Got the u-haul and auto transport on monday, so far so good. Got it loaded and the truck on by 8 that nite, so far so good.....except that a few flakes of snow came down while loading truck. Got up to leave at 5 am. Tues., looked outside and it is white....not a lot, just an inch or two but it means plan A ( go up over the rim to Flagstaff to Kingman to Lake Havasu ) is now not a good plan, ( 75 miles to Flagstaff, uphill most of the way,no telling how much snow between here and there), so plan B is now in effect,( down to Phoenix and west to Lk. H. ) so far so good.

Warm up u-haul, say bye to wife, leave to meet friend who is going to help me and bring me back. So far so good.....except... that when i turn on the blower motor i lose the dash lites, think i must have bumped the dimmer control but can't get them to come back on. Get to our meeting spot a few miles down the road and while there my wife drives up to tell me i had no lites on the back after i left, so we checked and had a blown fuse but found 1 spare in the u-haul, so far so good.....except that it blew it out right away. Hmmmm....not so good.

Still had headlights, brakelights and turnsignals, just no running lites.....so turned on my 4 ways and said goodbye to the wife again and had John stay behind me to Payson and the 24 hr. Walmart where we bought more fuses... put them in and blew them....not so good.

Daylight is still over an hour away....we have a long day ahead of us and don't want to wait...there is very little traffic headed to Phoenix so we take off with 4 ways flashing and John behind me....so far ok, not good, but ok.

Get to Mesa,can turn off lights when we hit the freeway, so far ok and getting better.....except....rush hour is in full effect...stop and crawl for the next 20 miles....did i mention we had to get to Havasu before 11:30 or else the gal that had the paperwork for the storage unit would be going to lunch for an hour? so far still ok but its gonna be close.

Get to Quartzsite and get thru without too much slow down, (question for Sugar...thought i saw a silver and black Barth there, maybe 28 to 30 ft.? am i right?, would have loved to have stopped in to meet you but...), so far so good....except traffic to Havasu was a little slow,and we got there at noon.

Went to lunch, got the paperwork taken care of, and started unloading just before 2, went pretty fast, left Havasu at four after turning in the truck and trailer. Decided to go home by way of Flagstaff since 1. we were at the north end of town, 2. They were paving the road from there to the south and there was a 20 to 30 minute backup to get past it, and 3. it was a beautiful sunny, warm day. Also going back thru Phoenix would put us in rush hour traffic again..., So far so good.

We made good time and all was well to Kingman....then we started to see a little snow on the mountains and a lot of dark clouds, so far still so good,but,.......By Williams we were hitting snow on the road and it was snowing a little....starting to be a little concerned...

Slow going to Flagstaff with the snow getting a little heavier....got off the freeway to take the road to Strawberry/Payson....the farther we went the harder it snowed and the less traffic we saw.....so far not looking good...., having second thoughts if we should have come this way. Had a couple of snow plows go by in the opposite direction but none going our way. We just used the other lane till we met somebody coming our way or until it built up to where there was no difference from one side to the other. so far so....um...interesting.

Finally got home 2 hours later than we had planned (thanks to only going 10 to 15 miles per hour for quite a ways) and got to bed around 9 pm. so far so good....except...... today we get to do it again!!!!!!!!!! Gotta take a van with a u-haul trailer and my triumph TR-4 to Havasu and put them in storage then come back here, have our final inspection by the landlords on thursday and plan on leaving for quartzsite Friday morning.....if we can get the bus out of the yard. Please god... no more snow...send it to Dave, he won't notice a little more, :>) and we want out of here!!!!!! P.S it snowed here a little more last night.....and no we are not going by way of Flagstaff this trip!!!!!

So far so good, reads like "SO FAR NOT SO GOOD" Wow what an exercise in reading, kind of sorry I ask, MAYBE. We were for 23 plus years a large Ryder dealer, and call U-Haul, PU-Haul. At that time they had very bad equipment. Now I need to REST my eyes for a minute. Sure pray things get better, and THEY WILL. Thanks for the READING material. Dale

The Second Trip!!!


Got the 2nd auto transport at 8am on wed. and discovered that the connector for the lights that i had used on the van before, and had found while packing, was sitting in the ashtray of my jeep.....20 miles away! I had put it there because the van was in the shop for a few days having some work done on it and i did not want to forget it!....so far not too bad.

So 14 dollars later i now have 2 count em 2 connectors that i will probably never use again and have only been used once each! Oh well.....

So we get back to the house later than i had hoped because of some road work and go to fire up the car which i had started 2 times during the last week with no problem....during warmer weather.......and it would not start. Finally about 30 min. later after jumper cables, starting fluid and some cussin she started up and i got it loaded on the trailer. Now this is a 62 Truimph TR-4 with a 289 Mustang engine and auto trans and with a real pain in the ass to put up covertible top.....which was now in a storage locker in Havasu 300 miles away......and it started snowing.....alot....so far, not so good and looking worse.


I left at 10:30, went less than 2 miles and sat in a line of traffic at the road construction site for 20 minutes....and watched it snow into my car. Met John and off we went.....and the farther we went the more it snowed. Thought about turning around and going back but it just wasn't an option. Figured once we got to a lower altitude we would be out of it which is what happened by the time we got to Payson......looking a little better.

Had an uneventful trip to Havasu but did not get there till 4, got car unloaded,trailer turned in and storage unit reorganized so the van would fit in with the car and truck....had to take the hitch off the van to close the door of the unit.....so far, so good.

Hit rain several times on the way home and was worried about how much snow was at home.....and if i could get the bus out of the yard on fri. if there was snow or mud......might have to camp in the bus for an extra week or so till it dried out....but had already told them to turn off the power and water......not happy thoughts.

Got home at 11 pm and surprise, surprise, no snow!!!! it had all melted in the afternoon and the ground had dried out too!!! Perfect! Slept in the bus, got up this morning to a lot of clouds and told the wife i was going to use the block heater to warm up the engine and fire it up and move out into the cul-d-sac in case it snowed tonite so we could still leave on fri.,......so far,so good.

However as soon as i stepped out the door it started snowing!!!! and looked like it was going to do it for a couple of hours if not longer. Said to heck with it, fired up the bus as is and got in thru the fence and into the cul-d-sac.......and it quit snowing! I think God is having a little fun with me.......but i don't find it very amusing......so far, still ok.


So now we are just finishing up some odds and ends...gonna have dinner with John and his wife tonite and leave in the morning.....unless it starts snowing again, then we may leave tonite and head for Phoenix.......please god, no more jokes for awhile!!!!

Shadow Man, you deserve alittle good news. Send me your address and I will make alittle something for you. It may take me a few weeks, but I will come thru. Ok? Ok!!!. When does this come out in the form of a MOVIE? Dale

Greetings from Quartzite! Shadowman and his MC5A are parked right next to us at this moment and Bill H is back at the Barth site about 7 miles north of town. There is a Barth Rangers rally out there with about 20 coaches, mostly from the West. We'll report more on that later but we're all making progress albeit slowly sometimes. We're headed back toward OK tomorrow. Susie will have a picture or two from the rally to post. Wish more of y'all were here. Weather is great, but we prefer Mexico!

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Susie and Gary (SUGAR)
'95 Barth Regency 34'
'96 Explorer