Dale camps in northern Arizona nearly every summer. and this year was no different. He moved down to one of our favorite free NFS campgrounds - Rim 171 - in June, and following Betty's memorial service, I took my Minnie up to set up camp in the site next to him. It's so nice when we can share a site and I can connect to his Starlink and have free steaming and internet. For the first few days, we just hung out around camp while I got my sea ... er woods ... legs under me.We ventured out for a few drives around the forest, and one day even drove up Hwy 377 almost to Holbrook to check out Jack's Canyon, a dispersed campground he was familiar with. We found the road in to the canyon so rough we almost didn't make it in his Jeep, and did not find any suitable campsites there. But it was a fun outing just the same, and broke up the monotony of sitting in camp.
After about ten days in 171, we moved down Young Road a couple miles to a dispersed campground on an unnamed road. There were lots of open campsites, and we chose one that was back off the road and set up adjacent to each other. Throughout the week, we had frequent rain that made the road and our campsite more and more muddy, but didn't seem to deter the weekend warriors. That weekend, the campground filled up and was so crowded that a group with two rigs and a couple of big tents set up right at the front of our site. Since they were well behaved and we were back far enough, they didn't bother us.
One day, we drove all the way down Young Road to the town of Young. Dale had been wanting to check it out, and for some reason I had remembered Dad made a couple trips up there to repair equipment when he worked for Oracle Road Rent-All, so felt nostalgic about it. We didn't find much of interest in the little town except an outdoor museum with a few signs about the history, so after getting an ice cream, we headed back home.
I had been having a slow leak in one of my Minnie tires, and one day, Dale took it off and we drove into ShowLow to Discount Tire. They replaced the stem while we went to Walmart, and we were soon on our way back to camp, where Dale put the tire back on. I haven't had any problems since. Thanks, Dale!!
We moved back up to Rim 171 and spent another couple weeks. While we were there, we drove around the forest above Hwy 260 exploring the back roads and dispersed camp areas. Dale's Jeep handled the rough terrain better than my Fit would have, but even then we got in some pretty rugged spots and had to lift our feet to lighten our load.
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| Horses! |
We had been monitoring Richard's health condition and sticking closer to home in case we had to make a run down the mountain. But he stabilized enough that we felt okay moving a little farther north. We checked out a camp area just north of Clint's Well and found a really nice large spot. The campsites were really spread out and not many people were around in the middle of the week. When we drove in, we were welcomed by Willie Nelson, a big beautiful dog belonging to a semi-permanent camper near the entrance. He roamed free some of the time, but was really friendly and gentle (and we were told by the owner that he chased several coyotes away), so we were happy to have him around.
Again, the campground filled up on the weekend, and those campers were not as considerate, racing their ATVs and motorbikes around the forest and even through our site. We had a couple groups camp so close to us, we could hear their conversations. On Monday morning, when the last ones left, they also left behind a smoldering barbecue grill. Just drove away to let nature's elements try to disintegrate it over the next century or so. They obviously had not heard of pack it in, pack it out.
Toward the end of our time there, Richard was back in the hospital and I decided to head home to give Dianna support, since Daryl had upcoming travel plans. Dale and I said our temporary good-byes, and I headed south.
By the way, I had stocked up on all kinds of mouse deterrents before heading up to the woods. After my experience last fall, I didn't want a repeat of multiple mice every day. I bought a second zapper trap, and several peppermint packets. I set one of the zappers in my engine each night and the second one in the cab, and strew the peppermint packets all along the console and in the oven and a couple of drawers. I had a mouse nearly every morning in the engine zapper, but never saw evidence of one inside my rig this time. I have bought some owl decoys that I plan to take with me in the future and place them around my rig and under the hood, hoping to scare them away. I will not let those little buggers win!
