6/3/08 Sometimes Best Laid Plans.....

MY plan for today was to get a much needed haircut and get my nails done. Finally! I'm waaayyyy over due for both. When I was finished with those tasks I was going to get our laundry completely caught up. Like I said,,,Best Laid Plans.

We got up this morning and found that we are in for some windy weather the next two days and we had to decide if we were leaving today or staying put until the weather clears. Bob thought it best if we get on our way and I agreed.

Bob said we weren't going all that far so that if I wanted to get my haircut and nails done to do it then and we would leave when I got back. I told him I had to do at least two loads of wash before we could leave.

I had asked the lady here who owns the park we're in for a recommendation on where to get my haircut. She proceeded to tell me that she goes to Esmerelda. Great! Where is Esmerelda? She then told me she was located at the truck stop down the road. Now I'm sorry, I'm sure Esmerelda is a very nice lady and she probably cuts a lot of hair, call me a snob if you must, but I am NOT getting these tresses trimmed in a truck stop! I draw the line there!

I then remembered a salon that I saw when Bob and I stopped for fuel. I was on my way, this head of hair was finally going to get a much needed cut. I found it with no problem but it wasn't open at nine when I arrived. I went next door to the gas station store and asked if they knew when the shop opened as there was no times listed anywhere. I was told that the lady usually arrived between nine and nine-thirty. Fine, I'll wait. To pass the time I called my friend Cindy to get caught up on news from home. At nine-fifty I finally gave up, after all I had laundry to do and to help get the rig road ready.

When I returned Bob mentioned that it didn't take long at all and he expected me to be gone longer. Of course at this point he had taken his eyes off the computer screen to see that my hair had not been cut. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

I took our two loads over to the laundry room and got them started. Back at the rig we set right in to work to get the rig ready for travel. Almost done and ready to roll I went to get our laundry out of the dryers. Still damp! This is just not my day. I took them anyway and draped them anywhere I could so that they could finish drying while we were on the road.

Our destination today is Canyon de Chelly. We're going to go boondocking for the first time. For those who aren't RV'ers boondocking means that we will have no electric, water or sewer hookups. We do have the generator we bought this past winter and we'll fill our holding tanks with water so we should be ok. We'll use the state park's facilities if necessary.

So we got on the road around eleven for our 165 mile trip. We decided to get gas for the generator, beer and fill the water holding tanks when we got there. BIG Mistake! More about that in a bit.

Because I was deep into a John Grisham novel I didn't pay too much attention to the scenery as we drove. Until I heard Bob's sharp intake of breath. I looked up to see this coming at us.

Bob had pulled off the side of the road as far as he could considering the shoulders had deep declines to them and they were soft. That big boy slowed down also because that driver knew it was going to be a tight fit. He did pass without incident. Whew!

I did snap two pictures as we went down the road.

We finally arrived at the state park and found that there is NO CHARGE for camping there! Oh yeah, this works for me! While I was in the Visitor's Center I asked the Navajo Park Ranger where we could get beer. He smiled and said, "Drive 2 hours in any direction to get off the reservation and you can buy beer. Uh-oh. We planned on being here several days and Bob has five beers. This is not good. Four hour round trip for a beer run!

We finally get into the campground the campsites all look small. We can't look one for yet as we have to find the water station to fill our holding tank. Around and round we go through the loops and we can't find it. We asked several people but couldn't get a correct answer. It's getting late in the day now and we have to find a space. No problem, we'll use the park's bathroom/shower facilities.

We find a space big enough for our rig and start setting up. Darn, we forgot to get gas for the generator! After setting up Bob got ready to make a run to the nearby town to get gas so that we would have electric power. (Until 8:30 that is, the "quiet time" starts then so all generators have to be turned off.) Luckily, we had walked to the bathrooms before he left because we found out there were in fact NO showers! Oh this isn't going to be good. Bob adds jugs of water to his list of things to get.

When he returned he got the generator set up but it wasn't smooth sailing. It was the little things that were getting to him. I'm not happy because things aren't like we thought they were going to be. None of this is going as planned. We are both close to losing our tempers.

It is decided that we do in fact need water! Filling our holding tank with a 3 gallon jug, filling it at a water source and walking it back is not going to work. Bob found a vacant host campsite that has all the hookups available and he hooked our water hoses together and ran them to the water source there.

Meanwhile I put together a Boboli pizza together and got out the toaster oven to bake it in. Nope, not gonna work. We find the generator has to be taken out of the truck because the toaster oven kicks into high gear or something. I really don't know what the problem was I just know Bob is now miserable. Understandably so, it hasn't been an easy day. I wrapped the pizza up and put in the fridge which thankfully is running on propane. OK, what to have for dinner now. Everything is frozen, we have no lunch meats with which to make a sandwich and we're both hungry! Did I mention we were both close to losing our tempers? We finally had some fried Spam, I found a can waaayyyy in back of the cupboard, green beans and stewed tomatoes. Three bites into my meal Bob said something that just set me off and I threw my paper plate in the trash and stomped off to the bedroom. Let me tell you, I was 3 clicks away from selling him on Ebay!

I run up the TV antennae only to find that we have NO channels available to us. Oh great, no TV. It just keeps going downhill!

Eight thirty arrives and the generator has to be turned off. No electricity. Do I dare turn on one of the 12 volt lights so I can at least read until I can go to sleep? I'm not one who can go to sleep at 8:30!

So there was our day. Not one of our better ones, but I think with practice we can get this boondocking thing down.