After Action - Phoenix-Denver 26-30 Dec in Rental RV

Just wanted to close the loop on our Southwest Sampler Winter RV journey we did in a 25'Cruise America rental. We made it successfully from Phoenix to Denver (1,200 miles) drawing on some of the good advice in the responses to my query on the best route to take, given our travel had to be December 26-30. The best advice of all was to pay close attention to the weather and be prepared to make adjustments if it went bad. It did, and we did. We chose a route that took us on Day 1 from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon (225 miles) and stayed at the Grand Canyon Trailer Village. Day 2 we remained at the Grand Canyon. Day 3 we continued to Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border, arced northeast into Utah and Colorado (briefly) on Rts 163 and 162 through Bluff to Four Corners and southeast to Santa Fe on Rt 550 (a truly desolate road at night) for our longest day - 540 miles. We chose this route to avoid the Colorado passes and bad weather there. Checked in to the Santa Fe Skies RV park well after midnight. Day 4 we toured Santa Fe in the afternoon and left an evening earlier than planned - darted north on I-25 to Raton just as the snow came, and holed up overnight in the Raton KOA (the only guests) - 175 miles. The next morning we made it gently over the Raton Pass through Trinidad with only one lane clear on I-25, and on to Denver with a side stop at Garden of the Gods (260 miles). Winds were forecasted to be 20-30 mph with gusts to 50 mph, which had me a bit anxious, but none had an effect on the RV the way tractor trailers did when they zoomed past. Despite temperatures that hit -11, the RV performed very, very well. My wife and daughter enjoyed the RV trip, slept reasonably warm, and were comfortable with my driving. Kudos to the Cruise America travel assistance line for finding us propane late in the evening in Farmington, NM, and the Cruise America folks in Denver (Westminster) were first class in handling the few minor challenges we had with the RV. Thanks for the advice here - coupled that with careful driving and much coffee to make it safely where we needed to be - and had plenty of cold weather survival provisions if we had to lay up unexpectedly. Now time to plan our spring trip!


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