First Winter Trip South - Pls Help Us Avoid Future Divorce

[ranch_hostage]

Hi All:

First time on an RV forum, although I've been lurking here for months, and have found a lot of useful information. But since we are about to venture into potentially dangerous waters, it seems like a good time to jump in.

DH and I are planning to take our first mid-winter RV trip. We have previously only done short trips (4 to 14 days) in the summer ... and one in the late fall where we experienced frozen tank misery when crossing Montana to get back to ND. While we don't have a specific itinerary planned, we would like to visit some snowbird friends in AZ while we are down in that direction.

I've already poured over the forums for winterizing tips and information; we will probably not dewinterize until we get south enough to do so safely. We are not experienced RVers, and would like to avoid the stress of anything freezing when we need to to not be frozen.

A Little Background:

* We would love to fly to some beautifully sunny destination, but we have a special needs cat (needs subQ fluids daily), and we don't live in a region where we can easily find pet sitters. This fact, and the fact that our other two cats are like our kids (please don't judge), is what brought us to the RV world in the first place.

* Our old "rig" was a little Leisure Travel Van which worked great as a way to get from point A to point B and avoid towing a car with us, but was too small for us older folk to be comfortable. So we are about to take delivery on a Jayco Seneca 37HJ and will be flat towing our Jeep Wrangler. We are looking forward to not having to haul cats into and out of hotel rooms, or renting cars, all while enjoying the newfound comfort of our bigger rig.

* Why leave in the middle of winter? We are cattle ranchers, and our livestock count will be at its lowest after the first of the year. That is the only time we can reasonably ask a hired ranch kid to manage the remaining wintered livestock by himself for any length of time.

(Explanation over ... thanks for your patience!)

Would Love Your Advice:

1 -- Since we are leaving in the thick of winter, we probably need to get south as quickly as possible. We are in the northwestern portion of ND, so we are about as far from warmth as you can get in these lower 48. Does anyone have any thoughts on just how far south we need to get in order to dewinterize?

2 -- Does it seem feasible (if we are willing to go with no showers and bring jugs of water) to stay in open campgrounds with only an electric hookup for whatever number of nights it might take us to get to our dewinterizing destination? Or would you recommend we just plan on staying in hotels for those couple of nights?

3 -- Since we are thinking about AZ for a final destination, does anyone have any routing advice? I assume we should try and stay out of the higher elevation routes, even if it takes us longer to get there, just to avoid the snowy travel factor. Any suggestions?

4 -- Do we need to have chains for our tires at all in case of winter weather? Can you even PUT chains on a Seneca?

5 -- Can you think of anything else I need to know, or can do, to help mitigate a complete breakdown of our marriage that might be caused if we face winter RVing challenges along the way? On the one hand, I expect the inevitable. However, I believe in the motto, "If it's predictable, it's preventable."

Any help you all might be able to provide would be very much appreciated. Thank you, in advance!

[SuzzeeeQ2012]

feeling much better today :B

[SuzzeeeQ2012]

good luck with that.

I think we're spending way too much time together.


getting on my nerves lately.


maybe I'll be in a better mood tomorrow.


:S :h

[boiseidaho]

Ranch hostage, good luck and please let all of us know how the trip goes. Happy
Thanksgiving

[ranch_hostage]

fanrgs wrote:
First, sit down for an hour with your DH and go to the Good Sam Website and hit "Plan A Trip-Trip Planner". Set your "Distance" range to say 60 miles and set your route to I-94 to I-25 to I-10 to I-15 to I-90 and home. That will get you a big loop round-trip from ND and back home. Then click on "Things To Do" and select a topic of interest, say "The Great Outdoors." Then click on a few sights that you don't want to miss, like national parks. You will be surprised at how quickly you fill up the 25-stop limit on the program. That's just a way to get you started on a simple plan.

Awesome idea! Thank you! And thanks for the additional suggestions!

[fanrgs]

If you are too busy to do some planning right now, I have a couple of suggestions.

