We started the day on April 25 at a cool 17 degrees celsius waking up at the Canoa Ranch Rest Area in Arizona. Our night got a bit chilly, certainly much cooler than we’d felt for many months with the low reaching a brisk 6 degrees celsius. We didn’t need our furnace though, we just added on a couple more blankets to the bed. On this day our goal was to make a bit of headway toward Vegas but mostly to find an RV dealer where we could purchase a new tow bar.
We started off early in the morning and headed into Tuscon where there are many large RV dealerships as well as a Camping World retailer and other RV related retailers. Thankfully it was at our second stop where we had success. I would have thought the purchase of the tow bar would be straight forward, but the larger RV dealer where we found it just happened to have the largest line up at their parts window where there was only one person working. Bless her heart, she was very friendly and took extra time to chit chat with each person as they were at her window (are you sensing my sarcasm?). I swear by the time I got to the window and after she sent for someone to get the tow bar from the back warehouse, it had to be an hour. All the while Dan was in their huge but very cramped parking lot with our 61 foot long RV & truck in tow. I suppose it was a good thing that the parts woman was friendly because the attitude of the sales people at the dealership was the complete opposite. They basically just glared at Dan the whole time he was in the parking lot. I guess they figured with the look of our set-up we weren’t coming in to trade in or up and they didn’t like the amount of space we were taking up. I don’t understand some people. I’ll tell you what, if we ever were thinking of trading in, we would steer clear of that dealership just because of the way they made us feel.
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| A picture of what the replacement tow bar looks like |
So, after shelling out just under $1100 US to the super friendly dealership (double ouch) we manoeuvred our way out of their lot and headed to find some lunch. I know I don’t talk about our food stops very often, but this one was momentous. We saw an Arby’s and Dan was over the moon excited. It had been more than a decade since we’d last had Arby’s. I gotta admit, those beef and cheddar’s were exceptionally good and those onion buns…wow!
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| Arby’s Beef and Cheddar |
We then found a local RV supply store who also offered a free RV dump station and potable water. After purchasing some supplies more or less as a “thank you” for the free dump station and water, we headed back on the highway. We knew we wouldn’t make it all the way to Vegas, but really didn’t have a final destination in mind for the night. That is one of the cool things I love about travelling in the US, each state has a number of well maintained rest stops along the major highway routes in addition to truck stops. There is never any stress (or at least we didn’t encounter any stress) wondering if we’ll find a place to stop for the night.
By mid afternoon Dan spotted a Blue Beacon Truck Wash sign just as we were coming into Casa Grande, AZ. Hmm we thought, if big rigs get washed, no reason we couldn’t get our RV washed the same way! We made our way to the Blue Beacon and got in line with a few other truckers.
We’d had the RV washed and waxed by a local while in Lo de Marcos, but even though he worked VERY hard and did as good a job as he could, the hard water in the park made it next to impossible to get the water marks off of our mainly black RV.
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When it was our turn we asked for the full meal deal, including a hand dry of the entire rig and truck. What a slick operation, there are a number of workers with pressure washers both on the ground and above on platforms who spray down the rig while others are scrubbing it with brushes. Then, upon exiting there is is a covered area to park under where ONE woman used a rolling ladder (like you see in Home Depot) to go around the RV and hand dry it from top to bottom! ONE woman! By the time we were completely finished it cost us just around $140 US ($178 Cdn). Well worth it! We’ll definitely do that again.
Heffay was a bit freaked out by the whole ordeal with the sounds, the numerous people walking around the rig and the vibrations from the pressure washers but he settled in quickly enough.
By the time we were finished it was already 5:30 p.m. and as there was a truck stop right there, we figured why not settle in for the night. It was a large truck stop with an Iron Skillet restaurant and small convenience store at the fuel station. There were a lot of rigs in the lot, but overall it was fairly quiet considering, with nice lighting so we felt very secure.
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| Google Maps view of the Blue Beacon (bottom right) and the fuel station and truck stop beside it |
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| The Beautiful Beast after her bath and settled into our spot for the night |
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| Sparkling truck too! |
All in all, we only traveled 130 miles this day. The next morning we woke up with our destination set for the Sam’s Town KOA (link) campground in Las Vegas where we’d made a reservation for 8 nights.
Before heading out we decided to treat ourselves to a steak and egg breakfast at the Iron Skillet. The meal was good, but not worth the hefty bill. All in after tip it cost us $51 US ($65 Cdn). That was one pricey breakfast - ouch! And followed by that I went into the convenience store on site where I purchased a couple 2.5 gal jugs of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). I wasn’t paying attention and the bill rang in at $66 US ($84 Cdn) - for FIVE gallons. I SHOULD have just returned it, but didn’t. I still kick myself for that. I’d say “how can they charge $29.99 for 2.5 gallons” when it is between $13-15 for the same thing at Walmart or Costco…but heh…I freakin paid it didn’t I? Still beating myself up about that one. So, the day started out on a pretty expensive track! Oh well, lessons you learn I guess.
One of the interesting things I discovered when looking for campgrounds in the US is that a large majority of the private campgrounds have pet restrictions based on breed. I had no idea this was an issue and literally just stumbled onto it when reading about the pet policies in some campgrounds. Wouldn’t you know it…Rottweilers are on that list of prohibited breeds! Other common prohibited breeds listed include: Pit Bulls, German Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers and Chow Chows as well as mixes of any of these breeds.
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| Our site at Sam’s Town KOA, Las Vegas |
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