Arizona to Minnesota w/o Reservations!

[jd1923]

This will be a first for us, though common to many of you who have more time for travel. I have 6 weeks off work, for our personal longest camping trip ever.

I was inspired by a post our friend Steve @ScubaRx made last year where wrote that he and Tali often travel across country without reservations! This is difficult for the Project Manager in me, but should make for a spontaneous and exciting adventure!

First stop just 5 hours from home, we’ll stay 2 nights up at 7760 ft in this beautiful McGaffey Campground SE of Gallup NM.

[HDRider]

I hope you have a great trip.

 

I would love to travel without scheduling everything to a gnat's ass.

 

Wave if you see us.

 

We leave Sunday for six weeks

 

[John Dorrer]

44 minutes ago, HDRider said:

I hope you have a great trip.

 

I would love to travel without scheduling everything to a gnat's ass.

 

Wave if you see us.

 

We leave Sunday for six weeks

 

Yep it gets old

[Steph and Dud B]

We did our spring trip to the southeast central US this year without reservations more than 1 or 2 days in advance. Mix of Harvest Hosts, state, federal, and a few commercial campgrounds. Worked out fine.

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, HDRider said:

Wave if you see us.

Our paths will cross, but at different times. Apple Maps not so good at visualizing the route but this list is what we have in mind, actual route TBD!

[jd1923]

New Mexico is a wonderful state in its hidden treasures from the area NE of ABQ (where Art lives) up to Santa Fe and to Taos NM, then further up to Raton NM for the Santa Fe Trail Balloon Rally (we just happened by this rally when moving from VA to AZ back in 2005)!

Then there is Ruidoso! It's Gods Country in Lincoln County NM of Billy-the-Kid and Smokey-the-Bear fame. Don't travel across southern NM without spending some time here. The area is named the White Mountains of NM, wild elk and feral horses walking the city streets daily and so many cute carvings Smokey is shops everywhere. 

If you're ever traveling through Albuquerque and need breakfast, lunch or dinner, or just great sides to go, like their amazing salsa and beans, Mexican meats and stews and much more, you've got to stop at the Frontier Restaurant. Just one exit S on I-25 of I-40, head a few blocks east on Central. This is my 4th visit here but the first time I parallel parked with an Oliver! (There was a car behind me when I parked and just a narrow alley in front). It worked out great and we could even keep an eye on our rig from the window seat! Chris had the Taco Salad and I enjoyed the Frontier Burrito, pints of salsa and beans to go for upcoming campsite dinners!

 

[jd1923]

I do have one major gripe re New Mexico and you can keep all the National Parks with the word sand in them. Like White Sands NP and the Great Sands Dunes NP in CO (seen them once is enough)! Though you don't have to visit one of these parks to get caught in a New Mexico sand storm. I believe we've been caught in a half dozen of them over the last 20 years! It wasn't even that windy but from Gallup to well past Albuquerque the sky had a brown haze, not good air to breathe, both of us had sinus headaches by lunchtime, not fun. Years ago on our AZ move, with fully-packed 26' enclosed trailer we got caught in a full-scale July sand storm, being difficult to see just 100 yards ahead. Then the rear awning mount failed from heavy winds and it opened up like a large gull wing! Had to strap it down anyway possible to continue down the road.

A long day stuck on I-40 to Tucumcari and then up to Ute Lake State Park. We booked via Reserve America for NM SPs while already parked on site #5 in their New Cottonwood section. Couple pictures of our site and the water pic is campsite #7 which was open but marked unavailable. Our plan is to do mostly 2-day stays on the way up to Minnesota and 3-day or longer stays on the way back. But we're not fisherman nor water-sports enthusiasts and it was going to be hot there the next day.

This is my new definition of a “One-Night Stand!” The original one-night stand went out with the carelessness of the 80s! When we stay one night, we keep the trailer hitched if possible and why not a quick tail-gate? Overnight it just got cool enough to sleep, but humid cause of the lake. Thank goodness I had just installed the Sirocco II fan for Chris (or I certainly would have heard about it)!

[topgun2]

How in the world does that little lady eat all that food?

Looks good though.

Bill

[Patriot]

Nice trip pics, keep em coming! 👍🏻🇺🇸😊

[bugeyedriver]

Nice tailgate party you have there! 

While on my long "walkabouts" with The Wonder Egg, Bosker & I seldom make reservations in advance, unless I'm traveling on a holiday weekend, or near a huge tourist location.  (I'm sorta burnt out on tourists, having lived in both Myrtle Beach and Orlando)  Not being in any rush, with months for the sojourn, I don't usually get on the road until 9-11AM and usually stop between 3 - 4 PM.  Most others are still on the road at that time and usually the campgrounds will have something available for 1 - 3 nights.  

