Previously we were camping at Bermuda Flats in the Tonto Basin, AZ area. Roosevelt Lake has not been this full in the last few years, as the locals told us, and it was getting crowded because the lake was full! The lake was gorgeous, the area provided gorgeous drives, and of course we did the infamous drive over SR88 (which I’ll never do again).
We decided to drive toward Wickenburg, AZ to some BLM land up in the Vulture Peak area. We arrived there, and to me; it just looked a little too sketchy, so we traversed over to Congress, AZ (20 miles away) to another section of BLM.
The Congress site was OK. There were a couple of other folks around, horrible internet service, washboard road, and a graveyard (1800’s ish) right behind us and a newer grave site (1900’s to present), but we were getting tired and it was time to at least stop for the night.
Our truck had been giving us issues climbing grades and we were both simply tired. We only drove 300 miles but this truck should be able to pull anything up any grade but it was giving us power issues again! We had to stop three times on semi steep (8%) grades on the way (More on that later) So, we stopped in Congress, AZ and set up camp.
So, there’s the setting. We have spotty cell service on Verizon. I could send text and occasionally grab Wi-Fi.
Now, for anyone reading this who doesn’t know me, I’m a night-owl. I do night watch but I don’t do it real well. Let’s just say – I don’t like things that go “bump” in the night well. I’m real nervous and jerky and don’t think well at times.
Trapper goes onto bed and I’m up watching YouTube trying to figure out where we might go next. I finally get tired of that and go to bed around midnight.
And then the story really starts…. the dog does her gravely growl sound, as if to say, “Mom, Dad, there’s something out there and one of you needs to wake up.” It’s about 3 a.m.
I hear her because I’m only lightly asleep. So by now I’m paying attention bur not moving. I’m letting her tell me what going on outside. And all of a sudden her growl turns to a bark! A real Bark! She doesn’t bark for stupid stupid stuff, she only yelps when someone approaches and only BARKS when she thinks danger is near! She was BARKING!
Then the RV gets bumped hard and rolls to one side all the while I can hear this brushing sound on the side. I jump up, grab a weapon, and am on my way to the step between the bedroom and bathroom so I can watch whatever is coming through the door and protect us from it! The dog is barking more! And then Trapper wakes up! Thank goodness!
“What’s going on?,” he asked.
“I don’t know but the dog is being crazy and we’re being pushed around! The RV is swaying back and forth and there are funny sounds. I don’t know what is going on outside!”
He then asked, “Did you go out and look?”
“What? Are you crazy? I’m not going outside! Obviously we’ve upset the spirits and they don’t want us here!!!!!!!!“
His replies are less dramatic than mine and he says, “Give me your flash flight – there are no spirits.”
Well, there is something and it’s probably the spirits. How do you know it’s not the spirits????? I’m thinking, “Hun, let’s not argue about the spirit world right now… but something is trying to push us over!” Come on – get real!
I hand him my flashlight and he shines it out the dining area window. “What do you see? WHAT do you SEE?” He replies, “Two big eyes and a big head!” How many? I asked. Only one right now. (I’m imagining the outer-space creature, right? – (Two eyes and one head like ET)
“Right Now? What do you mean, right now? Is it a spirit? How would we know – what does a spirit look like? Are spirits for real? I’ve never really thought about it before – but our camper is rocking by some force so what is it?????”
His very simple answer (while laughing his butt off at me) was, “I forgot to tell you that earlier today, on my walk, I saw a lot of cow patties – evidently this bull didn’t make final round up tonight.”
You see, the spirits weren’t upset with us at all. Only a Black Angus 2,000 lb bull who was looking for a back rub! He found our rv slide-out a good companion. Now, it wouldn’t have taken him, getting too much into it, to push us around but the flashlight light made him meander on. The next day, the whole tribe showed up and all went on in home – in the evening to wherever home is for them.
For us, we decided to move back to towards Wickenburg, AZ (20 miles) because we have mail coming and we need to get the truck looked at. We’ve kinda decided on some Arizona State Trust Land. We’ll see.
We know we have steep grades in our future towards Flagstaff, AZ and Sedona, AZ and the truck needs some additional work. It’s disheartening because Trapper and our mechanic replaced everything and anything while we were in SC, but the truck is giving us issues on grades right now. Stay tuned.
We’ll see what happens as we are stuck right now. People can be amazing or discouraging. We’ve met both. I hope Wickensburg is good for and to us. Fingers crossed.
Excellent repose of your Arizona adventures. Thanks. I see you took the ultimate Phoenix bypass.
It was definitely a bypass alright! I’ll never do that again!!!! Thanks for following along my friend!