Tempe/Phoenix/Burnt Well Rest Area, Arizona, November 13th

MY PLAN WAS TO DRIVE from Santa Fe to Phoenix, find a rest area, and put the ATXBreeze tiny camper to work (finally) as a place to actually camp/sleep in (every night that I've been traveling has been spent in a common domestic setting. Y'know - like inside a house :) Phoenix is a big city. It's several cities all bunched up, kind'a like Southern California. I ended up in a Tempe Starbucks located inside a Target which really confused the hell out of my Garmin GPS. Finally got a friendly parking lot local to tell me exactly where the damn coffee shop was and I planted myself there, logged on, and got to work looking for a rest area close by. But there wasn't a damn rest area anywhere close by, certainly not in the metro area.

It was right in the heart of rush hour traffic and El Sol was on a sunset beeline. I had to find a place to stay. I called 2 nearby Walmarts to inquire whether they allowed overnight RV parking (like many do all over the country). Nope. Not in Tempe! The last time I drove thru Phoenix, I got stuck in really awful, bad, terrible rush hour traffic. I SWORE I would never drive thru Phoenix again during rush hour. I even did "research" on how one could drive around Phoenix while heading to California before I left on this journey. BUT OF COURSE, I got on the road and drove thru rush hour traffic AGAIN. Except this time, it was rapidly getting dark and I was pulling the tiny trailer. Just like before, traffic was terrible. But I had decided to push on, get out of Phoenix and get to a rest stop that I'd stayed at before, about a hundred miles away, Burnt Well Rest Area. Best rest stop ever! Well lit, lots of bathrooms, lots of space, clean. I got to the rest area at a not so late 7:30p. I'd put an additional 530 miles on my odometer (I can cover long distances easily, btw. I enjoy it, actually. I once drove 1000 miles in one day, from Austin to Louisville. It was to visit a girlfriend over the Christmas holidays. I alway referred to this particular girlfriend as the best GF I ever had. Why? - because she live a thousand miles away!). There were lots of Semi's at the rest area, idling, coming and going, but the engine hum was like soothing white noise and it didn't bother me whatsoever. I settled in. I had my typical dinner of cheese and chicharrones (cracklings) and consumed ONE gin and tonic. Then I set up my special fold out sleeper, turned off the light and went to sleep. It was a cold evening, by the way. How cold you may ask? It was the kind of cold, and everyone will know what I'm talking about, where I even covered my head and balled up for dear-freezing-life!

Got up at 6:30a, warmed up yesterday's Starbucks coffee in a small pot over my Coleman stove and aimed my Forester to Indio, CA. California, here I come! - Max

(distance, time covered:520 miles, 8.5hrs.)