After 6 nights and almost 900 miles, we’ve finally departed Texas – it’s a big state!
We’re meeting friends at Conchas Lake State Park just north of Tucumcari, NM. Here, we’ll be 3 nights in site B-19, a nice private back-in site with lake views in the Bell Point campground. As has been common all across the west, and especially at this time of year, the water level at Conchas appears to be down around 20 feet since our last visit. However, after our departure, the lake saw over 12 feet of elevation gain in just 1 week as winter runoff and the monsoons started.
Lake Conchas State Park, New Mexico
Between Covid and low water levels the marina and other local business have all closed. The nearest restaurants are back in Tucumcari, which is about 40 minutes away. However, these cliff side campsites provide great views of the lake, sunrises, sunsets and are peacefully quiet this time of year. And, with a nearby T-Mobile tower, our internet access provides work and streaming speeds.
Santa Fe Skies RV Park, Santa Fe, New Mexico
From Conchas, we’re headed to Santa Fe, and one of our favorite RV parks, Santa Fe Skies. The park provides about 100 sites south of town with great night lights views out over Santa Fe. We’re parked in site W3, a long, level pull through right next to the office. Friends are backed in next to the doggie park in Yucca #5.
Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen, Santa Fe, New Mexico
While in Santa Fe we nearly always enjoy the festive atmosphere of the farmers market and of course the cold brews at the Second Street Brewery in the Railyard. This trip we also found two new restaurants. We loved Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen on Cordova Road known for their homestyle Mexican food and over 100 varieties of margaritas. And, enjoyed our visit to La Boca, an excellent Spanish tapas restaurant just off the main plaza in old town.
2023 Spring Road Trip
After 2 nights in Santa Fe, we’re headed home from the 2023 Spring Road Trip adventure. We’ve traveled over 4000 miles and spent 103 nights in 25 different parks and RV resorts. During a trip “timeout”, we traveled to South America, over 10,000 air miles and cruised nearly 4000 nautical miles on our voyage around Cape Horn, from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Puerto Valparaiso, Chile. We’ll be home for about 2 weeks before departing for the Montana Owners Rally in Heber City, UT. More from Utah!
After arriving on April 1st, our first full weekend on South Padre Island falls during Holy Week and as expected, the crowds are large and it becomes difficult to get into restaurants or even drive around the island. We’re once again parked in premium sites S19 & S20 at Isla Blanca park, with perfect views of the Brownsville Ship Channel and beyond to Boca Chica where SpaceX is building Starbase.
With “rumors” about a possible SpaceX launch within the next few weeks, we opt to take a trip over to Boca Chica so that we can see the progress including a fully stacked Starship. The total configuration is nearly 400 feet tall, the Super Heavy Booster at 230 feet and the Starship at 160 feet. The booster combines 33 Raptor engines to produce more thrust than any other rocket ever built. And with 6 additional Raptors under Starship, this vehicle is being developed to fly to the moon, mars and possibly beyond.
Spaceport, Boca Chica, TX, Starship on launch pad
During the first two weeks of our stay on the Island, friends from Colorado joined us for lots of fun meals, cocktails and exploring. We had a great time BnB, hope we can do it again! Perhaps the highlight of these first two weeks were two terrific birthday dinners. We celebrated on Friday night the 7th at a favorite, Dirty Al’s at Pelican Station, across the causeway bridge in Port Isabel. And then on 14th, we celebrated another birthday at Viva’s, a new restaurant on the Island in the location of the former Painted Marlin. The Painted Marlin was always one of our favorites, and happy to report that Viva (same owners as Yummies Bistro) didn’t disappoint.
Isla Blanca RV Park, South Padre Island, TX
SpaceX finally confirms a possible launch window on the morning of April 17th. Roads are closed, airspace is regulated and a notice to mariners is issued for an area off the coast of Texas and Mexico as well as another area off the coast of Hawaii. If all goes as planned, the Super Heavy Booster will burn for about 4 minutes, separate from the Starship and make a non-recoverable splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, Starship will continue around the globe, with a planned reentry and non-recoverable splashdown off the north coast of Hawaii. However, just a few minutes prior to launch, this attempt is scrapped due to some type of valve issue.
SpaceX facilities from Isla Blanca, South Padre Island, TX
4/20, launch day!
