VERDE VALLEY THOUSAND TRAILS

After a round of good byes, we pulled out of the Grand Canyon RR RV Park at 10am, and headed east on I40. Our first stop was just a few miles down the road at the Pilot in Bellemont. Nancy was following us in her new Phaeton motor home, towing her new Jeep Liberty, and we both pulled in to top off the fuel tanks. Diesel was 4.22 a gallon, with different rules at the pump. Here's where technology gets frustrating. We both have the Pilot/Flying J rewards card, and we both used a VISA debit card. Nancy's card is from her credit union, and mine from Wells Fargo Bank. At $75, my pump shuts off, and hers keeps going. We're using the same pump, only we're on opposite sides. So, what's the deal! When I tried to use my card to purchase another $75 worth of fuel, the digital display said "see cashier". At that point I'm not in any mood to give Pilot any more money, much less walk into the building and see the cashier. I was close to full anyway, so off we went to what we thought was Camping World on the other side of the freeway..............NOT!

It seems that this Camping World has been closed for quite some time, although there were lots of RV's parked around the building, it was locked up tighter than a Scotsman. I guess due to it's kind of isolated location, there wasn't enough service and sales business, so they had to close the doors.

From the closed Camping World, we drove farther east on I40, then south on I17 to the Verde Valley. From the freeway, it's only a few miles west on Hwy 260 to the Thousand Trails (TT) RV Park, just outside of Cottonwood. This is the park where we first joined TT about 5 years ago, and is one of our favorites. We paid the extra $5 a night for 50 amp service, and with an elevation of about 3500 feet, the temps were up in the low 90's. We needed to run both A/C's in the afternoon, so I'm glad we got the 50 amp sites.

Our Sprint data card is marginal in this area along the Verde River, so I don't think I'll be able to load any pictures while we're parked here. The girls have lots of shopping planned in Sedona and in Jerome, while I take care of the highly important job of making sure that nobody steals the motor homes. It's going to be a tough job, but I'm up to the task!