First, sit down for an hour with your DH and go to the Good Sam Website and hit "Plan A Trip-Trip Planner". Set your "Distance" range to say 60 miles and set your route to I-94 to I-25 to I-10 to I-15 to I-90 and home. That will get you a big loop round-trip from ND and back home. Then click on "Things To Do" and select a topic of interest, say "The Great Outdoors." Then click on a few sights that you don't want to miss, like national parks. You will be surprised at how quickly you fill up the 25-stop limit on the program. That's just a way to get you started on a simple plan.

Second, I suggest that, if national parks and monuments are of interest, you start in the southeast with Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks and work your way west. Then you can hit White Sands NM, the new Organ Mountains NM, Ft. Bowie NHS, Saguaro NP, Tumacacori NHS, Pueblo Grande Archeological Site, Hoover Dam and its new bridge, etc., while you are down south. Then, on your way home in warmer weather, you can take in Zion-Cedar Breaks-Bryce Canyon NPs and, if you wanted to get farther off I-15, perhaps Capital Reef-Arches-Canyonlands NPs, Dinosaur NM, and Flaming Gorge NRA. How many you actually stop at is just a function of how long you have for the trip and how often you want to move.

We found that, once you get there, your plans will undoubtedly change because you have no deadlines. And there is always next year!

[VegasBT]

As far as destinations: if you come down the 1-15 through Vegas check out Willow Beach on the Vegas-Phoenix route. I also recommend the Lake Havasu area. If you are willing to risk temps down to the upper 20's at night, Pahrump, NV has some nice parks (our favorite is Lakeside Casino and RV Park). The DW and I will be headed to Lake Havasu in a few weeks for the Parade of Lights under the London Bridge. We were there a few weeks ago, and had unseasonably warm temps (highs in the mid 80's in November!). And don't forget the Samboree in Phoenix the last weekend in February!

[ranch_hostage]

fanrgs: Thank you for all the great suggestions. DH keeps reminding me that we ought to set up a travel plan, but with the holidays around the bend, I'm not in his same head space yet.

K3WE: Personally, I'm a bit more adventurous than DH, and don't mind a little discomfort or uncertainty - all things pass. However, my life becomes miserable if DH is miserable. So, if he prefers to take the easy way, I certainly won't stand in the way. (Secrets to a happy marriage ...) So, I guess we'll see how it ends up. Either way, it's nice to know that we have options. Thank you for your input on usability of our RV during the cold.

Also, I'm not sure we could get to your latitude in a day -- we are up near the Canadian/Montana border corner of ND. We generally can't get anywhere south in a day! Neither of us likes to drive after dark (even in our regular vehicles), and I think that since we start out so far west in ND, we would be traversing down a lot of higher altitude areas on our road south. But, since neither of us has ever been down that way (newbies to traveling - remember "ranch hostage"), we don't have any experiential knowledge of what the interstate is like along that route. (Probably going south on 25.)

Everyone: Thank You so much for all your great input! I am really excited (and a bit nervous) to take our first trek south.

[fanrgs]

ranch hostage wrote:
But he hasn't been able to line anything up for this winter! I would imagine the RV parks are the same. Hopefully, they keep a couple of slots open for travelers ...

Most of the AZ and NM RV parks we have stayed in during the winter try to keep at least a few spaces for short-timers. That's their way of impressing you with their amenities and getting you back next year for the whole season.

If you take a look at the Good Sam Website, you will see that cities like Tucson and the Phoenix-area suburbs have scores of RV parks and thousands of RV spaces. Last winter we never had reservations anywhere in NM or AZ and always found a space in the first park we tried. If the ones in the big cities or suburbs are full, try smaller cities and towns a little further out. Places like Casa Grande, Marana, Benson, and Green Valley are still within convenient commuting distance to Phoenix or Tucson if you really want to visit their sights or attend their events.

And don't pass up state parks, especially in NM. Their parks are very reasonably priced and generally have at least 30/50A electricity and water, with an RV dump and heated restrooms with showers. Their nightly rates can be as low as $14 for an electric site.

As I am sure you already know from your Leisure Van travels, your Federal senior pass also gets you national park, monument, forest, and BLM campgrounds for half price. Although not common, some even have electricity--like the BLM campground at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site north of Alamogordo, NM.

Just FYI, if you are at all interested in birds and other wildlife, don't miss Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, NM. From November to March, it has huge flocks of snow geese, sandhill cranes, and even a few whooping cranes. Makes a great photo stop!

