We’ll Tell You About the Volcanos Later – April 23
April 23, 2026 — Day 30
Houston Mesa Optional Horse Campground, Tonto National Forest, Payson, AZ — Grand Canyon RV Park, Cameron, AZ
The next few paragraphs should sound familiar. In our blog blitz both of us missed that these paragraphs were in the leaving Phoenix blog, they belong here, leaving Payson. So you get to read them twice!
It took forever to get out of town. We needed propane and gasoline and the station was the wrong direction from where we wanted to go. After we gassed up the RV and the Jeep we went inside to see about getting propane. We were informed that the propane person was out that day. So Susan took the RV over to the Speedway in the heart of Payson. (susan here: it was absolute chaos. RVs going in all directions with some blocking services and some blocking exits.) Paul followed since we planned on hooking up after gas just in case we had to back Clifford up. You can’t backup while towing a car, not even a few feet.
It was on the way to Speedway that Susan had the bright idea that Paul should pop into the Tonto National Forest office and get a stamp for our National Parks Passport book. We were in radio contact so Susan suggested that he stop by the Payson ranger station for a stamp in our book. It should be fast and easy, right? Except we both forgot what is “the 260”. It’s the main drag through Payson on up to Show Low. And it was Thursday. (susan here: to loosely quote Paul Revere, “The tourists are coming! The tourists are coming!!” Also explains the chaos at the Speedway.) Paul was about to turn right and find a way to make a “Cape Cod left turn” when Susan popped on the radio. “Paul, where are you?” He told her about the left turn. She mentioned that since we were going to meet here then go to Home Depot to plan the day we should do that instead of meeting at the Speedway. Doing this was much easier as Paul only had to do a right.
We needed to plan since we had some big up and down hills coming. For those days we each drive one of the vehicles. Before we left Payson we wanted to find a place to hook up. We found a mall in Flagstaff. Morning scramble to top up gas & propane, suddenly it was getting near lunchtime. We’re parked so why not have lunch now instead of an hour or so from now?
Lunch having been had, we’re off, finally!
It turns out we were able to hook up in a rest area well before Flagstaff, that’s good, because Susan was putting in a long shift behind the wheel. Paul was in the Jeep but that’s way easier to drive.
That’s the view just north of Flagstaff. Yes, those are volcanoes. We’ll tell you about them later.
Daily: 164 miles.
Total: 3,069 miles
Return Driving miles/Day: 199 miles/day (2 days driving)
Return Overall miles/Day: 397 miles
Total Driving miles/Day: 341 miles/day (9 days driving)
Total Overall miles/Day: 102 miles