5K mile trip recently

[Clyde]

Greenville > Memphis (overnight) > Bentonville (stayed a couple days) > Amarillo (overnight) > Ghost Ranch, NM (stayed a couple of days) > Santa Fe (stayed a couple of days) > Tucson (stayed a couple of days) > Big Bend NP TX (stayed a couple of days) > Austin (stayed a couple of days) > Mobile (stayed a couple of days) > Greenville.

Brief notes:
Memphis was an over night stop in a pal's driveway. Broke up the drive to Bentonville, but was still 9 hours or so. Bentonville I have a love/hate relationship with. A zillion mtb trails in an about town. Tons of kids on mtb's. Belle Vista was KOA (camping on asphalt) however was perfectly positioned on the bike path, and a gateway to a 22 mile singletrack ride we did with 2500' vert. Amarillo was another KOA but a break between ALBQ. Massive headwind through OK and TX = maybe 8-9 mpg, fuel gauge dropped so fast it was scary. Ghost Ranch is a must visit for anyone. Attended a wedding celebration there, and hiked around a bit. So much natural beauty! Great campground there you can see the Georgia O'Keefe flat top in the background. Santa Fe was nice, had a great dinner with Patrick O'Grady and wife, rode some nice singletrack N of town. Tucson was beautiful, saw an old buddy, rode up Mt. Lemmon a bit, ate well and chilled. Big Bend was the worst campground, $2 for 5 min shower and one shitter for the plug in's and the tent campers of which there were dozens. You need 5 days in that place to really see it, we didn't have that much time. Green Rio Grande! Austin we had our only rain-out, $$$ campground with a kickass pool we didn't use (weather) but we had In-and-Out so that helped. Interesting bike path ride, but tired from multiple 9-10 hour days in the saddle. Mobile was very nice, beautiful river trip, great food, saw an old pal, and again a below average camping spot but no pay for showers and a couple heads. State Parks are def the right way to go if you can work it out. We had a number of urban situations that required Good Sam recommendations, hit or miss.

Great trip, too much driving. F-250 Diesel (11 mpg) is a horse, trailer functioned perfectly. Should have stayed longer at Big Bend, so much to see there, but we were on a time schedule. Awesome boat trip through the Tensaw River in Mobile. A few pics:
IMG_2031 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2622 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2627 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2658 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2153 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2696 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2132 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2691 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2695 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2738 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr
IMG_2740 by Clyde the Pointer, on Flickr

[Too Tall]

That was epic to coin a phrase. Way to get the most out of your adventure. Super pics too.

[Clyde]

17 days total. 10.9-10.26
Needed a few days to recover from all that windshield time. Lots of excellent experiences I’m rally glad we did it. Turned 63 on the road. Another trip around the sun.

[bigbill]

Great report. We want to go to Big Bend, both the NP and State Park. There's been an informal gravel gathering in the fall in Terlingua for the past few years. I've experienced the wind game a few times when we've traveled with both trucks (travel trailer, horse trailer). On one section of I-10 between PHX and Tucson, I was getting 7-8 mpg which I can deal with the big tank on my F250, but my wife's 2500 has a stupid small tank and if she stops, I stop, and top off if the price is good. I-10 south of PHX is the only place I've used the sway brake on my weight distribution hitch.

OT, we took the horses to Payson on Friday with my wife's truck. It is nice that the newer travel centers have pull through pumps for people with RVs. We filled up at a Maverik on I-40 near Williams that had diesel for a dollar less than the Love's next to it. The Maverik had pumps for semis as well, it makes no sense.

[Clyde]

Loves was consistently the most $$$’s. Gas Buddy is your pal. Forgot the Rivian p/u towing a 5200 lb camper story. From Cali, spoke to him in Big Bend, 2 hrs driving and one hour charging. He didn’t mind, and has over 22k towing miles on that thing. Happy as a clam.

[bigbill]

Loves was consistently the most $$$’s. Gas Buddy is your pal. Forgot the Rivian p/u towing a 5200 lb camper story. From Cali, spoke to him in Big Bend, 2 hrs driving and one hour charging. He didn’t mind, and has over 22k towing miles on that thing. Happy as a clam.

I use Gas Buddy when I travel. Since I know anal-retentive has a hyphen, I plan out my road trips with the places I'll fuel up. I know I can go 300 miles with the travel trailer, so I plan my stops around that. If my wife and I are traveling with both trucks, she gets about 200 miles so I top off.

[ides1056]

Flew home Sunday. Snow below from PDX to Denver, where it was 29 degrees. So glad I did not drive. Cleared a bay in the barn where I was working. Trickle charger on. Fresh Cab inside to keep the critters out. I will go back in March, drive South to see friends and family, then home on the southern route.
Happy to be home again. Holiday time from now till the new year.