Photo of horses on the desert.

I like the desert scenery behind this pair.

If you'd like to see more photos of our trip, stay tuned....

We certainly chose the right time to make this trip. Gas was down to $1.39 in some places and no higher than $1.89. We decided to make the entire trip camping out to save money. We rigged the cargo trailer with a bed, a kitchen counter, and camp stove. We made a little bathroom with the porta potty. Our clothes hung on rails from the ceiling, making a handy closet.

Sometimes we laugh at ourselves, when we were getting ready to go, we decided we needed a bathtub. The more we looked through the possibilities, we decided on big plastic tub, the kind the cattle and horses lick molasses from. You have to be inventive, right?

The cameras and computers stayed charged on our power inverters and extra car batteries. The inverters also ran our lights.

We camped out on the desert where we could, and stayed in truck stop/travel centers when we were in town. We have a friend in Quartside, who invited us to stay with him there. All in all, the money we saved from buying motel rooms and food in restaurants, allowed us to do a lot of things we wanted to do, and see everything we wanted to see.

There was a little bit of a downside to all this, it was near zero weather on the way home. From the town of Wickenburg, AZ on, the temps plummeted. From Williams, AZ on, we drove through snow and blizzards. Nights were chilly! By the time we got into Idaho and Montana, the weather had gone down to zero.

We put the canned goods into a cooler chest to keep them from freezing. The last day out, it was so cold, we couldn't get the coffee to boil on our little stove.

Because we have some great sleeping bags, we were more than warm at night. From a lifetime of camping out, hunting and trail riding in the mountains, I can make a bed that keeps us warm. If you sleep warm, and have warm clothes, you can enjoy a winter trip more than a summer trip.

We saw the sights without crowds, mosquitoes, snakes, heat, or traffic!
Donna Ridgway