Seattle Road Trip... Day 2

Day 2: March 24th 2012
We started our morning in the cool brisk air of the Arizona desert.  I cooked us some bagged omelettes and hot tea over our tiny camp stove while Jon tore down our campsite.  Unfortunately, it was going to be a long day for us and we didn't get to check out the Homolivi Ruins near where we were camping.  As soon as everything was packed up we hit the road again.  

Now remember that rattling noise I mentioned?  It was getting worse while I was driving.  Somewhere near Flagstaff, Arizona I pulled off the road at a tiny Shell gas station.  Jon started checking all the lug nuts and sure enough the front tire had two loose ones.  We asked a guy next to us if he had a tire wrench that might work so we wouldn't have to completely unload the car to get to ours.  He did but of course it didn't fit, but he offered us to follow him to his junk yard that he owned down the road.  So we did and to all of our surprise, the rattling noise we had been hearing was not a loose lug nut, but one that had completely broken off and was still riding in it's place!  Jon and the AZ man went around and checked all of the tires and helped us get back on the road.  

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The rest of the drive was pretty smooth for the day.  We saw snow on the ground in Flagstaff, AZ and by the time we got gas and stopped in Needles CA we were back in summer clothes.  We drove through the desert and mountains, paid $4.79 a gallon for gas in Needles, CA and had to stop at the border of CA to have our ice chest checked for fruits and vegetables.  We saw the Google car somewhere in the middle of nowhere California and by that night, it was trying to rain and we were having to figure out a new campsite to go to.  The first one we tried was closed and thankfully we found a second one fairly close to the HWY and open.  We set up camp again in the dark and had dinner before it decided to rain.  Once my head hit the pillow I was out and slept soundly to the gentle sound of rain.  We survived day two but we still had two more days on the road before we would arrive in Seattle.