The first day we left Tucson and headed out for the 6 hour drive to the Buckskins. In the driveway, when I went to get in the Rover, my side step came lose and I fell to the ground. My ego was very bruised, but my body was only a little bruised. James fixed the step and I got in and said, “Well, there is our problem for the trip.” I probably should have kept my mouth shut.
We were on I-10 west of Phoenix going about 65 mph. All of the sudden, we hear a big bang. James pulls over and says the roof rack blew off. I just had to take a deep breath, because that thing could have done a ton of damage or killed someone. Luckily we were near one of the closed rest areas. We could see the roof rack in the break down lane about 10
0 yards behind us. I had James pull up behind the temporary barriers they had put up to close the rest area. We told Grace to stay in the car, and James and I went to retrieve our things. Amazingly, everything survived, except for the two bags of charcoal that were all over the two lanes of traffic. One of the chairs had come lose from the rack. Everything was a little beat up, but everything survived.
We carried the rack back to the Rover. Then we had to figure out what to do with all the stuff, and had to find a place inside for it all. At this point a DPS officer stopped to see if we were okay. We told him what had happened and then he said that we needed to be careful when we merged back into traffic, and he left. It was interesting when James posted what had happened on the Dormobile List that several Europeans said that we would have been given a big ticket and they probably would have given us a sobriety test.
With some adjustments we were able to fit everything into the Rover. The question was what to do with the roof rack. Of course, James wanted to keep it and of course I thought we should just leave it with all the other trash on the side of the road. But it is an “original” Dormobile rack. So, just like all the other stuff that I would get rid of, we have it stored for if we ever sell it to someone who wants to restore it to original. I doubt this will ever happen, because I will only sell it to someone who wants to use it for their family. Not win car shows.
James won the argument. So, how do we fit it in the Rover? We decided to take it apart. James got out the wrench and some other tools. This did not work because the bolts were so rusted. What did work was just breaking the bolts with our bare hands. Then we shoved it across the floor of the back seat. When we got back in the car, I didn’t say anything about this being our problem for the trip.
The Buckskins ar
e beautiful and full of old mines. We had picked out a few places to hit before we l
eft home. We got to one mine just before dark. We decided to camp there for the night. The mine had an old mine cart and equipment laying around. It was pretty neat to see the old stuff. It sure was a lot of work, for not much of a mine.
About an hour or so into the night we figured out that our air mattress had a leak. It made for a very uncomfortable night I think that is problem number three for the trip.
The next day we hiked up the hill to explore the other prospects in the area. We have discovered that the age of the average rockhound is around 65. Most have ATV’s and don’t go cross-country. Consequently, we go cross-country and usually find some cool stuff in hard to get to places.
On the back side of a hill, we found a ton of chrysocolla. It was the most we have ever found. Grace and I spent at least an hour deciding which pieces were worth carrying back over the hill. We also knew our space was now limited in the Rover, since we had lost the roof rack, so we had to be selective.
By the time we were done exploring the area it was late and we decided to stay another night here with our flat air mattress.
The next day we woke up and headed towards the Planet Mine, which is quite popular with rockhounds. Several people asked us if we had been there or knew where it was. The Planet Mine is very cool, lots of neat rocks and all very easy to get to. I don’t really know what is valuable, so we just collected the rocks that we thought were pretty.
The next area we went to was a canyon, which you have to hike into. What a canyon! It was awesome. Mines and tailings were everywhere. We were told that you can find lots of drusy in this canyon. Drusy is a mineral with clear quartz crystal over the top. We didn’t really know what that was, but found lots of cool stuff. About halfway down the canyon we ran into some rockhounds, who actually knew what they were looking for. Most rockhounds don’t like to share their secrets with anyone. But having a cute nine year old really helps. The two gentlemen showed us some drusy and actually gave some to Grace. They were very helpful. We then went about collecting several other pieces of drusy ourselves. I found a chrysocolla drusy piece that I am quite proud of.
After getting back to the car we were all pretty tired and hot. The weather was supposed to be in the 70’s and turned out the highs were near 90. So, it was much hotter than anticipated. At this point, we needed a place to camp for the night. I suggested we head to our favorite State Park, River Island. It is on the Colorado River and has hot showers and flush toilets. This would also allow us to go by Walmart in Parker and pick up a new air mattress for the night.
I decided to drive out. I did really well with the double-clutching. We stopped a few times to look at different things, including the Bill Williams River that was very high. We had hit the pavement and all of the sudden James yells, “Stop, stop!” I pull over and realize I have been driving with the parking brake on. It was ready to catch on fire. Poor James, he really has to deal with a lot from me. The worst is I don’t really feel all that bad about it. James drove after that. That could be problem number four.
We got to Parker and went to buy the air mattress. Yay!!! Here we get to the next problem. Walmart no longer carries full size air mattresses, therefore one more night without sleep.
We make it to River Island and took showers. Once again we get lots of questions about our rig and lots of pictures are taken in the campground. We both love talking about our Rover. Grace is getting pretty good at answering all the basic questions.
The next day we headed home and passed through a town called Bouse. They have the best town sign. It reads, “Bouse welcomes you to the town of volunteers. Population 875 friendly people and 5 grouches!” My Dad had better not move there or they will have to change their sign to 6 grouches.
Even with our problems on the trip we had a great time, and will go back someday for more discoveries.