The truck started and ran so I decided to find a better place to relax for a couple days. The Sam's club was in an industrial area and not very relaxing but I found a casino a few miles outside of town.
Casino's are great places to chill if you don't feel like interacting or want to hang out with a crowd of strangers. This one had tons of empty parking lots with a few RVs and trucks scattered around them even though the casino itself was small and smoky. There's no shade anywhere in the state of Arizona (I'm convinced) and as far as I'm concerned a cement lot is as nice as a dirt one when the view is flat anyway.
There's a small puddle of transmission fluid under the truck but I can't get under to see where it's dripping. Crap. At least it's a small puddle. After a day of doing absolutely nothing it looks even smaller. Relaxation is a good thing.
The next town on I40 is Winslow, AZ which means I had to stop there. I didn't see a whole lot of exciting things to do in town but it was convenient for doing laundry and pondering the difficulties of water while in the desert. I was out of water and there hadn't been anywhere to fill up since . . . somewhere in California. I had jugs I could fill at rest areas but the tanks were empty and that needed to be rectified. It turned out that I could solve the water, full holding tanks, sleeping and cool place to visit all in one spot.
Homolovi State Park has remains from early Hopi settlements that can be wandered through along with a campsite that comes with water, dump station and, glory of glories - a SHOWER. I could write an entire entry about how wondrous it was to take a shower after weeks of desert heat and naught but a washcloth and baby wipes to clean with. And I had clean sheets. It was going to be an amazing night.
But first the pueblos.
One site is uncovered but there is little to see except pits. It's a lonely, windy hill with nothing to see for miles and the solitude is perfect for contemplating what life would have been like in 6000 BC.
Undoubtedly many people take potsherds as mementos but I was happy to see that many people would place potsherds on rocks for other visitors to see.
Cultural note: The Hopi consider the area spiritually alive and do not want the word "ruins" used. When I walked through the second site that has been reburied to protect the artifacts I could feel what they mean. I have a new respect and perspective for ancient living areas.
All in all a great day. I had water, empty holding tanks and a lovely (treeless) place to spend the night.
Sometime in the middle of the night I awakened to thunder and panicked cats. No rain, just thunder and lightening.
And then it rained. Hard. I sat up and closed the vent over the bed as soon as the rain started and then sat there for a few seconds trying to figure out why I was still getting wet.
The rain was coming in the cabover window hard enough to reach the middle of the camper. I slammed the window closed and closed all the other open windows and vents. In the short time it took me to close the cabover window the bedding on that side of the camper was soaked. Zowie. At least most of the rest of the bed was dry so I went back to sleep.
Butch, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with wet sheets.
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