August 2006 - Prince of Tucson

August 11, 2006

Pulling out of Deming, NM 7:30 am getting onto I-10 we are on our way to Tucson, AZ.  A short day today we arrive at the Prince of Tucson RV Park.  This is a fairly large park but very clean and friendly people. 

We head to our space and get settled in for what we thought would be just one night - but little did we know...............that would all change tomorrow.

August 12, 2006

This is a day I will never forget and would be a test of my driving skills and how to react in an emergency.  We pull out of the RV park and head towards I-10 towards Flagstaff or so we thought.  As we reach part of I-10 overpass I hear something that sounds just like helicopters, being close to an Airforce base we think nothing of it and we keep going.

All of a sudden the noiseis getting louder and louder and then BANG a blown tire and I'm now racing through my brain on what to do when you get a front tire blow out and the very first thing is not to put on the brakes (which I do anyway) duh then quickly release and then just start pumping.  Listening to the horrible noise coming from under the rig all sorts of things are going through my head about the amount of damage this is all causing.  Rememer I said we were on an overpass?

So as we are slowing down we are on a part of the roadway where we are on the otherside of the overpass and I pull over to a part of the road where there in an on ramp and you can't see us until you come over the overpass.....so I start freaking out - so much for calmness in an emergency.  At the time this all felt like an omen, that after our little tornado in Alabama we should just give up and go home, it's a sign!

We call Good Sam Club which was a life saver for us - by the way did I mention this was a Saturday?  We also called 911....So here we are, me the hysterical one imaging a truck coming barreling over the overpass and slaming into us, I'm picturing what the papers would say...."a young couple on an adventure die tragically when their motorhome was struck by a semi" what an imagination right?

A very nice woman police officer shows up and calms me the best she can.  Courtney, God Bless him while panicked as well was the opitomy of calm (I only found out later how scared he was), between the two of them I was better.  So the guy shows up from the tire store and accesses our tires and informs us that we should replace all 6 of our tires! 

Well, quickly going through our finances we realize we don't even have  enough money to do that - great now what are we destined to stay in Tucson?  Nope - mom to the rescue. 

We call her and she quickly wires money to our account and 4 hours and $1,200 later we have brand new tires.  We decide to stay another night in Tucson and boy am I glad we did.  We spent the rest of the day and night looking over the Workamper job hotline in the hopes of finding something, anything since we are really low on money and will need something when we get to Las Vegas.

That night, while taking another relaxing swim in the pool we get a phone call from Steve Browng, General Manager of Parry Lodge in Kanab, Utah.  He said he had a job for us and before he could tell us what it was we said we'll take it.  We'll be housekeepers at the Lodge, an 89 room hotel with a very big Hollywood connection, we wouldn't know how big until we got there.

7 a.m. we head out on the road to Flagstaff, Arizona our next stop and about 6 hours away.  Thank God for the job, we now have something definite to look forward to and know that we won't run out of money!