After a nice night’s sleep at Meteor Crater RV Park, it was back on the road heading due west to just 80 miles north of Los Angeles, Rosamond. Home of Edwards AFB and my brother. I wasn’t looking forward to being in the desert for a couple months but, he’s family and needs assistance so whatcha gunna do?
Plan is to help get his project car up and running. A 1966 Studebaker Daytona. Far too many problems with the car to detail here, but I’ll note that the engine AND tranni were both rebuilt last year. Thing’s a wreck in my opinion…but, it’s his money, his baby. I’ll help where I can, but my shoulder is still bothering me so I can’t lift much, can’t really torque a bolt very tight, or work underneath where I have to extend my arm over my head.
After the Studey is up and running, if ever, then it’s time for him to empty the house, put it on the market, and head north to be closer to his son and family. That’s the plan.
Just a hour after leaving the RV park, I pass through Flagstaff. This first picture was taken shortly after I got on the road. Nestled on the slope of big hill up ahead is where Flagstaff is. Because of it’s elevation, Flagstaff has some pretty nice year round weather. One of my favorite places to stay when it’s hot.
Some old volcanic cone?
I had plenty of time, and was looking for adventure, so I took the Seligman turn off. That puts you on an older section of Route 66 that’s still in excellent condition…because people still use the highway all the time and it’s maintained. It does sort of parallel US40 but heads north a bit. Check out this map, Seligman is due west of Flagstaff: Map 
I like these lonely highways out in the middle of nowhere. On this road, this day, I only saw maybe 5 vehicles, tops.
Up in these hills is Grand Canyon Caverns. I’ve stayed and visited the caverns other times.
Heading down into Peach Springs. This is an Indian town. Not that strange since it’s on the reservation.
Route 66 runs right into Kingman. I’ve been RV’ing for 11 years now and I’ve watched Kingman grow from a dusty high desert podunk town to a thriving retirement community. There are a couple of RV parks on the edge of town right on Rte 66 as I enter from the North that had seen better days, but now even those have been spruced up, likely because of the competition from the bigger, newer RV parks that have opened in the last few years. RV’ers discovered a few years ago that the shoulder seasons here are pretty comfortable and soon there are thousands of people spending much of their winter here. Convenience stores follow, then the big box stores. Place is thriving right now. With no end in sight.
After cautiously crossing a busy 5 lane main drag into a busy gas station, I got around 40 gallons of diesel at $2.899, what I expected to be the last reasonable price I’d see for a while since I’d be in California soon. Lots of polite people patiently waiting for my giant RV to negotiate traffic.
After the fillup, took the onramp for US40, which passes right through the middle of Kingman, and a couple hours later, I’m in the low desert, Mojave. Not quite as pleasant as the high desert. But first I get to travel through the foothills. Notice the weather is still fairly pleasant. Nice and cool. This was May 29th.
And now the valley floor. And I’m in California. Have you noticed how the clouds have kind of disappeared?
Doesn’t take long for the countryside to start looking really dry, like this…
A couple hours later, and I’m at my brothers place. Hate to have to hang out here where it’s going to be soooo boring, and sooooo hot, but, family ya know.
Thanks for reading!
Don’t know if you traveled through/past Gallup, NM. Or Holbrook, Az. Interesting towns. 2003 I bought a few acres of high desert east of Holbrook. ~7 miles of dirt road from the Sun Valley exit. Nothing there.
I’ve been through both towns but never stopped to camp in either one. You own a few acres outside Holbrook? Cool. That’s 12 odd years. So you’ve improved it some? That your winter residence?
Then the old route 66 into Peach Springs. Used to drive that to break up the monotony of the big road. I remember some nice looking country heading out of P.S. At the moment I’m struggling with a brake job on my motor home. Trying to finish the front to get to the back. Setbacks, one after the other. Contemplating changing the oil pan gaskets to see if that stops some leaks. But how to lift the motor?
I helped my dad build a wooden cradle for a large engine. Then we used a large floor jack that the cradle was designed for. Only had to go up a few inches. That was years ago so I can’t remember all the details.
Then when I’m ready, off to Silver City–er, Tyrone, NM. Before Halloween, I hope.
By the way, ’66 Stude, what model? Daytona?
Yes, it is a Daytona. If you’re an expert, you’re invited over for several beers while you give us a hand.
Some of the fun so far: I’ve found a wire from the I terminal of the external voltage regulator melted all the way back to the dash mounted start switch. Have no idea how that happened (tool dropped on the terminal?). Inside the after market regulator the circuitry looks good. Can’t tell how the short got started. Replaced the wire.
Then, it wouldn’t turn over. Had to trace that out to find the start wire on the wrong terminal on the starter. Still can’t quite figure where the wiring for the spark system went too. It once had an electronic ignition so the wiring is a bit strange. Hah!
