Portland to Tucson Adventure Part 2

We drove from Williams to Boron, CA on Monday. Since we got such a late start we drove until well after dark. We drove through Tehachapi, CA. My husband Alan's dream is to watch the trains in the Tehachapi Loop. That wasn't an option this time; it will have to wait for another trip.

We left early Tuesday morning. We didn't get as far as we had hoped because of our problems on Sunday, but we figured if we left at about 6:00 am we would make it to Tucson between 4:00 and 5:00. That would still give me some time to get laundry and other things done.

We made it to Banning, CA without incident. Then Holly, our friend from Quilter's Cove who was following us called. This time her travel trailer had a flat tire. She called AAA and they were there in less than 30 minutes. The driver got her tire changed and we were back on the road again.

Next stop is the Zip Travel Center at the Vicksburg Rd off ramp in Salome, AZ. It's a great place to stop for gas and a little snack. They have some delicious chocolate chunk and peanut butter chocolate cookies that I love. I shouldn't eat them but they just call my name every time we stop there.

At 1:20 Holly called again. Our same back travel trailer wheel was smoking again. Unbelievable! We were in the middle of the desert 31 miles into Arizona and about 15 miles from our planned stop at Zip. It was 105 degrees and the sun was shining right in my window. Needless to say it was time to call AAA again.

Since we were in the absolute middle of nowhere, miles from anyone who could help us, getting help was even harder than when we were stuck on Sunday in Maxwell. The AAA operator was so helpful. She found a tow service and tried calling several tire places to see if she could find someone to help us. She pretty much struck out for immediate help. The tow service could get a truck to us at 6:00 pm but she gave us their phone number so we could see if there was anything else they could do for us.

Alan talked to Robby from A Toe Truck which was the company AAA referred us to. He had a truck big enough to tow us but couldn't get it to us before 6:00. He was nice enough to make some phone calls on our behalf. He found a place in Blythe, CA that would help us.

Chris from Bulldog Emergency Auto Repair drove all the way from Blythe, about 45 miles to take a look. He told us on the phone that he would try to help us so we could drive it back to Blythe where his shop is. But if that didn't work, we'd have to wait for Robby's tow truck.

 I was terrified to get out of the truck. Every time I got out I could just hear the rattlesnakes, whether they were there or not. So unless it was absolutely necessary, I stayed inside with the air conditioner running. I got a lot of stitching done on my third Santa Trio block. I did get out to start getting things out of the trailer that I thought we would need because I knew we were going to have to leave it for at least a day or two but I planned for the entire weekend. Bless her heart, Holly took some of our perishable food and put it in her refrigerator so we wouldn't have to throw that away if we couldn't plug in at the garage.

Chris arrived at about 3:00 and was able to take the wheel off, it pretty much just fell off again, and jacked up the trailer. He put some blocks underneath to hold the trailer up. I wasn't about to get down on the ground to see what it looked like to take a picture. But this is what it looked like later.

I took this picture later because of course this happened on the driver side

Now we had to drive all the way to the next off ramp, which was the Vicksburg Rd off ramp, turn around and drive all the way back to Blythe; it was about 60 miles or so. Holly followed us to the off ramp then she went on to Tucson. We didn't even stop (so I didn't get my cookie) we just wanted to get to Blythe without incident. It took us 2 hours to get there. We arrived at about 5:30. It was obvious after Chris took a good look that we were leaving it there pretty much all weekend. So that meant I had to get more stuff out of the trailer, including the laundry. We were so full inside the cab that the laundry had to ride between the two front seats all the way to Tucson.

We grabbed a quick dinner at McDonalds (not my favorite dining spot but it was food) and headed to Tucson. We were able to get a room at the show hotel, Red Roof Inn right across the parking lot from the Expo Center, and arrived there at 10:30. That was 16+ hours after we left Boron that morning. But we made it.

To be continued (unfortunately).....