We made it!  After four days traveling 1750 miles we arrived at the Kingman, Arizona KOA campground yesterday around 3:00PM.  It was good to finally unhitch our camper and settle in to where we will live for the next eight weeks.

We left out of Holbrook Az. yesterday about 9:00AM after breakfast at their “Chuck Wagon” with our new friends Doug and Erin Monk from Houston.  The trip was about 400 miles through Flagstaff and it’s higher elevation (over 7000 feet) and across some of the prettiest parts of the state we have seen as well as over the worst roads we have driven on during the trip.  At one point the jarring tore a panel loose on our RV but we duct taped it and kept going.  To see for the first time the place you will live for two months (or longer) can lead to a “what have we got into here” kind of response.  We experienced that in Hanover Pa. when we first arrived there last summer.  We have learned from all our travel to not let first impressions derail you emotionally.  It is hot, dusty, bland, windy and (did I mention?) hot.  But this is where God planted us for now – so it will be great.

Lisa and I drove around to find the hospital where she will be working and were glad to see that it was just a couple of miles away.  It was also important to locate the nearest gas station, grocery store and Wal-Mart.  Kingman has some historic places we discovered including some sections of the original Route 66 including famous restaurants and museums.  We also learned that we are an hour from Hoover Dam – an hour and half from the Grand Canyon “Skywalk” and about the same to Las Vegas.

We met and talked to a couple from Vancouver British Columbia who were staying out our campground while vacationing to the Grand Canyon.  He worked on a loading dock for 44 years (starting at the age of 16) and just recently retired.  We talked under the light of a “super moon”.  The temperature here was in the mid 90s during the day but a near perfect evening with the large full moon and temps in the 60s.  They are predicting temperatures next weekend to get as high as 110.

We were both exhausted last night as the adrenaline finally drained away after finally getting settled in.  This was our first significant trip pulling our RV and it is a little stressful.  I found myself mentally thinking through all the steps of securing everything on our camper as we moved down the road.  I became more and more comfortable but never really relaxed.  I would hear something and think our entire RV had broke free and was careening out of control in the other direction.  It was always a small relief to see it was still attached.  At one point it occurred to me that I had not put the cap on our black water tank.  Fortunately I had closed the valve or else we would have left a poop trail all the way down Interstate 40.  Later, while fueling up, something caught my eye and I noticed the keys were still in the camper door.  Guess I need to add to our checklist – “remove keys from door before traveling 300 miles down the highway”.

Thanks for following our blog as we traveled west and we hope to be more frequent in sharing our adventures here in Kingman.

Blessings!

Steve and Lisa