Travel from Tucson to Cottonwood, AZ

After the FMCA convention, we drove 237 miles, over four hours, from Pima County fairgrounds just south of Tucson, Arizona to Verde Valley, Cottonwood, Arizona.

A longer drive than we prefer, but not too bad. We try to keep drives to about 200 miles or three hours where feasible. We like to follow the 2/2/2 rule: drive no more than 200 miles in a day, arrive by 2 PM, stop every 2 hours, and stay for at least 2 nights (so the rule really should be 2/2/2/2, but some people omit one of the middle clauses). There’s also the 3/3/3 rule, with the obvious variations, but that seems a bit much to us.

Here’s the route map, going from bottom to top:

Map route

On departure day from the convention, there was a pretty constant stream of RVs leaving the fairgrounds. Here are two Tiffins departing:

Tiffins departing

We noticed once on the road that I had neglected to remove the Magne Shade from the small side window, so we pulled off on the side of a freeway onramp to remove it:

Magne Shade

Passing Picacho Peak again; such an interesting pointy bit:

Picacho Peak

A couple more Tiffins:

Tiffins

We liked the quote from the Lord of the Rings: “Not all who wander are lost”:

Not all who wander are lost

Since this was a long drive, we stopped at rest areas where available:

Rest area

Rest area

Paladin sitting between us:

Paladin

Passing by downtown Phoenix:

Phoenix

Overpasses

Overpass

Paladin in his dash bed, briefly; I still hope he’ll get comfortable enough with travel days to sit there while we drive:

Paladin

Cacti:

Cacti

Yay, gusty winds; super fun in a high-profile vehicle; fortunately not too bad:

Gusty

We passed through several hills, including this 5% downgrade:

5% downgrade

Hill

I was amused by the sign for Bumble Bee and Crown King:

Bumble Bee Crown King

Another hill:

Hill

Hill

A stop at Love’s for fuel:

Love's fuel

And DEF:

DEF

Chips and sandwich for travel lunch:

Lunch

On another hill, a runaway truck ramp; a deep gravel upward slope to stop a truck that loses its brakes:

Runaway truck ramp ahead

Runaway truck ramp

6% grade:

6% grade

Quite the view from the hill, though:

View

View

The Cottonwood exit:

Cottonwood exit

There were several traffic circles:

Traffic circles

Another nice view:

View

Our destination:

Destination