We did have one more incident in Boise before we left that’s hard to forget. We didn’t have sewer service in our parking spot at the hospital, so once a week Chris would drive the coach to the local RV sales store and “dump” the tanks. A few days after Steve was released we had to dump, and Steve got out of the coach without his oxygen, it was a Sunday so no one was around. Chris ran the O2 hose through the coach window, unaware that the inverter was disabled and nothing was coming though. Within a minute or two, Steve was on the ground and turning blue. Screaming and yelling finally bought 2 guys in a golf cart who called an ambulance. Needless to say, we survived to tell the story

We finally left Boise and started looking around for places to get a prostate biopsy. Not something we were familiar with. Google it, maybe?

One of the bloggers Steve follows, David Bott of Outside Our Bubble, a fellow RVer had recently been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. So we started our journey south from Idaho and contacted them for an appointment.

Smoke still blanketing the area.

Drove through Salt Lake City and turned left to route 6 at Spanish Fork and through Price Canyon Recreation Area. A beautiful area but we were on a mission with no time to stop and smell the roses, not that there were any to smell at this little RV park, but the host was very hospitable and it was cheap enough

And as soon we’d parked the lady next door asked if her husband could be of any help, as Steve was struggling with the water hookup, she probably wanted him out of her hair

⁩

Next day, we’d just left the campground when we heard the news that Houston wouldn’t accept our insurance so stopped in a rest area to make calls. Our insurance company assured us they’d cover Banner MD Anderson in Phoenix, but we were skeptical, why one and not the other, they were both MD Anderson. Frustrated, we parked across from the rest area for the night to make further enquires. 

It was getting dark, and our solar charger had an error and was not charging the batteries along the way.  Started up the generator which stopped after a couple of minutes. Managed to get the generator going again and had good nights sleep in this huge field, which turned out to be Horse Canyon Road Dispersed in Price UT.

More beautiful Utah scenery around the Moab and Arches area.

Continuing south we drove through Colorado to Mancos, just west of Durango, to the Outback RV Park. Loads of room to park.

That’s Mesa Verde National Park in the background.

When we left the following morning, while refueling, Chris ran into the lady who owns the Hitch N Post RV park in Kanab where we stayed 2 years ago.

For a couple of days we’d gone back and forth with MD Anderson in Houston with conflicting information regarding insurance. We found and booked an RV Park in the area of the hospital in Houston who even had shuttle service available. It was Friday before the Labor Day holiday when we were told that Houston would not accept his insurance, so we called the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Gilbert/Phoenix area and started the conversation with them. We kept driving towards I-10. and heard back from Banner MD Anderson that they would accept Steve’s insurance. So cancel everything and check into Elephant Butte State Park NM for the weekend and start again Monday. We were halfway down route 25 and had chosen this route so if there was a problem with Houston we could simply turn right instead of left at Highway 10. And that’s exactly what happened.

We arrived at the town of Elephant Butte and got completely lost, not sure if it was a gps failure or we just weren’t listening, but we ended up in a large sand based housing estate and a kind gent showed us the way back to the park.

Don’t remember much about that weekend, just waiting for it to pass so we could get on with our search for a prostate biopsy.

We decided to trust our insurance representative, the intake person at Banner MD Anderson and turn right at I-10, not before we found ourselves driving through the packed streets of Hatch in the throws of their yearly chili festival. A great lesson for Chris on the use of wing mirrors, and nobody was injured.

There’s not much in Bowie AZ. It’s very convenient, quick on and off the highway, all pull-through sites, inexpensive, very good pecan pie and a food truck, which was new from the last time we were there.

Three more hours and we arrived at Banner MD Anderson in Phoenix

They had 12 full hook up spots in the back of the hospital, so we parked. What we did not realize was that these RV spots were designated for current patients being treated for cancer. We did not have a written schedule of treatment so we were told we had to leave. So the search for an RV park in Phoenix/Gilbert began. September in this area is off season, so it was not hard to find accommodations.