For all of you that didn’t go it was a great trip. Dave, Sue, Owen, Roger, and Jim all got an early start Friday morning pulling out around 6am. The trip up almost proved uneventful. When we stopped for fuel is Safford we noticed that Jim had a flat tire on his travel trailer. A quick back into town got the tire fixed and we were on the road again. Once in the high elevations and on the dirt roads in the Apache Sitgraves National forest the fun started.

When we left earlier that morning Jim had noticed that that Dave’s tent trailer didn’t seam to track straight. Once off the road we stopped for a break. That’s when Jim noticed that one of the tires on Dave’s trailer had a large bulge in the side wall. No problem we thought only 12 or so miles of gravel washboard road to the campsite. HA just a couple of miles down the road BANG. I guessed the bulge let loose. WRONG!! The opposite side let loose. Than while jacking up the trailer I found that the axel had broken, yep split in half. No wonder the tires looked funny and the trailer didn’t track straight. Well jack it up and try to figure out how repair it at least for a short trip to the camp site where the axel could be removed and maybe delivered to some place that could weld the severed axel. With clamps, come along, and other odds and ends we had a temp fix. HA Less that half mile down the road another blown tire and both sides of the axel going there separate ways. Oh well I just drag it to a wide spot in the road where it can be jacked up and all the parts collected for a return trip to Alpine. While I returned to Alpine, Jim, and Roger took Sue and Owen and went in search of a camp spot on the river.

I found the Alpine garage where they welded the two halves of the axel back together and replaced 2 of the 3 blown tires. Many thanks to those folks for there fine work. With parts gathered up I was back to the trailer. I got it back together and headed of in search of the rest of the gang.
Once in camp we settled down for a great weekend of fishing, site seeing, and even did a little Geocaching.
A small contest was formed between Roger, Sue, and Jim over the fishing. The first fish caught went to Jim, the most fish caught, went to Roger, and the Biggest fish award went to Jim. Owen and I caught all the crawfish, and played in the water. Sue, tired of the handicap, finely sent us to help Roger or Jim fish.
We had a good weekend. We spotted elk, deer, and turkey along with lots of other birds, squirrels and chip monks.
Monday morning came too soon and it was time to back up. That’s when I noticed that I had a flat tire on the jeep. Count it up, that makes 4 flats for the weekend, must be a new record.
Finely off and headed down the mountain with no problems. HA, Just outside of Safford, Jim lost the holding ability of the bypass hose and spit coolant all over the engine compartment. A half a roll of tape and back on the road again. We finely got back home early afternoon. It was a great weekend.