10-13APR10 - Willcox & Phoenix, AZ

First thing Saturday morning, 10APR, Dan was at the GMC dealer to get the radio fixed from their botched repair yesterday. Naturally even though it was their mistake, it still took two hours of waiting for a 20 minute fix. Later that day we discovered they still screwed up the glove box so it only opens half way!!!

A couple times in the past we have described the difficulty of getting a large RV serviced while you live in it. Not to rehash the subject, but you need to go to a truck facility; they are few & far between, & trucks always get priority. Anyway we have been trying to get routine servicing done on RV since leaving Louisiana. While at the Rally in Albuquerque we heard several recommendations for the Freightliner truck facility in Phoenix (Tolleson actually), supposedly open 24/7.

So we left El Paso & stopped Saturday night in Willcox, AZ, at a RV park that appears to be old motel now converted to a “multi-use” facility - indoor pool, spa, fitness center & a restaurant Tacos el Sonorense. Willcox was the national leader in cattle production in early 1900s & the largest railhead in the country at the time.

Trivia – what famous lawman was killed in Willcox (hint – initials are W Earp)?

We then fired up the Toad & headed into town for exploration. Although Willcox is now a small & sleepy town, we still found it interesting. The big attraction is the Rex Allen Museum; Rex was a less famous singing cowboy who supposedly made the last singing western in 1954. Rex’s big claim to fame was that he was the voice of over a hundred Disney animal documentaries. We also noticed a very big BBQ restaurant in old RR cars; a cocktail lounge where you cook your own steaks; & “supersized” family with their burgers & drinks.

http://www.rexallenmuseum.org/

We headed back to Tacos el Sonorense for dinner. Where Dan had to have the Sonoran Hot Dog (grilled dog wrapped in bacon, with mayo, mustard, beans & salsa), along with a Taco Tripas & Taco Cabeza; Corrie settled on a Caramello (aka quesadilla w/meat). It was very good food with a great condiment bar to build your own toppings, & inexpensive to top it off.

Sunday right around noon we pulled into Freightliner in Tolleson/Phoenix, AZ, only to discover that the truck repair facility was open 24/7, but the RV facility is only open 12 hours a day, M-F! Luckily we were allowed to plug-in & stay for free. For dinner we headed to Haus Murphy’s for a truly German dinner. We don’t know why a German restaurant started by a German couple has an Irish name, but it was authentic, including an outdoor beer garden with appropriate beer hall music playing. Corrie had the traditional Schnitzel & Dan went with the Paprika Schnitzel (as featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives) along with a Spaten beer (the oldest brewery in Munich, over 600 years!). It was the best German food we have ever had outside of Germany!
http://www.hausmurphys.com/

First thing Monday morning we checked in for service, & discovered everyone else has an appointment. We wanted routine service done & a vibration checked-out. After sitting around all day Monday, they finally started Tuesday after lunch. They immediately found the source of our vibration was a “bad” universal joint in the driveshaft. In our opinion this bad U-joint is probably from the lousy service we got at Freightliner in Mt Vernon, WA, AUG09. See the below internet link how other things done in Mt Vernon almost caused us to have major brake failure in Kelowna, BC. In this case, if the U-joint had failed, we would have lost our driveshaft & had major repairs like AUG07 in Minot when we did lose the very same U-joint (see below BLOG for Minot)!
http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2009/08/31aug-01sep09-kelowna-bc.html

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/08/15-aug07-minot-nd-busted-really.html

Freightliner finished with the routine service & repairs early Tuesday evening. To celebrate we headed to La Piazza al Forno featured on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives, for dinner. This is a small, but excellent, Italian restaurant; that makes their pizzas in a wood fired, brick oven imported from Italy. Our meals were outstanding, Corrie had the chicken marsala & Dan had a white pizza called pizza blanco.