Elon Musk has joked about a “4/20” launch for days, perhaps he’ll get his wish. On the 19th, it’s official – roads, airspace and marine areas are all once again ordered closed as SpaceX sets a launch date of 4/20/23. This time, at 8:33AM, the massive rocket roars to life and begins it’s trip to orbit. We’re exactly 5.1 miles due north of the launch pad, and it seems to take forever for the sound to catch up with the sight we’re seeing. However, once it arrives, it’s an earth shaking rumble like nothing we’ve ever experienced. It’s not all that loud, but you can tell immediately the beast has awakened and is slowly climbing into the Texas sky.
The ascent appears to go as planned, and in fact we lose sight of the rocket as it reaches nearly 25 miles high. But, in the next moment, two huge explosions are visible as the onboard Flight Termination System detonates, resulting in the famous SpaceX euphemism, “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” or RUD. As it turns out, the rocket had started end over end cartwheeling, the booster unable to separate from the Starship and losing control of trajectory management. So, just 4 minutes into the flight of the largest rocket ever launched, it’s turned into a pile of rubble at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. But, this is the way at SpaceX, Starship #25 and Booster #9 are already on site, ready to be stacked and hurtled toward space in the coming months.
Margaritaville, LandShark Bar and Grill, South Padre Island, TX
In addition to the excitement created by SpaceX, we’ve enjoyed a few new restaurants and of course returned to old favorites. Perhaps the nicest new place is at the Margaritaville Beach Resort in the former Pearl Hotel. The restaurant menu is filled with classic Jimmy Buffet favorites, and sits at the back of the resort with great indoor and outdoor beach side dining. We also visited Longboard Bar & Grill several times – we think their food and selections are getting even better! Meatballs Café for pizza and other Italian specialties was consistently great, as was Yummies Bistro – “the place” on the island for breakfast!
Longboard Bar & Grill, South Padre Island, TX
It’s now April 30th and we’re packing up and will be returning to Harlingen for 3 nights. On Wednesday we’ll head north, via Laredo, Del Rio, Big Spring and Amarillo. From Amarillo we’re meeting friends at Lake Conchas State Park and will travel with them to Santa Fe before arriving home on the 14th. More from New Mexico!
After our amazing 12-night cruise around Cape Horn, South America, we’ve arrived back to Phoenix exhausted after nearly 30 hours of traveling since our disembarkation in Valparaiso, Chile. We originally had planned to depart Apache Junction on Friday. However, after the long travel day including weather delays at DFW, we opted for dinner, hot showers and sleep. But, with 4 hours of jet lag, we were up bright and early the next morning and ready to hit the road. Unfortunately the next leg of the trip will be very quick, and all the way across I-10 from Phoenix to San Antonio, TX, a total of 981 miles!
Our first night is at Stagecoach RV Ranch in Deming, NM – 329 miles completed. In Deming, the only place we’ve ever stayed is at Rock Hound State Park. However, with this quick overnight, we didn’t want to drive all the way out to Rock Hound. Stagecoach RV Ranch is a small park, about 3 miles south of town, and we hoped, far enough off of I-10 to prevent the all-night traffic noise. Indeed, the park was quiet and dark – we enjoyed our stay here. There is no fee for an overnight stay, but they asked for a $20 donation. The facilities look new, the 50A, water and dump were convenient. And, an added bonus, their WiFi ran along at about 6Mb, plenty of bandwidth for streaming a few hours of TV. All in all, a great value!
Stagecoach RV Ranch, Deming, NM
Our next night found us at the Van Horn RV Park in Van Horn, TX – 551 miles completed. We’ve been at this RV park many times, it’s about the only game in town, and there aren’t many other towns in this part of West Texas. The old park is just as run down as before. From our site at E8, the cactus garden is dry and dusty, the onsite-café is closed due to inspection violations, the pool is drained and the WiFi is intermittent at best. We did manage to find a 5Ghz signal that would run along about 11Mb, for 30 minutes or so, then it disconnected and reconnected a few seconds later.
