Patagonia Lake State Park

Well Hello and Hi. We have been at "Patagonia Lake State Park," last night (Tuesday) and tonight (Wednesday).  Absolutely a beautiful place to stay and visit. Yesterday when we arrived, and got all set up, we were able to rent a paddle boat for an hour, because it was "Half-off Tuesday!" Crazy crazy! Jeff and I were the ones peddling (got an awesome leg workout for an hour); and the kids sat back and relaxed. The lake is pretty large, and beautiful. I rate it "Stafford Four Stars!" The rest of the evening, I cooked us a skillet dinner, with beef sausage, red potatoes, onions, bellpeppers...yum. We had our campfire with roasting marshmallows. All good things about camping. Today, Jeff and Kent took a trail hike, to Sonotia Creek, which flows into Lake Patagonia. It's a huge birding area. I've never heard so many different types of birds,in one area, before. It's stunning on this trail (as we walked some of it yesterday before dinner). Once we got around...we were off to Sonotia/Elgin! By the way...side note...weather today was/is cloudy, rainy, cool, stormy and added to the experience!  We went back to my favorite winery, "Sonoita Vineyards." Love the wine they make! It's the best in Southeastern Arizona! Go there! You must go there! From Sonotia, we headed right on over to my favorite town. Ever. That's right folks...Tombstone! I never get tired of that town. I love seeing the folks all dressed up in 1800s attire! We saw Wyatt Earp walking past the Visitor Center; and let me tell you...that was one slick guy playing the part to perfection. He strolled along like he owned the town...and then he met up with his brothers and good ol' Doc, at the OK Corral! I felt like I went back in time watching them around the town. From Tombstone, we drove to Bisbee, with the intention to take the Queen Mine Tour, but alas, they were booked up...so we reserved a tour for this Friday, after our Kartchner Caverns tour. Now, we did our little drive around the big open copper pit mine, and some random, 1950s looking town of Lowell, super close to Bisbee (what was that place about? Cool, but random)...and then making our way through the narrow street of Bisbee (the last photo on this post shows the moment), when we smelled the worst burning rubber and saw smoke, high pitch squealing, chaos...our truck was in trouble. We parked it in the nearest parking lot, and turned it off immediately. Unfreakingbelievable. We were stuck in Bisbee, while our dog and trailer were in Lake Patagonia Campground. Jeff was checking under the hood, and could feel the driving belt was extremely hot, and that's were the problem looked to be at. We called an auto repair guy, and asked if he thought the same thing, and he agreed. Our choices were limited. Either sit there and wait forever for a tow truck to pick the truck and us up, and take us to Sierra Vista; which would mean, we would have to stay in a hotel for the night (and Curly still alone); or risk driving it ourselves (because it would still drive), to Sierra Vista and hope to get there ourselves, and if we break down along the way, still call a tow. The goal was to get to the Ford Dealership in Sierra Vista, before it closed (at 6:00), along with Enterprise car rental, because this truck needed to get fixed. Guess which option we took...that's right, the second one. You better believe I was praying "Dear Jesus," the whole way there, over 32 miles away! Both the dealership and rental place closed at 6:00, and it was close to 4:30. STRESS. "DEAR JESUS GET US THERE." That was on repeat. By God, and only God, did we arrive at the dealer on time. It was prayer to our good Lord, who kept us safe, and the truck moving. Here's what we think the grim situation is, and what the service guy thinks...the bearing, on the tension driver pulley, seized, causing the belt to overheat and slip off. We will get confirmation on this tomorrow. The service guy was shocked we were even able to drive it there. I told him, we made it on prayer!  The guy said his diesel mechanic will be there at 8:00 tomorrow, and we pray that there isn't a worse problem, or that parts need to be ordered. Our other hiccup, is the fact that we have to check out tomorrow, at noon, and we have a little rental car (yes we managed to get that done too), not our truck. The site is reserved, so we have to move. THAT will be interesting to see what the park rangers will be willing to do for us, if they could help pull us out, and let us sit by the little store, or what...we shall see. Oh dear. The good news is, we are currently back at our trailer, our little home, with Curly. Tomorrow is a new day...hopefully a productive, healthy, positive one.