I left Ft. Davis and headed west on the 10th. I made it to Willcox, AZ. It doesn’t have a lot to get excited about, but it had a reasonably priced RV park with a laundromat. Unfortunately, there was no change machine and the office closed before I realized the drier needed more than 1 cycle to get my clothes dry. Luckily, the Arizona air is so dry it didn’t take long to get everything dry, though I had clothes lying all over the place for a day. My next stop was in a county park outside of Phoenix. I had planned to go to Joshua Tree NP, but I wanted to stop and order a part for my Subaru. While I was in Florida I found out I needed a new catalytic converter but they said it would take a week or two to order. I figured I’d get the order in, go to Joshua Tree and come back when the part was in. Well, the dealer in Phoenix said they could get it the next day so I stuck around another day. Unfortunately, they found another problem – a cracked CV boot. So I spent 2-3 hours two mornings in a row at the dealers. I was happy I had my new Verizon AirCard so I could at least get on the internet while I was waiting.
Each day in Phoenix the thermometer kept climbing and it was near or at record highs each day. March is a little too early for me for the high 80s and low 90s. The outlook for Joshua Tree looked like more of the same. So I talked to Diana up in Sedona and found out she could use my help sitting for the cats again if I wanted to. I’m certainly not one to turn down an opportunity to stay in a beautiful house, with beautiful views in the middle of Sedona. I had a couple of days to get up there so Abbey and I found a better campground in another county park on a lake on the northeast side of Phoenix. I tell you that county has some pretty nice parks. For $18 a night, we got water and electric and were within a short walk from the lake so Abbey could cool off. The AirCard came in handy again since I had to cover for Michael one of the days, as did the electric hookup so I could turn on the AC. I’m slowly getting used to working again. Of course, it’s not like I have to go into an office and thankfully my workdays are real sporadic so far. It’s was pretty funny sitting in the RV, overlooking a lake outside of Phoenix and IM’ing with Jesus (hay-zoos, as in the Spanish pronunciation, not the big guy) in Spain. When technology works it can be real helpful. On the 15th, I took Abbey for a walk, packed up, dumped the tanks and headed up to Sedona for my next cushy assignment – cat sitting for Diana’s 2 neurotic cats. Though I’m not sure if the cats are neurotic, or there mother is the one with the neuroses.