Tuesday was not super interesting. Loki and I dropped off Mandy at work, and then we took a couple hour ride down to Phoenix. We spent pretty much the entire day at the Mercedes-Benz dealer in North Scottsdale. It was time for its first oil change and the rest of "Service A" at 20,000 miles. I think the bulk of the work is fluids-checking and other inspection points. But we also had a small stack of recall notices to address. The team there handled everything all in one day, which was fantastic. It was a long day for us, but Loki was pleased to be welcome inside the lobby and found himself a nice cushiony chair to sleep in for most of it.

Thursday we had a little bit of a mishap on the way to drop Mandy off at work. The grey water tank, which we knew was mostly full, backed up into the shower and spilled out onto the floor. It was a result of specific driving conditions, I think a right turn while braking; because of the way the plumbing is arranged. So that was the project of the day. After drop-off, I cleaned up the floor and dumped the grey water tank. I ordered a check valve for the drain pipe immediately after, and we made a note to ensure we don't let the tank get over half full until it's installed.

With the plumbing issue resolved as much as it could be at the time, I set to work figuring out plans for the weekend. This is something of a process which we're still ironing out. But we're definitely improving and getting more efficient. There's a lot of points to consider! First, we have a list of destinations recommended by friends and family, as well as places we want to see. There's a lot of overlap there, which is good. Then, there's weather to consider; will it be too hot or too cold? Any rain or high winds? Some destinations, like lakes, for example, we want to visit when it's hot on purpose. For swimming. The desert spots we want to visit when it's cooler, because the desert can get incredibly, unforgivably hot. Then, we have to consider where exactly we'll stay at a given destination. Is there a place to park for free, or should we get a campsite? Do we need reservations? Is there anything available? Then we have to consider the route. Can we get there in one shot on a Friday after work, or is it better to break it up? Can we pair it with another destination that's on the way, and do a two-for-one deal? All of that stuff is the figuring. Then, there's also prep work. Like ensuring the grey tank is empty, in case we don't see anywhere to dump it. Fill the fresh water tanks, in case we don't pass any fill stations. Make sure the fuel tank is full. Get groceries for the weekend. Even though we're ostensibly "ready to go", there's still a lot to be done.

This took us Thursday and Friday to complete, but we came up with a solid plan we were excited to execute. We'll tell you all about it in the next one!

At least it's back to the grind for one of us. Mandy started her temporary contract position for the VA Medical Center in Prescott, Arizona. During her working days, Loki and Rob will be adventuring in and around the town. On weekends, we'll all be exploring various parts of Arizona. Remember that we have to leave Prescott National Forest lands to satisfy the stay limits within the national forest. Since the adventures will be on a bit smaller scale, it probably makes sense to condense a week into each post here, rather than a day per post. Hopefully that's okay with you all. These posts have fallen quite far behind real time, so this will help to catch you guys back up to present day. Or at least a bit closer.

Day one of work for Mandy, and we already have a pretty well-established morning routine. We get up, take showers, eat breakfast, make the bed and raise it to the ceiling, feed Loki, take him for a walk, then drive Mandy to work. We drove through the security gate which was a little awkward because she didn't have an ID, we didn't have a parking permit, we have a pet which isn't allowed, and so on. We were allowed through, but we decided right then that in the future, we'd just park outside the gate and she could walk in. Mandy put on her brave face and set off to work. Loki and I left to run some errands. We got groceries, opened up a mailbox so we could receive mail and packages. Real exciting stuff. Eventually, we returned to our campsite and set out to hike to Goldwater Lake, which is about 3.5 miles away from the campground. Somewhere around the halfway mark, Loki started dragging behind, so I took it as a sign to turn back so I could avoid having to carry his 85lbs all the way back. Because that was just not going to happen. Back at camp, we relaxed in the sun for a while until it was time to pick up Mandy. Back at camp, we decided to grill a BBQ chicken pizza over our campfire. The gluten-free dough, which was all we could find at the grocery store, was a little difficult to work with, but the pizza came out awesome anyways. We devoured it, and spent the rest of the night cleaning up and relaxing by the dying fire before heading to bed.

Loki made sure we were awake around 4:00am or so. He heard coyotes, and he just wanted to verify that we heard them, too. We appreciate him keeping us safe, though. The coyotes don't have a key, so they can't get to us in the van. He was very alert, so it took some coaxing to get him to go back to sleep so we could do the same.

The sunrise in Sedona was b-e-a-YOU-tiful! Right in front of where we parked was the most scenic U-haul location we've ever seen. Which isn't saying anything at all. Usually they're not much to look at. But Sedona U-haul has got it going on. We finally had a little time to kill, so we just walked around the town a bit with Loki. It's just so pretty! Even though it was pretty chilly, we didn't even care. It was awesome to be outside walking around in the fresh air and sunshine.

