LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN
We spent the holidays of 2021 enjoying quality time with our family and some close friends, and most importantly relaxing after a hectic few months getting the house sold and emptied. Since we were about to head west for the next six months or so, it was nice spending time reconnecting and just enjoying time together. After the New Year. however the snow started to fall in Tennessee where we were staying and we decided it was time to move on and finally start our long awaited journey west to Scottsdale, Arizona.
So we stocked up on supplies, said our goodbyes to our friends and headed out for parts unknown, ok well unknown to us. Since neither one of us has ever driven across the country before this was a completely new adventure and one we were looking forward to. The closest I had come to driving that far was when I was in my early 30’s and I drove by myself from Rochester, NY to Florida to spend Easter with my family but that was a long time ago, more years than I care to think about, lol! Plus I had my AAA Trip Tik (ya, I'm that old!) to guide me along the way so it was pretty easy, that and it was more or less a straight shot.
We embarked on our journey armed with our Garmin 890 GPS, Google maps and various apps, websites and yes even a paper atlas to guide us on our along the way. Actually, the trip wasn’t difficult, just head south to I10 and then turn right. The biggest challenge was deciding how far to travel each day and finding a place to overnight. Since we are Harvest Host members we originally thought it would be fun to just stay at a Harvest Host location each night, but we didn’t have our solar installed yet and the weather was still pretty cold at night so we opted for full hookup campgrounds so that we could run our furnace at night to stay warm. That worked out pretty well and we did manage to stay at one Harvest Host in Texas, but more about that later.
The plan was to travel around 300 miles a day stop for the night and repeat the next day until we reached Arizona. We weren’t interested in doing a lot of sightseeing on this trip. We didn’t have our “toad” yet so exploring places would be a little tough in a 32-foot motorhome, so we were basically just making our way across the country one state at a time more or less. Of course we had to spend 2 nights in Texas because the state is so dam big, lol! Although we did make notes of interesting places we saw along the way to come back and explore the next time.
Our first stop was Alabama.
We headed south out of Tennessee toward Gadston, AL and our first stop. We were in desperate need of getting out of all of the dam snow! The snow followed us most of the way and then just before we stopped for the night we found what we were looking for….green grass and warmer temps!
The campground we stayed at in Gadsden was The Cove RV Resort, now my idea of a resort and theirs differ quite a bit, but it was convenient to route 10, it was clean and had full hookups. It did have a pool and a pond and the site was fairly level so it was a win all the way around. We stopped early enough so that we could take a walk around the campground and stretch our legs after riding in the rig all day, besides Einstein needed the exercise. He really wanted to go swimming in the pond, but the idea of smelling a wet dog all night just didn't appeal to us, oddly enough
We arose the next morning, packed everything up and continued our journey south toward Mississippi ( I just like typing that word, lol). This trip west was a great way to get into a routine for teardown and setup of the rig. We were able to create and modify our check lists for each task so that by the time we reached our destination we had it down to a science.
Moss Point MS
The ride to Moss Point was almost five hours and mostly uneventful, and no ,we didn’t find any more snow, thankfully. We were originally going to stay at an alligator farm (Harvest Host) but even though we were much farther south, it was going to be a little chilly at night so I found a campground near there and called to see if they had a spot available.
A super nice guy with a thick Mississippi (see what I mean?) accent answered the phone.
“Hi, we have a 32 foot motorhome, would you happen to have a vacancy for tonight?” I asked hopefully.
“Hmmmm, Im really sorry ma’am but it looks like we are full. Hang just a moment though, let me take a look (after a few minutes he came back on) You know what, why don’t ya’all come on in and we’ll gitcha a spot.”
“Ok, thanks, we’ll be there in about an hour.”
So we headed to Presley’s Outing RV park. And what a nice place and run by great people! As we pulled in there was no one at the office so I called the number and the same gentleman I spoke with before answered the phone.
“Ya’all just set tight and Cowboy will be along shortly to show you to your site.” We knew then that we ad officially arrived in the south!
Well within a few minutes "Cowboy" showed up in his pickup truck with his dog running along side and directed us to what looked like an overflow site behind the office. It looked mostly level and had hookups so we were good with it, since it was just for the night.
As we were getting setup the owner came along (the gentleman I had originally spoken to).
“No, no, no this won’t do, Cowboy ,let’s put them over there (he pointed to a regular site with a paved pad and looked much more level)”
So he showed us where to set up and helped us get parked. We thanked him for his hospitality and he left us to get setup for the night.
“Ya’all just get squared away and we’ll settle up in the morning.” and with that he and cowboy headed off.
We got level (we were getting pretty good at it at this point), and hooked up then took Einstein for a walk near the water and what a cool place! Wooded site, level, nice sandy beach. And the river is supposed to be a great fishing spot. We decided to put this on the list to visit again when we could stay longer.
So we had a quick dinner, took another walk around the park then settled in for the night to get ready for another long day tomorrow.
The next morning we packed everything up and stopped at the office to pay for the site. The owner came out and chatted with us for a few minutes about the park, and about New York, and before we knew it he sent us on our way and refused to take our money. Talk about southern hospitality! We assured him that we would be back when we can stay longer and we definitely will!
