Dave27
Senior Member
We bought the camper for this kind of trip – two months of boondocking. My wife wants sunshine in January and February, rather than the winter clouds (not to mention snow and cold) we get in Michigan. I watched the weather maps last winter, and Tucson, Arizona looked like it fit the bill perfectly. Highs in the 60s and 70s, lows in the 40s and 50s, and lots of sunshine. Our youngest son is off to college, so this is the first winter we could go on this new adventure.
Well, the weather decided to give us a different experience than what we expected. I wasn’t surprised that we had to time leaving Michigan to avoid large snow storms, and we had to dodge them on the road as we went west. We left the day after Christmas because one was heading into Michigan, and had to scoot south to avoid one in western Texas, and hold up for a while for the snow to clear from I-10 west of El Paso and into New Mexico. We arrived in Tucson on December 30. We were greeted with two snow storms. The first was a couple inches and melted by noon. I enjoyed taking pictures of cactus with snow on them. The second was more substantial, 4+ inches, and that was the day we were moving to the boondocking site we located. If I wanted to camp in the snow, I could have stayed in my backyard. I had to get on the roof to push the snow off the slides so we could close them. We lost the antenna, since we weren’t near any trees, I think the wet/heavy snow on the roof took it off as we drove down the road.
We settled into the snow covered desert, with a nice view of snow covered mountains, and a beautiful, clear blue sky. Set up the solar panels, and we were all set. That night the temperature dropped to 17 degrees. That is cold! At 4:00 am, the low battery alarm went off and the furnace fan was running but no heat. It was a good thing I gave my wife a generator for Christmas, we needed it to run the fireplace, which can’t keep up with temperatures that low, but is still much better than nothing. I will tell the story of the furnace in another post, but suffice it to say we got back to boondocking three days later.
Locals told us this was an unusually cold and wet winter, and they had never seen snow on the ground two mornings in a row. It was comforting to know we were there to experience history in the making. We didn’t get snowed on again, just some frost, but that is because we left Arizona a week early to avoid a big snow storm near the end of February. As we drove toward Texas, the road signs along I-10 in Arizona warned of the winter weather expected the next three days. We spent our last six nights on the gulf coast near the Texas/Louisiana border – no snow, just mosquitoes (that’s another story). We timed our drive home between storms, holding up in southern Illinois to let one pass by. I appreciate the weather apps available now on smart phones, they really help with winter navigation.
While the trip was colder than we expected, it was nice to be in the Arizona sun, which we had most days. I pointed the rear of the camper to the south, the passive solar heat through the windows warmed it up nicely every sunny afternoon. Our solar panels easily kept the batteries charged every day. The camper functioned the way we hoped it would, it was comfortable living out of it. We enjoyed exploring the desert, and watching it bloom from the moisture.
Life is good, the unexpected is just part of it, I can't complain.
Dave
Well, the weather decided to give us a different experience than what we expected. I wasn’t surprised that we had to time leaving Michigan to avoid large snow storms, and we had to dodge them on the road as we went west. We left the day after Christmas because one was heading into Michigan, and had to scoot south to avoid one in western Texas, and hold up for a while for the snow to clear from I-10 west of El Paso and into New Mexico. We arrived in Tucson on December 30. We were greeted with two snow storms. The first was a couple inches and melted by noon. I enjoyed taking pictures of cactus with snow on them. The second was more substantial, 4+ inches, and that was the day we were moving to the boondocking site we located. If I wanted to camp in the snow, I could have stayed in my backyard. I had to get on the roof to push the snow off the slides so we could close them. We lost the antenna, since we weren’t near any trees, I think the wet/heavy snow on the roof took it off as we drove down the road.
We settled into the snow covered desert, with a nice view of snow covered mountains, and a beautiful, clear blue sky. Set up the solar panels, and we were all set. That night the temperature dropped to 17 degrees. That is cold! At 4:00 am, the low battery alarm went off and the furnace fan was running but no heat. It was a good thing I gave my wife a generator for Christmas, we needed it to run the fireplace, which can’t keep up with temperatures that low, but is still much better than nothing. I will tell the story of the furnace in another post, but suffice it to say we got back to boondocking three days later.
Locals told us this was an unusually cold and wet winter, and they had never seen snow on the ground two mornings in a row. It was comforting to know we were there to experience history in the making. We didn’t get snowed on again, just some frost, but that is because we left Arizona a week early to avoid a big snow storm near the end of February. As we drove toward Texas, the road signs along I-10 in Arizona warned of the winter weather expected the next three days. We spent our last six nights on the gulf coast near the Texas/Louisiana border – no snow, just mosquitoes (that’s another story). We timed our drive home between storms, holding up in southern Illinois to let one pass by. I appreciate the weather apps available now on smart phones, they really help with winter navigation.
While the trip was colder than we expected, it was nice to be in the Arizona sun, which we had most days. I pointed the rear of the camper to the south, the passive solar heat through the windows warmed it up nicely every sunny afternoon. Our solar panels easily kept the batteries charged every day. The camper functioned the way we hoped it would, it was comfortable living out of it. We enjoyed exploring the desert, and watching it bloom from the moisture.
Life is good, the unexpected is just part of it, I can't complain.
Dave