Eventually, the cold did start to gnaw at us a little, so we circled back home. Once there, we made a couple breakfast sandwiches and ate them. After we ate and cleaned up, we made a big climb out of Sedona, through a zillion switchbacks, towards Flagstaff. Once we were in Flagstaff, we continued climbing even more. "You're going to drive all the way up the mountain and there will be none left to ski," Mandy said. Well, she was wrong. At Snowbowl, the driveway is a long climb uphill, but there's plenty of mountain left to ski at the top. The thing about skiing is that you need snow to do it, and the snow only likes to hang out at the top. She doesn't ski, so she just doesn't know.

From about 9:30am, when I started, until about 10:30am, the mountain was solid ice. As soon as the sun started to shine on the surface, everything softened up and it was perfect. It's a steep hill, pretty much all over, so it was a little dicey in the beginning there. Once the crust broke up, I was a lot more comfortable, and pushed myself to make a few passes through the moguls. I had a wicked good time playing all over the mountain until mid-afternoon when my legs started to get a little crampy. I forgot to stretch them out in the morning, so it's my own fault. I called it a day sometime after 2:00, and I was fine with that. It was a solid day of non-stop riding.

The base had fantastic weather. We almost called it "hot". It was deep into the "warm" territory, to be sure. I took my time cleaning off all my gear as I put everything away. And we didn't freeze during it. We even had the doors of the van wide open. You just can't do that in New England. Loki hung out on the ground outside the van, which is one of his favorite activities. It was awesome. Once everything was packed up, we headed back into Flagstaff. Although the mountain is technically IN Flagstaff, it's pretty remote. We took the van for another wash, this time doing a much better job than in Tennessee. Then, we went to REI.

We had some gift cards from Christmas to spend, and we had a need for some chairs that we could use outside the van. We had chairs, for years, actually. But when we moved into the van, we drew the line, and they ended up on the wrong side thereof. We never loved those chairs. We just accepted them, because we'd had them for so long. But it was finally time to shop for replacements, which was exciting. We trialed pretty much every chair they had available in the store. A lot of them we had to assemble first, but the store doesn't mind. And Loki got to come in, too, so we could take our time, and not worry about if he was okay outside in the van. Big shoutout to REI for being awesome. We decided to get one Nemo Stargaze chair, because Rob really liked it, and Mandy wasn't sure. She wants to use it for a time before deciding.

Leaving Flagstaff and heading towards our temporary-final destination of Prescott takes you along highway 17S. The surface of the highway is terrible, so we stopped to adjust the shocks a bit softer. Along the way, Mandy rerouted us towards Camp Verde, because the overnight temperature was forecast to be about 11 degrees warmer. And we didn't have to be in Prescott the next day. We were finally beginning to understand just how much impact we would allow weather to have on our travels. It's not that we have to avoid the cold and snow and rain and misery, but if we're this mobile, why not be comfortable? We stopped at Clear Creek Campground, and found the perfect site nestled in a corner. We paid for the night, and then we cooked chicken tacos for dinner. After dinner, we used our new chair for its intended purpose, and we stared at the night sky for a while. It was very clear here, with almost no light pollution from nearby towns. It was a perfect way to end an awesome day.

Overnight in Tucumcari, NM was very cold. We wondered aloud if we should have just stayed in New England. The temperature was officially 6F, but the weather app said it feels like -9F. C O L D. As soon as Loki peed, we hit the road. We were not in the mood for more cold weather. That defeats the whole purpose of this trip.
We drove straight through, more or less, from Tucumcari, NM to Sedona, AZ. We stopped for fuel and, since I had to pay inside, these chips (below) caught my eye. I thought they'd be spicier than they actually were. But they were tasty nonetheless. Always go for the shady-looking packaging. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The 8-ish hour drive through to Sedona was mostly uneventful. We were contented just watching the outside temperature gauge slowly climb. And we were happy to know that we were done with long driving days; our ultimate, temporary destination just an hour and a half ride away. The scenery slowly grew more and more interesting as we left the flat, open expanses of the greater panhandle and eastern New Mexico behind us. There was undulating elevation. And cacti! We learned that "cactuses" is also proper English. We also learned that there is no Welcome To Arizona sign. Or we just missed it. Other than that, the ride was boring in a good way.

We stopped for the night at the Elks Lodge in Sedona, AZ. They have a handful of RV sites that are open to the public. It was a lot easier than trying to find an open site on BLM land, since we arrived to Sedona after dark. It's tough to try to find a site after the sun has gone down. The Elks Lodge was simple, and they didn't even have us check in or pay until the following morning!

