Day 2879

We got up at 8 because it was a short day.  After breakfast we hooked up the truck.  We were out of Page by 8:45.

The first 145 miles from Page to Flagstaff went well.  There were a few idiots that couldn't drive and bad pavement in spots, but overall it was an OK trip.  We did have to stop and put DEF in the truck about halfway there.  For some reason the truck used a lot of it, probably because we went up and down several thousand feet.  We filled up in Flagstaff even though it wasn't strictly necessary.  I was happy with the 10.2 MPG we got.

We got on I17 and headed for Phoenix.  We got about 30 miles in when everything went to shit.  We got stuck for over an hour in a miles long traffic jam.  It was caused by the highway going to 1 lane because of construction.  It didn't get better after the merge.  Traffic was still slow for miles.  We were luck we'd filled up in Flagstaff.

The hits kept coming.  After about 20 miles we got stuck in slow moving traffic.  For 15 miles or more the top speed was 40 and most of the time it was closer to 20 or below.  Apparently this was caused by a car fire.  If so we never saw the car.

We eventually got back to speed and made it to the turn off to Mesa.  That's when I noticed that we were about to do a regen.  The truck had been on target to do one when we were going to Tucson.  Apparently the long time spent in traffic jams had clogged up the DPF sooner.  The regen started just before we got to the freeway exit to the park.  We ended up diving an extra 20+ miles.

All the delays cost us 2 hours and 20 minutes as well as a lot of fuel.  This was easily the worst non-breakdown day on the road that we've ever had.  

It continued to be bad at the park.  The space we have has the water and power connections on the wrong side of the parking area.  Also the parking area makes it difficult to position the trailer.  I ended up driving around the whole park 3 times before I got the trailer parked where I wanted it.

When I went to unhook the truck pulled the trailer off the blocks.  I had to reposition it and try again.  I was lucky though.  The truck stayed connected to the trailer even though I'd pulled the release.

After setting up and feeding the pets we went to Lowe's for more DEF.  Then we stopped at Culver's for dinner.  It was really good.  

When we got home we watched videos for a while and then went to sleep.