Dust in the Wind

Benson Az  to  Apache Junction Az 180 miles

Day 26


You know, a person can get quite self-sufficient while on the road.  I've groomed and clipped all three dogs since we left and today my fur...er, hair needed attention.  I got it cut just before we left, but couldn't squeeze out the time, between our frantic pace and my daughter's work schedule to take care of my roots.  So, three and a half weeks later, I really needed a touch up!

What to do?  Call Monsieur Jacques, my personal hairdresser.  Gave him a quick lesson in parting, squirt bottle hair color, dabbing and not rushing.  One other trip he had it done in three minutes and I came out looking like a calico cat.  This time, however, he took his time.  At one point I looked up at him with the plastic gloves, comb and bottle and couldn't help but giggle thinking that his old fellow cop buddies would never believe that this was the same man! 

The color was in and I waited for it to do its magic and realized that the water pressure wasn't strong enough in the RV to rinse it all out adequately.  I was going to have to walk up to the office area where the showers are.  Have you ever seen what a person with a head full of dye glop looks like?  Okay, I thought, I'll just wrap my head in a towel, but didn't want to ruin the towel, so I got the bright idea of wrapping my head in plastic wrap and then put a towel over that.  Walking to the shower I prayed that I wouldn't get run over, have a heart attack or stroke or anything until I got the damn dye and plastic wrap off my head.  I couldn't imagine having to go to a hospital like that!  Of course, I couldn't get the combination lock to work, I kept trying, the dye had now been on way too long and was starting to ooze out of the plastic and down my temples and forehead and the towel was starting to fall off. It was at this point that the lady from the office came by...I think I scared her.  She unlocked the door for me (really fast) , I shampooed the toxic chemicals out of my hair, took a nice shower, my over-processed hair didn't fall out and all was right with the world.

Next we zipped everything up and hit the road.  The sun was out, but the wind was howling and forecasters had said that it would only get worse...oh joy.  We were going to take the state hwy 79 that runs east of the interstate, but decided against it due to the weather.  It  would have taken another 45 minutes and fighting wind isn't fun.  Wind is almost unavoidable in this part of the country at this time of year.  Portions of the ride today were really hairy, especially when the dust kicked up into it.  Jim's arms were cramping from trying to hold the RV steady, thank heavens he didn't have to deal with bad visibility, it wasn't good visibility by any means.  Tonight on the TV news we learned that I40 north of here was closed down between Flagstaff and Winslow due to dust and extreme winds, so we weren't so bad after all.

And then there's the weather.  The heavy clouds started about 30 miles into the trip, then it got cold.  This is Phoenix, for cryin' out loud!  The normal temp is around 85 degrees, and we all know that Phoenix is always sunny!  Yeah right.  When we pulled into town this afternoon it was 59 degrees, windy and cloudy...even had a rain shower!  There is snow not too far north of here....this is getting old.

As if the day wasn't going crappy enough, we had the worst time ever getting a RV spot.  Seems the DOGS are a huge problem here.   I told the truth about having THREE and was refused for having one too many, another would take them, but didn't have a spot on one of their 'dog streets' (I'm not making this up) and another place refused us because they close from noon until three, and the lady sounded like I was really bothering her by asking if we could pay her $50/night for a piece of dirt with hook-ups!  So we continued on. 

Bad day.  We were both stressed for a variety of reasons.  Trust me, today there was nothing worthy of using up any space on my camera's memory card.  I'm freezing and getting ready to crawl into my cuddle duds, pull the extra blanket over my head and forget about today.

 The weather is forecasted to be nasty....until the day we are scheduled to leave when it will be 90 and sunny.  

Bah.