We originally planned to stay a week or two here in our old hometown of Show Low, Arizona. But when we checked into the Elks Lodge campground the manager said we could only stay for eight days because the place was booked for the summer. Those eight days would put us leaving today. However…
We decided we might like to get a few extra days, and since there were only four RVs here, including ours and the campground host, I went up to the Lodge and asked the manager if we might extend. He told me no, starting this week the entire campground was reserved for the whole summer and that there would be rigs coming in every day.
As of yesterday morning there were a total of five RVs here, and with winds of 35 mph, with gusts over 50 predicted for the next couple of days, and warnings that some gusts may be over 70 mph, there is no way I’m taking our motorhome out onto the highway in that. So I asked if there were any cancellations could we stay put until the weather cleared. He said he was sure there would be no cancellations. In fact, he said that by the end of the day yesterday the place would be completely filled.
As I write this, at almost midnight, there are now a grand total of six RVs in the campground, including the host and us. That leaves fourteen sites sitting empty. According to the Lodge manager the place is full. So that leaves us up in the air; do we go find another nearby campground? Or do we just sit here and wait and see what happens? I don’t want to be a jerk, but I think we’re going to adopt the attitude of “its easier to get forgiveness than permission.” We are just going to stay put, and if the place really does fill up and whoever supposedly reserved our site shows up, we’ll go down the road to the Hon-Dah RV Park on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, where Terry’s folks keep their motorhome year-round. And if nobody shows up to claim the site, I’ll go in Sunday or Monday when the wind dies down and pay for our extra days when we are ready to leave.
No RVer I know with half a brain would bring a rig out in this kind of weather. However, when we were out running some errands yesterday afternoon we saw one big RV after another going down the road towing boats, ATVs, and other toys. Yes, there really is a difference between RVers and campers.
Yesterday afternoon I received the proof copy for the printed edition of my second mystery novel, Big Lake Lynching, which has been out in e-book form since the end of January. Except for one minor change it looks good and I’ll be making that change and telling the folks at Amazon to go ahead and roll the presses. Well, actually they don’t roll the presses anymore, it’s all done by computers and print-on-demand, so they don’t print books until they actually need them. But, by the end of next week the printed copy of Big Lake Lynching should be available to order online from Amazon.
We had something weird happen yesterday afternoon. We were driving down the road in our 2005 Ford Explorer when suddenly an alarm beeped on the dashboard, then the check engine light came on, and a warning message saying no oil pressure. At the same time, the needle on the oil pressure gauge dropped to 0 and the engine quit. All this happened quicker than I can write it.
I managed to steer the car off the road into a parking lot and coasted to a stop. I got out and checked the oil and it was fine, the engine didn’t seem to be hot and everything seemed okay. So I started it back up and everything was fine and the gauges all read normal. We drove about five miles back to the campground, and later drove up to see my daughter at White Mountain Lake and then back home, which was probably about 25 miles round-trip, and still no problems. Somebody suggested that I check for a loose gas cap. As a matter fact, I had filled the tank earlier in the day. So I checked and the cap did not seem to be tightened all the way. I took it off and retightened it. Hopefully that’ll cure the problem.
With these terrible winds we will probably be here until Sunday or Monday before we hit the road. It was hard enough driving our SUV, let alone a high-profile motorhome.
Thought For The Day – You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Nick, it would seem that Bad Nick is lurking in the background here by defying the authorities who have specifically told you that, despite what you believe you see, THE CAMP GROUND IS FULL.
It’s nice to see a glimpse of him once in a while.
Cheers
Nick, Reading your daily blog today is almost like reading one of your books in a shorter form. We can hardly wait to see what the next day is going to bring.lol
Must be those virtual campers…
Perhaps it’s too much trouble for the guy to look out the window. While I agree that being out on the road when the weather is bad is not the smartest thing in the world, you forget that not everyone has the kind of freedom to change their schedules as you do. Just be glad you don’t have to live with that choice. And “campers” is not a dirty word. lol.
good for you and not leaving in such dangerous conditions, maybe the Elks lodge should consider replacing the jerk they have as a manager, and make sure he gets a seeing eye dog also since he cannot see none exsistant RV. Glad to here you got your car problem solved. We had the same problem with the Vue when we went to a locking gas cap that would not seal properly, the dealership finally advised and put a regular cap back on, no more problems. If you have a lock cap maybe you should check it out as the cause to the problem. If you are forced out of the campground please be super careful driving.
Hmm . . . something’s rotten here. I don’t want to make something here that’s not true, but from what you’ve written for the last few days, I think the manager’s not giving you the whole story. He seems hell bent on getting you guys out of there no matter what, and will say whatever it takes in order to make that happen.
Hey Nick, lots of auto parts stores will read the “check engine” codes for free. Loose gas caps are a common reason for the light coming on, but they never shut down the engine. Sounds more like the oil pressure sending unit might be going bad since the engine started right back up. That’s not too bad to fix. Just don’t ignore it.
I’ll second the oil pressure sending unit possibly going bad.
We have been in several campgrounds where the personnel have told us they were sold out but we could see no more than 1/3 of the sites taken. But the real kicker for me was when I called ahead to a campground and asked if they had an available site for us. The guy answering the phone said he would check, which was followed by the sounds of shuffling papers and him going hmmm a couple of times. After about a minute or more he says, “yep, we have one”. We were the only unit in the campground that evening.