Finally, after almost 8 months in Texas, we are outta there.
Don't get me wrong. For the most part we love Texas. But this was a brutally hot summer, wrought with Covid restrictions, and all we could think about was being someplace else. Someplace cooler for sure.
We sorta inched our way out of Texas staying at several Harvest Hosts. The first pic above is from a golf course Harvest Host just outside of El Paso. We also did two nights at wineries and one at a brewery. (might be a theme there 😁)
Once into New Mexico we hit another Harvest Host golf course. This one parked us on the edge of a cliff overlooking the course. The view was much more spectacular than the picture can convey.
This was our first time in north western New Mexico and we were completely blown away by the scenery. Huge rock outcrops, tall pines and stunning Aspen trees in full fall color.
Most of the way was at relatively high elevation. We were at 8000 feet just prior to exiting New Mexico into Arizona. The little Mercedes diesel in our Winnebago View did great through the mountains averaging almost 14MPG, and that was while towing our Jeep! I could not have asked for more.
Just after crossing into Arizona we stopped at an amazing National Forest campground. I believe we were at about 8500 feet, deep in a pine forest overlooking an alpine lake.
Need I say wow! There were reports of bears frequenting the campground but we didn't see any. We also saw signs for elk but never saw them either. We stayed up late by a roaring campfire with a glass (or 2) of wine and all was right with the world. It got down into the upper 30s at night and we slept like babies.
The next day we continued north and landed just off historic RT66 outside of Winslow Arizona... "It's such a fine sight to see..."
Of course we did the obvious tourist stops and pics at "the corner", and also walked around the town a bit.
There was a nice walking path and some old trains to peruse. And all of this was just off RT66.
While in Winslow we stayed at the Homolovi Ruins in the state park. The park is immaculate and the ruins were pretty interesting as well.
There was also an old cemetery nearby which was at the site of an early Mormon settlement. Given that all of the history of the area centers on the Hopi indians, this was unexpected for me.
The area here is all desert, yet somehow still very beautiful. It is hard to imagine the early settlers making a go of it being so dry and unforgiving. They say everything in the desert wants to stick you, bite you, or in some way do you harm. I can see that very clearly now. The daytime temps are in the mid 70s and at night we get mid 30s. That's pretty perfect in my book.
Tomorrow we continue north to Moab Utah. We have a one night stop at another Harvest Host site. This one is actually a souvenir shop and convenience store in the middle of nowhere. But it's a perfect location to break up the almost 6 hour drive to Moab. We have about 3 hours tomorrow and then 2 hours more the following day. Should be a piece of cake.
For those of you wondering how much boondocking you can do in a small rig like ours and not have to suffer... well we boondocked 5 nights in a row leaving Texas, across New Mexico and into Arizona. When we got to our current location (State Park) we had 2/3 tank of fresh water, 1/3 full in our black tank, and the grey tank showed empty. The propane showed full, but I have installed a more precise guage and know we used about 7%. Of course we conserve, but nothing crazy.
And yes we do have solar and lithium batteries so we never worry about our electrical needs. We only ran the generator once, and then only for 5 minutes to microwave a side dish for dinner. Every evening we watch some recorded shows or movie and use lights and fans as we would if plugged into shore power. I think our little rig is just about the perfect boondocking machine.
BTW, starting tomorrow we will be off the grid for 11 consecutive days. And we are confident we will do just fine 🤓
We thank you for reading and following along with our journey. We hope you are well!
Please remember to vote!
_______________________________________
Cindy and Terry
Wanna see a map of where we have been?
Check out our YouTube channel:
Follow us on Instagram: the_next_hundred_miles
Follow us on Twitter:
@hundrednext
Follow us on Pinterest:
thenexthundredmiles
Questions or comments email us at:
NextHundredMiles@gmail.com
Looks like a fun trip . The best we’ve done on gas is 9 miles a gallon so 14 is great !
ReplyDeleteWe were surprised too. I will say that some of the really steep grades slow us down quite a bit, but I'll trade that for the economy. Our previous coach, the 45' Entegra averaged about 8.5 on a good day down hill.
Delete