When I come across a picture perfect, quiet location with great weather, we'll hang out for up to a few weeks before moving along.  I may have a final destination in mind, (this year - Whitehorse YT) and meander a long a winding pathway, simply in the general direction, without detailed planning. 

As Patriot says, keep those great pics coming!

[Steph and Dud B]

6 hours ago, bugeyedriver said:

I don't usually get on the road until 9-11AM and usually stop between 3 - 4 PM.

That's the way to do it. We try to plan routes with Google-estimated 4 hour travel times or less. Much more relaxing.

[Mike and Carol]

9 hours ago, jd1923 said:

This is my new definition of a “One-Night Stand!” The original one-night stand went out with the carelessness of the 80s! When we stay one night, we keep the trailer hitched if possible and why not a quick tail-gate?

John, your idea of overnighting is the same as mine.  Stay hooked up if at all possible. Drop the tailgate and slide the little Weber Q1000 out.  Quick and easy!  Looks like a great trip developing!  Mike

[jd1923]

Next we were heading to Dodge City Kansas. Being lifelong fans of Gunsmoke we had to see the town, even though the TV show was recorded outside of Kanab Utah!

We found a city park with good reviews on Campendium, Davis Park in the nearby town of Greensburg KS. There was no charge to stay and 20A electrical hookups, fresh water adjacent to the baseball field. We stayed a couple nights so we could do a day trip to Dodge.

We're generally not museum-goers but made an exception to visit the Boot Hill Museum, where they presented the real history of Dodge all the guns of the day and had the Gunsmoke city-scape with a walk-in Long Branch where you could order a whiskey and set a spell! We visited Dodge and then got the heck "outta Dodge." A bit too much in feed lots and meat processing plants for our taste. We thought not to eat a steak or even a burger in this town! What a shame.

The real treasure was Kook's Meats in Greensburg, run by Andy and Georgina Kook (for short)! They cut us a few ribeye steaks to go and you got to get the blueberry cream cake! Had breakfast there the next morning too and what a huge muffin sandwich or breakfast burrito for only $5.25!

The first night was perfect! The air was calm, perfect jeans and T-shirt weather and not a bug to bother us, bare feet in the soft trimmed grass. The second night a major plains thunderstorm came through. We were packed and hitched in case we had to get cover which was in a truck wash building just across the street (see last pic), but all that happened were heavy rains (a first for us in our Oliver). Next time I'll close my window, woke up to some wet bedding the next morning but all was good!

[jd1923]

The highways in Kansas are nearly perfect, everywhere we drove! I had not driven on highways so smooth since what I remember of I-64 in VA during the 70s when that Interstate was a new road (moved to VA from the pothole city known as Chicago). The roads in AZ and NM are terrible, and even worse where Fed funds are needed as in US highways and Interstates!

We headed to Manhattan Kansas, picked the location for some pickleball courts we found on the PicklePlay app. We made an inquiry on Harvests Hosts but after the courts listed were not to be found and the host site looked like a construction co lot, we drove north of town to stay the night a Tuttle Cove a ACOE campsite. $12 with the senior pass. Windy when we got there and perfectly calm the next morning, a very nice spot and what an amazing dam!

 

[jd1923]

So we headed north out of Kansas. NE Kansas has some great countryside. We drove through the cute town of Marysville, cobblestone or brick streets throughout the downtown area and it appears they area is known for black squirrels. They must have 100 of these squirrel statues, on every block!

We got to Lincoln Nebraska by late morning and played pickleball at Peterson Park. There were 10 courts and a lot of local players. None at our level though, so Chris and I played Skinny Singles. as the locals were thinking, who is this old couple! We started playing tennis together 34 years ago and are usually pretty even in competition. It was Chris' day (and her birthday week) so she won 2 of 3 very close games.  

[John Dorrer]

24 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

So we headed north out of Kansas. NE Kansas has some great countryside. We drove through the cute town of Marysville, cobblestone or brick streets throughout the downtown area and it appears they area is known for black squirrels. They must have 100 of these squirrel statues, on every block!

We got to Lincoln Nebraska by late morning and played pickleball at Peterson Park. There were 10 courts and a lot of local players. None at our level though, so Chris and I played Skinny Singles. as the locals were thinking, who is this old couple! We started playing tennis together 34 years ago and are usually pretty even in competition. It was Chris' day (and her birthday week) so she won 2 of 3 very close games.  

