Thursday, June 23, 2016
Posted from: Ten X Campground, Grand Canyon, AZ
Miles traveled: 270
Total trip miles: 2,778
Total national parks visited: 8
Let's start with the good things about today. First, it is our 15 year wedding anniversary. What better way to celebrate than taking a big trip?! And what better gift to each other that this time focused on our family.
And I got Matt this card...at the campground gift shop...yesterday. I'm a good wife.
Second, we slept in a bit today. I think we all needed it.
Third, the sway control bar locked into place without needing to jockey it around. I know that this one seems trivial, but this is one of my jobs when we hookup. The bar does not extend like it should. It is locked in place. So to get it on, Matt drives forward slowly while turning at an angle until it drops down into place. I'm sure people watching us do this are thinking, "gosh, don't they know they can loosen that to make it fit?" Except that we can't. Because it is stuck. So days like this are small victories. Celebrate with us!
Other than that, we all had the stomach flu but still had to travel 269 miles to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Woot! Caleb had it worst. The rest of us just had a touch. We all took Dramamine to travel today. We didn't leave the campground until 11:00 am. It was rough for poor Caleb.
As if traveling today wasn't rough enough, while we were in the middle of no where (I mean literally on a map there is this area of northern Arizona that says "nowhere") the truck check engine light comes on and suddenly goes into "limp mode". This means it has limited power, won't shift, and won't accelerate. You can only limp it to a stopping place. So we found one and pulled off. Matt says he is going to shut off the engine and it might not restart...be prepared, he says. There wasn't a town for 50 miles. Fantastic. Matt looked at me again and said, "Must be our anniversary." We sort of have this thing where our anniversaries tend to have runs of bad luck. There are usually good and even great moments, but often a higher than usual rate of unfortunate incidents. I guess puking and being broken down on the side of the road in a dessert with a 105 degree temperature qualifies. There is always a silver lining. This time it was that we were hauling about 35 gallons of water with us. No one was going to dehydrate in this desert!!
So here is where God really makes a grand appearance. We had excellent cell service. Seriously. We are no where near ANYTHING or ANYONE, but had a strong four bars of reception. Crazy. So we started researching problems with 2007 Duramax diesels. Turns out the darn things are excellent engines. Not a lot goes wrong. Ever. I also researched towing companies with heavy towing capabilities, light duty diesel service stations and parts stores. The nearest was 120 miles away in Flagstaff. Super. So we sat there for 20 minutes (oh the heat...mixed with shaky tummies). Matt started it back up and was able to rev the engine, so we started out. It ran fine. 5 miles later was a station with diesel. We filled up.
As we were pulling into the station, I found a site that described exactly what we just experienced. It happens when you are towing up and down hills in high heat (yup, yup, and yup). Basically you shouldn't let your fuel level get much below a half tank. The engine needs a lot of fuel running through the fuel loop to keep it cool so it doesn't vaporize. Basically the engine vapor locked. We were at a quarter tank because the tiny stations we passed for the last two hours did not have diesel. We carry 10 extra gallons with us, so we weren't too worried about it. We were going to stop soon and use it. Guess we should have. But now we know and will be more careful.
The truck ran fine for the rest of the trip. We drove through Cameron, which Cameron thought was funny. This was one of his establishments.
We also encountered this little dirt devil and stopped to let it cross the road. When in Rome...do what the truck drivers do. If they are stopping to let it pass, then who are we to argue?
We had to drive through a majority of the south rim to get to our campground. We caught glimpses of the canyon, but at this point everyone agreed: it's a lovely giant hole in the ground, but could we please go find the campground?
We immediately loved this campground... No wait. That's a lie. We loved this campground as soon as we got parked. This is a campground where you pull through your site, but your site is a curved little road...with giant boulders strategically placed on each side. The truck and trailer did not want to fit around the curve without clipping a giant rock. In my opinion, they should use this campsite as a test-of-your-marriage site. Can you get parked without yelling bad words at each other (especially the driver, at the person who booked the #%$& site!!)? I am happy to say that we were very kind to each other and got parked. Of course, I could not hear what Matt was yelling and waving his arms about inside the truck...sometimes ignorance makes for a happy marriage.
Here is our campsite. Our favorite one yet. (Notice the boulders up by the camper. The others were like this but larger and closer to the road.) We would have liked to stay in more campgrounds like this, but most of the rustic ones do not accept reservations, and we did not want to be in a position of finding a site after a long day of travel every day.
Matt got me a hammock. I have always wanted one and was so excited to use it...and so was everyone else. You were never alone in the hammock. It was lovely. He was smart enough to get a two person hammock, which for our family apparently meant all five.
The boys are setting it up. Caleb was dancing around saying, "I've got my hands in the air like I just do not care."
It was good for reading.
It was good for chilling out.
And it ate small children. Best. Gift. Ever.
Dinner was grilled chicken and salad with a perfect 2012 Valpollachella red wine from my parents wine cellar. (I am 100% positive I did not spell that right but I will know what I meant when I look back on this several years from now.) They stopped by before we left and gave us a small camper wine box that Jerry had made, and it was full with four of their wines that they make! Matt and I agreed that it was perfect for the occasion.
Then we danced around our pine cone fire (courtesy of the boys picking up an insane amount of pine cones at our site. We only had three pieces of wood and some charcoal. Wood in town was $8 for 6 small pieces of pine. Nope. Not doing that.
And finally, after marshmallows, we just laid in the hammock and looked at the stars. They were indescribable. I have never been able to see constellations very well, but here it was like imagining things when looking at big puffy clouds during the day. They just jumped out of the sky at you. So many and so bright. It was the perfect end to a long day of celebrating 15 crazy happy years together.
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