We made it to a Springerville Arizona and got a room. I worked on the spare fuel tank; the switch was bad so I bypassed it. I made it so you have to turn it off and on from under the hood. Other than that the truck ran good today.

28 June, 2000

States visited today: Arizona.

Total states seen: 8

Day 9

We got up the next morning and had breakfast at Arby’s, and I spotted an antifreeze leak dripping from my truck. I searched and found a real small leak on a hose by the thermostat housing. I had been looking for a minor coolant loss for two years, and had finally found it. As it had been there for a while, we headed on intending to stop in Show Low and see about it. Well we drove right on through. Later we stopped to water some trees (It’s Arizona, they need it) and steam started coming out from the hood. Realizing that car engines can get hotter at idle and when shut down, I  re-restarted the truck and got on the road. The temperature came down, but did rise as we pulled a steep pass.

We drove through Globe and looked at the huge mountains created by copper mining. it's amazing that man can do this. 

We arrived in Mesa during the heat of a normal Arizona summer. I drove over to a friend’s family restaurant, but it was closed for the summer. I had to use a restroom REAL bad and my hair was shaggy, so we stepped into a barber and took care of both. I drove a few blocks to the friend’s house, (Matt Pederson) and he looked at me very strangely as I walked up to his car. He finally recognized me, and told me where a Pep Boys was. While he drove one of his children to school, Aaron and I went to pep boys to get antifreeze and a small hose to repair the leak. I asked the technician about the high idle and she said it was a common problem when coming from the high altitude to the Valley, and to disconnect my battery for a bit. I did as such while changing the small radiator hose at Matt’s house, and while I fixed the antifreeze leak the high idle remained. I drove up to a motel in central Mesa, closer to the things to see and dropped Aaron off, and then back to pep Boys to see if they could fix the truck. I barely made it into the parking lot and she died. I talked to the service manager and she said maybe we could get it in tomorrow. I walked across Apache Blvd. to the Apache Sands Service Center.

Now this place was complete. On one side were the car wash and the Auto Detailing place. They did oil changes and window tinting. Enterprise Rent-A-Car section too. It was nice to have alternate transportation ready to be acquired, rather than wonder what you were going to do for a vehicle. He said they might look at it tonight, but definitely tomorrow. I went back across the street to see if the truck would move. It wouldn’t. We set up a tow truck, and by the time it got over my truck it ran well enough to get across the street. So I rented this Pontiac Grand AM, a V6 while my truck was at the hospital. This was a great car for the high speed driving in a busy city, a lot of fun to drive.

I went back to the motel and got Aaron and we drove around looking for some friends. I finally found Phil White’s house, but sad to say it was too clean for it to be his house anymore. I think the bank took it back. We searched and searched for the MaGee’s house, but how many tile roof and stucco houses in complexes could there be in Mesa? We had dinner at Wendy’s and saw the edge of a dust storm and a bit of the thunderstorm that followed. Back at the motel we called Rick and he used Magee’s address on Delorme program and found the place where it should be.

29 June, 2000

States visited today: Arizona.

Total states seen: 8

Day 10

The next morning we drove back to the service center and their diagnosis was bad fuel pumps and the idle control motor. I looked at the estimate and questioned the cost of the fuel pumps. His cost was showing around 350 dollars, yet I know the actual Ford dealership cost was about 230. He immediately dropped 100 dollars off the cost and I told them to replace both pumps. I knew there were getting old, and wasn’t convinced that they were the entire problem, but I wanted to eliminate them from the possibility of being it.

We found Magee’s house and Emily screamed when she opened the door. She does that a lot when I pop in out of the blue. We visited there and they invited us to dinner the next evening. Aaron and I went to the "Arizona Mills" mall on "Mill" avenue. I saw the biggest shoe store in my life. There was the "Rain Forest" restaurant and they had live parrots outside. There were two little girls, and while one of them liked looking at the colorful birds, the other one would have a fit when she was asked to deal at all with the birds. They were more entertainment than the birds. I wasn’t overly impressed with the Mill mall, so we buzzed over to Fiesta Mall on Alma School Road. We went swimming at the motel pool, for the water slide park was 18 dollars. We went and saw the movie "Chicken Run," it was cute. We went to the castle, a arcade parlor and played video games and had a Slurpee for dessert.

30 June, 2000

States visited today: Arizona.

Total states seen: 8

Day 11

We stopped back at the Apache Sands, still being worked on, so Aaron and I drove up to the Superstition Mountains, saw Canyon Lake and to Tortilla Flats, a very touristy stop. Drove up the Salt River and saw the tubers. I wish he could have saw it on a weekend!

We drove out to the old "Williams AFB", once my home for 6 years. The front gate is gone; dorms have lights on but show no signs of use. The BX area is unused, but the commissary is now used by A.S.U. What once was an immaculate base with a very busy flight schedule is being used, but it’s mostly quiet. For those Interested, here is my Willy Pictures.

Made it back to the motel and dropped Aaron off while I went to check on the truck and hopefully turn in the rental car. The truck was almost ready, but they found the throttle position sensor was bad, and were waiting for the part from Ford. He said they ohmed out the sending unit in the tanks, and put a new one on the rear tank. That convinced me that these guys were honest. The rear tank had read "off" for years and I had just put a new sending unit in the front tank last summer. So they proved to me that they did decent troubleshooting and only replaced what was wrong. (Be it at a higher cost than you may need to pay for the part)

I was expected at Magee’s house at 5 pm, and now was running late. The part finally arrived and was installed. We took it for a test drive, the truck seemed to do Ok, and I paid my bill and scheduled a window tint for the next morning. As I drove out it did idle high, and I drove right back and had the manager note it. He reminded me the computer had to relearn all the settings… I had forgot about that. On the way to get Aaron, the fuel gauge went crazy. Now for a year I had had problems with it, and now after all this extra work around the tank, perhaps the wire was really bad and it would be easier to fix. I carry lots of extra gas with me so running out wasn’t a concern.

Had a great dinner with Sam and Becky, Went back to the castle and raced go-carts and played video games again.

1 July, 2000

States visited today: Arizona.

Total states seen: 8

Day 11

Next morning I left Aaron and had the windows re-tinted. Picked up Aaron and drove to Candy’s house. All the kids have sure grown, Suzy was on vacation; but I did get to see Jenny and Michael. It was nice to relax and not drive for a while. Drank a lot of beer and a few Jim Beam and cokes. Spent a hot night at Candy’s, not used to the heat anymore.

2 July, 2000

States visited today: Arizona.

Total states seen: 8

Day 12

Had breakfast with John and Lydia from Germany. I hadn’t seen them in about 17 years.