We visited McGinn’s PistachioLand Home of the World’s Largest Pistachio. A fun roadside attraction that we saw in passing a couple of years ago, but got around to visiting this time.
PistachioLand:
Nutastic!
White Sands National Park
We re-visited White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We first visited in 2022, but enjoyed re-visiting this year. As the NPS site says, it’s like no place else on Earth, the world’s largest gypsum dunefield.
The official NPS map; click or tap for full-size (and more info):
Visitor Center with the historic sign from before it became a National Park:
Road between sand dunes:
Picnic area:
Sand dunes:
The Thing?
During our travel to Las Cruces, we stopped at Bowlin’s “The Thing?” Travel Center for lunch (as mentioned in the travel post), and of course we had to explore “The Thing?” museum, another fun roadside attraction. The idea being WHAT IF… aliens have manipulated human history?
Cheesetastic fun.
Las Cruces KOA Journey
We stayed at Las Cruces KOA Journey in Las Cruces, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our third visit to this RV park with a nice view.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-11-10
- Check out: 2024-11-17
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps ranging between 68-74°F, lows around 36-45°F
- Some windy days, gusts to 27 MPH
Noise:
- Negligible road noise (distant freeway noise, only audible outside)
- No train noise
Site:
- #53, pull-through, gravel (with some concrete strips that are only useful for trailers)
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
- Fairly level; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Site about 90 feet long by about 18 feet wide
- Picnic table on gravel; no fire pit
- Limited mountain view
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, a little inconveniently located
- 60 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (3 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 100-135 Mbps down, 18-21 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- AT&T: 29 Mbps down, 9 Mbps up, 150 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Seasonally closed pool
- Garbage pickup from site (they didn’t used to offer this, so yay)
- Package delivery to office
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice place to stop in Las Cruces
This was our third time staying here and our first time not staying in one of the “view” sites, although we still had a decent view of both mountain ranges. This campground is conveniently off I-10 and has easy access to anything in Las Cruces. We camped at Las Cruces KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
An interactive map of the park:
RV park map:
Our site (with empty sites on either side, making it look more spacious than it was):
Utilities weren’t super convenient; having to use three 10-foot sewer hoses wasn’t ideal (the concrete pad and utilities were clearly set up with trailers in mind):
We enjoyed a local pizza delivery on our last night; tasty, fast, and inexpensive:
A neighbor fiver pulling out, with an unusual hitch:
Other sites:
Community room:
Playground:
Nice view:
Sun rays through dust on the way back to the campground from a day trip:
Dust obscuring Las Cruces:
Still a nice RV park. No doubt we’ll stay here yet again in the future. (See our previous two stays for more photos.)
Video: Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 258 miles from Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Travel from Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico
We drove our coach 258 miles, about four hours of driving, from Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
An example of why we don’t use picnic tables at campsites, at least without a tablecloth (but usually not even then): our neighbor was working on his sewer pipe connectors on the table:
Joining I-10 East:
Mountains:
Interesting rocks:
The Thing? travel center (post about the attraction later this week):
We had DQ there for lunch:
The Thing? and other swag:
More interesting rocks:
Rest area:
Paladin sprawled on the dash as we got underway again:
Welcome to New Mexico:
“Zero visibility possible”… yes, anything’s possible:
“Gusty winds may exist”… indeed:
Fun with zoom:
Instructions on what to do if caught in a dust storm (not very readable in this pic, but basically pull onto shoulder, turn off engine, foot off brake, lights off… presumably to save battery power):
Welcome to Las Cruces:
We really enjoy the mountains behind Las Cruces:
Our destination, the Las Cruces KOA Journey:
All decked out for the holidays (in early November):
Rechargeable motion lights
Inside cupboards and in the half bath we have compact motion-activated LED rechargeable lights, that are magnetically mounted to a self-adhesive patch, so they can be easily removed and recharged via USB. These lights have a switch to toggle between off, on, and auto; we leave them set to auto, so they come on via motion.
