Current Location: Canyon Lake Marina and Campground, Tortilla Flats, Arizona

Today started out well but gradually deteriorated into “one of those days”. As we got closer to Mesa, the growling noise our truck has occasionally made under braking with the trailer attached was getting much worse. Eventually it turned into a grinding noise. Not good.

Fortunately, as we got off on the exit for the campground we had reservations for, there was a Ford dealer and only a mile away. We drove on to the campground and went to check in. We found out they have a specific rule that you cannot park a unit with 50 amp service on a 30 amp site, which was the only thing they had available when we reserved online (a later check of the website showed this rule stated down at the bottom of the web page).

We turned around and parked alongside the road and started calling campgrounds. Being in Arizona in the winter means that everything is typically full with snowbirds. After trying several nearby parks, we widened our search and got what was probably the last available spot at Canyon Lake Marina and Campground.

The drive out to Canyon Lake is on a twisty mountain road where the speed limit is 25 miles per hour and with good reason. It was fairly white-knuckle at times, especially with a marginal front brake, but we made it without incident. We got checked in and unhitched then drove the truck back to the Ford dealer.

The dealer checked us in and drove us to a nearby Hertz rental place where we got the “Ford repair daily rate” on our rental car – $30 per day. The dealer is going to determine if something else contributed to the brake wear since we’ve been hearing rumbling sounds from time to time for several months now (but the brakes always check out fine when we get other service done). So, it may or may not be a warranty covered item. We’ll see.

After picking up our rental car, we realized it was after 3:00 and we still hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we stopped to grab a bite on the way back out of town. We will be here through Monday, at least, depending on when they get done with the truck.