Where do I even begin! I guess with it’s good to be back home even though we are still Nomads. Need to back up a bit and cover the highlights of the miles between Texas and home. Let me tell you this post has been painful because I had to think back so far lol. It’s so much easier when it’s all fresh in your mind. The miles tick by and the memories get jumbled. It’s a lot so bare with me.

The many miles between Firefly in Texas and Tucson were mostly a marathon and pretty uneventful except for our third flat tire in a construction zone in El Paso and the worst traffic jam we’ve seen all on the same day! We had been making pretty good time and cruising along problem free LOL. Got to feeling pretty relaxed and confident after being on the beach for 3 months.

It was our first leg from Corpus Crisit to Deming. Joel had just seen a rest stop sign and asked if I needed a pit stop when the tire alarm started blaring! Oh S..t not again we both said. We were in a construction zone where the lanes were narrow and there was nowhere to pull off. And whew the travel gods took care of us. The rest stop exit appeared and we exited the freeway with 20 lbs of pressure in the tire that should have had 80. We parked and checked the rear drivers side tire and it was the tire stem again – 3 for 3. We never would have been able to change it if we were on the freeway. As you might guess we (Joel) are experts at changing flats. I help as much as I can mostly by just trying to stay calm and assist where I can.

We set off with our spare and debated what to do. Try and stop and get it fixed immediatly, keep going to our destination, and about a dozen other scerios. As usual I was on google trying to find tire places that were open on Sunday etc. We finally found a great place right by our KOA in Deming so we decided to travel on the spare with our fingers crossed. Checked the GPS and we realized that the time to the destination was getting longer as we were getting closer. Fast forwarded and we found an “incident”. Wow could this day get much worse! We finally arrived! Turns out a crane had hit an overpass and damaged it so all I10 Westbound traffic was exiting the freeway to bypass the damage and then getting back on. It was at our exit but that sure didn’t help.

Joel took the 4th tire off in the am and took both tires in to get new stems. We did not want to take a chance that the 4th tire would have the same problem! He got back with both and had to put one on and then move the jack to the other axel and put the other one on. We were on the road before 11 headed to Lordsburg – another hole in the wall small town! Last stop before Tucson.

After a quick one nighter in Lordsburg we were off to Tucson. We arrived event free at our new home at the South 40 RV Ranch, about 7 miles from Marilyn. We had a great week exploring Tucson with Marilyn. Here is a photo recap of our escapades: wine tasting, Tombstone, Desert museum, Saguaros National Forest, and a visit with an old friend Tanya Fontaine from Seattle!

Part 2 after Tucson

We pulled out of Tucson with the first objective being getting through Phoenix on a Sunday afternoon without issues. Did you know Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the USA? I didn’t until we had to drive through it. Lots of traffic but smooth sailing. We had a stop in Blyth and one in Barstow before we got to Paso Robles where we planned to stay for 5 days to do some wine tasting and meet up for lunch with some old friends.

Fast forward to Paso Robles because there isn’t much to tell about our 2 stops. We did see some pretty scenery, lots of renewable energy, and lot’s of agriculture along the way. Here are a few pictures of our long trek through southern California.

Paso Robles is a beautful AVA in California. We didn’t take a lot of vineyard pictures but we tasted at two different wineries with Teresa and John and had a nice lunch at Cass and then tasted at Asuncion Ridge where Teresa used to work. Finn came along because we were going to be gone too long to leave him in the trailer. He was a super good pup. Then we went to Eberle Winery with Finn the next day. I was pretty bad about taking pictures.

We pulled out of Paso Robles and headed north! We stopped in Lodi at Flag City RV then moved on to Red Bluff KOA. Lodi had a huge dog park surrounded by solar planels and Red Bluff was the only place we’ve been where they warned us to put our bikes in storage because bike theft was such a problem. We didn’t heed their advice and our bikes were still there in the am. It helped that we both had flat tires lol.

Then we headed to Medford Oregon. One state away from home. We had to drive over the Siskiyou Mountains and Mount Shasta. The only good things I can say are that it was not snowing and we made it. But it was raining hard and very windy most of the way. We were very happy when we pulled into our KOA in Medford!

Left Medford and headed for Salem and the Hee Hee Illahee RV Park where we stayed for 1 night rather than 4 because Joel started feeling like he had a kidney stone. Decided to make a quicker trip home in case things got serious. Left there for our last stop at to Cascade Locks KOA back in the big pine trees which left us a short drive to Richland.

We are almost there!

So we pull into Red Mountain RV where we planned to stay for 3 months and no one was there. The office is closed on Monday. I have to admit I have driven by the RV park so many times I couldn’t count that high. However, I had never went inside so it was a bit of a shock. We parked the truck and tailer just inside the gate and hunted for check in paperwork or an office. It was definitely closed. I called the main number multiple times hoping for an answer so they could tell us which spot was ours. As we were wandering around I saw a guy who evidently lived there walking by so I asked him if he knew how to get ahold of someone. He was very nice and very helpful. He told us that Red Mountain RV Park has the same owner as Wine Country RV in Prosser. He called their office which was open and found the owner who gave him our spot number. We got back there and saw the situation and knew we would not be staying there for 3 months! It was a hell of a squeeze to park with our neighbors truck in the way but Joel got it in there.

It was a great location for us. Super close to Dave and Lori and the old neighborhood where we feel at home. But it just wasn’t going to happen. Every other RV park in the Tri-Cities was full. It was obvious why Red Mountain RV Park wasn’t! So we negotiated a move to Prosser. More expensive and further away but a much better siuation as you can see from the first picture.

ReCap

So we left Horn Rapids RV Park on May 1, 2024 and we had 59,320 miles on Betty. We drove 16,716 miles though 16 states. We’ve parked 42 times in different RV Parks. The longest stays have been in West Lafayette, Silver City, Pagosa Springs, Mancos, Corpus Cristi, and now back in Washington. We got 11 stamps in our National Park Passport and checked many things off the Bucket List.

We’re happy to say we still love each other after just about a year living 24 x 7 in a 34 ft trailer with 2 crazy animals. We will start year 2 here until July 5th then we’re off to Wallace Idaho where it’s cooler to help Ginger celebrate her birthday. There for a week then we will see. Still planning more Nomad adventures.