We left Moab on the morning of Monday 10^th November. We were heading for Monument Valley via Mesa Verde. We had planned to visit Mesa Verde that afternoon, stay over night and visit again the following morning then drive onto Monument Valley for Tuesday night so we could do a Horse ride tour with Navajo guide on Wednesday and leave there after catching a stunning sunset and arriving late Thursday night at the Grand Canyon where we were booked for 5 nights – good plan eh??

So back to that fateful Monday. We stopped to make a coffee and for the kids to have a quick blast at a skate park – John even got out his new board (purchased back in LA – inspired in Venice Beach he thought he’d join the kids. Must be like riding a bike eh? You never forget – or so he hoped). Actually he was very good. Kids were very impressed at his “excellent skills”. Nice to be appreciated eh?

Anyway, as we were heading off again he couldn’t get Frankie into gear. We eventually got moving but the dashboard kept flashing F for fault with the gears. All a bit alarming. Came and went so we hoped it would just disappear… Sadly not.

We arrived at Mesa Verde in Colorado (another state to cross off our list!!). The Visitor Centre was stunning – a new building with eager volunteers and lots of fascinating information about this incredible place I particularly had been so keen to see. Mesa Verde, (Spanish for green table – weirdly!!), gives a look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings and it was these we had travelled to see!

So Ranger books at the ready we headed to the ‘entrance’ to the park. We got to the car park just inside the park and discovered the narrow roads mean you have to leave trailers outside. Ok, fair enough. Pulled into said car park to remove Little Frankie and the gears went again.  Hmmmmm.. So 20 miles each way in then out of park seemed far too risky on little roads that won’t even allow for trailers let alone a flat bed tow truck that we’d need if we did need rescuing. Bugger!!!!!

The only thing to do was to turn our back on Mesa Verde and head into town to find a garage. Cue big sulk from me. However, it was completely the right decision.

In Cortez we parked outside a transmission garage and were told, “can’t help you mate” – well in an American accent, might have been buddy not mate! We spoke to a garage in Tucson we had already contacted with regards a service for while we are down there and discovered a charming and very helpful English guy called Mark. So it turns out we have a ‘Sprint shift gear box’ (cool eh?) that they don’t have over here in the US – so appears parts are going to be a problem!!

Now very anxious we just wanted to get to Tucson to English Mark and his garage as soon as possible. Frankie Suddenly went into gear so we just drove – hoping the problem would go away. Charlie suggested if we just had a good nights sleep then hopefully Frankie would be better in the morning – hmmmmm.

We spoke to our breakdown service and they said they’d tow us to a secure location. Marvellous. We carried on driving as far as we could and that night we finally broke down in the desert outside of Monument Valley in front of a Government Transportation Office in a place called Teec Nos Pos (catchy eh?). Felt safe!

Roadside Assistance chaps told us they’d tow us if we couldn’t move in the morning to the nearest Mercedes garage. By then we knew we probably weren’t going to be fixed by anyone other than Mark in Tucson and we just wanted to get there. So we parked up and had a terrifying night’s ‘sleep’ on the roadside with the truckers. John attempted to chat to one of them and found himself face to face with (I kid you not) a 7’2″ tall trucker who scared the hell out of us all.

The next morning, Tuesday I think, we headed off determined to get as far south as we possibly could. All fine while we were on straight long roads through the middle of nowhere. If you imagine the most deserted, isolated roads ever then that is where we were. Tumbleweed actually crossed our path several times. We’d hoped to see Monument Valley on horseback John Wayne style – not inching across it praying we wouldn’t break down!!

Eventually we got to a T Junction offering the magic of the Grand Canyon in both directions. I should mention, that, as I’m sure you would imagine the Grand Canyon has been the mecca of our trip since we first considered this whole crazy plan. So to break down just 25 miles in both direction of this magical place was heartbreaking for us all. We were so very lucky that a charming and lovely Ex-Marine Corps chap and his kids were next to us at that junction. They towed us off into the safety of a layby where we awaited our roadside assistance!!

Now I know this sounds insane. But I had taken some frozen salmon out of our freezer (caught by our own fair hands back in BC) that morning for our supper so now as we sat at the side of the road awaiting the decision of our ‘roadside assistance’ team I had to cook the bloody thing in fear of it going off!! Barb, Norb, you know where I’m coming from right – this is special salmon!!

There we were parked in layby with native Americans arts and crafts stall around us while we were offered a ‘taxi’ or the option to hire a car ‘with discount’ to take 2 of us while the other 2 were to go in the tow truck now on it’s way to pick us up. I will never know who or what persuaded the good people of the $200 per year roadside assistance company that it was necessary to tow us to Tucson some 400 miles away but we will all be eternally grateful that they agreed!!

So Jesse the tow truck guy arrived. He said we could all ride in the back of the RV – obviously illegal but guessing he didn’t want to have to share his tiny cab with our 2 kids for 7 hours – hello, welcome to our world, we’ve been doing this for 5 months!!!

We closed the blinds – for fearing of being spotted by a sheriff – and started what felt like a 7-hour roller coaster ride! John worked and kids and I read. Time flew by and we got to Tucson and Jesse parked us up by 10pm.  We were shattered but so delighted to be here – outside a garage where we trusted we would get Frankie mended and only 40 miles from Dad and Carol’s house in Tubac.

Relieved we turned the lights out hoping we would sleep despite the sirens and cars slowing outside the van. 2 minutes later there was a knock on the door. 2 police officers.  John reached through the door to undo the deadlock causing both of them to put their hands on their guns! They’d been called by a guy dropping his Mercedes off at the garage and thought we looked dodgy – charming!!20 minutes of chat about miles per gallon, UK population, gun laws etc and they left us satisfied that we weren’t up to no good and left us alone.

Good grief.,,,, what a few days!!