{"id":5304,"date":"2016-06-07T20:40:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T20:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/?p=5304"},"modified":"2016-05-15T20:46:08","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T20:46:08","slug":"the-kindness-of-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/?p=5304","title":{"rendered":"The Kindness of Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I hitched up Flo and crossed the river the next day. I wanted to stay nearby in Page and take a tour of Antelope Canyon. Unfortunately, the only thing available seemed to be the Walmart parking lot. I decided that I would save Antelope Canyon for &#8220;next time&#8221; and push on.<\/p>\n<p>My next stop was\u00a0Navajo National Monument near Kayenta, Arizona.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Navajo-National-Monument.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5305 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Navajo-National-Monument-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"Navajo National Monument\" width=\"660\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Navajo-National-Monument-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Navajo-National-Monument-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Navajo-National-Monument-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Navajo-National-Monument.jpg 1822w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>They were listed as a &#8220;free campground&#8221; in <a href=\"http:\/\/campendium.com\">Campendium.com<\/a>. There were warnings about length on the site. They said that there was conflicting information on the signs. The one out by the highway said there was a limit of 28 feet for any individual unit. Since my Airstream is 27 feet, I figured I&#8217;d be all right.<\/p>\n<p>The sign\u00a0at the campground said that the limit was 28 feet overall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Warning-sign.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5310 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Warning-sign-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"Warning sign\" width=\"660\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Warning-sign-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Warning-sign-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Warning-sign-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Warning-sign.jpg 1148w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I wish I had looked at the warnings and decided that I should just roll on.<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#8217;t seem that tricky to get into the site I picked, but those tough high-desert trees do not yield if you get too close.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Owie.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5306 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Owie-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Owie\" width=\"660\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Owie-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Owie-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Owie-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I punched a hole right through the side of my Airstream! This photo was taken in the morning with the sun shining. When I was trying to get settled, It felt like rain was in the offing. I grabbed my duct tape and started closing up the hole.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/duct-tape-fix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5307 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/duct-tape-fix-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"duct tape fix\" width=\"660\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/duct-tape-fix-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/duct-tape-fix-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/duct-tape-fix-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was taping away, and a couple in a nice <em>small<\/em> pop-up van camper came over to help. They brought more tape and a plastic container to put over the electrical connection, which I had also knocked off.<\/p>\n<p>Then, I started working the phone. I had absolutely no internet connection and only the faintest whisper of a phone signal. I couldn&#8217;t look up any information, so all I could to was use the information in my phone. I called my good friends at <a href=\"http:\/\/woodlandtravelcenter.net\">Woodland Travel Center<\/a> in Grand Rapids, Michigan and told them what had happened. Megan gave me some phone numbers and I started calling.<\/p>\n<p>Some places didn&#8217;t answer. The one place I reached said that they couldn&#8217;t be able to work me in until July.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0July? <strong>JULY?!!!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(I had this little incident at the end of April.)<\/p>\n<p>That place did give me the phone number for Airstream, at least. However, due to time zone difference, they were closed.<\/p>\n<p>The next morning, I got through to Airstream, and they gave me a few more numbers. I found a dealer, Desert Autoplex, that would be able to help me, but they were in Mesa, Arizona. Mesa was about six hours away, and would involve &#8220;doubling back&#8221;, but they were able to help me and I was delighted. After that, I called the insurance company and got the ball rolling in that department.<\/p>\n<p>I always say, if a problem can be fixed with money &#8211; and you have the money &#8211; it&#8217;s not really a problem.<\/p>\n<p>And so, I left Navajo National Monument without seeing anything.<\/p>\n<p>Oddly enough, I just wasn&#8217;t in the mood.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hitched up Flo and crossed the river the next day. I wanted to stay nearby in Page and take a tour of Antelope Canyon. Unfortunately, the only thing available seemed to be the Walmart parking lot. I decided that I would save Antelope Canyon for &#8220;next time&#8221; and push on. My next stop was\u00a0Navajo &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/?p=5304\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Kindness of Strangers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[539,538,37],"class_list":["post-5304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-desert-autoplex","tag-navajo-national-monument","tag-woodland-travel-center"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5304"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5315,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5304\/revisions\/5315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}