Finding adventure in unusual places

Having been stationary for nearly six months — a seeming eternity for full-time RVers — we were itching for a travel experience. When some friends wanted help moving a trailer from the Phoenix area to Yuma, Arizona, we jumped at the chance. 

It would get us back on the road and allow us to visit my parents — a win-win. The plan included leaving Gulliver behind in Mesa, Arizona, and using the friends’ truck to tow the trailer. Ultimately, it led us to find adventure in unusual places.

When you haven’t towed in a while, it can be easy to forget steps, such as checking connections and performing a pre-travel vehicle walkaround. We had to get back into our on-the-road mindset.

We took the route through the city of Maricopa, which led us over numerous rolling hills before reaching the halfway point in Gila Bend. While on those hills, we heard a scraping noise a couple of times and determined it to be the trailer tires oscillating. 

Upon reaching Gila Bend, we pulled over to check on the trailer and quickly realized the true source of the scraping. The extendable leg of the electric trailer jack had come loose from its housing, allowing its foot to hit the asphalt on the hills and bending the extension. With it in that condition, there was no way to get it back into its housing.

The right tool for the job

Bob was able to remove the foot of the unit. This allowed him to get three fingers underneath — not enough clearance for safe driving the rest of the way.

We checked the Love’s truck stop for a sledge hammer to knock the extension back in alignment so that we could raise it into the housing but didn’t find one. We did, however, have a hacksaw with us. That turned out to be the right tool for the job. Bob lay on the ground and painstakingly cut through the metal pipe with the saw.

With that done and out of the way, he loosened the bolts holding the electric jack in place and removed the unit from the trailer’s tongue. Although that rendered the trailer essentially stuck to the truck, it made for safe driving to our destination. 

In Yuma, we secured a replacement electric jack from Harbor Freight and installed it. Problem solved and crisis averted.

On the road again

Fortunately for us, that was only part of the adventure. We enjoyed some time with my parents, and then we learned that our friends needed us to move the trailer again, this time from Yuma to Tucson. Although less excited about this relocation, we were up for it. 

Our travels took us through expansive desert, past Picacho Peak, and into Saguaro National Park — with more rolling hills. Good thing we had replaced the trailer’s electric jack. 

After we reached our destination, our friends told us they were going to fly us back to Mesa in a private Twin Commander plane.

We buckled in for a comfortable, roomy ride that gave us an aerial view of the Central Arizona Project canal system and the airplane boneyard in Pinal Airpark, a place we tried to visit once but didn’t have security clearance. 

Thirty minutes after takeoff, we touched down in Mesa, culminating a few days’ worth of adventure and whetting our appetites for more.

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