Nice. Great travel break.

[jd1923]

Spent the night NE of Omaha, just into Iowa at Arrowhead Park. It was an OK overnight, very nice host. He kept things very clean and neat but somehow too many flies everywhere. Thankfully they stayed out of the Oliver somehow.

So as we're driving down the road, Chris is on her phone searching for local farms stores, for farm fresh eggs and meats. After a 5-mile dirt road detour we found Wild Rose Pastures in Madison County IA. A knock on the door and only a 12-year-old boy was home. Chris talked him into calling his Dad, saying tell him I'm a "safe old lady."

After Dad talked him through the transaction, we left with 2 dozen farm fresh eggs at $5 per. There were big beautiful healthy hens running all over the place, a little nervous that we were there, ducking in and out of the barn! We also purchased 2 small T-bone steaks for only $15, a herd of cows beyond the farmhouse. I tipped the young man Zane $5 for his help in the transaction. You can eat well in Iowa on a budget!

[johnwen]

On 6/5/2025 at 9:48 AM, jd1923 said:

Next we were heading to Dodge City Kansas. Being lifelong fans of Gunsmoke we had to see the town, even though the TV show was recorded outside of Kanab Utah!

We found a city park with good reviews on Campendium, Davis Park in the nearby town of Greensburg KS. There was no charge to stay and 20A electrical hookups, fresh water adjacent to the baseball field. We stayed a couple nights so we could do a day trip to Dodge.

We're generally not museum-goers but made an exception to visit the Boot Hill Museum, where they presented the real history of Dodge all the guns of the day and had the Gunsmoke city-scape with a walk-in Long Branch where you could order a whiskey and set a spell! We visited Dodge and then got the heck "outta Dodge." A bit too much in feed lots and meat processing plants for our taste. We thought not to eat a steak or even a burger in this town! What a shame.

The real treasure was Kook's Meats in Greensburg, run by Andy and Georgina Kook (for short)! They cut us a few ribeye steaks to go and you got to get the blueberry cream cake! Had breakfast there the next morning too and what a huge muffin sandwich or breakfast burrito for only $5.25!

The first night was perfect! The air was calm, perfect jeans and T-shirt weather and not a bug to bother us, bare feet in the soft trimmed grass. The second night a major plains thunderstorm came through. We were packed and hitched in case we had to get cover which was in a truck wash building just across the street (see last pic), but all that happened were heavy rains (a first for us in our Oliver). Next time I'll close my window, woke up to some wet bedding the next morning but all was good!

John...if we meet again at the "Q" next year remind me to tell you of our trip to Dodge back in '18.  Will sound very similar to your experience there but we did partake of a meal in a restaurant on main street thinking this should be the best steak ever...NOT!  We enjoyed our "western" adventure very much and are glad we traveled there and points beyond!  Did you see Lester Moore's tombstone?  :)  Here lies Lester Moore...4 slugs from a 44...no Les, no more.

John

[jd1923]

We moved out of the Midwest 26 years ago and there were two things I had forgotten about, one bad and one good. The bad are the huge storm fronts that can come through slowly and sometimes just sit for what seems to be FOREVER!

Low pressure started with the storm that came through central Kansas. Then we caught up to it again the next day in Nebraska. And then it was still there ALL through Iowa and after two rainy days at Wilkinson Pioneer Park near Mason City Iowa it also covered most of Minnesota (so far). Fortunately we only had 3 rainy days but we have not seen the sun in 12 days!

Let me tell you, this is difficult for us who live in sunny Arizona. Non-descript GRAY skies. You can't make out clouds, it's just a pale shade of gray. I remember a year in Chicago about 1980 when the Chicago tribune headline stated 45 days of gray. That was during the winter though, the first 12 days of June being nothing but gray, wow!

The good one I had forgotten was how large and tall deciduous trees can be in the Midwest. Over the last 20 years we've lived in AZ, Central TX and S FL. No tall trees in these locations except for Ponderosa pines in AZ. Every town in Iowa, the pretty houses are surrounded by huge tall trees. Then we got to Chris' sister's home in Farmington MN. This was our best campsite so far. A private little spot in the woods along their driveway a couple hundred yards before their lakefront home. We spent 4 overnights with family here.

We left today and drove up to Brainerd MN, staying Gull Lake Rec Area another ACOE park. Drizzle and gray again today. Just staying here one night. The plan is to boondock in the Chippewa NF for the weekend, but...

If it's raining to the north when we wake up, I'm driving west to Fargo ND or further west as far as we must to see the sun again! 🤣