Snowbirding Recap 2023

We are back home in Minnesota now after three months of snowbirding in our Fifth Wheel Trailer at Gold Canyon RV and Golf Resort. This winter in Arizona was colder, wetter and windier than recent years. Most days high temperatures were in the 60’s, with only a handful of days above 75 degrees. The cooler weather was fine for hiking and bike riding, but not for the pool. Wayne played golf whether it was cool or warm, as long as it was dry.

Our first time here in February 2020, just before the pandemic lockdown, we rented a Park Model home for one month. That time we brought everything we needed except for food. I did not feel comfortable venturing out much on my own. The second year we rented for two months, but it was the height of the pandemic in 2021, so we kept to ourselves, avoiding stores and restaurants. Our third winter in Arizona, 2022, was the first in our new RV. That year we stayed for two months. This winter of 2023 we stayed in our RV for three months. It felt more like we were living there, rather than being on vacation. I got to know my way around the area, and felt more comfortable going out and about with the help of the GPS lady on my phone.

I worked on two weaving projects in Arizona this year (worsted weight hand towels, and cloth napkins). There is not a good set up for warping the loom in the RV, so I had to use a common room in the resort community building. After the warping part, while working on these projects in the RV, I had to keep shuffling the loom and box all around. I brought yarn for a third project that I did not use, because I would have felt rushed trying to finish it before we had to leave. I completed a couple of small knitting projects, and a larger knitting project that I worked on most of the time we were in AZ. I will be posting about them later. Maybe I will bring more knitting projects next year instead of the loom, since they do not take up as much room and are more portable.

With the cooler, wetter, weather this year it was more green and there were many wild flowers on the hiking trails and everywhere including highway ditches. I saw my first rattlesnake right next to a hiking trail. Someone coming the other way on the trail gave us a heads up about the snake, so we were watching for it. The snake was under a bush, but poked its head out, so we hung back and waited while it crossed the trail. After that I was a little apprehensive about going hiking!!

Last year we left Arizona a few days before our reservation ended because Wayne had tickets for the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA. This year we stayed as long as we could. It was cooler than normal here, but at home in Minnesota the winter was ridiculous. The night of March 28 it got down to -16 Fahrenheit in Otter Tail County. That is normal for January, but not late March. There was a lot of snow at home including two snowstorms with blizzard conditions in April.

Meanwhile I have read that there was hardly any snow in New England. In the summer of 2020 we had 25 inches of rain and our lake was the highest it has ever been, with water lapping up over the top of the dock. Last year and the year before it was as low as it has been in recent years. Our daughter and her boyfriend were in Lake Tahoe in March. I had seen photos on social media of all the snow there, but was not sure if they were photoshopped or real. They were real. All over it is one extreme or another.

Wayne did not want to go home to the wintery conditions, but we had some things going on there starting the second week of April. Following is a look at our street at the RV resort, with our site and RV in the lower right of the photo as we prepared to leave. You can see the Superstition Mountains where we do a lot of hiking in the background.

Our little dog, Lyla, was getting very anxious when she saw us packing up to go. I found a good solution, carrying her around in the doggy backpack I made for her a few years go. She was very content there.

Wayne checked lights and turn signals while I used the restroom in the community building one last time before we left at noon on April 1.

After leaving Gold Canyon we drove south instead of north, taking the long way home. It was the first time we had packed up the RV, driven three hours, and set it up again at a different RV park.

We arrived that afternoon at Butterfield RV Resort and Observatory in Benson, AZ, about 45 miles east of Tucson. This RV park was quite a bit smaller, but pleasant and attractive. After checking in, we found our RV site and Wayne managed to back in without too much trouble, avoiding a light post on one side and a picnic table on the other side. We started in on our detailed RV set up checklist of things to do when we get to a campsite, such as leveling the RV both side to side and front to back, disconnecting the truck, connecting the utilities, putting the slides out, etc. It is a slow process for us as we have only done this a few times and are worried about messing something up.

While we were working on setting up, I noticed another very large fifth wheel trailer arrive at the empty site next to us. The wife stood outside spotting while the husband backed right in easily. I am not sure how much time went by, but it seemed like about 10 minutes later I looked over again and they were sitting in lawn chairs drinking a beverage, seemingly all done with their setup process. WHAT?? We still had a long ways to go. It turned out they left first thing the next morning, so I think they did not do all the normal set up stuff.

