We made the final road trip to Casa Grande on Sunday with “stuff”… made it back to COS on Tuesday.
On Sunday: We, (Stilla, Little dog “Coach”, and I), left our house at 6 AM after hooking up the fully-loaded trailer and made it to Casa Grande by 9 PM. After 15 hours of driving, we met my Mom, Stepdad (Jimmy), Brother Steve and his squeeze (Cheryl), for a late-night dinner at the Iron Skillet Restaurant just South of Casa Grande. The 900 mile trip down here took us 15 hours and we only got 9.2 miles per gallon with the heavy load. Every time we pull the trailer, it’s like having an open parachute behind you.
After a good night’s sleep at the “dirt farm” in my Mom’s house, we spent Monday recuperating from the trip. We also downloaded a few items from the trailer to the Conex. Most items, we left in the trailer. Then we gave the trailer a good washing with my brother’s pressure washer. It also took a good amount of carwash soap, buckets and ladders to clean off all the road-grime and magnesium chloride. That magnesium chloride is nasty stuff. They put it on the roads for ice control and it’s hard to get off the under-components of your vehicle. The stainless-steel wrap on the front of the trailer and fenders have spots all over that will have to be buffed out now to get rid of the effects of the stuff. We parked and locked up the trailer in a safe spot on the farm. (Thanks Steve, Cheryl, Mom & Jimmy)!
On Monday: We got a 6 AM start back to Colorado Springs. What a difference without the trailer (parachute) behind us… we made the 900 mile trip back to COS by 8 PM and we got a much more palatable 14.8 miles per gallon 🙂
On Tuesday: We picked up my 90 day refill of meds from the Ft Carson hospital that I had requested the week prior and we stopped by Home Depot (again) for a couple last minute things to finish up the house that’s for sale. I had to special order some 3-toggle light switch plates that they didn’t keep in stock… I needed them to match the others that we had already replaced. I also finally finished up the carpet and trim pieces on the garage steps, which is yet another home project that I never got around to completing when we lived there. Now, if the weather would just cooperate, I can finish staining the rear deck and painting the front porch. These are the last items on our list to complete so we can head South. Hopefully we can complete this quickly and hit the road with the Urban Escape Vehicle. We’re late for the Alpine Coach Rally in Quartzsite.
With any luck, my next post will be coming to you from the warm Arizona desert 🙂
BTW- If anyone else out there is selling a house, beware of scam artists on Craigslist. We had someone use our pics and name to represent it as a rental… hoping to con someone into sending them a deposit. My realtor found and fixed this on Craigslist but not before someone stopped by to look at the “rental”. I guess these scumbags try to get people to come by and look at the house through the windows, and when contacted, the scumbag says he’s out of town, but if you send him a deposit to secure the rental – he’ll send them the rental contract and keys… scumbags!