Feb 23, 2023 (Thu)
7:00 am Salome, AZ 35°
We’re sleeping in this morning, because we’re close enough to our destination (about 100 miles) that we don’t need extraordinary efforts to make it. Yawn
However, we’ve drained our water tank! Harvey has a fresh water tank, and a monitoring system that is eagerly optimistic about how much water is left. The monitor says we have plenty of water left (1/3 full), but reality says—“No more water for you—not even enough to make a pot of coffee!”
So Robert staggers out into the cold to add some water to our tank, so that coffee may be had. By some miracle—even though the water spigot is right next to the electrical connection—nothing goes sideways. Whew!
9:30 am Salome, AZ 41°
We haven’t really be looking at our news feeds the last couple of days and today—Holy Cow, they’re talking eight inches of snow in Portland, OR! Blizzard warnings in LA! Windstorms closing freeways in Arizona!
All we experienced was it was kind of windy, but meh. It looks like Woodinville is freezing and snowy. We’re kind of chilly here, but we know it’ll warm up in a bit. Just call us the “Nick of Time Kids”!
Gini, however, is not celebrating all this non-snowy weather. Seems the bean soup—which she insisted we needed to have (to add fiber to our diet)—added a bit too much fiber and it’s now on the express train out of her body.
Fortunately, Harvey has his own facilities, so it’s manageable. Robert is perfectly fine, although if he keeps gloating he may develop a sudden case of getting locked out of Harvey…
Gini wandering in the desert next to our campsite
11:10 am Salome, AZ
On our way out of town, we see a sign for an “Historical Marker,” which intrigues us. What historical happening happened here? We follow an additional marker, but all we can see is a broken down former water tank in a dusty field.
This certainly looks historical
Robert finds a face-down sign and, thinking it might be a fallen marker, lifts it up. It says “No Parking No Camping.” Since we’re parked there, and somebody else is camping there, he decides the sign needs to stay face down and we head out.
Nope, just an irrelevant sign
But hark—what is this?! Off to the side of the road, we finally find the Historical Event! It’s a grave for a Dick Wick Hall who was huge as a humorist about 100 years ago. He’d write stuff for the local newspaper (he was the publisher/editor, so no problem getting into print) and The Saturday Evening Post would pick it up and reprint it.
He was famous across the U.S. (and, no, we never heard of him, either). Also, he founded the town of Salome, AZ.
Then one day when he was 49, he went to Los Angeles to have a tooth extracted, it got infected, he was dejected, and then dead. This is his final burial spot.
The grave of famous humorist Dick Wick Hall
Thanks to Wikipedia, we found out how the town of Salome got its name (although the explanation is in the article about Dick, not the article about Salome):
Hall named the new town "Salome – Where She Danced", supposedly after [his business partner] Pratt's wife, Grace Salome, removed her shoes and began hopping on the hot desert sand.
No word on whose head she demanded after dancing.
1:15 pm Wickenburg, AZ 51°
You would think that the only town for 30 miles around would have a coffee shop. Well, we’re not in the Pacific Northwest any more, Dorothy. Of course, there’s a Starbucks, but we’re hoping for a coffee shop with a cowboy barista (out of business), or some local flavor (closed, re-opening Real Soon Now).
Robert finally settles for the local library, which has air conditioning, so yeah! Gini continues to convalesce with intestinal angst on the sofa in Harvey.
3:30 pm Anthem, AZ 55°
Our first destination! We’re bunking with our pal Joan (who lives half-time in Woodinville). Anthem is a bedroom community of Phoenix, so it has the same weather.
It’s also a gated community and after almost clipping off our brand new air-conditioner by driving under a too long overhang (“Whew!” said Robert, Gini, and the guard who works under the overhang), we get a temporary parking pass and cruise on in.
Ah! Showers! Laundry! A kitchen that’s larger than three feet! Although we’ll get itchy feet here in a day or two…
Our progress
Miles so far: 1,526 miles
The data says that we can make it from here to home in four days, although it does mean getting up early and driving until dark, but as long as we avoid bean soup, we’ll be fine! Our friend Wendy H. tells us that we should look up a type of seaweed called Kombu and put it in to cook with bean soup in the future as it will “release” the enzymes that cause gas. We add going to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s to our list of Things to Do.
Our Day 5 travels
Gini & Robert
Harvey Staff