06/09/2019 to 06/29/2019 - Page to Kaibab Camper Village at Jacob Lake and back to Verde Valley RV Resort in Cottonwood

From Page AZ we opted to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, instead of the South for several reasons, among which are that Mary has already visited the South Rim (and Bill is sick and tired of hearing "when I visited that area 'BEFORE Bill' "), and also because the North Rim is less congested of tourists and kids in the summer, is more rustic and with perhaps grander views, such as from Imperial Point.
 

We stayed at the Kaibob Camper Village. It is the only campground on the North Rim with full RV hookups, which is not really "roughing it", huh?... but then our name is RoughingIt-GENTLY, after all. (Wink!).  It is about 25 minutes to the Grand Canyon North Rim entrance kiosk, and another 25 minutes to the Grand Canyon Lodge and the canyon rim.

The campground is quiet and secluded.  Sites are rustic, surrounded by tall pine trees.  RV sites are rather close together, and most don't have campfire rings or picnic tables.  There is a common area in the center of the campground that has picnic tables and fire rings, but only 7 or so.  There is a gravel unmaintained forest road next to the campground, and although I didn't see much traffic, some pickup trucks drove by mighty fast, stirring up big clouds of dust. The motor home had to go at about 5mph max to avoid it getting shook too much, but at least it was only for about 1/2 mile.  Also, there is no cable, TV or WiFi, unless one is fortunate enough to get a sliver of Dish signal through the trees, which we were not. If you go there be sure to take DVDs or shows on the DVR, as the nights get pretty cool so as not to want to be out at night. There is a nice mile long trail through the forest that goes from the campground to Jacob Lake Inn.  Jacob Lake Inn has a bakery that sells some fantastic cookies.  Worth the hike. (There is no lake,  just a small pond with no swimming or fishing.) Note:  If you stay in the campground, be on the lookout for the extremely rare Kaibab white-tailed squirrel which can only be found on or near the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
 
Also IF you have a long RV (such as our 40-footer), be sure to ask/reserve a "PULL-THROUGH" even though you may be comfortable enough backing into a space. The 'back-ins' are actually for trailers and (at most) 30-ft Class Cs, where even if your 40 ft RV fits, there is no room for your toad and room for you to sit under your awning. That was the problem we encountered and refused to be cramped into a trailer space, just because they were too stupid to understand that a 40ft Class A diesel pusher would actually NEEDED a pull-through space at their campground, and that the trailer space they had assigned us would just be too small... not to mention that it was full of holes and ruts that we were NOT going to subject our motor home to.  So they changed us to a pull-through but said we could only have it for 3 of the 4 days we had planned to stay. For Shame on Kaibab Camper Village! That is the last time I will go to a campground that is on a dirt road. Even if it was only about 1/2 mile, our RV and toad were both filthy with dust everywhere... specially as I had just spent 2 days wash and polishing it.

June 10, 2019

We were supposed to continue our way north to Hurricane/St George, but our girl, ROXY has continued with her diarrhea issues which have progressively gotten worse, so we decided to return to Phoenix, where Saving Paws Rescue (SPR), the rescue we got ROXY from is located. They recommended VETMED, a 24/7 emergency veterinarian hospital. So, on June 10th we cancelled our future reservations for the next two weeks, forfeited seeing the Grand Canyon and made new reservations to return to Thousand Trails Verde Valley RV Resort in Cottonwood which is still about 80 miles from VetMed, but at least it is free camping for those two weeks. So we broke camp at Kaibab Camper Village after just one night to return to Cottonwood.

 

As we arrived at Verde Valley on June 10th, we got a list of the ‘available’ campsites and were surprised to see that the same one that we had left (and loved due to shade of trees, afternoon East facing awning, and large grass area next to the awning-covered patio) was still available, so we jumped on it, thankfully.

Campground rules state that all dogs must be leashed at all times in public. Roxy does not need to be leashed because she never leaves our side, with or without being leashed. Actually, we have tried leaving the leash on her (to be within the rules... technically) but not secure it to anything... and she still is perfectly content to just lay on her bed or or the ground, even when other people and dogs are walking by.

Our RV is the one on the rght, under shade trees and with a section of grass right next to our awning-covered patio, which is great for sitting out with Roxy. That side faces East too, so the afternoon offers it in the shade for Happy Hour. The RV on the left is another Discovery (but a 2006 model) and it has an aluminum rack with 1500W solar panels on it. We are thinking of doing something similar (on a smaller scale) to cover the shower skylight so heat does not penetrate it, and give us greater capacity for longer boondocking. 

June 11, 2019
Saving Paws Rescue recommended VetMed She saw Dr. Brigham and Dr. Sluiter, both EXCELLENT. Unlike the Benson vet (All Creatures) and the Cottonwood vet (Anasazi) these guys didn't just prescribe antibiotics without knowing what they were treating. They did full workups to eliminate possibilities and establish what the real problem was... and then treated IT. Kudos too VetMed Phoenix AZ. On the trip back from Cave Creek (a suburb of North Phoenix) the truck outside temperature was recording 113 degrees at 5:53pm . They kept Roxy overnight, to do fecal labs, bloodwork, ultrasound and even to scope her stomach and intestines and took many small biopsies. Until getting the results of the biopsies they modified her diet prescribing just Chicken stock for 2 days and then prescription Hill’s Science Nutrition Digestive Care Diet i/d Low Fat (canned stew and dry kibbles). They suspect IBD (Irritable Bowel Disorder) but needed all these tests and procedures to rule out other issues and make sure it was not cancer or pancreatitis. 
 

