Today is our 6-month anniversary of being on the road full time. It’s such a weird feeling because on one hand it feels like we have done 6 years’ worth of adventures over the last 6 months but on the other hand it feels like we just left Portland yesterday. The one thing we know for sure is we feel like we’re just getting started.
Last weekend we took a trip into Petrified Forest National Park. It was an odd place. From a distance it just looked like a bunch of fallen trees scattered around the desert. But as you got closer the rock compositions were really fascinating.
After our time in the park, we made the long drive down to Tucson, Arizona. It was our longest stretch of driving so far (just under 400 miles) and I hope we don’t have too many more of those anytime soon.
In a car, doing 400 miles in one day is a breeze. Back before we were towing our home behind us, we could do 600-800 miles in a day on our road trips fairly easily. But towing a 5th wheel behind you is a whole different story. It’s not so much the hours spent on the road but the mental exhaustion from always having to be “on” and having so much to pay attention to. We try to keep our travel days under 300 miles, as that seems to be the sweet spot, but every now and then we have to go a bit further to get to our next destination.
But we made it down to Tucson relatively unharmed and have spent most of the last week working and getting some errands done. It’s been a while since we’ve been in a city this big and we’ve taken full advantage of the services and conveniences around town to stock up on supplies. And the campground we’re at allows for Amazon deliveries so we’ve had a constant stream of shipments coming our way all week.
Oh, but one unexpected thing was the roadrunner that visited us bright and early one morning. It was much smaller than I expected and nothing like a childhood of cartoons taught me, but it was very cool to see “in the wild”.
This weekend, and into next week, we have a busy itinerary planned with visits to both sections of Saguaro National Park, a trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a tour of the Kartchner Caverns, and some meals out to get a taste of the local Tucson flavors. We’ll do our best to get a full Tucson experience before we hit the road next weekend for El Paso, Texas.
Congrats on 6 months!!! 🎉🎈So cool you saw a roadrunner (and a petrified forest), glad you’re still enjoying having adventures!
Thank you!
The roadrunner startled us when it smashed into our window. It was trying to get up onto our roof but it didn’t quite have the flying power to get up that high. We were so confused as to what it was and what it was trying to do at first!
Nice updates Scott! We enjoyed the Saguaro NP as well as the botanical gardens there. Lots of good eats – we ate at https://www.elchinitogordo.com/ for an authentic Mexican meal but there are lots to choose from – enjoy!
That place looks really good! I have a friend who used to live in Tucson (and still owns a house here) and he gave us some recommendations for places to try this week but we still have a night or two open so I think we might have to try that place. Thanks!