Our next stop is at Junction, TX – 868 miles completed. We’re at the North Llano River RV park, in site 48A. We were last here in 2020, but didn’t manage to get a review in the blog. This former KOA park of about 75 sites occupies a nicely wooded area along the North Llano River. Tent sites at $25/night have the premium views, right next to the river. RV sites, from standard with full hookups at around $50 to premium sites with pergolas and grills range up to $95. Even though the park is only about a ½ mile away from I-10, the road noise isn’t a distraction. The Wifi here ran along at around 6Mb, plenty for TV streaming.
North Llano River RV Park, Junction, TX
After Junction, we continued east on I-10 until Kerrville, only about 60 miles west of San Antonio. However, wanting to avoid downtown San Antonio, we detour south through Kerrville, Bandera, Hondo and arrive at Choke Canyon State Park, on the banks of Choke Canyon Reservoir. During check-in we’re notified that they have a water main break, and there is no water in the campground. Fortunately we’re able to fill our fresh water tank at their maintenance facility and continue to our site, #114. This back-in site is located at the end of the campground loop, and very private being completely surrounded by trees. With no park WiFi, we’re relying on our T-Mobile hotspot service. Our 5G phone ran along at streamable speeds. However the 4G network was very slow when we arrived, but was working just fine by the next morning.
Choke Canyon State Park, Calliham, TX
From Choke Canyon, we’ll make the relatively short drive south to the Rio Grande Valley. We’ll be in Harlingen for 2 days before moving out to South Padre Island on April 1st. More from SPI…
After leaving Lake Havasu, we spent 2 weeks at Cocopah RV & Golf Resort in Yuma. We were here in Yuma last year and we’ve returned to take advantage of dental care across the border in Los Algodones, MX. The small town of Algodones, an easy walk across the border from California, has the worlds largest concentration of dentists, with over 350 offices! We found Simply Dental last year based on good reviews and have returned this year for additional services.
While dental care took priority, we once again enjoyed the burgers and brews at Prison Hill Brewery, the wonderful breakfast at Broken Yoke and a new find – El Charro Café – an excellent choice for great, homemade Mexican food!
The Superstition Mountains, Apache Junction, AZ
After a bit of a “challenging” departure from Yuma due to a hydraulic leak, we have arrived at Campground USA in Apache Junction, outside of Phoenix. Campground USA is a newer park in Apache Junction with construction starting just 3 years ago, and the pool/clubhouse complex just completed last year. It provides nice wide sites, pull-throughs for “short term” visitors and back-in sites for longer stays. The pool and hot tub area is very nice along with one pickleball court. The clubhouse seems a bit stark, but well equipped with a kitchen area, a TV area with comfy couches and chairs and several game tables. Off the main room is a billiards room and a workout room with a weight machine and a treadmill. The laundry is modern and clean, 6 washers, 6 dryers, but 3 washers were out of service. $2.00 each. There’s no park WiFi, but the connection available in the clubhouse runs along about 70MB. This is a nice park, the only downside being it’s proximity to Highway 60 which contributes to the constant background noise of traffic – worse in the early mornings as the commuters head toward downtown Phoenix.
Snow! Campground USA, Apache Junction, AZ
Campground USA, Apache Junction, AZ
With a delayed arrival in Apache Junction due to our hydraulic problem, we’ll only be here 1 week before parking the camper at friends and flying to South America for a 12 night cruise aboard the Celebrity Infinity. We’re back to the Phoenix area near the end of March when we’ll hit the road for Texas. More from there…
Ah, the Islander! After enjoying 1 week here last year, we opted for another 2 week stay this year. We think this is the nicest RV resort in the Lake Havasu area, and we really enjoy staying here. We’re once again parked in site #160, a long, fairly wide pull-through that offers limited views of Lake Havasu and the rugged Whipple Mountains across the lake in California.
The Islander, Lake Havasu City, Arizona
We like the fact that park models are separated from RV sites at the Islander. For the most part, outside rows are reserved for park models, premium long-term sites are on a small peninsula overlooking the marina and harbor and known as “knob hill”, or as some residents say, “snob hill”. The short-term sites are right in the middle of the park, from site 158 through about 170. There are also some back-in short term sites that exist in the 107-210 row. ISLANDER MAP
During our 2 week stay we once again visited some favorite restaurants: The Boat House Grill, right onsite at the Islander, College Street Brewery and the off-grid desert watering hole, the Bunker Bar.
