I prepare for my annual southern migration, this time with a purpose.

I go south every year for the winter. Although I love my home and I’d like nothing more than to be able to spend the winter here in comfort — writing at my desk, making jewelry in my studio, editing video at my computer, and maybe even hitting the cross-country ski trails around Mazama and Winthrop — I find the short daylight hours and dreary weather depressing. It starts as soon as we change the clocks — I’m firmly in the DST year-round camp — and by the first of December, when Shadow Time starts, I’m going nuts with SAD. The only solution is to go south, so that’s what I do. I pack up my camper and drive to Arizona, where I have some friends and favorite campsites, and California, to hit my favorite hot spring.

(I should mention here that while I was in the middle of cruising the Great Loop in my boat from October 2022 to August 2024, I spent both winters on my boat on the east coast cruising on the coastal waterways of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. I made it all the way down to Key West where I spent New Years 2024 with my friend and fellow boater Jason. But I digress. This winter, my boat is resting up in the garage for another season as a charter boat in the San Juan Islands starting in April 2026.)

Not Just Sitting Around

This year has extra purpose. I’m participating in two art shows with my artist friend Janet LeRoy. We applied to three shows together and I managed to get into two of them and be added to the waitlist for the third. (Janet seems to think I’ll get into that one, too, but jewelry is an over-crowded field, as I learned earlier this month in Seattle.) After a lot of internal fighting in my brain, I finally decided to bring along my utility trailer, where I can set up my mobile jewelry studio. This relieved me from having to spend the last three weeks before departure in my home studio making inventory — which was a good thing because I’ve been dealing with a bad cold since November 5. The added benefit of having the utility trailer in tow is that I don’t have to store all my show gear inside my truck and camper. It’s a tight fit, to say the least. But the trailer has plenty of space and I don’t have to live with all that stuff for three months. This will be the first time I took the trailer south since winter 2020/21. I don’t like towing — it really takes away the benefit of having a truck camper — but I’ve dealt with it before so I can deal with it again.

My truck camper, which I’ve been trying to sell for the past few years — some years more seriously than others — is a comfortable, fully self-contained rig with plenty of space and all the amenities I need. It’s remarkably similar to my boat, but has a bigger refrigerator, more solar power, fewer batteries, and no inverter. And it doesn’t float. (At least I don’t think it does.) It’s 18 years old but in excellent condition and has a lot of extras, including a fitted canvas “room” that can be installed when I take the camper off the truck. I almost had it sold last year but the idiot who wanted to buy it asked his wife and she said no. The reason it’s hard to sell is because it requires a full long bed pickup. That means a pickup with an 8-foot bed. These days, people buy little wimpy trucks that simply can’t handle a rig the size of this one. My truck, however, has no trouble at all.

The Route

I’ve driven the distance between the Phoenix area of Arizona and North Central Washington State twice a year almost every year since 2008. Back then, I lived in Arizona with my future wasband and came north ever summer for cherry drying work. In summer 2012, when my marriage fell apart, I came home, packed up, and prepared to move to Washington. I arrived in the Wenatchee area in spring 2013 with my old 5th wheel (the “mobile mansion.” The ink wasn’t even dry on the divorce papers in May when I closed on the 10 acres in Malaga where I’d build my home. Since then, I’ve gone south for the winter instead of north for the summer.

So yeah, I’ve done the trip a few times. And yeah, I know the pros and cons of each route.

The best route, so far, is I-84 to US-93. About a third of it is on freeways, mostly I-84 south of Kennewick to Twin Falls and then I-15, etc. in the Las Vegas area. The other two thirds is on two-lane desert roads with 65 mph speed limits, mostly US-93 through Nevada and Arizona. You have to know when to stop for fuel and not skip a stop. (You also need a good roadside assistance provider just in case.)

This year I’ll be leaving around Thanksgiving, which is when I’ve arranged for my winter house-sitter, John, to start his annual gig. This year he’s thrilled to get a full three months; last year I was gone just five weeks, which was barely enough for him to take advantage of the ski pass he buys for Mission Ridge.

My only concern with driving this route as winter approaches is snow in the Blue Mountains between Pendleton and Baker City OR. Way back in 2012, in October, I hit a nasty snowstorm up there where the freeway was down to one lane with trucks installing chains in the slow lanes. The truck I was driving held the snowy pavement well, but not good enough to keep going. I was forced to stop for the night at Baker City, when I’d hoped to get all the way to Boise. So I’ve been checking the forecast regularly, starting yesterday. The forecast for La Grande is looking iffy the beginning of next week, but Thanksgiving day looks good, with rain and daytime temperatures in the upper 40s and lower 50s. That might be my perfect weather window.

The Stops

Although I can cover this distance in two days — I’ve done it before more than once — I prefer to take my time and avoid driving in the dark. I’ve got four stops planned.

First is the Three Island Crossing State Park on the Snake River in Glenns Ferry, ID. That’s just off I-84 between Boise and Twin Falls. I have been stopping here southbound since maybe 2020. I like it because it’s an affordable state park campground with pull-through sites and it’s basically deserted in November and December when I come through. Last year, around Christmas, I was literally the only person there. Although the water is turned off and the bathrooms are locked, the electricity is on and sites have sewer dumps. (I don’t usually dump here; it’s the first night of my trip.) I pull in, plug in, walk to the pay station to pay, and then settle in for what’s usually a cold night. With an electric heater on board, I don’t have to run my propane heater. I an also use my microwave and coffee maker. It’ll make a great spot for Thanksgiving dinner if I prepare the food on Wednesday and just heat it up at the campsite. (Heck, I’ll just have thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday at home and leftovers that first night.)