VetMed entrance.

 Vet Med Lobby

 Our sweet girl in the examination room... even though she must be feeling bad, she always keeps a happy attitude just because she is with her peeps. 

 

Every day we took turns (at night) sleeping out in the living room with Roxy, to feed her the 'reduced portions' on her 'more-often' timetable and take her out every 3-4 hours so she can poop her diarrhea (outside instead of inside), as has been the experience of the last few days while in Page and Jacob Lake.

By the 6th day (June 16th, Father’s Day) we finally got somewhat positive results... Roxy had formed semi-firm stool without diarrhea and nighttime feedings and potty walks have been able to be extended to every 6 hours instead of every 3-4 hours, as before (a fitting Father’s Day present). We hope that trend continues.

Of worthy note ... it seems that Arizona does NOT have a Vehicle Inspection law, or the cars and motorcycles of our neighbors at the TT Verde Valley resort probably would NOT have passed it. It seems too that Verde Valley RV Resort (if Thousand Trails even) does not have a policy to check for holdovers (those that stay beyond their reservation dates) as these same neighbors (and many others like them) were supposed to leave on 06/14 (for example), according to their reservation placard, and were still there on 06/18 with no signs of any intention to leave. It’s too bad that Thousand Trails does not maintain a stricter accounting of campers to make it more available to others wanting to enjoy the benefits of their memberships, as well. Likewise, it is sad that they do not have a policy to prohibit campers with trashy vehicles on their lot and some of them even working on mechanical issues on their cars and motorcycles. We addressed this issue with the Mr. Steve Woolley, General Manager, who responded "I researched from security but the car depicted (in the photo) is a patina finish, painted that way on purpose and the hood was up 'protecting the dash' against sun..."  Granted the dash is about the only part of that car that is decent; however, the hood of the car has only been UP while the owner was working on the engine and at no other time (to protect the dash). The finish is obviously NOT a PAINT finish. At most it is sanded metal on parts and rust on others. It is also a shame that the General Manager is so gullible that he'll believe any BS offered him, without the initiative to go check it out for himself. Had he done so, he would have noticed all the tools out that he was using to fix the engine, or that the roof of the car is put together as if with duct tape and crazy glue... hardly worthy of a 'patina' finish.  In all fairness though, the rest of the campground is very well-maintained and in these last few days they are even paving the whole roadway from the entrance to the farthest section, plus they have just added 62 premium campsites (all 50amp) with grand views.

The motorcycle was just as bad as the car (if you can call it that.)

 

Asphalting the roadway at TT Verde Valley RV Resort, It will make a big difference not just as to looks, but also as to reducing the dust of these current dirt roads.

June 17, 2019

Surprisingly we got great news today. Roxy's biopsies came back ruling out any cancer and confirming the preliminary diagnosis of IBD (Irritable Bowel Disorder), which though not curable, it is manageable with a special diet and steroids (in this case we are starting with Prednisone at 2x20mg daily and then see how it is to be adjusted or changed). By this date also, Roxy's diarrhea has started changing to being more formed, though still soft (but pick-upable), and mostly to the point that she can hold it all night, which means that we no longer have to stay up at night with her. However, after giving her 2-3 days of Prednisone we will again take turns to see how it goes, as a side-effect of Prednisone (in dogs) is that it makes them thirstier and subsequently need to pee more. The question is whether she will still be able to hold it all night... or not. Anyway, we are not leaving until June 25, 2019 so we'll have a week to see how it goes.  

 

June 18 -29, 2019

 Regrettably, as good as we thought that the vet was, she must not have gotten the Memo that says, "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." Once she prescribed the Hill's Prescription Diet formula food and Roxy started to get over her diarrhea and firm up her poop, the Doc had to change her food again, to Natural Balance Limited Ingredients food, because according to her the biopsies showed that a protein that she is allergic to is found in her Hill's formula. So, though we were happy wth the previous results, like idiots we changed her food. Within days Roxy started getting looser evacuations until by the day we had to leave (on our way to Fort Running Bear in Mountain Home ID - 900 miles away). The trip took us two night on the road with a dog that had diarrhea and had to make pit stops with very little notice to let Roxy out. We had to override the veterinarian and get Roxy back on the Hill's Persctiption diet.

We arrived at Fort Running Bear in Mountain Home ID on the 27th so we could set up camp and drive into a PetSmart in Boise ID to get her the Hill's Prescription i/d Digestive Care that the vet said she was allergic to, as Roxy never got the memo on that and it was the only one that had worked. Within just a few days her diarrhea was corrected and her stool started being well-formed and if not always fully firm, at least always 'pick-upable'.

Bill kept a record of how much of what was given on each feeding and how many pees and how many poos and what degree of firmness, etc, even with photos. We reported to the vet who concurred with our decisions and offered to reduce her steroid (Prednisone) from 2x 20mg  daily, to 1-1/2 20mg daily. One side effect of the steroid is that it makes her very hungry, so even though she is now back to her regular 4 cups daily (1 cup four times a day... 6am, 12noon, 6pm and midnite), she is still always starving, which makes us feel bad when we cook for us and eat.