The Last Straw and The Last Supper

Our boondock camp was broken about 7:30 AM yesterday in order to make an appointment with the Ford dealer in Cottonwood by eight. We had a bag packed, just in case. I covered all the history of Goldie's tranny illness with the Service Manager, symptom by symptom, day by day. After about an hour, he said last what he could and should have said first. That's when the last straw broke...along with my temper. What a waste of time when someone passes on critical information as an addendum or post script. "Oh, by the way," he says, "Just to be honest with you..."


Why didn't he tell me this last friday...on the conference call discussion with Holmes-Tuttle's Service Manager in Tucson? But no. "Just to be honest with you," he says, "my transmission guy is also my diesel mechanic, and he currently has three motors down in a million pieces...so this could take a few days, maybe a week."

Just as Bobbie was about to pounce...claw him into a shredded piece of shag carpet...I stepped between them and said, "Sorry, that's not going to work for us. Thanks for your time."

We are packing up once again, in apprehensive anticipation of slowly nursing Goldie homeward...good intentions, gentle increments, and during the coolness of morning hours. As you no doubt noticed from the drastic change in our header photo, the Winter Snowbird Edition of the Box Canyon Blog draws near the last page. Like elements in a good novel, we've had triumphs and tribulations, victories and defeats, predicability and uncertainty. We've been lost and found, high and low, and in and out of Life on the Road...and we now look forward to an always fantastic summer in Lovely Ouray.  

One of our greatest memories will be this winter's caravan with fellow RV/outdoor addicts, Susan and Maikel...starting November 1st, in Virgin, Utah, outside the gates of Zion, and ending today, boodocked in pinion juniper Red Rock country near Sedona. We have hundreds of miles of hiking and biking, as well as hours of fellowship to fondly recall. We also look forward to doing it all over again... the next time they step off their respective "treadmills." We enjoyed a delectable  "Last Supper" at the Wild Flower Bakery in Sedona yesterday, after a long hike, of course, to Soldier Pass. Thanks Wiseones...for sharing "The Road" and yourselves with a couple of geezers :)). 

Now if you happen to be in the Four Corners neighborhood, and come across a parked Lazy Daze RV with two legs sticking out from under it, stop and say hello. We might be in need of a "lift" to civilization. 

The "Adventure" continues... stay tuned.

Mark and Bobbie,
Peace out!  

Here are a few pics of one of the most remote towns in Arizona, Portal...home of a multitude of birds, including the Elegant Trogon. The photos seem a little fuzzy today... a lame internet connection I'm guessing. Sorry. They seem fine in the "Viewer Mode," try clicking on them and looking at them that way...