We drove our coach 95 miles, a bit less than two hours, from Verde Valley to Williams, Arizona.

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

Instead of the Thousand Trails park, we originally were going to stay at Verde Ranch RV Resort. But we were glad we changed it, not only because the TT was much cheaper, and with a great view, it was also much more quiet, instead of being right next to the freeway:

A cliff by I-17:

A sign warning of elk:

Hey look, trees! Real pine trees! We’ve been in deserts for months, so haven’t seen real trees for ages:

Snowy mountains:

Arizona divide:

Paladin was comfy in his safe space next to my chair:

Snow by the side of the road:

Approaching Williams:

A sign for the Grand Canyon Railway depot:

Williams arch, “gateway to the Grand Canyon”:

Our destination, the Grand Canyon Railway RV park:

The timelapse video for this trip will be coming later today.

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:

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

Passing Picacho Peak again; such an interesting pointy bit:

A couple more Tiffins:

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

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

Paladin sitting between us:

Passing by downtown Phoenix:

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

Cacti:

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

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

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

Another hill:

A stop at Love’s for fuel:

And DEF:

Chips and sandwich for travel lunch:

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

6% grade:

Quite the view from the hill, though:

The Cottonwood exit:

There were several traffic circles:

Another nice view:

Our destination:

We picked up our coach from NIRVC in Surprise, Arizona, and drove 92 miles to Picacho, Arizona, a couple of hours drive.

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

Paladin wasn’t having a good day, having endured a car trip from the Airbnb, then coach travel:

Driving along I-10, past a stadium:

A freeway tunnel under downtown Phoenix:

An interesting peak:

We stopped for diesel at a Love’s:

Hey, it’s hay:

Jenn filling the diesel via a pump that was falling apart; we haven’t been too impressed with the quality of Love’s stations of late:

Mountains:

Picacho Peak:

An orchard:

Our destination, a KOA: