We have officially dubbed ourselves the Jr Seniors and for our first trip as such, we planned to depart down south on or around Nov 4. We were ready to go…Ruby was packed to the gills, Trixie was equally as packed and as we started the bus to back her out of her RV spot….she wouldn’t shift into reverse or drive…she wouldn’t shift AT ALL! There was a red light indicator flashing “do not shift”…WTF do we do now?? We pulled out the Prevost manual for transmission to see if there were any error codes we needed to know about. Ruby indicated a 44 error code (Solenoid C needed replacement). A google search and a couple of phone calls in the US and Canada, Todd found a solenoid C at a small shop in Montreal. We organized a FEDEX shipment (with a large headache) and 2 days later she was replaced. Turned the key and low and behold…not only did we get the same Solenoid C error, but we also got a G and B solenoid error…so now what do we do?!! Todd did a thorough check through all things that may have initiated the code errors and he called a few friends to see what they knew about this same error. In the end decided to call an Allison transmission specialist who came out with his computer to try and help us diagnose the issue. The technician (Nick) was very good and thorough…we found out the computer was getting a 24-volt step down issue for the headlight relay and it had nothing to do with any solenoids. The fix was pretty quick and when we started Ruby up, she shifted into forward and reverse without an issue! Woo Hoo! Finally we have a new departure date…only 13 days behind schedule.

So long Canada!

We finally left on Nov 17 and amazingly there was NO snow in Alberta at the time. We headed down to Great Falls, MO – it was darn windy. The last time we crossed the Coutts border in Dec 2019 – we were barely asked a question, this time; however, they interrogated us on the vegetables in our RV. We got pulled over for secondary inspection where we lost a handful of veggies and our lovely cactus Doug! So long Doug…we will miss you! (even though our cactus came from Texas, they wouldn’t let us keep him unless we had proof of origin). The border agent did like his name though!

Our overnight in Great Falls was at the Walmart – although there were signs throughout the parking lot saying “no overnight camping”, we bought a bunch of vegetables (after the border agents took everything we had) and Todd asked the customer service agent if we could stay and they said yes of course.

We departed by 7 am the next day heading down I-15. I have never noticed this before but there are a lot of towns on this major interstate that are first names of people (like Shelby, Conrad, Dillon, Craig and Helena to name a few). Our next destination was Pocatella, ID. It seemed like a fairly easy jaunt…until the temperature dropped to -2C around Butte, MO and the highway became slightly snow covered. The mountain passes between Butte and Helena were pretty shitty. We kept passing major accidents on the highway with multiple tow trucks, police and ambulance. The entire drive day was pretty stressful for Todd; we ended up stopping in Dubois for a rest. This was one of the rest stops we stopped at in 2019 when we had a major compressed air issue. This time, we only stopped for a rest and snacks…we know Ruby so much better now after 5 years! Our highlight of the whole day was seeing antelope on the great plains.

Heading into Pocatella, ID we had hoped to stop at another Walmart but we had a few issues: our google and garmin were talking opposite and there was a whole new road and road construction that through us for a loop. When we finally tried to get into the Walmart, we exited stage left as the parking lot was way too tight to navigate Ruby and this Walmart was part of a mall; we knew there is no overnighting at Walmarts that are part of a mall. We ended up a block behind Costco in a light industrial area – it was quiet. Here is a short video of pictures so far: https://rumble.com/v5u65bn-departure-to-arizona.html

Our 6:30 am departure the next day was quick…we were out on the snow-covered highway heading to Salt Lake City. The snow came and went, but mostly went the farther south we drove and made it unscathed to Salt Lake City Costco. We parked in the farthest spot away and then went shopping. When we got back to the bus, a Costco employee was all concerned that we were leaking fluids in the parking lot. Todd said “uh no buddy, we just came from Canada through  Great Falls and Pocatella where its snowing and the snow/ice is melting under the bus”. He seemed relieved for us!

At Salt Lake, we decided to change our next destination, all we wanted was warm days and nights – where the nights were not in the minus temps. A quick google search told us that if we went to Mesquite (instead of Flagstaff AZ) our day and night temps were guaranteed on the plus side! IOverlander APP indicated that we could overnight at the Casablanca Casino RV parking lot. Arriving around 5 pm, there was no problem finding a spot to park for the night. Met a couple of fellow BC and Albertans doing the same. We were exhausted and hit the hay early, and when we woke up, realized we had changed timezones and gained an hour. Headed over to Walmart for few supplies and then the RV wash to get all the snow and mud off Ruby, so she could sparkle in the warm weather.

