We departed Indio, California and headed to Gila Bend, Arizona. Another new state in our RV journey (we’ve been there before, but not driving).

Here’s the map route; 252 miles, a four or so hour drive in our coach. (That marker in the middle is where we’ll be spending the holidays.)

The first step for a travel day is to load up the truck bed with the outdoor stuff; it’s quite full, with chairs, rug, griddle, fire pit, propane tank, cleaning equipment, and other stuff. But great to have that extra storage:

Hills and part of the Colorado River aquaduct:

Paladin:

Being passed by another RV:

Date palm trees:

Arizona state line sign:

Welcome to Arizona sign:

Arizona centennial sign:

Quartzsite and Phoenix sign:

One of the first sightings of cacti:

Love’s fuel stop:

Yes, that top number is dollars; $295 for almost 69 gallons of diesel (nice)… less than half our tank capacity (150 gallons). Though we get a discount off that via our fuel card:

Desert:

Paladin:

Sitting in his box on the counter:

More cacti:

Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse dashcam video (with music!).