7:46 pm - Friday - November 6th - TWW - 46° F, humidity 76%, cloud cover 3%, wind 11 mph out of the east by northeast....clear evening skies with a forecast low of 37° F tonight. On this date in 2017 TLE and I had just arrived at the entrance of the Grand Canyon, or 'The Watchtower' as it is officially named.....
....and settled into our site for the next 4+ months while we worked at the General Store as cashiers. Our elevation at this site was 7,410' above sea level, and it proved to be a cold winter, but not much snow.
We were up at 5 am Thursday morning California time so we could be on our way home to TWW by 6 am (7 am Arizona time). We had put about 70 miles on the VW since we filled up in Palm Desert on Tuesday, so we stopped at the local Union 76 fuel station to top off our tank for the 308 mile trip home. By 6:05 am we were eastbound on I-10 retracing our steps from Tuesday. Soon we were passing Chiriaco Summit, and within another 20 miles exited I-10 for SR-177. We had already covered 100 miles, and would cover another 100 miles before merging with I-40 eastbound just west of the Colorado River where we would re-enter Arizona.
It was just under 50 miles to Kingman, AZ from there, and we reached Kingman in about 45 minutes where TLE bought some produce at the local Basha's Supermarket, and then we topped off our tank one more time for the final 58 miles home. We reached the north/south arterial around 1 pm, and by 1:20 pm we had reached TWW. The VW ran like a top for the over 800 miles we covered in the past 5 days. She may have over 202,000 miles on her odometer, but she runs like she has half that mileage. We bought her when she had 124,000 on the odometer, so we've almost put 80,000 miles on her since January of 2014.
While TLE began to unload the car I went to open the door of the Newell, but I could not get either of the deadbolts to disengage. When we left last Saturday we stowed the patio awning due to predicted high winds while we would be gone. As a result the door had direct sunlight on it for a number of hours which caused the aluminum frame to expand effectively jamming the door shut. This has happened a few times over the years, but this is the first time in over 10 years. The only way to cool down the door is to spray cold water on the frame for a few minutes, but we were impatient.
How did we get in? Well, TLE's passenger side window does not always latch when you close it, and, thankfully, it had not latched the last time she closed it. I was able to force it open, and after fetching a step ladder from the greenhouse, TLE was able to shimmy her way through the open window and unlock the door. This was the first eventful thing which happened in over 800 miles, and it was at our home.....lol.
I drove all but 50 miles of the the entire 308 miles home, so I was a little tired. After unpacking, and changing clothes I took a 45 minute nap. As you know, up to 1/2" of rain was forecast for our area Saturday/Sunday, and as a result 3 of the 6 new IBC totes are now full, and the other 3 are 1/2 full, so we now have 9 full IBC totes, and 3 one half full, so we've caught a lot of water in the last two months....probably close to 3,000 gallons....not bad!
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