Travel with Tobey and Sue

Travel with Tobey and Sue
Tobey and Sue in Africa

Saturday, December 20, 2014

December 17-18, 2014 Fort Collins, CO to Scottsdale, AZ

We are starting our annual trek to Arizona for the Christmas holidays before we head to Baja Mexico in the RV.

Getting ready for this trip was a little crazy –  and it seemed that for every step forward, there were two steps back.

Tobey ordered new shocks for the RV and had a shop in town put them on. They only charged us $20/shock – good deal! It took them longer than then anticipated, so they kept the RV for four days and worked us in between other customers. They probably wish they hadn’t quoted us such a low  price! He then had the tires rotated. Tobey filled with gas and noticed a new squeak in the wheels, so a trip back to Discount Tire to figure out the problem. It turns out that we just have squeaky hubcaps. As Tobey was working on the other things to get  the RV ready, he noticed the house battery that we had just replaced in October was dead. A trip back to Interstate Batteries, test the battery, and yep, it was dead. They replaced it so we were good to go – or so we thought. The last minute RV issues didn’t stop there. Our steps wouldn’t retract and none of the repair places in and near Ft. Collins could get to it until mid-January. Well, that wasn’t going to work for us, so Tobey got on the phone and made calls to the step-manufacturer (they don’t take calls) and then to Jayco. They seemed to think the motor was shot and would need to be replaced. Tobey didn’t like their answer, so he waited until it warmed up, greased the steps, and they seem to be working! 

On Tuesday, we had to take my camera back to BestBuy because it wasn’t focusing. Great. They will attempt a repair, but in the meantime, we had to buy a new camera. Now I need to learn a new camera. If they can repair the camera, they will let us return this one.

Loading the RV continued. Tyler and Katie asked us if we could bring a load of things for a friend of theirs who had recently moved to Arizona and didn’t have room for everything. Good parents that we are, of course, we could find room for her stuff. Then we then got a call from my sister with a request – could we please transport a rescue  dog from Colorado Springs and bring her to Arizona? The dog was going to be adopted to a  woman in Sun City. Well, we couldn’t let Cupcake miss a chance to have her forever home, so we agreed to bring her along.

Thursday morning arrived and we were able to finish loading refrigerator items and wrap up last minute house details. By 11:20 we were ready to go. We had our Lions club meeting and hit the road about 1:30 with one more stop before leaving town. Tobey wanted to weigh the RV so we stopped at the sand and gravel company on the way out of town. Tobey told the guys that if we were overweight, he was leaving me there with them! Good thing our weight was okay, otherwise Tobey would have to write the blog!

We had lots of traffic, but arrived in Colorado Springs around 4:00 pm and picked up Cupcake and headed back down the highway. She was a pretty good little traveler and stayed in her kennel until we stopped in Albuquerque for the night. CupcakeFriday morning we were up and on the road by 7:30 – this time with Cupcake on my lap. Penny spent most of her time in Tobey’s lap just glaring at the little visitor! Penny looking forlornJust west of Grants, NM, we noticed fog starting to head our direction. Fog rolling inBy the time we hit Gallup there was lots of fog but it didn’t slow us down too much. Lots of Fog!!The trees and bushes were all covered with hoar frost – pretty to see!Hoar frost on the trees Fifteen miles later, we alternated between sunshine and clouds. We arrived in Scottsdale about 4pm and ALL of us were glad to be out of the RV.

My sister, Bette, met us here at my mom’s so she could take Cupcake to her new home. Everyone got a chance to meet her. We walked both dogs, had dinner, then said our goodbyes before Bette took little Cupcake to her forever home. Bette sent me an email this morning with loads of pictures of Joanne, Cupcake’s new mom, and Cupcake. She will have a great new home (and maybe a new name)!

Tyler and Katie fly in this afternoon for Christmas. There won’t be many posts over the holidays so we hope you have a Merry Christmas!