I pride myself on how well I treat my brakes. Today I used up five years of braking power. I was on I-40 heading East and took 89, then 89A through Jerome to Cottonwood. Even though I was in low gear there were tiomes when I was almost standing on the brake to get round sharp downhill corners. I stopped at a Viewpoint - thank heavens - and found my brakes were smoking! I had to sit for half an hour to let them cool off, and I still had eight more nerve wracking miles to go. Anyway, made it and I'm in Dead Horse Ranch State Park.
Why Cottonwood? Well about a month before DG died so unexpectantly he said he had traveled through a town he thought I would love. That we should retire there. It was called Cottonwood, in Arizona. duly noted, but of course we never got there. Four years later my son is visiting me and asked if I had ever been to Cottonwood? I told him, no, and told him what his Father had said. He was amazed and said Cottonwood kept popping up all over the place, reading, conversations, TV. He said he felt a need to go to Cottonwood. So DH, I'm here! You can stop nagging. I'll explore it tomorrow.