I am about to become a fellow traveler and have enjoyed reading your blog. We are just starting our adventure and your blog has inspired me. I started my own blog just about a week ago now. We have not purchased our RV yet but that is our next step. THANK YOU for your inspiration! Jamie http://www.rvreligion.com
You are welcome, Jamie, happy you find my blog helpful. Congrats on making your decision to become full timers. It is lots of fun. Remember this, buy your last RV first. Sooo many people start out too small and have to upgrade fairly quickly, so get something you both think might be too big to begin with. You probably have the resources to stay patient about buying your RV…and I’d recommend living at friends until September before you get really serious about buying. That’s to take advantage of the end of season sales and what not. Buy in the winter…if you like it in the winter, you’ll love it in spring. I’d also recommend getting an equity loan on your house to outright buy your RV and not finance.
Then I’d say, do NOT buy ‘Extended Service Contract’ on your RV. Take the money you’d spend on it, and put it in the bank in it’s own account as a ‘Repair Fund’. Then add to it each year. You’ll likely never get it all back out.
Stay away from ‘Good Sam’ club and any of their affiliates. Unless you like tons of junk mail every month. Never have your RV serviced at a Camping World. They’re untrained, ignorant, and expensive when it comes to service, but the stores have some cool stuff. Try to get any service you need at truck repair places. Check them first in RVServiceReviews.com. Get CoachNet as your roadside service. They’re the best.
Keep spreadsheets on everything you spend (OpenOffice is free and just as good as Microsoft’s ‘Office’ products). I have spreadsheets for ‘Living Expenses’, ‘Diesel Expense’, ‘Repair Expenses’, ‘Income’, etc. that I’ve been using since 2004. ‘Living Expenses’ is linked to by all the other ss’s so it’s a total of everything, whereas the others have more in depth info.
I could go on and on. Hey, maybe I should write a section of my blog with recommendations to new full timers?
Anyway, good luck!
Dude, you ain’t much worse off there than in Portland. 10 + days of 90 degree + weather. Records all over the place for this time of year. Neighbors mostly gave up watering gardens and lawns – all brown already, like it was August. East side of Cascades has fires everywhere already too. At least so far only a few humid days, and now the breeze keeps us dry and vented. Even the 4th of July wasn’t smokey. Watched young idiot parents last night up off Mt. Scott/”Happy” Valley demonstrating to their 4 year-olds how to swirl sparklers around… while standing in tall dry grass on a hillside below new housing development. Go figger. What the heck kinda ninnies have we raised in the last generations?
Last generation? Don’t you remember how there were so many stupid members of OUR generation? Hah!
Then this chinese guy walks by with a cigarette in his hand, and wanders out with his camera over the grass to ogle the fireworks in Sunnyside below. He then tosses the burning thing down and saunters back past the wife’s car window, whereupon she assails him about at least crushing out his stogey. He either doesn’t speak English or just ignored her, and walked off down the hill someplace. End of soapbox.
Dumbass should know better than that.
Gotta luv those old cars. Started with a ’53 Ford Customline 6 in 1968 ($150), then to a ’65 Olds Starfire stick 455 converible (yeah Baby!) ($1350), then a 1970 Candy Apple Red Shelby 428 ($5k) in 1972. Got married (couldn’t have been the Snake could it?) and hot car game was over LOL. At least we know how to fix them and could buy real individual parts instead of today’s “complete units” – wasted cash from us to big profits for the car companies. One good thing… the inexpensive and versatile old “Ford” solenoid is still used today; it may not last forever, depending on quality of build/brand, but many manufacturers still use it in lieu of electronic relays. Even our ’06 Beaver and new high-end motor homes come with those solenoids in various configurations and purposes.
Yeah, I use automotive solenoids all the time. There’s several of them on this ol’ Bounder.
Working on the Studey does have it’s moments. But I did purposely NOT go into mechanics in my youth because I hated getting grimy grease under my fingernails. Now days, everyone uses gloves though so I’m more comfortable working on a car wearing gloves. Never know, if there’d been mechanics gloves back when I was a youth, I might have gone into the business. Nah.
Have you thought about installing solar? We live in Gresham also!
Well, not really. The RV isn’t really worth enough to justify installing solar when I plan on selling later this year. I’ll be upgrading though and maybe that one would be the one that I do the whole rooftop solar setup. It would be fun for me, btw.
Yes thank you for your site. Ignored your trip to Europe as I’ll probly never get there. Even though I’m German descent. Also thanks for the ‘have a beer with us offer’. I’ve quit alcohol as I’ve become allergic to it in my old age. Darn. So it’d be just partaking of herb if I’m somewhere it’s legal or have a med card.
Hah! As I age, I keep thinking I’ll move to a state that has at least medicinal pot. Tried to get it for my dad as he was dying of cancer. Too many good things said about it for me to be against it.
Would love to visit and help on the Stude but I live in oppressive SE Pa. for the moment. My cousins live in south Cal. and are interested in trains, farm tractors, antique cars. When I’m able I’d like to visit them. Also I’m surprised you answer your email. Cool.
We’re still working on the Stude. Latest thing is that it’s out of timing and we can’t figure out why.
Good Sam? Yeah they bug the heck out of you. But I’m a member and have their RV insurance. Used it once to have my RV towed. The insurance is inexpensive since my old motorhome has been in storage for the last 2 years. Happy travels.
Thanks, Sam, happy travels to you too.