More hotsprings, another breakdown, and a week with friends
After the Cliff Dwellings, Kerri and I decided to pamper ourselves by returning to Faywood Hot Springs. It is here we spent the entire work week with daily after-work dips in the springs. Ah the luxuries of having a readily available toilet… and a hot bath each night. All things were quite pleasurable for the four nights we stayed, as anyone could imagine. The only real down side was that you never know who will be in the tubs with you. Some nights it is a great couple to socialize with. Other nights it is an extremely talkative hippie with aura-problems (or something like that). And other nights it is an older redneck from Wyoming (and I love Wyoming) who wants to start discussing how he has debunked the whole global warming thing. It’s just how hot springs go.
We left Faywood on a Friday evening, with only a few hours of sunlight for our drive. It turned out not to be enough, but thankfully we had an established free-campground in which we were arriving. It was only just back across the Arizona border, but along a route that neither Kerri or myself have ever traveled. We had this grand plan to do a loop around the Fort Apache Reservation, via highway 191, but once we turned North on 191, a brown sign lured us down a gravel road to see the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area. Because, why not, right? We both love taking these off-highway routes to adventures unknown… and that is exactly what happened.
Half way through the 20 mile gravel road, and at the top of the mountains the road took us, Big Blue’s brake warning light came on as the pedal sunk to the floor. We still had 10 miles to go before pavement and they were all downhill, with a sloppy brake pedal. Now, I’m no stranger to brake issues, but Kerri is not accustomed to just motoring on no matter the mechanical issue that is happening at the moment. A whole lot of worrying from the passenger seat ensued, while I brought us down the 10 miles and parked it to start the diagnosing of the problem. Long story short, we found that the left-rear brake – that I just fixed back in Las Cruces – decided to dismantle itself from the shaking on the gravel road. There was no explanation other than human error (mine, of course) and I was able to reassemble the brakes on the spot to get moving again. The brakes were not perfect as I now had a mangled rear brake shoe, but we were able to travel with reasonable safety again.
We tried to return to our original path – heading North up Highway 191 – only to find that the road was closed a few miles further up from that brown sign that lured us off the highway a few hours earlier. We turned around again, re-driving the same miles we just navigated only to pull off a dirt road to call it a night after the stressful afternoon. We didn’t even bother to get the van level. Just opened the doors, whipped up a few cocktails, and relaxed the rest of the evening while watching the local cattle stroll past. All was OK again.
I’m trying to take more short videos of our surroundings…
The final day of our weekend brought us to the desert north of Tucson. Here we were meeting up with Leigh and Brian of Aluminarium again. It would be our last time we will be seeing them for two years or more, so we took the opportunity. Once again, the work week was mostly unremarkable, with Kerri staying at the van each day to work while I headed out with Brian on what ever chores he had going on that day. It has become a tradition that I roll around with Brian, giving Kerri a short break from the ever-talking-me. She gets to rock out to her NPR while I go do man-stuff… like laundry, and grocery shopping.
During the week I did get the parts for some scheduled maintenance on Big Blue (tune up and fan belts) including both rear brakes being completely overhauled one afternoon, eliminating any more possible issues there… I hope.
