January

We fled New Mexico for my birthday to visit Dick & Joyce who had moved to Tucson, and to get maintenance work done on the RV. The maintenance required we be out of our home from 6:45 AM until 5:30 PM for three days, so we killed time doing a lot of driving around since we couldn’t leave the dogs in the Jeep while we tasted beers or toured museums. One place we drove around was Arizona Legends RV Resort in Benson, where we immediately decided to buy a site.

February

The closing and site prep took much of February, so we parked our RV on an available rental site within Arizona Legends and began to get to know the area. At the end of the month, we drove back to New Mexico, rented a U Haul, emptied our casita and hung out with Kevin & Terri for one last New Mexico evening.

March

By Mid-March, we were finally on our site. Rather than buying a new casita, we had the one from New Mexico moved to Arizona. As ever, when you’re parking in an RV park, some guy is gonna be kibitzing with a beer in his hand. Say “hi” to Mel and Randy from Minnesota, a couple of our new neighbors.

Within a week of getting onto our site, we met another neighbor who decided to move right in with us – a Western Spotted Civet that decided the warm and cozy bedroom closet, featuring a full bag of dog food, was the best possible place to bed down. During his removal, we learned that skunks hate the smell of their own spray and do it as rarely as possible, and that they love oatmeal cookies drenched in banana oil, info we intend never to need to rely on again.

April

One of our day trips was an intentional drive up Coronado Mountain. I volunteered to be the driver and nearly made it the whole way before my sweating hands and narrowing vision dictated that I turn the wheel over to someone slightly less nerve-wracked.

Mid-April, Miles threw off his winter clothes and donned shorts to drink Moscow Mules on our porch.

Miles wasn’t the only Midwestern drinking pal around. We were delighted to discover that we chose an RV site next to a row of folks from Wisconsin and Minnesota, who know how to toast the end of a week. Or day.

Here’s Rutger’s best friend Beth in the “scorching” April heat. Rutger is the worst when it comes to temperature fluctuation.

May

May 25th we left our new friends in Benson to begin our travels, starting with a week in Mayer, Arizona where we began the battle against mice and got our “traveling legs” back. They’re like sea legs, but with less nausea. We were able to catch up with our friends Andy & Wendy whose path we crossed multiple times in 2022. We were too busy drinking beer to take pictures…this time.

June

June found us at Dark Sky RV Park in Kanab, UT. It was by far the best RV park we’ve stayed at – fewer than 20 private sites with a phenomenal shower house and a wonderfully-stocked mini-mart and gathering area. Beer? Eggs? Local honey? Soda? Water? Ooni pizza oven? Gas grill? You got it – and there was a weekly gathering with the owners, staff and other guests enjoying “snacks” (subs, pizza, a wienie bar) and sharing stories.

Oh, and the views weren’t bad, either – this was looking out the RV door.

Within reasonable driving distance from Kanab are the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park and Colorado City, AZ, renowned as the location of one of Warren Jeffs’ FLDS enclaves. Look it up on Netflix (“Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey”) if you have the intestinal fortitude.

July

We reluctantly left Dark Sky at the end of June, but our next stop, Monument Valley, was just as astonishing. I admit we were beginning to get a little jaded about vistas and mesas and formations, but holy cow, it was nevertheless breathtaking.

On Matt’s birthday, we took the Mystery Valley tour guided by an Native woman. We sifted through (and left in place) potsherds, heard the wind respond to her importuning, and were awed by the spiritual atmosphere throughout.

Until our guide saw some rando on a 4×4 who had no right to be tooling around their sacred grounds, anyway.

After Bianco, we spent a week in Santa Fe, NM which we absolutely loved. We had a lot of great food including a lovely dinner at La Boca near the square, as well as fabulous Indian carryout from India House (which was the closest to Santa Fe Skies RV Park).

One evening, we could hear music wafting from the valley below us. I thought at first it was someone having a yard concert, but then Matt said, “That really sounds like Shakey Graves“..and it was! He was playing at the Santa Fe Brewery just up the road.

From Santa Fe, we headed north to Taos. Our minds were blown that Taos and Lakewood could possibly be in the same state. While we didn’t hit the touristy areas much (although I would have liked to have seen the Pueblo – but it was still closed due to COVID), we loved the area and the vibe.

After Taos, we scooted across Colorado to head to Wilsey, KS to visit Dick & Joyce on their other home turf. Wilsey is tiny and restful, and it was a lovely weeklong respite.

August

From Wilsey, we headed to Manhattan, KS where we had a couple of windshield chips checked out (nothing serious…yet) and stayed at a Corps of Engineers park that we loved (and returned to later in the year). After Manhattan came a rough (for us, anyway) five consecutive days of travel that took us through Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and the UP, coming to rest in Baraga, MI where Miles once again joined us.

We spent a total of three weeks in the UP at three different parks, and five nights in Crivitz, WI before heading to Wisconsin State Fair RV Park for the month of September, drawing to a close our summer 2022 travels.