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Southwest Spring Summary

An alliteration of S’s for my spring in the southwest: stunning, superior, scenic, sensational, spectacular, striking, splendid.

From the boldness of Big Bend to the uplifted canyons of Utah to the fun of spring training and a week visiting Pam & Billy, this was an awesome six weeks! Checkout my posts for this phenomenal Southwest trip.

Trip stats:

  • Racked up a total of 5752 miles
  • The trailer hung with me for 3956 miles (69%); lots of non-towing driving in Big Bend, Death Valley, Bryce, Canyonlands)
  • Drove a total of 151 hours
  • Traveled through 7 states
  • Stayed in 21 different campsites over 44 days
  • Averaged 12 MPG in fuel consumption (that’s as good as I got last summer towing a traditional trailer that was 5 thousand pounds lighter; I’m very pleased!)
  • Used 90-100 pounds of propane for cooking, cooling, and lots of heating

I’m now back at the Vineyards Campground on Lake Grapevine until mid-May when I take off for the Rockies for the entire summer!

I appreciate God giving me this awesome opportunity and for looking over me while I traveled this region of our great land. And thanks for your prayers for safety. Love y’all. God’s best,

Mark

 

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Pahrump & Death Valley

In early March Julie, Brad & I were having dinner and got to talking about this upcoming trip. We realized I was only gonna be a few hours from Las Vegas when I was in Flagstaff. So since our cousin Pam & Billy live outside Vegas Julie decided to fly in and join me for a week hanging out with Pam & Billy.

I overnighted at a KOA in Vegas (this old man was in bed by 8:30, lol!) and then picked Julie up at the RV lot at McCarran Airport, after buying a new taillight assembly to replace the one I killed in Williams (a $150 ugh). We drove up to Pahrump, set up camp at the nice Lakeside Casino & RV Park, and then Pam came over for cocktails and Billy joined us for dinner after he got home from work.

We really did just about as little as possible all week. I installed remote door locks, a tire monitor booster and fixed a few minor things. But the overall theme was “chill.” Enjoyed some of Pam’s great pulled pork and a fire in their backyard; bummed around town a bit (you can’t do much more than “a bit” in Pahrump!); and had brunch with $1 Bloody Mary’s at the golf course.

Sunday night Shelley and her work friend Tissa stopped by for a glass of vino on their way to check out Death Valley Monday, before attending a conference in Sin City. Julie & I joined them at Badwater Monday morning to quickly take in some of Death Valley’s attractions. The Valley was really pretty this time of year—even featuring some water in low places! And it was not freaking hot! It was a good day, certainly worth the drive. More noteworthy: huge thanks to Pam for doing my laundry while we were away for the day! Truly a sweet, much appreciated favor!

It was so great hanging with Pam and Billy; we hated to pack up and head out after the week. But Julie needed to get back to her retirement life in Frisco. For me, Utah was calling!…