We left beautiful Colorado, headed to Phoenix to check on Max's mom at his brother and sister-in-law's place. As you may remember, she fell back in June and cracked a couple of vertebra. She went out to Phoenix to stay with them the end of July while she heals.
The drive across northern Arizona was quite interesting. It goes from desert (not my favorite scenery at all)....to interesting rock formations....
....to proof of UFO's (What else could have caused that perfect circle??!!)...
...to more interesting and beautiful rock formations. We saw signs for Monument Valley in Utah. We didn't have time to head that direction, but after seeing northern Arizona, we both decided it's a place we need to add to our Bucket List.
As we were driving up and over and down through the mountains of northern Arizona, we got stuck behind this young lady. It's not often we come up on someone going slower than we are. :) We followed her for miles and miles. And miles. She was busy talking on her phone and eating her McDonald's french fries. When she finally noticed us on her tail, it nearly scared her right off the road!
And then finally Flagstaff. These yellow wild flowers were everywhere. Breathtaking!
We spent the night at the Flagstaff KOA. Never again. It was the most expensive place we've paid for to date. It was also the most unlevel. It took us over an hour to get level enough to be satisfied for the night. It was also supposed to be a pull-thru site, but the sites were so close together, we had to back out the next morning as there was no way we could make the turn going forward. Thank goodness the site behind us was vacant.
We arrived in Phoenix on Thursday, September 5, and ended up staying for just over two weeks. Max's mom is doing okay, but by far not great. She's still in a lot of pain with her back so they have taken her to orthopedic specialists there in Phoenix. Come to find out, one of the two vertebra that was supposed to be repaired (glued) at Covenant in Lubbock either was never fixed, or it has come undone. The day we left, they were picking up a custom-made back brace for her and taking her for an MRI. Right now the plan is a combination of back brace, physical therapy (water) and pain management. I know she's sure ready to be feeling better. Her goal is still to be able to walk without the walker and move back home.
While there we made some new friends. They have four dogs--two German shepherds and two labs. One of the labs, Shooter, really became my special friend. I threatened to dognap him and bring him along in the Turtle, but alas Max nixed that idea. Now who could say no to this sweet face??
And when you see how this boy sleeps, you can tell he's just a sweetie...
We also made some not so favorite new friends. This little boy was found in the pool one afternoon....AFTER Max and I had gone for a swim that morning. Yikes! That is one ugly dude.
It is Hatch chili time, and we had lots of fun roasting us up some chilies. Fresh and tasty, on just about anything!
We also had us some refrigerator fun while we were there. Keeping our fridge cold enough has been an ongoing challenge since Day 1. Max has researched and researched the problem and has done everything he could find out to do to make it better. Consequently, we've nursed it along until now, but finally in Phoenix it bit the dust. After a service call from a mobile tech, more research and phone conversations with the extended warranty company, we finally decided on replacing the regular Dometic coil (for those of you like me who aren't into this technical stuff, that's the big (and expensive) piece on the back of the fridge that makes it cold) with an Amish-made one. Max had read numerous good reviews on the Amish-manufactured coil. The insurance company would only pay for a remanufactured, regular Dometic coil, but after all the challenges we've encountered over the last number of months just trying to keep our food from spoiling, we decided to dish out the extra dollars and get the Amish one.
Here they are, pulling out our fridge for the repair. I love the fact that my fridge is a lot bigger than most RV fridges. I just need it to be COLD. Please....
Particularly for our RV friends who are interested in such a thing :), here's a picture of the old coil. You can't see it in this picture but one corner of it was crushed. The technician said that part of the coil would have never worked correctly, so the fridge had to work extra hard just to try to do its job. It should have never been installed that way at the factory.
So notice the one, big, black coil...
And here is the Amish unit. Notice the two white coils. If you're interested, Max can give you lots more detail on why this one is supposed to be better. The simple version for me was that there are two coils instead of one, which should give it twice the cooling power.
So far, it's working like a charm! The refrigerator stays around 36 degrees, and the freezer is hanging at 0. We haven't seen that kind of consistent cold EVER. To be able to have really cold milk on my cereal in the morning instead of kinda cool is such a treat. What can I say...it's the small stuff that makes the world go round! :)
Until next time...take care!
Paula
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