Kicking Off the 2025 Camping Season – 3,400 Miles, 7 States, and a Whole Lot of Memories

Our first big trip of the 2025 camping season took us through seven states—New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming covering more than 3,400 miles in total. Along the way, we hit a few major highlights that made this journey unforgettable:

• Attended Overland Expo 2025 in Flagstaff, AZ
• Visited family in Cottonwood, AZ
• Spent time with family in San Diego, CA
• Explored Yosemite National Park and added a new stamp to our National Park Passport
• Reunited with long-time friends (practically family) in Phoenix, OR

What made this trip even better was the timing late May gave us ideal weather: not too hot, not too cold, and just right for travel. Of course, we had our trusty eBikes with us: Kelly’s trike and my XPeak. They came in handy more than once.

This was our first trip of the year for 2022 and was the first time we have gone camping on the early shoulder of camping season. In Colorado camping season kicks off Memorial day weekend. This trip also served as a shake down for the mods and additions that we had acquired during the winter.

Mods:

• Upgraded thermostat to Micro-Air Easytouch.
• Added a Maxxair II to the front vent.
• Blackstone 22" Griddle for outdoor cooking.

This was our first major trip taken with our travel trailer (TT) were we were totally dependant on the trailer and the campsites we chose. The time span of this trip was fourteen (14) days and covered over two thousand five hundred fifty (2550) miles. The header image of this post shows the route that we took. When traveling on vacation we try to keep the driving to about three hundred (300) miles per day. In doing this we get the following benefits:

The weekend of March 13 2021 and the following Monday (3/15/2021) are ones for the history books. The official total for Loveland, CO was twenty-nine point one inches (29.1") Kelly and I have been lved in Colorado now for almost eight years and this is the most snow accumaulation we have had ever.

We had over a dozen power blips but Internet (Comcast) and TV (Dish) was stable through the whole storm. We had one branch on a tree in the front yard break off and the supporting fiberglass mast for my 40m endfed antenna snapped in half.

Christmas this year I felt truly blessed. We had all of our adult children home to visit. Activities ranged from just visiting and catching up to playing a game called “What do you MEME”. A couple of other highlights are below:

• Ice Skating at Centerra

  • Could not get the oldest son and his wife off the ice. They were having a good time.
  • Our granddaughter lasted all of about 30 seconds on the ice before she got scared.
  • Our other son and his significant other now have this activity checked off their bucket list. :)

• “Christmas in Color” in Thorton, CO.