Todd found a Travel America truck stop just outside of Boulder, NV; basically just outside of Henderson. We headed there and this was a great 2-day pitstop for us. It was close enough but far enough from Las Vegas craziness that it worked out great. Of course we had to head to Fremont Street for a night. On our second day we drove 5 minutes up the highway to Hoover Dam to check it out; the last time we were in the area was covid days (March 2020) and the dam was closed of course. For some reason we forgot about seeing the dam until the last minute, so when we got there, the sun was setting and it was a quicker than expected tour but worth it! Here is a short bit of evidence of our stay: https://rumble.com/v5u6dwt-vegas-and-hoover.html

We pulled out of the Travel America lot by 7 am the next day and our next location was Phoenix. Highway 93 was very busy, the entire way and its also a very rough highway. Its rare that Ruby makes creeking noises or rumbles, she is so well made. But during this drive on highway 93 it was so rough that her insides were doing some serious vibrating. We usually throw a few loose items on the couch for safekeeping while driving, and on this trek they all vibrated off the couch onto the floor as did one of the lightbulbs in the kitchen – so much vibration the bulb unscrewed itself and fell on the floor. Some of the grades on the highway were so steep, poor Ruby was maxed out at 10 MPH, even with her methanol injector helping her out!

This 250-mile trip landed us at the Phoenix Metro RV Park. This park is a 55+ RV park and when we booked it online, the booking process asks you 3 times if someone in your party is 55. Luckily one of us is! They send the maintenance guy to meet you at your assigned site to help back you in; not like we need an assistant but sure we will take it! A smooth setup and we headed to the pool for a dip before the sun went down! The RV park is a mix of full timers in RV’s and park models, some long term snowbirds and some that just pass through (like us). Its not the kind of place we usually stay, but it served its purpose. The last time Todd was in Phoenix was 1998 – he witnessed some sort of shoot out at his hotel. My last trip to Phoenix was in 2008 for the Rock’n Roll half marathon. Neither of us really saw much of Phoenix before, but figured we could see the city in 3 days. We spent part of the first morning re-organizing the car and figuring out what we needed out vs. stored and then to the car parts store for a couple of things before we ended up at the Arizona Canal for a bike ride. We jumped on it somewhere in fancy-house-ville area in Scottsdale and biked down to the waterfall before we turned around. We locked the bikes up in historic Scottsdale and went for a walkabout the area where we stumbled upon the famous Jeni’s ice cream (I first discovered this in Nashville in 2018) and it did not disappoint! We were back to the RV park for a dip in the pool before dinner.

Our last day in Phoenix we had a big list of things to do/see….and in the end weren’t overly impressed. We checked out Roosevelt Row for self guided walk on wall murals but couldn’t see many so we gave up. Then drove around downtown to see what was there (warehouse district, historic grand avenue) and it was Sunday, so not a lot. But we did see a whack of Prevost busses at the Footprint Centre, assuming that someone famous was playing that night; Google said it was Usher. Ended up at Rio Salado Park for a bike ride along the river – there wasn’t any water in the riverbed, but the biking was decent. After 10-12 km’s we were back in the car heading to Papago Park to see the famous “Hole in the Rock”. Basically, a red rock formation with a hole in it. We took a walk around it, then through the fishing oasis ponds and then decided to check out one last thing on the list which was the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. When we pulled up, I didn’t have a good feeling about it since it had carousels and a kids train full of families. But we sucked it up and went in anyway and this place really surprised us! They had actual historical train cars there that you could walk through; specifically, one that was used for the US president to travel before airplanes. It was cool! They also had a building that was dedicated to miniature trains. We are not huge miniature train fans BUT Jill’s uncle is, and this is the second miniature museum we have seen in our travels over the past couple years. Our few photo’s of our time in Phoenix: https://rumble.com/v5u6i8n-phoenix.html

