We finally got the truck back. It took almost 3 weeks at the local Ford dealer but they think they got all the oil out of the cooling passages. We were excited to get going to Sedona to visit a couple friends of Mona who just moved there from the Sandpoint area.
We found this great free campsite just outside of Sedona. The view from the trailer was almost 360 degrees of Sedona area mountains. What a beautiful area. We can see why people love it there so much. The town however was a real tourist trap. Very crowded and crazy traffic. When we return it will be a little later in the year. The temperature dropped into the 20's at night. Again I was really cold until we figured out that the cold was coming up through the mattress. No amount of covers could help with that situation. We ended up putting up a sleeping bag under us which made a huge difference for me.
We met up several times with Mona's friends, Pat and Ken. We had a great time with them, especially on this hike to the top of one of the local hills just outside of town.
The hiking in the area certainly is spectacular. Also, If your a mountain bike enthusiast, this would be a great place to be.
The area also has several cliff dwellings you can hike to. We were fortunate that at each one volunteers were there who would explain what was known about the people who built and lived in them. We were not allowed to go into any of the dwellings. In the past you could but when they started to deteriorate they were placed off limits. The volunteers however had been inside and gave good descriptions with pictures of what they were like.
Another of the cliff dwellings. This one was just down the road from where we were camped.
One of the cliff dwellings has several walls which were covered with petroglyphs.
At two of the cliff dwellings we came across this Native American lady from Alaska. She had her drum and was off some distance chanting. She was on a spiritual quest to the most sacred sites in the area as a way to connect with her Native American ancestors. We didn't want to disturb her but also wished we could have had more time to talk with her.
The morning we went to one of the cliff dwellings near our campsite the truck started ok but had no power. It wouldn't even climb up the short incline outside of our campsite. Shutting off the engine and turning it back on corrected the problem, but now I was worried. That evening I checked the engine coolant tank to find quite a bit of oil floating on the surface. Dang... Now What! The next morning the truck again had no power and turning it off and on fixed it. OK... We decided that we needed go back to the Ford dealer in Yuma.
While the truck was in the shop for another week of flushing the cooling system and a new MAP sensor to fix the power situation Mona convinced me that it would be best to stay at one of the local RV resorts. We were there for a week, played Pickleball each morning, took line dancing lessons, Mona did water aerobics and yoga and I used the gym. We had visited a couple of other resorts visiting friends or having dinner and were thinking this might be a good break from traveling and camping next year. So we signed up for February next year. The picture above is from the Pickleball pot luck we were invited to even though we had only been there a few days.
As luck would have it, we were in town for the annual classic car show. There are hundreds of cars there each year. I, of course, was on the lookout for the 1956 Chevy's like I had in high school and college. If I only could afford one now that I have a place to keep it.
As frustrating as the truck was I can't complain about the Ford dealer and the technician in charge of our truck. Another week of engine flushing and a rental car and they only charged us $100 for the MAP sensor replacement.
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