Back home at last, lying in bed surrounded by cats and Sally is sleeping, so I'll sneak in a bit more of the trip report...
PS - I'm going to try to be good here and just refer to people by their RV.net handles so everyone knows who we are talking about, rather than using first names. Apologies in advance if I naturally lapse into using people's first names.
Thursday: EXPO!I went for a dawn walk heading for the mountain behind the campground. It was already getting too warm to want to climb it. I did see some more wildlife though, or at least their homes:
We dumped black and grey tanks and filled with water, then headed up 87 out of the heat of Phoenix.
Coffee at Payson in a hippy shop:
Through Strawberry and a quick stop at Tonto Natural Bridge state park:
Then a final tea break in the forest, decorated with broken beer bottles, discarded cigarette lighters and 9mm shell casings:
Morman Lakes – what a lovely area. We pulled into expo, registered and then slowly drove up to the bearded guy directing traffic at the entrance to the show. He didn’t immediately recognise us until I wound down the window – yes, it was none other than bka0712 :). He lept on his BMW bike and escorted us to our allocated corner of the camping field where DJ and one or two others were already waiting.
A group of EarthRomers had already tried to crash our esteemed area and been ejected by someone – they were skulking behind bka0712’s boundary tape:
Soon btggraphix arrived and we had the two monster rigs parked together with our tiny class C sandwiched in between.
Jefe4x4 had also turned up (for those who didn't spot him above):
Others we didn't know before arrived on the periphery and the serious business of comparing modifications could begin:
Angela and Gordon from Truck Camper Magazine had been invited into our area as honorary guests, though they weren’t seen a great deal over the weekend as their dance card was very full with interviews (we kept running into them throughout the show seeking out all the different camper exhibitors).
Sun burn was acquired as we spent all afternoon and evening standing around chatting in the wind. DJ got the industrial-sized bottle of JD out and part-filled my water bottle with it – 3 days and 3 refills of water later, water from that bottle still had DJ’s patent ‘water with a hint of JD’ taste – I can see this as the next health drink.
Stay tuned for more OX13 action...