Our overall impression of Phoenix was kind of a blah city. Not a lot of personality, not a lot to do that made us go WOW! We probably wouldn’t spend time here again. On Monday morning we left Phoenix to head down to Tucson. We usually have 2 map systems going; Todd uses the Garmin on the windshield and I usually have either Waze or Google maps going. We find more often than not, they don’t always jive….this mornings drive on the 8 lane interstate was just one of those “not jiving” situations. In the end we opted to ignore the Garmin that kept telling us the “interstate is closed – TURN AROUND” and opted for the Waze app, which gave us zero indication that the road was closed! Aside from ongoing construction and the chicanes of the lanes, Todd was still on his high alert driving game for at least 45 minutes navigating through the main city and all the smaller cities. Eventually we found a rest stop about an hour later and took a much-needed break. The rest of the drive to Tucson was fairly easy, flat roads, but so many semi trucks its insane! We were hoping to get into an RV park we had found near the Airforce base….we couldn’t find anything on the website that said you had to have military ID and we tried calling the park 2 or 3 times to ask before we got there, but no one seemed to want to answer the phone! So we pulled up to the military checkpoint, and as we assumed, we were rejected entry to the campground due to no military ID! We then had to turn around on this not so wide military road….all was fine until it wasn’t…we were blocking traffic in all 4 directions and we didn’t quite make the U-turn! We both ran out to disconnect poor Trixie, so Todd could reverse the bus and make the U-turn. Surprisingly, no one honked at us at all…there was A LOT of traffic waiting for us but we acted fast, disconnected and moved in a couple minutes. PHEW!

Note to self: I should always be wearing shoes while travelling in the bus, sometimes you don’t know when you are going to have to jump out of the bus in an emergency to disconnect the car (driving a car without shoes is weird, but luckily not illegal in Arizona!)

Our backup plan was the casino of course! We arrived there about 20 mins later, met a fellow RVer Tony from Florida. He gave us some great tips on what to do in the Tucson area. We went into the casino to see if we needed to register in their RV parking area. But we got distracted and ended up signing up for the rewards club cause they were going to give us $20 on our rewards card AND $10 food voucher, which we were allowed to use for drinks…..So who are we to turn down free money….we are pensioners after all!

We took a drive around to figure out where we actually wanted to camp out for a few days (BLM land or Gilbert Ray campground) and then decided to go for a bike ride. We ended up the Tucson Loop, Santa Cruz bike path to check out another dry river! The ride was great, flat and easy!

Our next day in Tucson we had a few tasks to get done before we went to Mexico (photocopying documentation for vehicles). Then headed to downtown Tucson to check out all the great sites. We walked around the “old” town to see some cool old buildings, real old Tucson houses, gorgeous murals, St Augustine Cathedral and then ended up at (another) train museum! It was a small museum, but they had an actual steam engine on site including an old guy (Randy) that used to work with some of the original engineers and talked to us about its history and how it worked. It was built in 1900, it was only run on coal for 5 years, then converted to oil because of all the oilfields in the southern US. Randy loved all Todd’s questions and if we wanted to stick around, he would have probably told us everything about him and his life and his 2 kids lives! He let us ring the brass bell and made sure he took a photo of us both at the front of the engine! Thanks Randy.

We didn’t want to outstay our welcome at the Casino, so we ventured out fairly early and headed 30 minutes down the road to BLM land. For those that don’t know, it’s the Arizona Bureau of Land Management. There are designated areas in Arizona (also Nevada and California) where you can camp/boondock in the desert for up to 14 days for free. Different areas have different rules about the 14 day stay. We have known about BLM land for at least 5 or 6 years but have never gone since we hadn’t been down this way in a long time. At this location we were literally right outside of the city limits with quick access into all major highways.

After we got Ruby settled, we headed back into Tucson; we were told by a couple of people that we had to see the PIMA Air and Space Museum. Now that we are retired…we apparently want to go to ALL the museums and learn about all things historical and this air museum did not disappoint! There was 80 acres outside of commercial, military and political planes and helicopters with at least 6 buildings of more on the inside. After a tour through the first building, we opted to take a 45 min tram around the 80 acres that included a tour guide giving us more information on all the things. There was also a building that showcased a Lancaster military plane. They had opened the plane up and you could see inside where all 7 men stood/sat or squished themselves to shoot rounds of machine guns during WW II. We also met a volunteer whose father was one of the young pilots that was part of the Mar 6, 1943 Berlin ambush. He told us what his dad told him when he returned about how horrible that day was and just the war in general. The rest of the building was dedicated to the young men of squadron 390 that took over a town in the UK to establish the Yankee military station which showed their living conditions, uniforms, what they did to survive, how they tried to have fun, the meaning behind the plane names on the nose and the conditions of how they fought. We probably spent the most time in this smaller building and we both came out of there with a feeling of sadness and what a waste of lives war is. Another 1.5 hours and 3 more building tours, we were exhausted physically and mentally from so much information. We spent the evening back in the desert with a propane fire talking about what we saw and learned. Here are some photo’s a video of some of the planes we saw (warning…its a longer video): https://rumble.com/v5ue4w5-tuscon-and-air-museum.html