At one point during set up I took Lyla for a short walk, leaving Wayne on his own. This turned out to be a mistake. When I got back I looked in the RV door to see water pouring over the side of the kitchen counter. I shouted to Wayne to turn the water off quickly, then he came around to survey the situation. We were able to mop up a lot of water on the floor and counter with beach towels. Apparently the faucet was in the ON position when Wayne connected the water and turned it on, and there was also a bowl in the sink covering up the drain. The sink filled up and the water started overflowing. I was not there to catch this situation before there was water all over. Lessons learned. It takes two people to do the setup. Make sure the faucet is in the off position before turning on the water. Lyla was stressing out, so I put her on the bed where she looked worried but finally settled down for a nap. I felt stressed out too, but I did not get a nap.

After the setting up was complete, there seemed to be a problem with the electric power caused by the water running down the side of the kitchen counter. The electrical outlets all worked for charging phones, running the coffee maker, toaster and microwave, etc, but the LED lighting was dim, and worse, the refrigerator was not working.

Earlier in the day I had told Wayne that we should eat the leftovers we had with us for dinner, but by now it was 6:30 and our new plan was to go out to eat instead. After a nice meal at a nearby Mexican restaurant we went to a local ice cream place. Back at the RV we ended up putting food from the refrigerator in coolers with ice for the night. As long as we had water and could use the electrical outlets, I could deal with using coolers instead of the fridge for another three or four nights of RV use until we got back home. A few blocks away a train went by regularly but it was white noise to me. I actually slept fairly well, but Wayne tossed and turned all night thinking about what might have happened with the electricity, making an appointment for service when we got back home, how much this was going to cost to fix, etc.

Early the next morning while I was still half asleep in bed I heard sounds that sounded to me like train clanking noises. Later when I got up Wayne announced that whatever electrical problem had happened, everything was now working including the refrigerator! It was very mysterious. However that sound I heard earlier had actually been a large motor home crashing into a tree not too far away from us. Wayne thinks possibly they were leaving the RV park and the owner stepped out of the motorhome to check the lights or something while it was running. There was a slight incline, so the motorhome started rolling away down the street, stopping when the front driver side hit the tree. It was very lucky that the breakaway RV did not hit any other vehicles or people. A large tow truck came and got the rig pulled back onto the street and up onto a trailer.

When we got back from an outing later that day, the refrigerator was not working again. Later we realized that the hot water heater was not working either. After witnessing the other RV being towed away, I did not want to complain about using coolers for keeping food cold and taking a shower in the community building for a couple of days.

We signed up for an evening session at the RV Park’s Observatory, but it ended up being cancelled due to the windy conditions. We had some fun daytime activities while in the Benson, AZ, area, including a day trip to the town of Bisbee near the Mexican border, a couple of hours in the old west town of Tombstone, a cave tour at Kartchner Caverns State Park, and hiking at Chiricahua National Monument. Both Bisbee and Tombstone have multiple blocks of original old west buildings that are on the National Historic Register.

Tombstone is the location of the infamous O.K. Corral gunfight. It was pretty quiet the afternoon we were there.

Kartchner Cavern State Park has a huge multi room cave discovered by two college students in 1974. They did not tell anyone else about it for several years for fear of it getting damaged. Eventually they told the owners of the land, James and Lois Kartchner, and working together they were able to make it into a state park with the support of The Nature Conservancy and Governor Bruce Babbitt, who was a Geologist. The cave was very carefully developed for public access while preserving it as much as possible in the original condition. I do not have any photos as that was not allowed during the cave tour.

Chiricahua National Monument is a cool area described as “a wonderland of rocks” with a scenic drive, camping, and hiking trails. We did a two hour hike through amazing scenery, barely finishing before it started getting dark out.

After four nights at Butterfield RV Resort we closed up the RV and began the drive home, with plans to stay in hotels for three nights until we got back to Minnesota. There was one more adventure on the agenda. After leaving Benson we drove east through the rest of Arizona and into New Mexico, arriving at White Sands National Park in the late afternoon. The visitor center was closed for the day, but we headed out on the eight mile scenic drive. It looked like Otter Tail County, MN, in the winter but instead of snow the landscape is composed of pure white sand. We got out of the car a few times and took photos. We stayed in a hotel in nearby that night.

We have a security camera at our house to keep an eye on things while we are gone. The main thing Wayne watches is how much snow is in the driveway. Following is the view a few days before we arrived home. Wayne put a call in to the snowplow guy so we could at least get a path to the garage.

There were two more nights in hotels before we arrived in Fargo, ND, to drop off the RV for repair. After stopping in Fergus Falls, MN, to get a few groceries we arrived at our home by dinnertime on Saturday, April 8.

The amount of snow was very discouraging, but at least were were welcomed home with a pretty sunset.

The weather warmed up quickly after we got home. A lot of snow has melted now leaving our driveway wet and muddy. We had to drive to Minneapolis for a couple of days where the high today was an unusually warm 86 degrees. It never got that warm the whole time we were in Arizona!!