We awoke in Oklahoma. It was a little cold, and a little wet, but it wasn't terrible. Just across the highway from the casino where we stayed, we topped up on fuel. Then we hopped back on 40W. We found it odd how much the price of fuel can vary at any given exit on this highway. There are typically at least two stations at a given exit, and the prices can be 20 cents or more difference, per gallon of fuel across the highway. It's odd.

 It was overcast, but dry on the highway. So, we went as swiftly as we could to cover as much ground as possible before it started to get sloppy. We were expecting snow at any moment. We stopped at a rest area to try changing some shock settings around and see how the ride quality was impacted. We made them a bit stiffer, and found it much more comfortable inside. But while we did that, we noticed that the rest areas in Oklahoma were so trashy. Literally, there was trash all over the ground. And graffiti. Like, low quality graffiti. It certainly wasn't artful. All the more reason to keep moving.

We got all the way to Texas before we saw any snow. Now, we're accustomed to New England weather. When there's a 20mph wind, it's what we call a fairly windy day. We notice it, but it's not anything really insane. When there are gusts up to 30-40mph, we start to expect some minor tree damage, usually. So, when we saw that there were 10-15mph winds accompanying this snow storm, we didn't think much of it. Just glossed over that part. As you know, we were heading west on 40. It's not pin-straight, but it's a pretty straight route for the most part. And in the panhandle of Texas, it's across pretty barren terrain, with no trees to act as a windbreak. The winds were coming from the north, so our passenger's side. Pretty regularly. In fact, the wind was so constant and significant, that we could see about 10-15 degrees difference in the temperatures inside our tires from the passenger's side to the driver's. Since the wind was pushing the van towards the driver's side, those tires were carrying more weight, and thus heated up quite a bit more. It was not concerning, but it was interesting to see.

At 75mph, it is a battle with nature to keep the van between the lines. Passing trucks is exhausting because the north wind becomes a pulling force into the trailer due to the low pressure area between vehicles. Then you have to be ready to jerk the wheel back when you get to the cab of the big rig, because there's that side wind again. Once the snow started to fall it was just one continuous drift for miles and miles. We've never seen such a long snow drift. It's trippy if you stare at it a while. Feels like you're in a dream.

But here's the thing: that was really it for adverse conditions on the highway. A wind from the side and a visual effect over the pavement. A very thin film started to accumulate only in the middle parts, in a few small areas. But where the tires go, the pavement remained dry. And yet, we lost count of how many cars went off the road. It was mayhem. I put the van in 4WD after a stop for brisket lunch at Tyler's in Amarillo. That brisket was top notch. You all should go there and get it. Anyway, in 4WD and keeping it slow, around 60mph, mainly because of uncertainty around how the conditions would change because it's unfamiliar territory. In hindsight, we probably didn't need 4WD at all. But it's everything we own so we wanted to be cautious. And I thought maybe there was some legitimacy to all these people losing control. But it was really simple for us to stay on the pavement and right side up so who knows.

Before we set out, our plan was to do short driving days, just 4 hours or so, times 9 days, to complete the route. Weather motivated us to forego that plan, and we've done some long days to get to warmth. But now that we're in Tennessee, it's finally warm and we can take our time. From Nashville to Memphis is just over three hours of driving. So that's what we set out to accomplish.

We cut straight across Tennessee, pretty uneventfully, and made it to Memphis sometime around lunch. Well, whatever time it was, we were hungry for lunch. So we found a BBQ spot because you have to, right? We've developed a pretty sweet system for navigating. Hang on, Mercedes developed the system, really. We've just started learning how to use it. That's what I meant. Mercedes-Benz has a cell phone application that works really well with their vehicles. And with Google Maps. So here's how we like to use it. The person in the back will look ahead on Google Maps for whatever the next destination will be (i.e. - lunch stop, campsite, fuel, hiking spot, etc.). Once they've found a destination, they can just click "share" in Google Maps, and select the Mercedes application. That's it. The location will automatically be sent to the in-dash navigation in the van. The driver clicks on the screen, and the van automatically navigates to that point. It's so easy! It took us a bit to figure it all out, but knowing the ins and outs of it makes navigating places so convenient. Full disclosure - Mercedes aren't paying us to type this. We just really like the app. It can do a ton more stuff, but for now that's all you need to know. I told you all that to help you understand why I, as the driver, don't know the name of the place we stopped for lunch. I just tapped the screen in the dash, and then ate food. The ribs were sooo good. Which should surprise no one, because Memphis is pretty well known for outstanding BBQ. We sat outside so Loki could join us, and we could all enjoy the lovely 60-degrees-and-sunny weather. What a change from what we were used to!As we were eating and relaxing outside, basking in the warmth, Mandy checked the weather forecast. There was a very large cold front blowing east across the entire southern US. For a few days. So, rather than find a place to explore in Memphis, and have a nice relaxing afternoon, we hustled back to the van and continued our drive west. Our thought process, heavily influenced by the recent change to warmer weather, was that we wanted to endure as little more cold weather as possible. We could stick to the plan, and face whatever comes. Or we could drive into the front as fast as possible, to get through it to the other side, where more warmth would assuredly be. Right or wrong, we chose the latter.

