We moved into Yuma with Mark and Patsi, who we’ll be traveling with for the next few months. They had a discount for an RV Resort and we figured we’d indulge ourselves for Christmas. We stayed for a week at the Westwind RV and Golf Resort.
We took advantage of their pool and hot tub, their pickleball courts, and their Bocci Ball courts – although we never made it to play golf.
We rode our bikes around the area and checked out Yuma housing (because you never know).
We toasted to Christmas, and Tom and I dragged them along on our longstanding Christmas tradition of going to the movies on Christmas day. Apparently, it’s caught on as something to do because we ended up in the front row of a crowded theatre to watch the latest Jumanji release.
Then we all moved on to Plomosa Road, north of Quartzsite, to meet up with the Xscapers for a New Year’s Eve celebration. We camped with many of our pals from Friendsgiving. We went on a geo-caching walk with Nikki and Davie and dogs, had some mini potlucks, met new wonderful people and watched people fly drones and other stuff around camp.
The Xscapers brought their new semi-trailer/lithium battery powerhouse/sound stage. It was quite the setup.
They had live bands and DJ’s, fancy lights and bonfires.
It was definitely a fun way to welcome in the new year – and the new decade.
We also drove the Jeep on a caravan trip out to the Desert Bar – one of our favorite middle-of-nowhere spots. But on the way down the long and bumpy drive, we heard a noise. The kind of uh-oh, everyone-in-the-car-becomes-suddenly-silent noise you hear right before your vehicle stops moving.
Tom stopped and got out to check, but couldn’t find anything. Plus did I mention we were in the middle of no where? So we continued on to the party.
On the way back the noise got progressively worse, but Tom knew we needed to get to black top before calling roadside assistance. With the Jeep now barely running, we limped into a Walmart parking lot and called for help.
We had the Jeep towed into Lake Havasu, Tom’s next port-o-call, while we hitched a ride with fellow Xscapers back to camp. That was pretty much the only choice, even though it meant I had to hitch a ride to the airport in Pheonix, and Tom had to use his bike to make a supply run into Quartzsite.
So that’s how this chapter ends – with Joy flying back to California to babysit the grandsons, while Tom loads the e-bikes into the RV to head with the group on to the Big Bash in Lake Havasu.
Ours is off to a rocky start, but hope you have a great 2020!
And for those of you interested, here are the stats for our travels in 2019:
We spent 169 nights free-camping and for the rest of the year we spent $2715 in fees (which averages to $14.59/night).
The most expensive was $30/night on the beaches (San Felipe, Baja and California Coast) and the cheapest we paid was $3.50/night at a National Forest in New Mexico.
This past year we stayed in the Western States and here is how that breaks down:
We spent 164 nights in California at an average of $6.42 per night. (including 45 nights of workamping)
We spent 74 nights in Arizona at an average of $6.22 per night.
We spent 47 nights in Colorado for an average of $9.72 per night.
We spent 43 nights in New Mexico for an average of $7.77 per night.
We spent 26 nights in Utah for an average of $5.38 per night.
We spent 9 nights in Baja at a cost of $30 per night.
We spent 3 nights traveling through Nevada at no cost.
This is how our mileage breaks down compared to years past:
In our first nine months in 2017 we traveled 15,987 miles! Our longest driving day was 705 miles! We moved 101 times and averaged 158 miles each move.
For the full twelve months in 2018, we put on 15,679 total miles with our longest day at 597 miles. We moved 96 times for an average of 163 miles each time.
Compare that to 2019: Our total mileage for the twelve months was just 5,598 miles and our longest day only 316 miles. We moved just 54 times for an average of 104 mi each move. Yes, we slowed down quite a bit!
Our plans for 2020 are going back to California (if you can believe that!) for spring time and then staying out West again with trips to Wyoming and Montana in the summer.
Happy Travels and Thanks for following along!
Peace & Love, Joy
