What started out as a trip pick up our camper turned into a “working whilst on the road” trip. We extended our time on the road by doing some work on the road before returning home. It was important that we had phone service and WiFi. So although some of the next couple of spots allowed us to work we also wanted to enjoy the outdoors.
After several days on the road we opted for a Motel 6 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Granted this was not really outdoors but it was good to have some reliable WiFi, long hot showers and a place to cool off in the AC. Although we wouldn’t really recommend staying there it did have its perks. The room was clean, comfortable bed, AC blew ice cold, WiFi was cheap and fast, the pool was refreshing and the staff was friendly. However, it did have some sketchy people that hung out around the hotel and the bathroom smelled like cat litter (we think people live in this motel with their cats, as we saw a cat in one of the other hotel room windows).
Our favorite place, Walmart, was within a short walking distance and so was an excellent Indian food place called House of India. That night we dined there and enjoyed our quiet dinner, until a group of friendly bikers walked in. They were on their way back from the Sturgis Bike Rally in SC. We highly recommend this place. The meal was a little pricey so we recommend the lunch buffet.
Next stop, Albuquerque, New Mexico. We stayed at a place called Isleta Lakes right next to the railroad track and a casino How romantic, we were right by the railroad tracks. Not so much… Although this place had great WiFi, manmade lakes you could take a walk around and even fish, laundry facility, showers and a little store – trying to sleep was terrible. Trains came in very early and because of safety reasons they blow the horn very loud and often when the train comes in to alert people. It worked. We knew when the train was coming all right. We made the most of our time there by getting some work done and doing laundry.
We decided to try a different spot for the following night because of the train. We stayed at the American RV Park in Albuquerque, NM. This place also had very good WiFi, a laundry facility, a gift store and a pool and spa to boot. No manmade lakes like the last place but they made up for it with the complimentary breakfasts in the morning. Not so bad. Most of the breakfast items were full of sugar, but there were hard-boiled eggs and coffee and you can’t go wrong with that. The pool seemed nice but the hut like building that housed the spa reeked of chlorine and thus decided to not go in as my eyes were burning after having even walking inside the hut. Hey, at least you know nothing could be living in the water with that amount of chlorine.
Flagstaff, Arizona, was our next stop. This city is beautiful and has a vanilla like aroma because of the Ponderosa pine forest that surrounds it. We had just went from being in the high desert to an area of lush forests. I had never been to this part of Arizona and had always thought of all of Arizona being dry and dessert like except this place was nothing like that. I was amazed at all the trees and everything was so green.
Because we got into town rather late we decided to spend the night in the Walmart parking lot.This Walmart was special to me as it was off of Huntington. Which just happens to be the name of my home town, Huntington Beach. This Walmart is much like the one in Evergreen. It was very clean and the surroundings were gorgeous. It is better than some RV parks we’ve been to.
The next day we went into the downtown area of Flagstaff. It is so cute! We were in heaven. There were three outdoorsy type stores within one block. Each having a slightly different specialty. It was fun to walk down the streets and see all of the different store fronts and to smell burgers and french fries in the air. One place you have to stop on a hot day is the Sweet Shoppe. They have gelato that they have fresh made gelato brought in from Palazzolo’s Artisan Gelato. It is sooooo good.
That night we found one of the best camping spots and it was FREE! Freidlein Prairie Dispersed Camping is in the Coconino National Forest in the San Fransisco mountains. We took Snow Bowl Road to get there off the 180. There were several designated spots to choose from. The dirt road leading to the different spots was not too rugged and was a cinch for our truck and camper. [insert pics of the road]
We found a prefect little spot about 20 minutes up the dirt road. The best part was that even though we were in the middle of a forest we still had excellent phone service and 4G on both our Verizon and ATT phones. This is not always important to us but since we were, “working”, we needed to be accessible. We had the best of both worlds – we were connected; yet it didn’t feel like it being surrounded by trees. Once there we set up camp and then went for walk to see the rest of the campsites and along the way we found the prettiest wild flowers.
We also decided that tonight would be a good night to try out our outside shower. Before it got too dark and chilly we prepared for showering. Our nearest camping neighbor was too far away to see, so we opted just to shower in the open with no shower tent. The sun set rather quickly and it was starting to get dark and cold. In an effort to not use too much water we took turns using the water and also just for practice we tried to use the least amount of water possible. We wore our sandals as to not get our feet dirty. I also decided to not wash my hair as I knew that would take up a lot of water. The water heater worked perfectly and the water pressure was decent. It certainly felt good to rinse off the gunk and sweat from the day. I think for next time we shower a little earlier, so there is more light and a little warmer, we might consider a curtain of some sort to shield from wind and maybe we could consider something to hold soaps and what not, although the wheel well worked okay in a pinch.
