Arizona

We are now in Queen Valley Arizona!  We got here on Monday, November 2 around 2 pm.

Happily, our trip began on Friday, October 30th.  Up until the time we left, we weren't too sure which way we were going to travel because a few days earlier, all the passes were covered in snow.  I was keeping up with the weather reports and watching the road cams on the passes, so felt comfortable about going when we did, but I just wasn't sure of our exact route.

We left the house in Salem at 9:15 am and stopped in Coburg to top off our fuel. We took on 41 gallons at $2.68 a gallon. The morning was cloudy, but thankfully, no rain.  I again checked the road cam on highway 58 (Willamette Pass) from my iPhone and saw the bare pavement with no new snow.  Hooray, that meant we could cross there and not have to go all the way down I-5 through California.  We continued to have clouds all the way to the summit, but once we crossed the pass we had sun and 52 degrees. There were some more clouds north of Klamath Falls, but the temps were warming up and when the clouds finally gave way it was wonderful.  Later in the day, it got up to 67 degrees.

Our goal for the first night's stop was to get across the California border and down highway 395 to a neat little place called "Likely" before the sun went down.  When and if we get to go this way, we like to stop at the fire department's large gravel lot and spend the night.  Likely, CA is a very small town located south of Altures and only has a couple stores, cafe, bar, and of course the "volunteer" fire department.  It's a nice quiet spot to stay and not have to deal with a lot of semi truck noise.  Ken was very happy to get to Likely at a decent hour and have a bit of a rest before dinner.

Saturday, we were up early and on the road by 7:30. It was 38 degrees when we got up, but it got much colder as we drove down the mountain to lower elevations and into fog. The lowest temp we saw was 27 degrees (brrrr).  As we were making our way through the fog, we came up on a herd of deer that were quickly getting off the highway and watching us go by.  No, we weren’t going that fast!!  We even had a truck towing a trailer in front of us, so we were never in danger of hitting any of them. There were quite a few Doe in the herd and only 2 bucks. Thankfully, the fog was gone by the time we got to Standish (near Susanville) and the rest of our drive to Reno (and beyond) was nice and sunny. In Reno we took I-80 east for several miles and stopped at a Love’s station near Fernley to fuel up. We took on 37 gallons at $2.86 a gallon.  At exit 48 we took hwy 50 through Fallon and hwy 95 south to Tonapah where we stayed the night at Miller’s Rest Area.

We love that rest area because semi trucks are not allowed and a lot of RVers like to spend the night there.  It was sunny and 65 degrees when we got there at 3 pm.  Ken was tickled to get the windshield washed and still have time to sit in the sun and enjoy a snack and drink before dinner.  I wish I had taken a picture of that, but just didn't think of it.

The next morning (Sun, Nov 1) when we got up, it was a 28 degrees.  As we grabbed a bite for breakfast, we let the engine idle to warm it and us up.  Even though we were still in the Pacific Time Zone, we didn’t set our clocks back, but stayed on Arizona time.  We took off at 8 am and drove through Las Vegas to Laughlin, Nevada.  We still had lots of fuel but decided to stop in Searchlight to add a few gallons to insure our making it to Phoenix without running out.  We have a 130 gallon tank, but they say only 80 percent is useable, so we didn't want to get too low.  Fuel cost in Nevada was $2.81, but we knew Phoenix was much cheaper, so we just put on 25 gallons. The drive from Tonapah to the AVI RV Resort and Casino just south of Laughlin was short and we were checked in and parked by 2 pm.  It was 85 degrees there....sooooo nice!!

While in Laughlin, we unhooked the Jeep and drove over to Bull Head City for dinner and stopped at a store to buy some dry ice.  While in Salem, we bought a small freezer to take to Queen Valley and place in our shed there.  We were carrying it in the coach.  Ken also had a cooler of frozen meat in the Jeep and was keeping it frozen with dry ice.  To make sure we made it all the way to Queen Valley with it still frozen, he needed more dry ice just to be safe.  Once we were back at the coach, we re-hooked up the Jeep and had it ready for towing the next morning.

Monday, Nov. 2, we left AVI at 8 am.  We drove south through Needles, CA and took hwy 95 to Vidal Junction, then crossed into Parker, Arizona at 9:30 am. From Parker, we took hwy 72 to Vicksburg and on to I-10.  By this time the temperature was quickly rising to 73 degrees.  At 10:30 am we stopped at the Flying J Truck Stop in Phoenix and took on 81 gallons of fuel at $2.69 a gallon (actually $2.79).  In Arizona, RVs get a 10 cent break on fuel cost, which is very nice.

After leaving Flying J, we drove to Apache Junction and filled up our propane tank, then headed on to Queen Valley.  I was watching the temperature rise all along and when we got to QV, it was 84 degrees ending at a high of 89 for the day.

We got to QV at 2 pm and were set up shortly after. There was a lot of stuff to do to be completely settled, but we had enough done by evening to be comfortable.  Yes, we got the little freezer set up and now we have more capacity to keep frozen food on hand.  Our trip miles from Salem to Queen Valley was just over 1,300 miles.

We've now been in QV for 4 days and have the little Jeep (Wrangler) out of the big shed (yes, we have two sheds) and even taken it out geocaching.  Ken has trimmed our tree next to the small shed and coach, so our site looks much better. I still can’t get the satellite working, so will be contacting a tech next week to see what is wrong. The TV does get nice digital HD reception, so the satellite isn’t that big of a deal.  I should just turn it off and upgrade to a new system, but need to find out what that will cost before doing so.

Tonight, we are going out for dinner with close friends in the park and celebrate each of our anniversaries.  Theirs was the 5th and ours is the 8th.  There is a whole bunch activities in store for this season, so hope to have a lot more to talk about soon.

You can also keep up with a lot of my daily ramblings by following me on Twitter; see the link to Cachinbird on the side of this page.  I am also on Face Book, so you can always send me a friend notice to view more of my pictures and daily doings.