderful place to do that as it was a big town and had a lot of cool stuff. But, Dad said that because there was a large crack in our windshield, we were do to go to a town called Chandler by another one I hadn't heard of... Phoenix. I misspelled it about 83 times before finally getting it right. It was very sad we were leaving, but oh well.
The previous night I had put a new mattress into the bed, but it hung out and went into the aisle. So, we had to return it. And we would.
Oops on our part.
First we would go by the Camping World area, higher up and where the commercial district was. We would get an oil change and a washing of our motorhome, all in the safety of the waiting room. After that we would leave for Chandler, to their facility, and thereafter set up camp at the repair place where we would sleep. The next morning they would fix it and we would just drive around, waiting. I might even replace my shoes.
Now for the details!
After putting the water, sewer, and electric in, plus the sides, we easily went and paid the bill, not really worth it at this loud and terrible place, but oh well. Saying goodbye to the dumpster, construction, train, and highway, we cut to the exit and went away from Tucson. It's such a wonderful city and I can't even describe the cool old people, awesome scenery, and all the stuff to do there! It's a great place to retire, probably. My grandparents would have retired there but all the other members of the family were in Georgia and the south (besides a few cousins and Aunt Linda in Ohio) so they wanted to be close to the grandchildren and go to all their games and get togethers, which I'm glad they did. We drove to the Commercial District and pulled into with a little building and a roof over a washing part. We went through a gate and parked in front of the car wash...or rather, R.V. wash. Dad told us to go get some books and such, that we needed schoolwork and we would be in a while. I got the AME book (Ask Me Everything) and National Geographic Almanac, plus my history textbook. I wouldn't need my computer but hoped it wouldn't get stolen. We went into the small building which was a shop, having a big warehouse building on the other side. A lot of R.V. supplies in there.
We went into the waiting room which was a T.V. in a corner flashing CNN, a closet and little coffee table with a coffee maker, a fridge, and a few chairs with an ottoman in the middle. All the walls were pure white. Dad looked on his iPad, Mom on Facebook, and Rebecca did her phone and her book. I read my books, telling Dad about the conflict in Vietnam, as that was what I was reading about at that time in my History book. I also put some Coolaid in white plastic cup and drank it 'cause I got bored. I read about Welding and rocks in my AME book, and saw some cool stuff in National Geographic. The Coolaid was really good, but sugary and I could only have one. We listened to a customer in the shop and the clerk talking really loud. It was only a small shop. Well, he came in and said the thing was ready, and so I took my AME book and history one, glad to be gone. We walked to the R.V., all sparkled and clean, and went inside the motorhome. We turned around as the gate slowly opened for us, Mom by the jeep. I sat in the front with Dad, sadly remembering I had forgotten something! The National Geographic Book was in the waiting room! I told Dad and he let me go back down the driveway and go back in, and I ran as fast as the exhaust coming from the engine. In there I found it on a corner coffee table close to where I had sat. I ran, with no questions asked. The R.V. was through the gate, and it was closing.
Should I try it and see if I could get in before the electrified metal knocked me out? Or should I go get someone to do it for me and wait for it to close again? Should I take the keys out of the red truck to the right and ram it through? All three sounded dangerous and bad. So, I just walked over to where the pedestrian entrance was and walked through. As simple as that.
Dad connected the jeep to the back and we then drove off towards Chandler. Not much scenery, just developed areas and a highway. I did math and Social Studies. Then we came on a highway, and a grey concrete square building with glass windows in a shopping center with a sandwich shop and a Verizon store, among a lot of other things. The building was very boring and unremarkable, but as you will see in the next blog post, it has greatly afforded a creative mind. (FORESHADOWING!)
We parked by a tree and a little area with bushes and flowers, and we walked the dogs as we dry camped. That night we would use battery from our generator and water from our tank, no outlet and we would hold the sewer. Rebecca and I walked the dogs in the flower area that was in a bowl shape, with a nice grass area. There was a gravel thing and we looked at some of the flowers. The dogs really loved the place. Dad emptied the bays and organized them, the rectangular storing areas under the R.V. He put some of the stuff on the ledge that separated us from the garden, but broke at a certain time. We put the vacuum cleaner and grill and all the other stuff back in after a while. And we waited for the next day to come as we watched T.V. on the Satellite and I blogged on Word Document, since the stupid Verizon card was acting up once more...just as it has almost every day of the entire trip. I don't mean to say anything bad about the supplier of wifi, but when going around different areas of the country they don't really consistently work and are not reliable. Maybe if we stayed in Roswell they might be, but not in an R.V. traveling in the US. Well, we went to bed.
Not a particularly exciting day, no. But, they make up life and you should just embrace them and love life. Turn lemons into Cranberry Juice.
I miss and love you all a lot,
Andrew.
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