Our Maiden Voyage

We picked up the RV on the day after Christmas.  Happy Holidays to us!!  We proceeded to spend the next 4 days deep cleaning the RV and getting it all set up.  In the meantime, I had booked an RV spot for our maiden voyage at Karchner Caverns which is about 3 hours from our home in Queen Creek.

Although we had the week of New Years off work, we, unfortunately, were not able to FIND much availability for campgrounds.  This is the drawback of living in Arizona in the Wintertime.  All the snowbirds are here. We went with what we could get and booked a weekend starting on New Year’s Day.

Karchner Caverns is a state park, which means it has a full-time Camp Host and is kept super nice.  The campground had all the hook-ups, plus free wifi, nice bathroom facilities, and even showers if we wanted.

Since Karchner is in the low desert, the daytime highs were in the 50s.  The overnight lows were below freezing.  The RV handled the weather like a pro.  In fact, we learned that we did not necessarily need the heater on overnight as it got a little too warm.

Given this was our inaugural trip, I am surprised that we didn’t have too many lessons learned.  Most notably was “timing.”  It did take us longer to get on the road than we anticipated.  It also took us longer ON the road due to wind gusts on the I-10.  We pre-made most of our food from home, so we have not yet mastered everything in the kitchen.  The Wifi at the campground was ok, but it in no way supports streaming.  We didn’t test our computers. The bed in the RV is an absolute dream, better than home as a matter of fact. 

The pets did great, and even Chewey crawled out of hiding after day one.  He also did amazing on the road, and preferred to stay in the backseat of the truck with both dogs!

For daytime adventures, we went to Bisbee Arizona for most of the day.  We did a mining tour that took us 1500 feet underground, followed by lunch at a local brewery. The old downtown was quaint and fun to walk around.

On our way home, we went to Tombstone Arizona. We walked around town and had a drink in the local Saloon. I grew up in Arizona and have never really visited these places in full.  Only passed through, but never stayed. 

We didn’t tour Karchner Caverns because we had just done the tour a few months previously in October. We hung by the campfire at night and chatted up the Camp hosts when they came by. 

All in all, the maiden voyage was a great break-in for RVing, and the trailer was perfect!