Based on Tony from Florida’s recommendation, headed to Mt Lemmon on American Thanksgiving. Tony told us its like being in Canada when you get to the top! Of course we had to check out what Arizona’s version of Canada looked like. Google said it was a 100km trek and a ton of switchbacks to get to the very top.  As you can imagine, Todd packed a lunch and we headed out on this mountain trek, which was part of the Coronado National Forest. There were a ton of lookouts at various heights along the way. The interesting thing was that they compared the height up this mountain to Banff, the entire way. We started at around 350 feet and ended up at 8500 feet at the top. Along the way we saw so many Saguaro cactuses, that then stopped growing around 4500 feet and then the coniferous trees started to appear. There was a tonne of campgrounds, picnic sites and hiking trails continuously up this mountain. We got to the top about 2 hours later and had to take in all the wonder of this tiny little ski hill called Ski Valley – there was a main chair lift with about 10 runs. There was barely a skiff of snow, so it will be a while before it opens for the season! There is even a cute little town at the ski hill with cabins to rent. During the off season there were great hiking trails as well. We stopped at a couple more viewpoint part way down to see the views and they did not disappoint! Here is the beauty we saw: https://rumble.com/v5un0cz-mt-lemmon-drive.html

We were back down about at the bottom an hour later, heading to Fantasy Island Bike Park! Like all the bike paths in the city, eventually they all end up part of the Tucson Loop, but this one also had single track bike riding for beginners (like us!) We had a great time single tracking through cactuses and lucky us, we didn’t get a scratch! Check out all the cactuses we saw:  https://rumble.com/v5une2q-bike-riding.html

While driving around we kept seeing this white dome building in the distance, so on Friday, we headed that way to see what it was all about. Turns out it was the San Xavier del Bac Mission. Originally built in 1692…it was a remarkable site! https://rumble.com/v5urfg2-san-xavier-mission.html

Our second last day in Tucson, we (surprise, surprise) packed a lunch and headed up to the Saguaro (pronounced “sa-war-o) National Park. Our bikes were in tow and figured we could probably score some more single track up there! A brief pitstop at the information centre and we headed out on the 8 mile loop to find a parking spot, so we could attempt the Cactus Forest Drive – a 5 mile return bike trek. Let’s just say, that was probably the hardest trail we will ever do in our life! It was fun but tricky and we survived….barely. I have a tonne of video evidence, but I won’t bore you with it.

Post bike ride, still catching our breath!

Our Saguaro National Park pass was good for a week and apparently there was a second national park a few KM away from where we planned to camp for a night at Gilbert Ray campground. We headed out to see if we could do some riding, and we tried, but the trail was soft sand and then Todd got a flat tire from the cactus pokers on the ground! We toured the information centre, became obsessed with the Saguaro cactuses and learned about the wildcats in the Sonora desert.

Our stay in the Tucson area was a week, and overall, we really liked it. Some things we loved were all the variety of cactuses (a novelty to us Canadians), We learned about “crested saguaro” – give it a google. There were not alot of bugs anywhere we camped, is this normal? we have no idea! On our biking treks, we got to see alot of roadrunner birds and in BLM land you could hear the coyotes at nite; Looney tunes cartoons make way more sense now!  In general we loved all the bike riding here, and all the outdoor activities and places to go.

A few things that sucked were that our feet were always black at the end of the day and we aren’t sure why, but we had to put a dish scrubber in the shower to clean our feet! And if you’re not on an interstate road, all side / secondary roads are in poor shape – but probably that’s just getting us ready for the Mexico roads! Thanks Tucson, we will be back someday! The next time you see us, we should be in Mexico!