Arizona!!! Is it the End of the Adventure?

I spent a week writing this post and in a flash of an instant, it disappeared! I've had this happen before, but due to utter exhaustion I failed to remember how to rescue it and instead screwed up. The post is gone. So I'll attempt a short summary.

I left Colorado and headed west on Highway 160 repeating part of the drive when I headed to Arizona a few weeks ago. This time I kept going heading for Flagstaff. I love this part of the country with the red-orange dirt, a variety of plants and sagebrushes in many shades of green, and brilliant blue skies with huge mesas! As usual, there weren't many pull-outs or I would have taken too many photos.

I'd love to buy land here and build an orange cob house, but this is Navajo Nation reservation land and they don't sell to non-natives. The temperatures south on Highway 89 climbed to 85 degrees, but I could see the mountains in the distance!! Cool weather is ahead!

Humphries Peak - highest point in Arizona

Flagstaff cooled to a wonderful 72 degrees. I didn't realize there is BLM land for camping all over outside the city. I began sampling the offerings with first night at Road 222 and second night Road 700. Lots of tall pine tree which made internet and solar charging difficult so the next three nights I headed down Mary Lake Road to Marshall Lake Dispersed Campground which was a little better. 

Marshall Lake Dispersed Campground for the first two days...
so beautiful, peaceful and quiet!

The third night 35% chance of rain was forecasted for 8pm. OK. Just one hour of rain. No problem. Between the clouds and the trees, I could barely get my solars charged so all of a sudden I had no internet and no way to prepare food. I figured I could brave it until morning then leave the woods for civilization.

At 3pm the lightning and thunder show started with hail the size of marbles! It sounded like glass snapping and I feared for my helpless solars! This was followed by "normal" hail the size of a small fingernail. I have sound effect if it works...

The pounding rain went all night and the thunder got so close it shook the van. Nights are hard for me anyway since they seem to drag on and on as I wait patiently for daybreak, but I've never had issues with thunderstorms. This one was rather scary as I imagined those tall pine trees falling on Big Blue. I'm guessing it lasted until 4am. I was excited for the new day as my doctor's appointment with my new orthopedic doctor was that afternoon!

Morning arrived and it didn't look that wet with maybe one puddle in the distance. I had to get out of the van to rescue my rat lights and it looked so dry I didn't even think to put plastic bags over my cast. The mud stuck thickly to the bottom of my shoe and cast and PTSD kicked in. This is how I fractured my ankle! OMG! But I didn't slip. I spent about an hour cleaning caked on mud off everything. 

Packed up and started driving out...I got about forty feet and my tires spun, the van slide sideways, and I was all of a sudden stuck in one foot deep ruts of mud! OMG! I got the bright idea maybe I should reverse, go back, and leave via the entrance to my campsite. Got stuck again and nearly slide into a tree. Now I'm about one hundred feet from the exit and gravel road. 

A homeless woman heading to the highway for some hitchhiking took one look at me and saw a free ride if she could help...nothing worked. She gave up and left me with the idea just wait until the sun comes out and it'll dry up really fast. I didn't think I had that kind of time as the doctor's appointment was that afternoon, but I thought that might be my only option. Then it started to rain AGAIN a half hour later. I felt like crying. I hobbled around with a plastic bag on my cast gathering anything I could use for traction...pinecones, tree bark, and towels. Eventually the plastic bag protecting the cast was sucked up by the mud...at that point I thought WTH? So what? PTSD be damned. I'm desperate. I'll be dirty. It can't be helped. I tried a variety of ideas and nothing worked. The more traction I gathered the more hopeful I became and then all of a sudden, the van caught hold and I regained forty feet before she slid sideways and spun helplessly. But forty feet! Hooray!

There was a woman (Amanda) walking up on the gravel road and she stopped to watch all of a sudden frantically waving her arms. I ignored her because if I hesitated, I would have lost traction. She thought I was going to hit the boulder close by. I thought I'd miss it unless I slid, but I bypassed it. She continued walking then returned telling me her husband was sick so she was walking down to where a missionary woman was (Tammy, who lives and travels to and from BLM land helping the homeless) to borrow a thermometer and this woman volunteered her traction strip. Amanda then spent the next hour helping me out of this mess. Her shoes ended up caked with mud, her hands filthy. I so appreciated her help if not just her encouragement and companionship at a time when I felt as any minute I would burst into tears. We made progress, maybe another ten feet, a little at a time, with me at the wheel and her running around the van adjusting the towels and the traction strip.

Then a pickup was driving up the road and we both started screaming and waving our arms. He stopped and with his teenage son continued to help by instructing me how to set the tires, reverse, then gun it forward with him and his son pushing from behind, readjusting the traction strip. After about four tries, Big Blue found freedom! When I reached the gravel road, I was screaming!!!! Literally! So very thankful and yelling my thanks as they jumped back in their pickup and left. I called Tammy because I wanted to clean off the traction slip before I returned it, but she said she'll just leave it out in the rain. Amanda volunteered to walk the tread strip back down to Tammy and I sent her off with $20 to give to Tammy for her missionary work with the homeless.

I made it to Flagstaff and my doctor's appointment absolutely exhausted, but with a clean cast!! It took about an hour to scrap, wash, dry, and then wash with rubbing alcohol, but that cast shone as if it were brand new! As I waited for the appointment, I started writing the day's events on this post and lost it the whole post. I felt defeated, but I survived!

The next day I took Big Blue to the car wash. I had to pay for two separate washes to get all the mud off her and it had caked and dried in places especially the tires and around the tires. I used the pressure hose to clean the towels, hiking boot, and buckets that were brown with dried mud. The van is still a mess. It'll take a little more effort to get all the mud off everything! What a horror!

So the adventure is NOT over. Maybe it never will be until I'm in a house and out of the van?? Maybe I'll never be out of the van? I'll try to make more cautious choices in the future. I spent the night on cement at Walmart. I don't care how many beautiful BLM campgrounds they have here, I'll stick with cement!! 

I think I've had my share of adventure and now I want a peaceful existence. 

Please...