Well, today we might not have gotten a trip around the sun today, but we did get a free trip to Blythe, CA. Blythe CA, but that’s 190 miles away, why on earth are we traveling there? Easy answer: to avoid paying the 9.5% AZ sales tax. If you buy something in AZ, that’s your tax. But, because we are Iowans, we take what is called an ‘out-of-state’ delivery and do not have to pay that tax. (Believe me, Iowa will get us later.) “Out of state’ means the nearest notary public out of state who can attest that we did not take delivery in AZ. And, that is Blythe, CA, 190 miles down Interstate 10.
So we hop into the RV with a driver from Camping World who will drive us to Blythe, get the paperwork signed, witnessed and notarized, after which we can drive back to Arizona as happy Winnebago Journey owners. We went in tandem with another couple from Canada in their RV with their driver who then will drive on to - wherever - after they get their paperwork signed. Both drivers will then return to Mesa in the car that they are towing in back of other couple’s RV. Got it? Just a tap dance that all non-Arizonans dance to when they buy an RV here.
Our driver was quite a talker and told us lots of stories about people and their RV’s. He is a British National, which means that he was born in Great Britain and is a British citizen. He is also an American as is his wife. Now, I’ve lived in America all my life and I know that you can move to America from a foreign country like he did and become an American citizen. However, he told us that we can never move to Britain and become a British citizen. You must be born one. Didn’t know that.
We got to Blythe, signed the paperwork - above is a picture of Gary, the driver and the notary public all signing something. Me - I just take pictures and am along for the ride. And, we were on our way back to Mesa. 10 minutes in a Blythe office and we were off.
Hey, what’s the definition of an optomist? An Alaskan who buys a convertible. And, today we saw a convertible with an Alaskan license plate tooling down the highway with its stereo blaring. But we saw something even better - something that was a blast from the 60’s.
We stopped at a rest stop along Interstate 10 on our way back to Mesa. As we were walking back to our car, Gary’s eyes bugged out and he started drooling: ‘look at that’, he stammered. Sure enough, there were 3 women in the entryway of an old school bus painted like the 60’s in psychedelic colors. One of them was absolutely, totally nude. Soon she stepped out laughing, ran to the front of the bus with the other 2 women, lifted the hood, did something and about 2 minutes later ran back into the bus. Gary and I laughed. And, of course, I’m kidding about Gary’s drooling and stammering.
Here’s a picture of the bus. You expected a picture of the young woman? Hey, this is a family blog. But, one look at this and I could imagine that Ken Kesey lives.
All of a sudden we felt as if we had become our parents watching the antics of our generation back in the 60’s. Although, we were more amused and bemused than our parent’s generation was. I think they were shocked, wondering what the world was coming to.
Then back on the road heading back to our campsite in Mesa. Driving the RV for a long period of time brought out several facets. One of these is the ride. Now, we all know that roads are not always as smooth as they should be. Some have real bumps. especially when roadways transition to bridges. Too often, there is a real bump there. We usually look ahead and can see if the car or truck ahead of us bounces when it hits this transition. If it does, I often grab the bar by the passenger seat so I have something solid to hang on to while we bounce over the transition. Sometimes, on really rough roads, I keep a constant hold on it. Jarring is the best word to describe the ride at times.
When we were talking with the salesman about the Journey, he was telling us that the ride would astonish us. He said going from a Simba to a Journey was like going from a Chevy to a Lexus. Yeah, sure, salesman talk. They’ll say anything for the sale. He said that the Journey had an air suspension ride, that we had air bags in the Simba but that the Journey had AIR BAGS. As if I’m going to believe all that.
Then the first, the very first, thing I noticed when we took a test ride with the salesman was the smooth ride. Today, I confirmed that first observation: this RV has a smooth ride. I think I might have reached for the grab bar once and that was only an anticipation grab. I expected to be airborne and jarred when we hit the bump but - nothing. I wasn’t airborne and didn’t feel the need to reach for the grab bar for the rest of the trip. There is also a foot rest for the passenger. What a heavenly ride. Gary also noticed the easy handling.
Gary was excited about trying out his new air horn. Of course, that motorcyclist might never get over the shock. Just kidding, he blew it when no one else was around. I was excited about listening to our new Sirius. We had Sirius in our Simba but it was our portable Sirius and had about 3 wires that looked a bit messy on our dashboard. Here, we just turn the radio on, tune it to Sirius and sit back to enjoy. Then, there’s the small drawer that we used for donuts and spice drops which is a bit lower and harder to reach for Gary but I’m sure he’ll manage.
Some people think that our life is just one happy-go-lucky, fun-filled vacation and most of the time things go very well; however, sometimes, our life is a little more exciting than I can imagine. When do we get to do some hiking? When we get back to Mesa, maybe we can spend some time trying to get ourselves back together and relax.
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