Mark and I left Florence, Oregon, at the beginning of November and spent the month traveling from Oregon to Texas. One of the main reasons we decided, after I retired, to move into full-time rving was to see places we’d always wanted to see but never had the opportunity to. There were four main places that we wanted to visit along the way: Death Valley, Las Vegas, the Painted Desert, and the Petrified Forest.
The RV Life app has been very convenient for planning our trips since we went on the road. It allows us to set the parameters for our RV, decide what we want it to avoid on our travel days, and then export it to Google Maps. We had planned to spend the time between leaving Oregon and Thanksgiving exploring. Since we would be near Oklahoma, Mark’s home state, we told his family we would be there for Thanksgiving, which set a clear timeline for our travel. We traveled through Northern California to Yreka. When our friends Harold and Amanda visited us earlier in the fall, they spoke glowingly about visiting Eureka, California. When I saw Yreka, California, spelled with a Y on our route, I was excited to stop there.
When we pulled in, we were a little disappointed that it didn’t look anything like the quaint town Amanda had described. It was, however, very quirky. While walking downtown, we kept seeing old storefronts with clowns, mannequins, and what looked like old store displays. Upon investigation, we realized our mistake; Harold and Amanda were talking about Eureka spelled with an E. We were in Eureka, spelled with a Y. We had already booked our RV spot for 2 days, so since we had seen Mount Shasta in the distance while driving in, we decided to make the best of the situation and spend our time there. Absolutely no regrets, Mount Shasta was excellent. We spent one more day in Susanville, California, and then crossed into Nevada on our way to Death Valley. Since I’m doing a separate post on Death Valley and Las Vegas, I’m going to skip that here and move on with our trip.
Upon leaving Nevada, we crossed into Arizona, heading towards the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. We stopped for one night in Williams, Arizona, at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. We didn’t have time to see the Grand Canyon this time, but the Grand Canyon Railway was much more than we expected. Not only was it a very nice, open, clean RV Park, but because it was the middle of November, they were having their Polar Express train rides. Walking around the railway and seeing all the little kids and their parents, dressed in matching pajamas, getting ready to board the train after watching The Polar Express, truly put us in the holiday spirit. We would definitely stay there again and picked up information on how to ride the Grand Canyon Railway into the Grand Canyon. They drop you off at the Visitor Center for about 3.5 hours, then bring you back. We plan to do this on a future trip through Arizona, and for pet lovers, it’s worth noting that the Grand Canyon Railway has a kennel where you can board your dogs. They will feed and care for them while you’re on the train for the day, and they charge about $30 per dog, which we thought was convenient.
At this point, everything on our trip seemed to be going smoothly. We never had to disconnect the Fiat from the RV; all our RV spots were big, wide, and easy to pull into. So when we left Williams, Arizona, we were in great moods.
We were very impressed driving through the Flagstaff, Arizona area, and have added that to our list of places we intend to visit during future trips. But this time, we were heading to Holbrook, Arizona, where we would stay for 2 days to spend plenty of time seeing the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. I’m going to do separate posts on them as well, so I’m leaving them there because our adventure took an unexpected turn.
About 8 miles outside of Holbrook, Arizona, the Fiat had a blowout. I was following behind Mark in the SUV. I saw it immediately. One of the decisions we made before going on the road was to get rechargeable walkie-talkies so we could communicate without having to call on cell phones. This situation showed us that it was an excellent idea. I was able to immediately speak to Mark on the walkie-talkie and tell him to pull over onto the shoulder. Which he did, the front passenger tire of the Fiat was completely shredded. So we decided that, since we were only 8 miles outside Holbrook, Mark would call AAA, and I would go into Holbrook to help make arrangements there. AAA gave us the name of a tire store in Holbrook where they could tow the Fiat, and it would take about an hour for them to get to us. I went to the tire store and explained the situation to them. I called the RV park to let them know what happened and that we might need a few extra days.
The tire store in Holbrook was able to order a replacement tire for the Fiat, but they did not have a replacement wheel. We were able to call some places in the larger towns around us, and they were able to order a wheel that would have to be shipped from Detroit. Luckily, the RV park where we were staying in Holbrook was able to add days to our trip, pushing our trip back by about 5 days. This shortened the time we could spend with Mark’s family, but overall it turned out well. For anyone planning to go full-time rving, I highly suggest putting aside an emergency fund for situations like this. We were able to get the tire and wheel fixed and get back on the road in time to reach Mark’s family for Thanksgiving.
It is always wonderful to visit with Mark’s family in Lawton, Oklahoma, and we had a great Thanksgiving. Leaving Lawton put us about 400 miles from Livingston, Texas, our ultimate goal.
We chose Livingston as our residency for several reasons, the most important being that we are members of the Escapees Club, which has its headquarters in Livingston. Escapees helps people establish their domiciles, provides a mail service, and has Rainbow’s End in Livingston, which includes a care facility where you can receive medical attention if needed while staying in your RV. They are invaluable when you’re just starting, and I highly recommend their membership.
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