I almost forgot, so had to add a P.S.: Don't miss the Pima Air & Space Museum in southeast Tucson. With more than 300 planes and spacecraft, it is probably the largest air museum outside the Smithsonian. Allow at least half a day for the museum and more if you take a tour. I spent two hours there just talking with a WWII vet who had been a tail gunner on a B-24 in the Pacific. We were standing beneath the museum's B-24 while we talked. My Dad had been a B-24 pilot and I learned more about the plane from that gunner in 2 hours than from my Dad in my whole life!

[K3WE]

What I can contribute is that you can get from ND to my latitude in a day...I would not go crazy with water where we are, but our average weather would probably be safe for cats even if the worst happened and your heater kicked off the moment you left.

As everyone has said- watch the weather and be smart and have full LP tanks- but I see that you are from ND so you are probably smarter at driving in weather than most of us.

Finally- as I considered your question- in my shoes, I would rough it for those two days...perhaps forego a shower- just wipe down with a wash cloth using water jugs, etc. I would not fear using the bathroom...as others have said, use minimal water from jugs and maybe have some anti freeze in the tanks.

I also noted this post below and have two very different reactions to it. My first reaction was "no don't listen to this worry wart"- your camper will serve you just fine- perhaps even better if you get stranded briefly somewhere. However, my second reaction is that saying to heck with the camper and sleeping in a motel is certainly the easy way out and I wouldn't hesitate to do that if I just had to have a long hot shower, sink, etc...But it's your choice.

My bottom line is that by the end of day 2, you can probably start using the camper to near 100% of it's capability, as opposed to 80% of it's capability before...pretty much everything but running water beforehand.

GoPackGo wrote:
Remember that IF you don't put any water in the water tank and IF you don't use the toilet and IF you don't pour anything down the sinks, then you don't need to run your furnace during the day. I'm still trying to convince you to not use the coach until you're below the frost line - just do the motel thing while traveling - but make sure the rig is winterized when you take delivery. My favorite word is 'simple'.

[ranch_hostage]

Thank you ALL!

Yes, I guess the biggest concern I have at this point is even being able to find somewhere to stay during our travels! It sounds like everyone our age heads south for the winter. A friend of ours up here in oil country has been going down south in AZ for the last two years, renting a house during the time he's down there. But he hasn't been able to line anything up for this winter! I would imagine the RV parks are the same. Hopefully, they keep a couple of slots open for travelers ...

[hermy]

Can't speak to your route but I pretty much agree with previous poster Milt- watch your favorite weather source (since you are ranchers I know you have one) find a gap in the storms coming off the west coast and then head south like crazy. It takes us 2 days to get to Las Vegas where we can breathe easy, de-winterize and stock up groceries. Then we head further south. We stay in our rig regardless of weather as long as we have power to run an electric heater. We also carry a couple of gallons of water in the shower so we flush, brush etc. I also have a set of cheap cable chains for emergencies- but figure if it's that bad I should just hole up till it's better. Quartzsite can be fun but as previously posted it may not be for everyone- do your homework. Lot's of great parts of Arizona to explore. Have a ball.

[coolmom42]

As someone above said, the beltway on the east side of Denver is a toll road. And some pretty hefty tolls, at that. If you stay on the beltway all the way around you will never see a toll booth, but you WILL get a bill in the mail a few weeks later.

The bill you get will depend on the number of axles and how far around the beltway you are going. We got a bill for $26 for 1/4 of the way around (I-25 southbound to I-70 east-bound) in a pickup with a double-axle trailer. They pick up the license plate on the toad or trailer and send it to the registration name/address.

[CA_Traveler]

ranch hostage wrote:
We are pretty laid back people who don't like crowds; Quartzite may be a stretch for us. 😉

Yikes this might be a problem ie crowds. There is a very large migration of snowbirds south with lots of people just about everywhere it's warm. But try the adventure and see what works for you.

[ranch_hostage]

Tim: Simple is DEFINITELY the route we want to take, believe you me! And thanks for the Denver advice.

On another note, and perhaps I should check in another topic, but does anyone worry about theft from your RV while you're out sightseeing? Obviously, we don't care about anything in the RV, or the RV itself -- just worried about the cats...