Sunset at 5:10 PM on December 10, 2021 at Three Island Crossing State Park. I was able to make it before dark that day; I should be able to do it again.

The drawback to this as a first stop is that it’s nearly 500 miles, which means I need to get a very early start with minimal fuel stops to get there before dark. Apple Maps calculates about 7 1/4 hours but it expects me to do the speed limit, which gets up to 85 in Idaho. I usually keep it around 70. Add an hour for 2 fuel/bathroom stops and I’m looking at a 9-hour drive.

The second stop is Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge just south of Alamo, NV. I’ve been stopping here since maybe 2010? I remember stopping here on my way north with my big 5th wheel. This is a wildlife refuge with about a dozen campsites right on a lake. There’s lots of birds, making it an excellent spot for bird watching. Camping is free, although I usually mail in a donation. It used to be easy to get a site here, but it’s tougher now. I think it’s been “discovered.” Although it’s a lower elevation that other places along the way, it can get wicked cold here, as I discovered in maybe 2022. If I get a good site and the weather is nice, I’ll spend two nights and do some hiking or take my bike out while I’m there. It’s 468 miles from the previous night’s stop, so again, I’ll need an early start.

Sunset the next evening at Pahranagat. This was a 4:37 PM. I know from other photos that I arrived at least an hour before that.

The third stop really depends on whether a friend of mine who lives in Las Vegas is available to meet up. I met with Jim last year, learned about the changes in his life since I’d seen him back in 2021, and had lunch with him. He’s 86 now and was on the verge of retirement from the company he’d built after taking early retirement from Eastern Airlines long before I met him in the early 2000s. (We used to go on helicopter outings together in the desert — him in his Hughes 500 and me in my R-22.) I’ll get in touch before I head south to make sure (1) he’s still alive and (2) he’s available.

Then, with that third day taken up mostly by our time together, I’ll head over to Boulder Beach campground on Lake Powell where I can get a campsite for $10 thanks to my National Parks Senior Pass. That’ll make about 100 miles of driving for the day. I don’t like that campground — too much like a subdivision for me — but there is water to top off my fresh water tank and fill two 6-gallon jugs and a free dump station to empty my tank before I start serious boondocking. I’ll probably treat myself to a nice hot shower before I top off the tank.

If Jim is not available, I’ll go a little farther, to Willow Beach Campground on the Colorado River. This is also inside the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, but it’s a concession campground and, without that senior pass, would cost $80 per night for a full hookup. With the pass, it’s a slightly more affordable $40. There’s a fish hatchery there and some hiking trails. I can rent a boat to go up to the Arizona Hot Spring if I’m feeling ambitious and rich. (The boat rentals aren’t cheap.) The site is full hookup — it should be for that price! — so I can top off my fresh water tank and dump my waste tanks before I go. I remember the showers there being VERY good. And there’s a laundry room if I need to wash anything.

The view down into Black Canyon at the Colorado River from the main road above Willow Beach.

From wherever I end up on my third stop, I’ll head to my destination in Wickenburg, AZ, which is 323 miles from the wildlife refuge or 190 miles from Willow Beach. Along the way, I’ll stop at the Kingman Mine store, which is along the way but closed on weekends. I buy a lot of turquoise for my jewelry making endeavors there and I prefer to buy in person instead of online.

I was going to skip Wickenburg for now and return later on in the winter, but I’m having a problem with the water pump in my camper. It’s working but it sounds like it’s sucking air and it won’t shut off on its own like it should. I looked everywhere I could see a pipe and don’t see a leak. Janet’s significant other, Steve, is a certified RV repairperson so he’ll take a look and hopefully resolve the issue. I’m hoping it just needs a new pump, which looks pretty easy to get at. I’d like to get it repaired without spending a fortune on it.

And Then Showtime!

Setup for the Wigwam Holiday Festival for the Arts is on Thursday in Litchfield Park, AZ. (The show runs December 5 – 7.) So that’s the only solid thing on my calendar determining when I must get to Arizona. The sooner I leave here, the more time I have to screw around on my way south. There should be RV parking for artists at the show; Janet will camp with me.

Afterwards, I’ll boondock out in the desert for a while. The next solid thing on my calendar is a tour of Rio Grande’s Albuquerque facility on the morning of December 18. I’m hoping to park the utility trailer somewhere before I do that and spend about a week touring western New Mexico. But maybe I’ll take it with me and spend some quality time in the desert making jewelry along the way. Who knows?

The next show is the Cave Creek Fine Art & Wine Winter Festival on January 9 1 11. So I have time to wander around a bit. Or, if I find a good BLM campsite, park myself for a while.

The final show is the Tubac Festival of the Arts on February 4 – 8. I’m on the waitlist, but Janet is invited. I’ll go down there and hang out. I’ve told the promoter that I’m available as a volunteer if I don’t get off the list. I haven’t spent significant time in Tubac for many, many years, although I did stop for a few hours to see this particular show about 5 years ago. The town has changed. I look forward to exploring it. I’m not opposed to finding a new home there, either — but that’s another story.

Those are the plans, subject to change. I think I’m really going to enjoy this season in the desert.