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20050515 Grand Canyon, Arizona (Mountain Standard Time, same as Pacific Daylight Savings Time)
Good and bad today. Picture Link
Good weather, good drive, nice look around Grand Canyon.
Bad - broken trailer.
The drive over here from Bluff UT was uneventful in nice weather on Routes US-163, US-89, and AZ-62. We arrived, checked in, received site A-1 and thought we were in great shape. Then Dolores asked if the left rear spring "should look like that".
The answer was "NO!". I could see about six inches of the after end of the spring for the left rear wheel dangling from the rear mount. I got underneath it (taking pictures at the same time) and found:
1. All three spring leaves were snapped off just aft of the U-bolt attaching the axle to the spring.
2. The front end of the spring was still solidly mounted in the equalizer assembly between the two wheels.
3. The weight of the left side of the rear axle is upon the shock absorber and its attachment to the frame.
4. Pieces of the two shorter leaves are gone; only part of the third (longest) leaf is still dangling.
So we went to the garage here. Armand was working on a Class C, but stepped over to talk. I reviewed my problem, he said getting parts in here from outside wasn't too big a deal but that they have limited people and resources. He asked that I come back to talk with Roger Miller early tomorrow (Monday) AM. I'll do that.
We discussed options while we grabbed a quick lunch in the cafeteria. After I ensure the axle won't slip backward even further, come out of its remaining mounts and get loose, we can probably limp to a place where we can get it repaired without too much risk.
Then we went on a drive to look at and photograph the Grand Canyon. We went back out the road we had come in on (the east entry) to Desert View overlook. We looked and shot, then moved back to the next overlook closer to the campground. We looked and shot, and moved again. This repeated until we were close to the Grand Canyon Village.
We took off to the hotel "El Tovar" so D could run in and get dinner reservations for sunset tomorrow. Then we drove around the Village and back to the grocery store for a few supplies. We took them to the trailer and rested for a bit.
Then we went back out to an overlook and watched the sun set (along with 50 or more others). I wandered into a conversation with a former submariner IC off Scamp (61-63) by the name of Fast Freddie Bentley. He retired from Mare Island Naval Shipyard in P&E. The sunset was great. We could see Mt Trumbull, 68 miles west of here, with no problem. It was a little hazier in the canyon itself - the visibility measurement device in the canyon was estimating 60 miles of visibility, but I thing that thing needs work. Maybe 40 or 50.
Nonetheless, the place is spectacular.
Back to the trailer, set up the computer, began downloading pictures (244 of them) while putting a late snack together. I printed a few pictures of the underside of the trailer for use tomorrow. Dolores deleted a lot of the pictures as duplicates or worthless. I deleted some (even a few of the mule deer I hadn't mentioned yet), so the total for the day came down to around 100.
Now we're winding down, listening to an Indian flute music CD we bought in Bluff. Great stuff for relaxing. Dolores went to bed first - I must still be keyed up.
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Book recommendation from Park Ranger at Grand Canyon: “Cadillac Desert”
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20050516 Grand Canyon Utah Picture Link
More good and bad, but more good than bad.
We went to the GC Garage at 8am and met Roger Miller and Ronnie Weathington. They sized up the problem and their workload for Monday other than us. After a bit, Roger came back and said that they'd move three vehicles to clear a place for us, and that a place in Flagstaff he had spoken with would duplicate the spring or make a new one.
Roger, however, said they didn't have anyone to go to Flagstaff today. Obviously, we said we would. He said fine, come back in a half-hour with the trailer. He also said if the job couldn't be finished today, we could stay in the trailer tonight at the garage.
Back then to the site to madly make the trailer ready to travel, then take it to the garage. We backed it into place with all sorts of help and worked with Ronnie and Roger to level it with just enough weight on the rear axle to allow taking the springs off both sides. Ronnie did that. We took off for Flagstaff at noon with the broken spring, its counterpart on the other side, a U-bolt for sizing to get more of them, and the shacklebolt off the right rear (worn).
We fought our way straight into 40mph winds from the south to get to Williams, then east to Flagstaff at 80mph in 40mph crosswinds. Interesting.
Following Roger's instructions, we found American Spring and Lee Forest, the manager. He duplicated our good spring by taking two leaves off a five-leaf stack, leaving three that exactly matched what we had. He advocated replacing both the left and right rear springs to match them, so we took two. Since they were so quick, we left a few bucks for beer on top of the $92 for the springs (cheap). We ran back to Williams, then north with the wind to Grand Canyon, arriving about 3:30pm.
Roger took Ronnie off some other job and had him put the new springs on, with new U-bolts and so forth. Roger came back to oversee a few things, but the whole project was done at 4:55pm (they close at 5pm). We paid the $138 (cheap) and thanked everyone profusely, hooked up the trailer and went back to the site we left this morning.
Then we took quick showers and headed to our dinner reservation at El Tovar. The food was good, the service was very good, the wine was nice, and we just relaxed after getting back to normal after what could have been a really bad situation.
We must write a letter of appreciation for all that help.
Back, then, to the little house and these notes. Tomorrow, we're off to Kingman AZ to meet Owen & Patty McCoy and Ray & Eva Morales, former friends from USS Ray. They're expecting us for dinner (we chatted today from Flagstaff). Owen & Patty just left California for Arizona; Ray & Eva still live in Chula Vista, CA.
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