Arizona In July

It's always an interesting trip to Arizona in the summer.  Up until now, it's been rather uneventful.  I cruised through all the construction which was plentiful, navigating the crazy new pathway through Bakersfield.

Up at the crack of dawn when it was relatively cool, the pups and I headed out early to beat the heat.  Too bad, so sad, that was a lost cause.  As I crossed the Arizona border, things began to heat up in more ways than one.

I'm always wary of running out of fuel.  I stick to the upper half of my tank, mostly because the gauge isn't accurate, nor does it subtract generator fuel.  With my dash air not really working, the generator has to be running to keep the AC on.  Always looking for a bargain, I caught a couple of fuel prices.  They ran from $2.63 to $2.85 a gallon.  Cheaper than California!!

By now I'm pretty much feeling like we're in a slow cooker.  It's getting hotter and hotter and we are getting more tender and well done by the minute.  I took this picture going down into Quartzsite just so you could see how super clean the windshield is.  That's because all the bugs died long ago when it was only 100 degrees.  I'm sure their bodies are covering the roadway.

Yup 110 in the big Q town and only 91 inside the motorhome.  Pay no attention to the time in the picture ... this was at noon.  I quickly parked and let the engine cool down before shutting it off.  That's never happened before!!  

An hour later it was 99 inside the rig.  The poor puppies were panting and I was melting.  I knew the AC unit wouldn't keep it at 68, but I expected better.  Come to find out, the rear unit was blowing hot air.  

I soaked the puppies in cool water, which helped considerably.  The good news is the sweatbox turned into a sauna and I lost two pounds!!!  Almost bedtime, there's no way we were going to sleep with that AC unit blasting away.  I tried the back one again and YAHOO, was able to get the rig all the way down to 87 degrees.  Not exactly sleeping weather.

At 5:00 in the morning, we were on the road in 93 degree heat.  But first ... I had to fuel up.  If you're coming into Arizona, stop in at the ARCO station on Riggles Road in Quartzsite.  Diesel was $2.32 a gallon.  It's always 50 cents a gallon cheaper than anything I see on the road.  

You can pull up in front if you have 30 minutes for the tank to fill, or go around back to their truck fueling station.  Be sure to tell them you are an RV so they don't charge you trucker tax.  I saved $35 on this tank.  Worth it in my book!!

Back on the road, there was a very bad accident.  Someone or something caught fire.  There were two huge wreckers, two even bigger fire trucks and lots of Highway Patrol.  Luckily it was going in the opposite direction than I.

Here's the best I could do of the new Pilot station in Gila Bend.  Road construction was terrible.  The lanes were barely wide enough to get through.  The truck in front of me hit cone after cone.  It will be a nice station when they are done.  Hopefully they take the fence across the street down so we can again park there.

Coming into Casa Grande is always beautifully green and refreshing, even if it is over 100 outside.  By this time, my poor little AC unit is barely able to keep the inside at 91 degrees.

At long last, I landed in Tucson.  Someone who shall remain nameless forgot to tell me my offramp was closed completely.  I had to take a detour to get back to my road, but that's okay since my house was a lovely 82 degrees when I arrived.  Woohoo!!!

Wait until you see it.  MY NEW RV PARKING PAD!!!  Not only that, but there were some other upgrades that almost made me cry.  It's beautiful!!  

I didn't unpack much, just Jonathan and the kids, along with their food.  It was just too hot out, something like 103?  My little brain was so cooked by then I didn't know what was up or down.

We all laid on the kitchen floor where it was even cooler until dinner was ready at the Chance house.  These guys they do spoil me!!!  Calabacitas ... I've heard Elva talk about it!!  YUMMY!!!

On the way out the door, I was graced with the presence of this cute little bunny.  Babies abound in the desert.  I bet there are 50 quail babies running around, not to mention all the baby birds.  Even baby roadrunners are in the bushes.

It's a warm 81 ... feels like 102 ... here this morning.  I've got lots of unloading to do, so I best get to it!!  Happy to say I survived 110!!