The Ups and Downs of I-17 North

Up early so we could get on the road before the predicted rains come this way. I was out the door to walk Sandy without looking at the eastern sky.  When I finally did notice the beautiful sunrise, I tried to hurry her to get my camera.  This was the picture I finally took but five minutes before this was taken, it was even more beautiful but, I think this is pretty as well.  We were too tired to load the car last night so that had to be done.  Finally, at 8:00 a.m. we pulled out of our campsite.  This is the earliest we have gotten on the road this whole trip.

Palm trees in Phoenix.

More saguaro.

At Phoenix we left I-25 and got on I-17. Not only did the interstate number change, but the road began to climb in elevation.

We did not expect the mountains and elevation change.  The motorhome plugged along in the slow right lane.  Sometimes we were going so slow that Carol had to turn on the flashers.  At times, I felt we weren't going to make it up but we always did.  Following up comes down and that was almost as bad.  Carol would shift down, flashers would go on and we would plug along in the slow right lane.  After one long up and down, there was a rest area.  We stopped to give us and the motorhome a break.  This picture and the one below was taken from an overlook at that rest area.

The picture shows the southbound lane.  Notice that all the cars are struggling just like we had.  We were so glad to finally reach the 6,000 feet altitude.  At that point we drove through forests and along the top of the mountains.  We made it to Flagstaff KOA a little after 2:00 p.m.  We are in site #183.  The KOA sits on a mountain and our site is in the last row at the top of the camp.  We don't like this spot.  We are close to both neighbors and it is not level so we had to work at getting it level.  As Carol says, "we are only here for three nights and then we move on"  That is true but we have reservations at this same KOA in two weeks when we head for California.  We are going to look at other sites and request a better site our next visit..  The campground is nearly full and this is a Sunday.  One positive is that it sits away from the interstate so no truck/car sounds.  It did rain some.  After we finally got set up, I made supper and then did laundry.  It is cool. We have shut most of the windows and may have to use extra blankets tonight.  That makes for a good night sleep!