Arizona April-May, 2002

While we were pretty sure that we would like the RVing lifestyle, we also felt that it would be a bad idea to purchase a motor home without spending a bit of time traveling in one. In February we traveled from Arcata to Redding to visit California Trailer & RV Sales, an El Monte RV rental franchise. So far as we know, that's the closest rental location to Arcata. My thinking was that I wanted a Class A, but not too big. They had mostly 36 ft Southwinds and Bounders, but there was one 32ft, and we made a reservation for that one for the end of April.

When the time came to start our trip, the 32ft was in for repairs, and was waiting on parts. Between the time we reserved the coach and the rental time, I had done a lot of reading and looking at rigs (virtually!), and had decided that bigger probably would be better anyway, so I wasn't unhappy to give a 36 footer a try. Our first day/night out was spent traveling down I-5 to Bakersfield, in a super storm/windstorm. Good initiation to driving a motor home!
Arizona, April-May, 2002
Box Canyon Ruins Elephant's Feet In Arizona, we headed north from Flagstaff, visiting the ruins in the Wupatki National Monument, then east through Tuba City, passing the Elephant's feet formation at left.
At Kayenta we turned north again to Monument Valley, where we stayed in the canyon at Goulding's trading post. Our sunset view out of the motorhome windshield was nothing short of spectacular. Chaistla Butte Agathla Peak
Goulding's Goulding's
Medicine Hat White House From Monument Valley we circled up into Utah, crossing the San Juan River at Medicine Hat and then back down into Arizona to Canyon de Chelle, returning to Flagstaff for a visit at the Museum of Northern Arizona.
White House Sliding House Sliding House Museum of Northern Arizona

Leaving Flagstaff, we traveled down to Sedona, where we spent a few days with Joy's Sister and her family. We were given a tour of the local sites, including sunset from the airport (forgot the camera!). Here are a sampling of pictures that I did get: Junk Horse Cathedral Rock
Oak Creek Cathedral Rock
Safari Sahara Tiger Mural By this point we were sure we wanted to spend some time RV traveling, so we went down to Phoenix with the express purpose of looking at RVs. Of course "seek and ye shall find," so it is not all that surprising that we ended up buying one, a 1998 Safari Sahara. Joy collects big-cat art, so no surprise that she liked this coach. We had to leave the coach for later pickup, since we had to return the rental to Redding.
Roadrunner Safari Sahara

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