Time to head east!!

This should be an exciting trip…I planned it late last year and made an appointment at the Winnebago Factory Service department to have some work done on my Journey, along with planning to visit South Dakota and change my residency to that state to take advantage of the lower tag costs for my two vehicles along with other benefits for full time RV’ers. After doing that, which was quickly becoming necessary because my tags on the RV were to expire the week I visited SD, planned on visiting my daughter for a week, and then onto Iowa and the factory.

My drivers license was going to expire too! That was something else since an Oregon license is good for 10 years and here it was about to expire. And I’d not noticed it was getting close until I was in Mexico. Turns out that the temporary Mexican Insurance you’re required to have would have been no good without a legal drivers license…which is why I left early. But for now, back in the states, it’s still good. I just have to get from DeAnza Springs California up to South Dakota around the time it expires. SD has a 60 day grace period in which to renew an expired license so no worries there, I should make it up there with time to spare. I won’t need to take a drivers test or anything, even if it does expire before I get a new one.

So after my week at DeAnza, headed back to Yuma, only this time, I planned on staying at one of the two RV parks along the river. It had gotten so hot there, that I knew there wouldn’t be a problem finding a space at either park because all the snow birds were heading home. One of the parks is a Passport America half price park so that’s where I headed. It’s only a two hour drive from DeAnza Springs and I could have just passed Yuma all together but I wanted to stop there to fuel up and replenish my groceries and I knew where the best places to shop are since my last stay in town. So might as well spend a night or two, get my fuel and shopping done.

And this is what it looks like just outside of Yuma. Just a bit rocky.

And here I am all settled in at Hidden Cove RV Park. As predicted, the place had several spaces available, and the park next door was only 1/10th full. The pictures and web sites make both parks appear to be much better than they are.

The park I chose to stay in is rather run down with some really old RV and trailers here and there. It’s seen better days for sure. But, there are some newer 50 amp sites and since there wasn’t anyone in the office or at the managers trailer, I just picked the site with the best shade and hooked up. Tried several times to take a check over to the managers but they were never there. So I taped it to the outside of my door so they could find it if I was gone. The manage showed up hours later after he noticed my RV. Stayed here 3 nights. Drove around and found an excellent price for diesel a few blocks away with the benefit of it being right on my route to the freeway. The RV park next door is somewhat better than this one, but it’s not 1/2 price. I don’t recall if the Wifi was any good here, but it probably was or I wouldn’t have stayed more than a day most likely. After that short visit to Yuma for shopping and fuel and some trip planning time online, it was on to Flagstaff. And I’m beginning to think this might be my last stop here in Flagstaff. This trip, I stopped into my favorite RV park there, and the office was closed, with a note saying they weren’t taking any more RV’ers, no spaces available. Looks like they’ve switched over to a permanent parking sort of deal, like a month to month, squeezing out the overnighters. OK, so I drove the few miles back to Black Barts. In years past they had Wifi. Bad Wifi, but at least something. This time, they tell me they don’t have it at all. Really. And the hotels across the freeway had changed something and I couldn’t pick up any free Wifi from them anymore. Dammit. So Flagstaff only enjoyed my tourist money for one night. The next morning, I got all discombobulated and ended up downtown looking for the best diesel price. Didn’t find it. But I did get pulled over by a cop for cutting him off. Yoink! He let me off with a warning though. Nice. Got the hell out of town, and found a Safeway station 3 miles from downtown with an excellent price, and back on the road.

Settled in at Black Barts in Flagstaff. And back on the road…

I was in a long distance travel mode, but I take it easy these days. Just travel for one day, than stop at a RV park for 2-3 nights. That really works for me. Gives me time to stay informed about the place I’m staying at as far as the best fuel prices or the local attractions and such. No more rushing around for me. Of course that pretty much requires the RV parks I stay at have Wifi. And except for this trip’s Black Barts stop, I nearly always check that first thing and before I pay. BTW, the other parks in Flagstaff are usually not acceptable for one reason or the other. Price, distance to town, lack of TV or Wifi…that sort of thing. There is one thing I do that maybe most RV Class A owners do differently, I fuel up at around 1/2 tank. My tank is 90 gallons so 45 gallons is ~$150. I prefer doing that instead of putting in $275-$300 at a time if I let it get too low. I know, some will say, “What’s the difference?”, and they’re right. But it’s how I like doing it. After leaving Flagstaff, heading Northeast, it’s starting to cool off. I was being chased by a late spring storm, which is what I’d hoped for. Unfortunately, it seemed that the wind was nearly always from the wrong direction.

Here’s one of the RV parks I stopped at for the night. I forget where it was now.

Only stayed there the one night. The next night, I stopped in this park at a casino outside of Albuquerque. On the west side of town about 20 minutes drive. It’s on a reservation, in a remote desert area. Pretty nice RV slabs. If I’d needed to climb under there for work, it would have been comfortable to do so. It’s spring when I made this trip, so the weather was warm not hot. Actually spent 3 nights here in order to relax. No hurry. No reason to push myself. When I left, I didn’t have a good handle on where to get fuel so it was one of those deals where I’d watch the signs as I passed through Albuquerque. Near the edge of town, finally saw a place and fueled up at a reasonable cost.

After my stay, drove on up to Pueblo, Colorado. When I got to the RV park I’d GPS’ed to, turned out they aren’t an overnight park anymore. Plus they were full up. Got lost while I was driving around trying to find somewhere to stay, but eventually found a KOA on the NE side of town that had a space. The Wifi wasn’t that bad, though the price was excessive for what you get at a KOA, it was worth it to me to stay for 3 nights while I let the storm, mostly wind, pass me by.

Pueblo has a pretty neat park downtown, and during my stay I went down there and got some pictures. So that’s where we’ll start next time…at the Pueblo Riverwalk Park.

Thanks for reading!