We arrived to Roland, OK sometime after dark. There's a casino here that offers free RV parking, including full hookups. How neat is that?! We don't generally need hookups because we designed our van to be as self-sufficient as possible. We have enough battery power to last two days (or longer, if we cook more efficiently), and those are recharged by an auxiliary alternator, so simply driving the van recharges them. We have 64 gallons of freshwater storage, which could easily last us two weeks or longer. We have a 20 gallon grey water storage tank, which should last us on average about 3 or 4 days. Since the services were free, we took the opportunity to top-off our fresh water supply, and to dump the grey water.

The grey water is mostly just soapy water from showers, and from washing dishes. The toilet uses no water, and doesn't feed into the grey water tank. In a lot of places, it is acceptable to simply dump grey water on the ground. We try to avoid doing this, just because it's generally not necessary; dump stations are easy to find, and we aren't always sure what the rules are in a given area. Our grey water tank dumping is something that needs work. For this operation, we have a valve on the tank which dumps to outside. We open the valve to fill a large food storage container, and then close the valve. We dump the bucket of water into the drainage hole at the dumping station, and then repeat. Until the tank in the van is empty. This usually takes several iterations. It's not ideal. But it works. For now.

​Because lunch had been somewhat late, and we mostly just sat down for the whole day, we weren't really hungry. We decided to skip dinner, and just got into bed instead. We were more tired than we were hungry.

We go somewhere else. After we woke up and got dressed and slid open the door to walk around with Loki, we were so excited to find the outside temperature was almost above freezing! At 6:00am! It was around this time we were much more confident that we'd made the right move getting out of the northeast. As hard as it is to leave literally everything, sometimes it's necessary.

Johnson City was still asleep and we could walk down the middle of most of the roads without interfering with traffic at all. We marveled at the architecture around us. Lots of old brickwork. It's got such a powerful yet down to earth feeling to it. It's just lovely. I love the way old business signs painted on decades ago still linger on, even long after the business has changed multiple times. It's like a glimpse into the past, without needing a time machine. As the streets began to fill with more and more cars, we took our cue to get back to the van and move along. But not far. Just across town to a laundromat. It's laundry day. We found one adjacent to a car wash, so we could finally get all the salt and grime off the van. It's been a while since we've washed it. In fairness to us, it's terrible washing a car when the temperatures are below freezing. But here it was 55F and sunny! There was even a dog-washing facility, although we ultimately skipped this part of the venture.

After our bodies, clothing, and van were all squeaky clean, we continued our journey. We navigated to Nashville, TN. Do you have to include the state? Everyone knows where Nashville is, right? When you're saying it out loud, though, it's easy to confuse it with Asheville, so in that case it's best to include the state. We didn't head to Nashville specifically for the hot chicken, that was just an added bonus.

We've learned not to pick a destination specifically for a food item. It usually goes poorly. We once tried to stop in Chicago on a road trip, to get a pizza for lunch. We ended up getting a crummy sandwich at Jimmy Johns. We went to Miami for a Cuban sandwich, and it was okay. We had just been in Philly for mediocre cheesesteaks, so the disappointment was still fresh. We went to Nashville because it's a really cool city, was convenient, and was forecast to have excellent weather. We didn't even mention the hot chicken until we were already parked at Titan Stadium and were walking over the river to downtown. This must be the correct approach, because none of it disappointed.

We wandered around a bit just exploring the area. There was an event for Chik-fil-a taking up a block or two, so we had to take a little detour around that block. We ended up at The Stillery on a recommendation from Rob's dad. Since we had Loki, we couldn't eat inside. But we called and ordered over the phone, and Mandy walked in and out to grab the food once it was ready. Conveniently, there are picnic tables on the sidewalk right outside the restaurant, so we sat down and devoured the delicious sandwiches almost immediately. What's even better, there was music playing from every other bar on the road, so we were completely enveloped in live music. Prior to eating the sandwiches, we both had an idea we kept to ourselves; that the hot chicken was a dry thing. Like, a rub rather than a sauce. No idea where this notion came from, nor why neither of us mentioned it until after we ate. It was so good, it was just a surprise. After we ate, we began our walk back home, over the bridge. The city lights are so pretty at night. And the view across the river is just awesome.