I take a quick look back at the nearly three month trip I took to Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

As regular readers know, I go south every winter. I love my home but I don’t like winters here. It isn’t the cold as much as it’s the dreariness. So I go south, usually to Arizona and the desert southwest, although I did spend two winters on my boat on the Great Loop in mostly Florida a few years ago.

This year, I left on November 27, 2025 (Thanksgiving Day) and returned home on February 12, 2026. I have an excellent winter housesitter, which takes a lot of the worries out of leaving home for so long. He’s a skier and he likes the proximity of Mission Ridge and Steven’s Pass, two local ski resorts. He was not happy about the lack of real winter weather this year. But that lack of winter weather is what got me home early; I was supposed to come home at the end of February.

I thought I’d take a few minutes to write up a summary of my trip’s expenses. I think I managed to do it quite affordably this year. You be the judge.

Fuel

Fuel was my biggest expense. I drove roughly 4500 miles — Central Washington to the Phoenix area to Albuquerque to Las Cruces to Sierra Vista to the Phoenix area to Quartzsite to Yuma to Holtville to Salton Sea (Mecca) to Death Valley to Central Washington. I suppose I could plot the whole trip and get an exact mileage, but I think this is pretty close considering all the little side trips I made along the way.

I went through Death Valley on my way home. They were forecasting a Superbloom this spring and I think they’ll have it, but the best bloom I saw was at the south end of Badwater Road where it climbs up toward Shoshone. Simply said, I was about 2-4 weeks too early. So I only spent one night.

I was driving my pickup, which gets decent mileage, considering its size. But I had the truck camper on top, which is quite a load, and I was towing a utility trailer. I got about 12 miles per gallon.

I spent a total of $1,493 on diesel. This was taking advantage of Fred Meyer and Fry’s discounts everywhere possible and making sure I topped off in cheaper places — like in Yuma instead of Southern California and then Barstow instead of near Death Valley. The highest price I saw for diesel was $6.80/gallon in Death Valley, but the highest I think I paid was $4.79/gallon at Barstow.

Camping

I camped in my RV a total of 77 nights. They can be broken down as follows:

*The part hookup campgrounds and two of the no hookup campgrounds had RV dump facilities and drinking water available.

Honestly, I think the cost of full hookup campsites is outrageous these days. The one at Salton Sea was quite affordable at $36.25 including reservation fees. Not only did it include power, water, and sewer hookups, but there was a BBQ grill, picnic table, and a great view of the lake. But a gravel, featureless parking spot in Quartzsite for $70/night? They get you coming and going there.

I like to spend a night every week or so at a full or part hookup campground just to “refresh” my camper — empty the waste tanks, fill the water tank, make sure the battery is fully charged.

I should mention here that although I brought my little Honda 2KW generator along with me, I never even took it out. My solar panels brought in enough power during the day for the 66 days I camped without any power hookup. Meanwhile, in many campgrounds that had no hookup — I’m looking at you, Boulder Beach — I had to listen to someone else’s generator from 6 AM to 10 PM. I’ll take the empty desert any day.

You can bet I didn’t hear any generators — or anything else, for that matter — at this campsite west of Shoshone and just south of Death Valley National Park. No one came down that road the entire time I was there.

If you’re RVing and you need a generator or power connection for an overnight stay, you’re doing it wrong.

Other Expenses

I ate out once in a while but not very often. I bought groceries. Although I could work up total costs for my meals, I don’t bother because I have to eat no matter where I go. Buying groceries and cooking at the camper saves a lot of money — just like cooking at home is cheaper than eating out.

I also had to pay for laundry at laundromats. I estimate that cost about $100 total. I think I did laundry 6 times while I was on the road.

I also didn’t add up the cost of propane. My camper uses propane for the stove, water heater, and furnace. It also uses propane to run the refrigerator when I’m not plugged in at a campground. I only heat the water once a day — in the morning to do the dishes and wash up. The furnace is probably the biggest consumer; I’m not going to be cold at night. This was a pretty mild winter, though. In the past, while boondocking, a 5-gallon tank of propane usually lasted about a week. This year, I got at least 10 days out of each one. It cost about $15 to refill and I think I got 6 refills.

(Why on earth are people using Blue Rhino and swapping tanks? Don’t you realize it costs about $10 more than just refilling your own tank? Six times is $60.)

Last RV Trip South?

Although it was nice to stop in new places along the way — I spent more than a week in New Mexico this year — it was not nice to drag that cargo trailer. The only reason I had it with me was because I had at least two art shows to attend and I had all kinds of show equipment to bring with me. The first show was a bust — I barely broke even. The second was okay, but none of my better work sold. It seems that people are holding onto their money these days and are less likely to spend it on things they don’t need. I certainly didn’t need to do those two shows. (In fact, the way the economy is going — not to mention the price of silver, which I use in my work — I’ve decided to take a step back (again) from doing art shows.)

I’m thinking that there are more places south of where I live than the US desert southwest. Mexico is cheap and easy and I have friends that spend the winter there. But maybe it’s time to start planning that trip to Australia that I’ve put off for 13 years. I’m not getting any younger. Three months down under might do me good.