The Bunker Bar, Lake Havasu City, AZ
We also found great pizza delivery from Rosati’s Pizza. So good, we ordered their food 3 times during our stay! We also explored Barley Brothers Brewery and Javelina Cantina, both overlooking the water next to London Bridge. And we spent an afternoon and evening at Rickety Cricket Taproom followed by dinner at the Martini Bay located inside the London Bridge Resort. Thanks to our “tour-guide” Reese who we met bartending at the Boat House Grill.
The Islander RV Resort, site #160
On Saturday the 4th of February, Lake Havasu hosted Winterfest on Main Street. Over 200 vendors lined the street, with plenty of food, beer and unique items for sale. This street fair was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
From a connectivity perspective, one of the downsides to the Islander is no WiFi. They claim some is available, but we’ve never found evidence of that. However, our Verizon Hotspot worked fine, running along around 20MB. And, T-Mobile service for either voice or data worked great. From Lake Havasu we’re headed south to Yuma and Cocopah Bend RV & Golf Resort. More from there…
We’re parked in pull-through site #46 at Cattail Cove State Park. Our site offers 30A electric and water. A dump station is located along the main entrance road. Cattail is about 25 miles north of Parker and about 15 miles south of Lake Havasu City, along the southern end of Lake Havasu. This park of 62 RV camp sites also includes a beautiful beach area, cactus garden, a boat launch and a some boat-in campsites. Verizon speeds run along at 27MB down and 14 MB up. This signal must come from cell towers across the river in California because our phones are showing Pacific time. Our antenna found no OTA TV signals.
Cattail Cove State Park, site #46
All sites along the main entrance road are pull-throughs, the majority of the other site are back-in. The best sites on this upper loop are the even number pull-throughs 36-50. 53 is a nice private corner site, however apparently reserved for traveling park rangers or contractors. For beach views and access, sites 1-5 are perfect, with #5 probably being the longest and best. On the lower loop, even numbered sites 6-20 are excellent since there are no sites directly behind.
Cattail Cove State Park, site #53
Cattail Cove State Park, site #1
Cattail Cove State Park, site #4
Cattail Cove State Park, site #5
Cattail Cove State Park, site #6
Cattail Cove State Park, site #20
During our stay we also visited River Island State Park, about 12 miles south of Cattail Cove and Buckskin Mountain State Park, another 2 miles south. Both of these parks are beautiful parks, along the river (versus Lake Havasu). However, we think Cattail Cove is the most private, quiet and scenic. While exploring these parks, we crossed the river at the city of Parker and drove through some of the RV resorts on the California side. All of these resorts seem old and rundown. We crossed back over into Arizona via the massive Parker Dam which impounds the nearly 45 mile long Lake Havasu.
River Island State Park
Buckskin Mountain State Park
Parker Dam, Lake Havasu, Arizona
From Cattail Cove we’re headed to The Islander Resort in Lake Havasu City. More from there…
We’ve arrived in Quartzsite on Friday 1/20 and joined the Montana Owners Club dry-camping on BLM land about 6 miles north of town. This is an annual gathering for the owners club and we had a total of 21 rigs in the circle before our departure on 1/24. We’re only here 4 nights, but that’s about maximum before needing either more fresh water or less gray water in our holding tanks.
Weather is chilly, and reportedly about 10 degrees off from normal highs. Instead of 70’s, the daytimes struggle to reach 60. All 4 nights of our stay, lows reached into the mid to lower 30’s. And, the winds didn’t help – often gusting to around 20 MPH, it made the wind-chill even worse.
With several hours of furnace overnight, the batteries were nearly 50% discharged each morning. The solar did an adequate job of recharging the batteries, except on one cloudy day. Even with the solar, we opted for 4 or 5 hours of generator each evening after sunset just to keep things topped up as we ran the pump for showers and watched a few hours of TV.
Speaking of TV – there is surprisingly NO over the air signals that reach to this desert location. We would have expected repeaters from either Yuma or Phoenix to provide at least main network coverage, but our antenna could find nothing. However T-Mobile worked very well in this location, and we were able to use our hotspot for Roku access. We tried using our Verizon hotspot, but initially – even with a great signal – there was virtually no bandwidth. However, on Sunday and Monday the access returned with downloads running along at about 12MB and uploads at 3MB. Someone must have rebooted the tower!
