Irene and I left beautiful Mardon Estate in Mission, TX on Wednesday, April 8th. It was a 2 day drive to Tucson and our visit with baby Bela and her parents. We had a wonderful time with her. She is one of the smilingest kids you would ever meet. It's always great to see your children "walking in the truth." Joshua preaches at the Old Spanish Trail church of Christ in Tucson. He does a great job.
We were in Tucson until Saturday the 18th. It was an easy 5 hour drive over to Copper Basin Bible Camp in Prescott where we would be involved in a physical sojourn doing mainly painting to get the Camp ready for its summer Camp sessions.
We left Voyager RV Resort (highly recommended if you are an RVer and need a place to stay in Tucson) at about 9:00 AM. Even stopping along the way for lunch we would get there by 3:00 PM easy-peasy. We were not quite to Phoenix when Greg Ryznar called and asked what time we were going to be arriving. I kind of jokingly asked "Is there a spot for us?" He replied "Yep, I got one saved for you guys right beside us." "Cool, sounds great" I replied.
Then about an hour later Del Ray, the team leader for the sojourn called us when we were already north of Phoenix.
"Hi, this is Del Ray. Are you guys on your way here already?"
"Yep, we are already north of Phoenix and should be there in about 1 1/2 hours."
"Well, here's the thing: I don't think I have a spot for you."
SAY, WHAT???????????????????????
"Really? We just spoke to Greg Ryznar about an hour ago and he said he had a spot for us right beside him."
"REALLY!" he replied. "Well, let me talk with him and we'll get back with you."
(I guess here is where you should be told that when a location asks for a sojourn the application asks SPECIFICALLY "How many RVs do they have room for?" Then THAT is the number of lines that are put on the request form for the sojourners to sign up on. The sojourn is "FULL" when that many Sojourners have signed up for that sojourn. So, theoretically, it should be impossible to ever hear: "I'm not sure I have a spot for you.")
About a half-hour later Greg called us back. "Yep, there's a spot right beside us. I do need to tell you though that there is a wash you'll need to go through with about an inch of water in it."
SAY, WHAT???????????????????????
The Trekker weighs 45,000 lbs (as in 22 1/2 TONS). What you talkin' 'bout a "wash with 1inch of water in in?" The LAST THING you want to do is sink 22 1/2 tons of RV up to the axles in mud or sand. The hairs on our neck stood up.
The next thing Greg told us was "We are going to put some boards in it to raise it up so you can get across it without dragging. There's a bank you have to go down into the wash and last year even in our 40 footer we drug the rear hitch going through it."
SAY, WHAT???????????????????????
The Trekker is 45 feet long. As in 5 feet LONGER then your 40 foot rig. If you dragged as you went through it we could get our rear end ripped off, destroyed or we could get stuck so our front end would be in the bank on one side and our rear end (which extends 8 feet PAST our rear tires) stuck into the dirt and all 8 wheels spinning in the air. YIKES!
So, Irene and I decided we should drive to the Walmart in Prescott; drop the Ford Flex; leave the Trekker at the Walmart and drive the Flex the 8 miles to the camp and take a look at the situation ourselves.
When we arrived we were, what's the proper word: shocked, NO, aghast, NO. Heck I don't even know what to call it.
The wash with 1" of water in it was the LEAST of the worries. The "wash" had concrete poured in it and could have easily handled the weight of the Trekker. The slope down into the wash was mild enough to make it down into the wash. The REAL problem was the grade OUT of the wash on the other side. It was a steep enough grade that I can guaran-ding-dong-tee you we would have caused major damage to the rear cap of our rig if we had tried to go up it. But for the moment I'll humor you and say we could make it.
The bigger problem was, how could we get into the camp itself. Have you ever seen the sign on a tractor trailer truck that says "This vehicle makes WIDE right turns?" It's because of the length of the trailer (usually 54 feet). The trailer (or in our case the RV) has to drive until its REAR wheels are past the corner or building or tree BEFORE it can start its turn or BAMMMMM! the truck trailer (or our RV) creams the side of the building, tree or the pedestrian that was standing near the curb it just jumped up onto.
You see there were these trees next to the turn-in to the camp. The turn-in to the camp that is much to small for a 45' rig to turn into without the tree on the driver's side removing the final 10 feet of the driver's side of the Trekker. Apparently whoever planted these tree had never heard of the law of physics that "No two pieces of matter can occupy the same space at the same time" and this tree already has THIS space occupied. It was making the entrance to the RV area impassable to us in our 45' rig. When the camp was opened the longest RV was probably only 30' long so there wouldn't have been a problem.
We spent about an hour calling RV camps around Prescott and driving to them to see if one might have an opening for the 2 week of the sojourn. No such vacancy existed. So sadly we had to leave and not participate in the sojourn. We also called Camp Bee and told them that there needs to be a place on the application for a sojourn and on the sojourn sheet that states the MAXIMUM length of a rig that can get into the camp, church parking lot, etc.
So, we have come back to Tucson to spend the 2 weeks that we were supposed to be at the Copper Basin Bible Camp with our grand daughter beautiful Bela. It's given us time to prepare for our sojourn coming up in Kayenta and our Sojourn in Cincinnati, OH.
We leave this Saturday morning for Kayenta AFTER Josh and I go see Avengers: Age of Ultron Friday night.
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