“Two of us riding nowhereSpending someone’s hard-earned payYou and me Sunday drivingNot arriving on our way back home.”
-Lennon/McCartney
Sunday I moved to Winslow. I stayed at the Visitor’s Center in their parking lot. In previous years there was a huge dirt lot next to the Center, but over the winter last year, they built a library on it. Now there’s not a spot for the carnival when it comes to town, or for me when *I* come to town. The asphalt lot was fine for a night. I had it to myself. My friend Dave came up to the adjacent park and we walked Cosmo (His dog passed since I saw him a year ago). In the morning I met him and we went to breakfast at La Posada Hotel. It is quite upscale (at least for someone who lives in a van) and the food is delicious and the service excellent. It was good to see Dave again and catch up. After breakfast I went to Oxendale Auto Center. I had some repairs done there a year ago and they were so friendly and efficient I went back to see if they could fix my driver’s side window. They gladly came out and took a look and decided it was a bad switch. They ordered one and swapped it out for me on Tuesday morning. The window still wouldn’t roll up, so they ordered a motor.
When I left the Winslow Visitor’s Center Parking Lot, I moved to Homolovi State Park. It was a paid site, but it was pretty nice, and it included water and electricity, and a few pretty amazing hot showers. I was able to run the air conditioner in the back of my van which was quite nice in the mid-90 degree weather. The park was nearly deserted this time of year, and I was happy not to be staying in the center of town, even a small town like Winslow.
On Thursday I moved back to Two Guns. I just like it there. I was running low on propane, so stopped at every place in Winslow that advertised that they sold propane. Flying J Truckstop had a sign on the tank that said “Out of Propane until further notice.” The RV park down the street had a sign that said “Machine Broken. Will put up a sign when it gets fixed.” Another gas station down the road had a tank and metered pump. I went inside but the young girl at the counter said “We don’t do propane.” Apparently, Winslow is a propane-free zone.
I went back to Two Guns, hoping what propane I had left would get me through the weekend. I will have to leave and drive to Flagstaff if I run out.
In one of my favorite spots at Two Guns, I once again felt at peace. I almost certainly will have to go into Flagstaff for propane by Monday if I can hold out that long. I’m seriously considering going into Flag, filling my propane tank and returning to Two Guns, even though Flagstaff is about 10 degrees cooler. We’ll see.
Saturday morning I ran out of propane. I packed up and went to U-Haul in Flag to get my tank filled. I drove to Fed-ex and got some documents printed out and stopped at Walmart and picked up a few items. From there, it was 20 minutes to Marshall Lake, and 30 minutes to go back to Two Guns. The thought of Marshall Lake on a weekend was totally unappealing, so I drove the extra 10 minutes back to Two Guns. I’ve had bad neighbors too often at Marshall Lake; I’ve never had bad neighbors in Two Guns, and this summer, I’ve had NO neighbors, except for a guy way on the other side of “town” who walks through weekly to pick up trash. He always stops and says hello when he passes by my van and then I don’t see him again for another week.
I’m ready for summer to be over. I’ve got my itinerary vaguely planned for the winter months, and I’m certainly ready for cooler weather.
I haven’t taken too many photos, but thought I better share at least a few with you.
Donkeys in Homolovi State Park
Graffiti face in Two Guns
Heat in Winslow, AZ
Lessons From The Road: I’ve stayed in Winslow every year since I bought my van. I’ve enjoyed it in the past. This year, not so much. I’m not sure if Winslow has changed or I have changed, but it seemed a much more depressed town than in years past. Several homeless men hung out in the Visitor Center parking lot on Sunday. I’m used to being with people of various degrees of homelessness, but these men made me nervous. They seemed to either be drunk or on drugs, and just a bit aggressive (they knocked on my van door to ask for money). I kept a close eye on them. Driving through town, and in Walmart, it was clear that poverty had done a number on Winslow. There was a large population of Native Americans. When I left Delaware three years ago, I hoped that when I got to the southwest, I’d get a chance to stay on a reservation or two. I had this fantasy that the native tribes would see me as living close to the land, and the chief would invite me into a sweat lodge or smoke the peace pipe with him, or some other tribal ceremony. At the very least I expected to be welcome. The reality could not be more opposite. My interactions with most Indians is unpleasant. They most often ignore me. I go into a store run by Natives on the reservation, and I’m ignored. It is like the Amish when they shun people. They just pretend not to see me. When I am bold enough to say “Excuse me” to get their attention, they act as if I’ve thrown cold water on them. This happened to me at the auto mechanic’s, at Walmart, and at several other convenience stores. I get that the white man has a history of abusing natives. I want to say “Hey, it wasn’t me. It’s not my fault.” I’m not sure I’ll visit Winslow again.
It’s been a week of glitches. Besides running out of propane, the hinges on my solar suitcase both broke. I patched it up as best as I could with duct tape (Yup, I’m turning into a REAL man) but it will have to be repaired when I get to Prescott Valley and can get to a hardware store and have a place to work out of the wind. My microwave has been acting up. Every once in a while it would just shut off when I started it. I thought it was blowing a fuse in my solar system, but it immediately resets. Sometimes it will do this continuously for many tries. Then if I wait for a few minutes, it works fine. I’m not sure what it is. I hate to replace my microwave if there is something going on in my solar unit. I’m not sure how to troubleshoot. I guess that too can wait until I get to Prescott Valley and I can deal with it from Barbara and Lark’s driveway.