Even with cooler than expected temps, our 4 days of boondocking on BLM land worked fine. We had plenty of power and propane to keep warm and some great campfires to meet others around. Next stop, Cattail Cove State Park, along Lake Havasu and the Colorado River. More from there…
We’ve opted for a due south departure route this year after cold temps followed us all the way through the south western corner of Colorado and into central Arizona last year. Our first night will be in Albuquerque, at the Isleta Lakes and RV Park. We’ve stayed at this park in the past. It’s quite convenient to I-25 and nestled in a nice park-like setting around a couple of lakes along the banks of the Rio Grande. There are two improvements to note since we last stayed here in 2019. All of the sites to the south have been converted from their former gravel base to concrete pads next to a nice pavers patio. The northern sites are still pull-through gravel sites. Pick your option at check-in. When we stayed the concrete sites were a $5 premium. Also of note, the parks WiFi system has been upgraded. Our tests showed the download runs along at well over 100MB and the upload at about 30MB.
From Albuquerque we’re headed to Las Cruces and one of our favorite KOA parks. We’ve been in this park many times, however since new owners took over a few years ago, major improvements are always apparent. Currently they are working on several new premium sites just at the front of the park. They have also upgraded the office/store area and the WiFi. They offer both a 2G network which struggles along from our site #19, and a 5G network which is capable of video streaming. We spent 2 nights in Las Cruces, but wind and rain kept us indoors for much of our stay.
Butterfield RV Resort & Observatory, Benson, AZ
Leaving Las Cruces, we’re bound for Benson, AZ exactly 220 miles straight across I-10. Setting the truck’s navigation system it says “make a left turn in 220 miles”! We’re at the Butterfield RV Resort in Benson, AZ. This park reminds me of the Lost Alaskan in Alpine, TX with a pine tree at nearly every site. Also rather unique, they have an observatory. Unfortunately with heavy cloud cover, it’s doubtful that they will open this evening. Butterfield RV provide a outsourced WiFi service. The “free service” includes up to 1MB speed and 2GB limit in any 7 day period. The upgrade to “premium access” is $30/month, for a single device, regardless of how long you are staying. In testing, we found 2.4 MB down and .8MB up. And, with a single night stay, we didn’t come close to the 2GB limit. So, all in all it worked fine. Most likely we’d have to upgrade to more bandwidth on a stay over 2 or 3 days.
Palm Creek RV Resort, Casa Grande, AZ
From Benson we’re headed to Casa Grande. Before checking into Palm Creek RV Resort, we opt for a truck and trailer wash as the local Blue Beacon. For around $65, Blue Beacon does a great job of washing the winter grime off the vehicles and their RainX treatment seems to help keep things clean. We first visited Palm Creek in 2021 and met friends that were staying here last year. We’re parked in site #56, a back-in on the far east side of the park overlooking a field and I-10. This is a huge resort with over 2200 sites – both RVs and Park Models. There’s nearly any amenity you can imagine, which come at a price – per night rates are from $87-$92. Add about 11% sales and hotel tax and these sites are pushing close to $100/night. However, book a month and the rates fall to around $45/night. We enjoyed our 2 nights at Palm Creek, but to really take advantage of the amenities, you need to spend more time here.
Circling of the Montana’s – Quartzsite, AZ (Aerial Photography courtesy Scott Zenonian)
From Casa Grande we’re headed to our first scheduled destination, Quartzsite, AZ. We’re meeting other members of the Montana Owners Club on the Plomosa Road BLM land for 4 days of dry camping. At full capacity, our “Montana Circle” contained 21 rigs. We enjoyed daily happy hours, a pot-luck dinner on Sunday and great conversation, knowledge sharing and fun around the campfire. On Saturday we joined a group trip to the Desert Bar, aka Nellie E Saloon located just north of Parker, AZ. This off-grid bar and grill is similar to the Bunker Bar we visited last year near Lake Havasu City.
Nellie E Saloon, Parker, AZ
Nellie E Saloon, Parker, AZ
On Sunday we walked the “big tent”, talked with some of the vendors on the midway and viewed a few new-model Montana and Grand Design RV’s. From Quartzsite we’re headed to Havasu…more from there.
Small Home - Big Yard 