California to Arizona

August 11

As much as an early start was our original plan, we started out slowly and without a great sense of urgency about parting from Bev, Denise and Sue. We took this opportunity to take stock of all our possessions and arrange them in their appropriate bags so we could more easily find items while we traveled. I made one trip after another out to the van, which was baking in the already hot morning sun. After several trips to the van with our stuff it was time to transfer our perishable items from Bev's refrigerator to our van's refrigerator, but to my dismay, the van's refrigerator was not working! Oh no! Another reason to rue the day I ever rented this wretched thing! A label on the inside of the refrigerator door said not to operate it at ambient temperatures above 110°F (43°C), but where in this area could I hope to find a place to leave the van where that was even remotely possible!?

I stopped packing and called Tony. He said bring the van back for a look-see. I maneuvered through traffic and pulled into the Dodge repair garage. Presently, one of the mechanics approached and I showed him the problem – only there was no problem! The refrigerator was working again and frost was already forming on the ice tray. Why this happened was unclear to both of us and whether or not it would happen again was a mystery. I called the New Jersey office. Chris was busy so I vented to the receptionist about how I'd had nothing but grief up to now, and I requested that they be prepared to exchange this vehicle for a different one. Chris was supposed to call me back, but he never did.

With a working refrigerator, nothing was left to detain us in Palm Springs any longer, so all of us said our goodbyes and, with some reluctance to venture into the unknown, we took off for Arizona. I didn't get onto I-10 right by Bev's house, but rather took CA-111 to see if the engine would remain cool and if the air conditioning would function properly. This route was still in my GPS, apparently, after I had programmed it to tell me how far it was to the Salton Sea, not intending to actually go there. But we got there anyway and had to navigate our way back to I-10 through Box Canyon. Box Canyon was amazingly beautiful, with views around every bend that looked like familiar Western movie sets. We were so lucky to have been directed through here by mistake! We eventually saw I-10 in the distance, laden with trains of semi-trailers. We would merge into that soon enough, so we savored the starkness of Box Canyon Road a few extra minutes.

On I-10 we drove eastward a short distance among these behemoths. The van had never overheated once the whole way from Palm Springs to this point, although our air-conditioner did cut out on some inclines. It seemed reasonable enough (although disappointing), that it would do so as briefly as it did, under the circumstances. But on the interstate, at the speeds we were going just to keep up with the trucks it didn't take much of an incline to cause the air-conditioner to resume its old pre-repair trick of cutting out. When it did, we felt hot and sticky inside the van. Oh, man! If the rest of the trip was going to be like this we were going to be truly miserable!

We saw a sign for the Patton Museum. I'd read about this so we got off the interstate to investigate. There were battle tanks there that may have been Patton Tanks, but the item that I was curious to see was the wall of names of Viet Nam veterans (living veterans, not dead soldiers). It had far fewer names than I had expected.

We drove ever eastward across desert scenery and eventually crossed the Colorado River, thus entering Arizona, our 3rd US state of this trip. We started climbing out of the Colorado River valley and immediately saw mountain sides that looked different – they were covered with black gravel and entire forests of Saguaro cacti grew skyward from them. This was really great to see! Amazing that crossing from one state to another changed the scenery so dramatically! However, climbing to Ehrenburg caused the air-conditioning to stop blowing and we began to feel the heat outside seeping in. The speed limit increased to 75 mph (120 kmh). I didn't dare go that fast, therefore, many of the cars and some of the trucks passed us while we drove. As we drove we watched the miles and minutes melt away on our GPS as we closed in on Phoenix, and as we melted inside the van and cursed it for making us suffer. As long as I had the cruise control engaged we were forced to endure the heat and sultriness more often than not. A level section or a downhill section gave us some relief, but this was short-lived. Buckeye, Arizona came up and we were in the Phoenix metropolitan area, but the GPS said we still had 45 minutes to go to our destination in Scottsdale.

My cousins David and Susan called while we were enroute. We let them know when we anticipated arriving. David's mother, (my Aunt Mildred) was not able to wait for our behind-schedule arrival so we would not see her today. Their home, our destination at the end of this tiring but fascinating ride, was a welcoming sight. It is an amazing piece of architecture with high ceilings and a labyrinth of rooms. David and Susan put together something light for us to eat and we spent the evening recounting tales of our trip and catching up on family stuff.

I explained to David all the things that were wrong with the van. On top of all the complaints I have about the poor functioning of the air-conditioning, the icon, shaped like an engine, lit up all over again while I was parking in David's driveway! In other words, nothing is any different after the repair job that delayed us for 2 days in Palm Springs, except that the engine didn't overheat on the way here! I so badly wanted to find a solution to ditching this van, no matter what expense and inconvenience it might entail. I so badly wanted to give "Adventures on Wheels" an ultimatum. David, however, from his perspective outside the situation, went to the Internet and looked up the van's owner's manual. It was not available, but forums on the same problems I was having were available. Owner's of similar vehicles complained on these forums about the warning light and the air-conditioning cutting out, and the answers they got were basically that these vehicles were designed to function exactly this way to protect their engines and any switching of vans I might insist on would get me only another van that did the very same thing. The causes of the warning light coming on were also inconsequential, in most cases. The gas cap not fitting properly that Chris mentioned was one of these causes. If Chris was comfortable with this explanation, then I finally was prepared to accept this as the innocuous reason for the light going on and would ignore it from now on. Having all this information, I was calmer now about driving this van. I went out to the driveway and brought some of our luggage into the house. I took a long look at this van, sighed to myself slowly, and accepted the fact that this segment of our journey would not be what I'd hoped, but this van would be our conveyance and that was that. I went into the house and joined my cousins and Razelle.