Arizona and New Mexico - January 3-5

With the trailer and pickup packed (and more than likely over packed), we finally got underway about 11 am on Saturday, January 3^rd. Our plan is to pretty much head towards Florida on I-10 with a couple of layovers in San Antonio and New Orleans for a little sightseeing.  Unlike our previous adventures, we have some scheduled events in Florida and we don’t want to have to rush to get to them. Of course, weather will be the main controller of how long it takes to get to Florida.

Weather started to exert its influence almost right away. Our first night was spent in Blythe, at the border between California and Arizona. The night temps got down to the 30s, but nothing froze and our trailer was comfy cozy.

The next day was bright and sunny and it warmed up to the 50s during the day, so a very nice traveling day. No major events on our trip so far. We spent the night near Avondale, AZ at a campground we have used before. The night, again, was very cold. TV news is reporting record lows in Chicago where an arctic freeze is sweeping down from the north. Not going to complain about our mid-30s mornings when Chris is experiencing -2 degrees!

We are making around 250 miles a day so far and progress feels slow.  Going to try getting up a bit earlier so we can get more miles before it gets dark (which is around 4:30 pm). The pickup is so much more comfortable for long drives than the van was, I am feeling quite pampered.

On Day 3, we headed to New Mexico.  Spent the night in Deming, New Mexico; this is west of El Paso by a couple of hours. We stayed near here last year on our trip to Florida and our South American cruise so we knew where the good Mexican food restaurant was. Had a very nice enchilada dinner at Irma’s. Temps are getting colder and colder and now they are talking about high winds coming in a couple of days.

When we got up in the morning, the outside temp was 25 degrees! Russ had to uncouple the water hose since it was frozen solid. The trailer has a fresh water tank and our trailer is four seasons rated which means the tanks are heated and the undercarriage is insulated so the trailer hoses won’t freeze. This is good because it means that we can take our warm showers in the morning! Things had thawed out by the time we were ready to leave, so Russ was able to refill the fresh water tank and dump the gray and black water tanks. The next few days are going to be interesting – haven’t been in real cold weather with a trailer since Alaska.

 

Our new towing vehicle.  It is very comfortable compared to the old van.

The weather going through Arizona was clear, but cold.

I think this was the last day that Russ wore shorts. The weather has been very cold!

 

We spent the night in the land of the Snowbirds. When we stayed at this same campground in 2013 during the early fall, there were hardly any RVs around. Not so this time.