Lafayette, LA
In Louisiana we got another 236 miles closer to our destination and stopped for the night a Maxies Campground in Lafayette, LA. This campground was nothing fancy, but it was clean, level sites and convenient to the highway. As we pulled in the owner told us to pic a spot then come back and check in. There were several spots available we found one that looked easy to level and we were set for the evening. It was the first night in our travels that was actually warm out so we grabbed come cocktails after dinner and sat outside enjoying our outdoor TV and just chillin.
The next day we packed up and headed into Texas another state and our first Harvest Host! The drive to Luling Texas was fairly uneventful. It was the first time either of us had been to Texas so we passed the time just taking in the sites.
Our First Harvest Host
Our first Harvest Host stay was at Austrian Farms in Luling Texas. Austrian Farms is a beautiful property, off the beaten path but in a beautiful location. After making a wrong turn to his neighbor’s driveway, we found the right spot and the owner met us and jumped in his pickup to show up where to part. There was another RV there as well so we weren’t alone. The owner said that the tour would start in about an hour to just come on down, and oh ya, Einstein was welcome to join us, which was definately a plus.
Austrian Farms is a distillery that creates a very unique and delicious Edelbrand brandy. Listening to KC tell the story of Edelbrand brandy was fascinating and the tour and tasting was excellent. We really enjoyed the experience and will definitely be back to visit. Oh and the views and sunset were spectacular!
Texas is Huge!
Texas, being the ginormous state that is required two stops to get completely though it so we put another 370 miles on the rig and stopped for the night in at the Fort Stockton RV Park. This, again wasn’t anything special but it was a nice park with level gravel pull-through sites, a pool (still too cold for that) and a small restaurant right on site.
After we got setup (we were getting pretty good at it at this point) we decided to take advantage of the onsite restaurant and grab some dinner. It’s a nice little restaurant with a simple menu, mostly comfort food but it was very good and each meal comes with a small cup of ice cream which was a nice treat after a long day
By now we were more than two thirds of the way to our destination and we had pretty much gotten into a rhythm as far as setting up, tearing down, route planning, gas stops, rest stops. Like most couples that travel in an RV, I take care of the inside and get everything secured for travel and Jeff handles the outdoor stuff. Even Einstein had fallen into a routine. He knows to jump up on the couch when we start to put the slides in so he is out of the way. He’s still trying to figure out why the walls in this house move! Once we get on the road he just settles in and takes a nap. That is until we bring out the snacks then he is up front laying between us hoping for a treat or two, while he drools on my leg.
On to New Mexico!
We headed out of Fort Stockton making our way toward New Mexico and our last stop before reaching our destination. As we headed to the Texas-New Mexico border everything was going well, we had decided we would stop for a break at the rest stop right across the boarder in New Mexico. That is until traffic came to a grinding halt coming out of El Paso. Just before we got to the rest stop we were going to visit, we entered a construction zone and traffic started to slow, then it came to a complete stop. There was an accident off to the left and we thought that was the culprit but we weren’t that lucky. We ended up sitting there and barely moving for nearly two and a half hours.
One advantage of traveling in a motorhome is that in that situations like this you have your own rest room with you, plus a fridge and pantry to make snacks and sandwiches! Even Einstein was a trooper through the whole ordeal. Although it was a little frustrating just sitting there waiting for something to happen, we were much more fortunate than many others stuck along side of us.
After what seemed like an eternity we started to move, slowly, but we were moving. They ended up having everyone get off at the next exit, head down a service road and then get back on Route 10 at the following exit. As we drove down the service road, we found out what the hold up was. A tractor trailer was laying on its side in the middle of the highway between the exits. That’ll definitely mess things up! Not sure what caused it but hopefully the driver was ok. As aggravating as the delay was, we were having a much better day than he was!
Our last stop was in Deming New Mexico. We were supposed to arrive around 3PM but due to the delay we didn’t roll in to 81 Palms RV Resort, until almost 6pm. We checked in and the office person was super nice and very understanding. He said there were several other RV’s arriving that night who were stuck in the same traffic jam. This is a nice park, nothing fancy but they have nice large pull through sites, if we had had a toad we would not have had to unhook. But since we didn’t have one yet we pulled in, hooked up and checked the place out. They had a nice dog park so we took Einstein over so he could run some of that cooped up energy out of his system. Then we settled in for the night.
The nice thing about this park is, ok there are several. It’s right off of RT 10 easy in and out, there is Petro truck stop near by as well, so it was easy to pull out, go fill up and get on the road for the final 330 miles to Scottsdale.
Finally Arizona!
Now we had both been to Arizona before but we had only flown in so we had only driven in and around Phoenix/Scottsdale. I will say the drive in from New Mexico was a very scenic ride. The scenery was spectacular and we made notes of things we wanted to come back and see at a later time.
We made our way up through Tucson and into Phoenix and finally Scottsdale. We pulled into my brother’s driveway around 3:00 in the afternoon, tired and road weary but feeling very satisfied that we had trekked across the country and made it without a major incident and most importantly, didn’t get lost. All-in-all the beginning of our new life of adventure had been just that. We met lots of nice people and crossed some states off our list that we had never been to before. Now we were going to spend a few weeks enjoying some quality time with my brother and more importantly meeting our new grandson and daughter-in-law. Plus we had lots of projects to get done on the rig including adding solar, a composting toilet, sumo springs, buying a toad and setting it up for towing.
Lots to do, lots to see but for now we were going to chill for a bit, Until next time…..
