A Nightmare I Never Saw Coming

AJ, AZ   High 80  Low 49

On Thursday, Jim and I went to Sky Harbor Airport to pick up a friend of ours who was flying in from Maine. We made sure we got there a little early so we could find short term parking. We even got a parking spot about as close to the door as you could get. 

While we were waiting I glanced up and saw some interesting things on the walls. I also noticed that most people getting off the plane didn't even see these things because they were headed for baggage claim and just wanted to get out of that airport. 

These two pictures are part of the Phoenix Airport Museum. I'm sure there are many other items that we didn't see.

This picture is of the Bright Angel segment of the Grand Canyon as seen from the North Rim at sunrise. The artist, Merrill Mahaffey, wet the canvas and applied acrylic washes of color with a big brush. After the washes dried, he projected slides onto the canvas and laid in the details with small brushes and an air brush. The painting took four weeks to complete.

This one is called The Aviators and was done by Donald Lipski. The artwork celebrates Arizona's abundance of sunshine and rich aviation history. The 29 foot wide steel frames weigh more than a ton and feature chromed fiberglass lenses. Details include full-functioning hinges and vinyl nose pads. The sky is hand-painted on a 90 foot wide canvas.

 On Friday, Jim and I headed out to do some grocery shopping. I wanted to add to our food supply so we would be a little more prepared if things get really bad with the coronavirus stuff that is wrecking havoc around the world. We also stopped to have lunch at Papa Kelsey's. Great sub sandwiches.

We were gone about three hours which is about as long as we dare to leave the old dogs alone. I got out of the truck and climbed the steps and went in the door. It wasn't until I actually got inside that I noticed something was horribly wrong. All three of our slides were pulled in. My first thought was for the dogs. Rocky met me at the door so he was okay, but Skitz was not there. When our slides come in you can't get to the living room area unless you climb over the island counter. My thoughts went into overdrive and I was scared to death that Skitz had been trapped under a slide and had been killed or was badly hurt. Jim was outside in the truck and I screamed for him (I'm sure the whole park could hear me). 

He climbed up onto the island and was able to see that Skitz was still in her bed and was just fine. I'm not sure she even realized that anything had happened. Once I knew the dogs were okay, I was able to breathe again and Jim could focus on figuring out what had happened. Skitz was able to squeeze her chunky body between the slide and the island and get over to the kitchen where we were. 

Jim called a 24 hour technician from Camping World (where we bought the trailer) and between them and our neighbor, Pat, they were able to finally figure out what happened. It seems that water got in the hydraulic pump compartment and shorted out and blew a fuse and kicked the circuit breaker. This caused the slides to come in all by themselves. It took the guys about two hours to finally get the slides back out again. Jim drilled a couple of holes in the bottom of that compartment so this can't happen again.

This was truly a nightmare experience.


 You spend all this money for beds and they just want to lay on the floor.