We decided to take off after Christmas to visit my 84 year old mother in Arizona.  This is a good time for me since I get a few holidays during this stretch so I don’t have to take as much vacation time.  We decided to take the Airstream and make a vacation out of the back half.

We knew the first day was going to be a long haul as we wanted to get some distance under our belts.  I also wanted to avoid unhitching the truck and I wanted to be cheap!  I had a few places lined up on the way and it all depended on how early we got out and, hence, how much sunlight was left.

The total distance to my mom’s house is 578 miles and we have done that in one day in a car but not the trailer.  I wasn’t about to start now.  That makes halfway at 289 miles.  The first candidate was 288 miles and was the ‘Dharma Tower‘.  I have seen this on Aluminarium’s blog a couple times and it looked interesting.  Two negatives about this.  Roxie was not too sure about staying there and we also had a LOT of daylight left when we passed.

Another option was 330 miles, actually the turn off was closer than the 3rd option but it was farther off road.  This was Hole in the Wall campground in the Mojave National Preserve.  It was a bit too far off the road for me and we still had sunlight!   Onward!

Option 3 was a truck stop just off the freeway at 318 miles (exit 107).  This was my least favorite option and would only be exercised if I was exhausted.  I wasn’t.

The ultimate destination was 374 miles from home.  Exit 9 in Arizona where highway 95 heads south the Lake Havasu.  There are two truck stops here, a Pilot and a Love’s.  Roxie had some trepidation about a truck stop also but we were game.  We chose the Love’s as it was a bit better lit.  Here we are:

All by ourselves.  No one around.  I had a great nights sleep.  We had our white noise machine going and we would hear trucks coming in all night and their idling was very soothing also.

We woke up sandwiched by big rigs.  This was fine with me as it was like being wrapped in a big metal blanket.  The blocked noise, headlights and wind.

I almost neglected to talk about the truck.  This was the first real test of it with the trailer.  We did the Tehachapi’s on this route.  It was pretty impressive.  I tried to stay at 60 when towing.  It maintained 60 easily up the hill and was able to give me more when I needed it.  Very nice.  On the flat ground I have been getting right around 13mpg.

We made it to my mother’s that day and stayed a  55+ RV park in her area.  They allowed us in as I told them I am a very old 53 year old…