a very memorable weekend

We had quite the interesting trip this past weekend.

My work gave me Monday & Tuesday off so Theresa took Tuesday off giving us a 4 day weekend. We decided that due to the ridiculously hot weather we’d go somewhere as high as possible (for every 1000 feet you go up in elevation the temperature drops 3.5 degrees). We also decided to borrow her parent’s Coleman pop-up since tent camping really isn’t an option with a 8 1/2 month pregnant woman.

Our adventure began on Friday because I went into work for overtime, which messed up our packing and shopping because I usually have it done before T gets home. I even had prescriptions I had to go pick up, and neither Theresa nor I was feeling the greatest. By the time we ate dinner, went to pick up prescriptions, and got all our gear together it was 9:30pm. We headed down to Tempe to pick up the pop-up and spent the night at Theresa’s parents house in the guest room.

The following morning we got up, went food shopping, and hooked up the trailer. By this time it was about 9:30am and much later than I wanted to be leaving. The temperature was already over 100 degrees and climbing.

We got on the highway and got about 10 miles north of Phoenix when we saw a sigh warning us of a crash 27 miles ahead… less than 2 miles later we were at a dead stop. Because of the extreme heat, plus towing a trailer, plus the stop and go traffic, I had the terrifying experience of watching the engine’s temperature gague creeping up. When it got to ¾ we had to shut off the A/C.

Now we were sitting in 110 plus degree temp.’s, in stop and go traffic, with no A/C…not a good situation for anyone, but doubly bad for a pregnant woman and small animal. We immediately broke out the GPS and found an alternate route to Prescott and around the accident, but we had to creep 2 miles forward to the next exit to take advantage of it. When we finally got there we were ecstatic to whip a U-turn and start heading south on I-17 at 65mph. Once the air was moving over the radiator again Monty’s (Monty = the Montero) temp gague went back to its normal position at 1/3 of the way up. With the A/C back on, we were happily on our way, again.

First major crisis averted.

If you know anything about Arizona, you know that taking the Carefree Highway (SR74) all the way through Wickenburg to SR89, then following 89 to Prescott is the L O N G way. We were just happy to be moving with cold air blowing over us. Also, if you’ve never taken this route I highly recommend it, the ride is much more scenic and interesting.

After climbing one set of mountain passes we went through the cool little town of Yarnell. Never would have known it was there at all!

Eventually we made our way to Prescott and made our way towards Mount Mingus where we hoped to camp. We turned off 89 onto the badly maintained road that leads to the top of Mingus and were praying that there would be an open site. One mile from the CG my heart sank when I saw a “campground full” sign.

Being optimistic, we decided to go check it out anyway reasoning that maybe somebody had left and nobody took down the sign. We’d been in the truck for roughly 5 hours. Arriving at the campground on top of the mountain it was indeed full.

Bummer!

We discussed our options while heading back towards the highway. There was a free dispersed camping area about a mile away from Mingus campground, there was Potato patch campground about 2 miles away, and there were hotels in Prescott (that allowed dogs, with vacancy?).

After checking out the dispersed camping area we (Theresa) decided that it was a little too primitive for our current situation. There were no bathrooms at all, no water, very little level smooth ground and a lot of forest between sites.

So we headed over to check out Potato Patch Campground since we’ve never camped there. The first loop was for RV’s and it was basically a parking lot, but there were sites open. The second loop was paved, but much more our style with spacious sites, trees, grass, pit toilets and water… and there were sites open!

Crisis #2 averted.

We picked a nice spot far away from other sites and backed the trailer in only to realized that the door was on the wrong side, i.e. I was 180 degrees from the picnic table and fire ring. Because I haven’t backed up a trailer in quite some time I did not want to switch sites so we did what any self respecting Pollocks would do… we unhooked the trailer and turned it around in the site by hand.



Set up was quick and easy and other than forgetting to put the awning on before popping the camper up, went off without a hitch. Shortly thereafter an afternoon shower cooled things off nicely. Finally some good luck and Saturday ended on a good note.

Sunday morning we were awoken before dawn by coyotes that sounded really close. It was one of the coolest and weirdest sounds we had ever heard before. Kind of like a mix of dog and hyena.

Later that morning after breakfast we decided to head back towards Prescott and check out a lake we had seen on the ride in the day before. Watson Lake was beautiful, but temporarily closed to swimmers due to water quality. Being the rebels we are we let Lucy swim anyway, and stood in the water to cool off.

When we had cooled off a little and were getting hungry we decided to head back to the center of Prescott to see if the event we saw yesterday was still underway. It was and we walked around the “fine arts and crafts show” for a while then sat down on the common in a shady spot to listen to a Military Band play and eat shaved ice.

Refreshed, we started back to camp and saw ominous dark clouds in the vicinity of where we were camping. Normally not an issue as we love rain in the desert, but I sort of freaked when I remembered I left all the windows partially open in our borrowed camper.

Not good.

I drove as fast as I safely could worrying that we would get back and find a large puddle inside the trailer. Arriving right as the rain started we shut all the windows and celebrated our good fortune with naked dancing in the rain.

Not really, I just wanted to see if you were still reading this long blog entry.

Crisis #3 averted.

It poured rain most of the night and we slept soundly, dry and comfortable in the trailer. Well actually T slept soundly, I couldn’t sleep and layed awake listening to the really close coyotes making more noise than the previous night. It was actually really cool because I think I could distinguish adult and baby coyotes yipping, barking, and howling, and even though they sounded like they were right across the street I wasn’t worried and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Monday morning started off uneventful and we made breakfast and broke camp in a timely fashion. Once underway we had a 30 mile drive to the highway, and we made it about 25 miles before small vibration started and soon became a big vibration. I looked into my side-view mirror and saw chunks of rubber flying off the driver side trailer tire.

We had blown a tire on the trailer.

We pulled over quickly, and got as far off the road as possible. Luckily we had everything needed to change the tire, and I started while Theresa watched traffic for me since about half of the vehicles going by didn’t even move over. A few minutes later a DPS officer showed up and blocked traffic for me so I could concentrate on fixing the tire and worry about being hit.
Eventually, I got the tire on, lowered the jack, and tightened the lug nuts. Then I thought that I should check the pressure to avoid another blowout. I could not find the valve stem. Then it dawned on me… I put the spare tire on backwards.

DOH!

At this point, the officer let Theresa sit in the back of his cop SUV with the A/C going while I changed the tire and chatted with the cop. He wouldn’t let me take pictures of her in there, though. Anyway, I jacked the trailer back up, took the wheel off and put it on correctly. Checked the pressure and it was a little low but safe enough to get us to the gas station right before the highway.

When we got to the gas station I pulled up to the air pump and grabbed a tire gague from the car. When I got back to the trailer I realized that my tire pressure gague was worthless because it only went up to 40 PSI, and the tire needed 55 PSI minimum.

Did I mention I was sweating like a pig by now because it was 100-ish degrees?

Umm yeah.

Hot and sweaty.

Luckily the gas station had a heavy duty gague I was able to borrow and I got the tire up to the proper pressure.

Crisis #4 averted.

I worried a little about what would happen if we blew another tire on the way home, but my worrying was uneccessary, and we made it home safely and without incident, swam in the pool, ate food, and enjoyed the rest of the 4th of July.

PS - The rest of the pictures will be on Facebook soon!