Convenient to illuminate in cupboards, and also in the half bath, so we don’t need to turn on the ceiling lights. In that bathroom, we have one mounted on the wall and one under the cabinet, above the sink.
Saguaro National Park
We re-visited the two units of Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona. We first visited in early 2022, but that was before Jenn was doing her National Parks passport book, so didn’t have a passport stamp for this park. Plus it’s nice to re-visit parks, especially ones we particularly enjoy like this one.
An interactive map of our route, starting with the west side (and a stop at a Subway to pick up some lunch for a picnic):
West-side entrance sign:
West visitor center:
When we visited last time, they were limiting the bookstore to 10 people at a time due to COVID restrictions (but without masks by then), but this time there were of course no restrictions, though it wasn’t super busy:
Fascinating timeline of growth of a saguaro cactus:
Jenn got her passport stamp:
Exploring a dirt road with saguaros and other cacti:
We stopped at the amusingly-named “Sus Picnic Area” for lunch:
Our picnic site:
Back on the dirt road:
After leaving the park, an undulating road:
Through the scenic Tucson Mountain Park, also with lots of saguaros:
East entrance of the national park:
East visitor center:
A saguaro outside the visitor center:
Along the cactus forest scenic loop in the park:
A nice park. There’s something about cacti and desert landscapes that we really enjoy.
Voyager RV Resort & Hotel
We stayed at Voyager RV Resort & Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A huge RV resort, mostly park models (small manufactured homes), with a section for transient RVs. A 55+ age-restricted park; our first, now that I’m 55. And as an Encore park, it’s free with our Thousand Trails membership.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-11-03
- Check out: 2024-11-10
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Sunny; rainy on arrival
- High temps 62-70°F, lows 35-46°F
- Some wind, gusts to 21 MPH
Noise:
- Distant road noise
- Some distant train horn noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #07-176, pull-through, asphalt
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Somewhat level site; high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Asphalt driveway about 100 feet long by 10 feet wide
- 13 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Picnic table on 20 feet long by 4 feet wide concrete patio
- Charcoal grill
- Loose gravel elsewhere in the site
- No trees
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, very conveniently located
- 48 PSI water, conveniently located (towards the end of the stay, disconnected due to near-freezing temperatures)
- Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (2 2-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 165 Mbps down, 14 Mbps up, 20 ms ping
- AT&T: 85-133 Mbps down, 8 Mbps up, 50-75 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 2-4 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Residential-style rolling garbage and recycling bins on each site, with pickup on Tuesdays
- Pools
- Restaurant (which we didn’t try)
- Lots of other stuff
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Snowbirding in suburbia
This is a vast 55+ resort with all the amenities you would expect. Most of the sites are full-time residents in park models, with relatively few RV sites. The biggest SNAFU was when we arrived, the gate guard told us to pull up into the waiting area, and someone would bring out our paperwork and escort us to our site. Not so. After we sat there for about 10 minutes, someone came by in a golf cart and told us that the “ladies are waiting for you inside”. So, ignore anything the guy at the gate says and go inside the hotel lobby to check in. After that, we were escorted to our site. We had a decently long pull-through site with decent hookups and a fine stay. We’re not really into the RV resort community vibe, but we’d happily stay here again as it was convenient for anything we’d want to do in Tucson. We camped at Voyager RV Resort & Hotel in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Very convenient utilities:
Residential-style trash pickup:
Propane delivery:
RV check-in area:
Registration:
Hotel:
Outdoor area:
Mailboxes for residents:
There’s even an onsite library:
And hairdresser:
Fat Willy’s Bar & Grill / Market, which we didn’t try, as we went out pretty much every evening; we were going to try it the first night, but it was raining, so we didn’t want to bother. Maybe next time:
One of the pools:
Lots of pickleball courts:
Shuffleboard:
Hundreds of park models (small manufactured homes):
Other RV sites:
A nice RV park, that really lives up to the resort label, not that we took advantage of any of it, as usual. But we’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Winterhaven, California to Tucson, Arizona motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 260 miles from Winterhaven, California to Tucson, Arizona.