FL to AZ – May 2026

As I begin my 9th year as a full-time RVer, I can’t help but reflect on all the travels I have completed in the past eight years.  As you can see above, I’ve done a pretty good job of covering the lower 48.  I’ve been through 42 states, visited 35 of the 63 National Parks, seen just over 1,100 Roadside America attractions, and wrote 137 blogs documenting my journey.  Not bad for eight years of travel!  Now it’s off to year nine and the checkoff of a bucket list item traveling the entire length of Rt 66.  It’s gonna be another epic trip, and this blog highlights the start of that adventure. (Note: the video that produced this travel map can be seen HERE).

Getting Ready

Before leaving the home base of Florida, there are a number of things that I have to get done.  Oil change and checkup for the truck, lubing all the slide rails and landing gear of the RV, and putting away all the landscape decorations just to name a few.  One of the other things I try to accomplish each year is to review and clean out all my cabinets and drawers – eliminating anything that I won’t need on the road.  One specific cabinet was long overdue for a total cleanup and that was my pantry.  I don’t recall the last time I’ve done a full unload and reload, but it’s probably been a few years on this one, so definitely overdue!  It was a good process, and allowed me to dispose of some things that frankly had long since expired.  But it’s done now, and the new and improved food and item storage area is much improved (at left, bottom right).

The other little project I had before leaving was to install a CB Radio in the truck.  I was a licensed CB radio jock back in my high school years – and I even remember my call sign KKY3229.  But that was a few decades ago, and these days, a license to operate on the CB frequencies is no longer required.  I thought it might be fun to listen to truckers yacking and providing safety and police trap notices along the highways.  Also, it is nice to have an alternate method of communications in an emergency when cell service might not be available.  So the antenna was mounted on my truck box, and the radio setup in the cab within easy reach.  Not a bad install job if I say so myself!

Travel Begins

Getting out of Florida and onto I-10 heading west was not without some challenges.  Most notably, it was Love Bug season which means your vehicle will get covered in squished bugs.  I sure had my fill of them – on both the truck and the front of the RV.  They were both covered with these pesky, now deceased insects. And unfortunately, most campgrounds prohibit the washing of vehicles at your site, so normally a trip to a car wash is needed to clean off the truck.  As for the RV, that’s a much bigger challenge to wash while on the road.  I can pay several hundred dollars to a mobile detailing service, or maybe I’ll get lucky and a permanent resident in the campground does RV washing as a side hustle. But in my case, I got lucky and had to do neither.  A little further in my travels heading west, I ran into some really nasty storms (more on that later), which provided a free rinse for both the truck and RV, and pretty much washed away all the bugs.  It was no fun driving through these storms, but the resultant bug wash was most appreciated.

I’ve travelled the I-75 to I-10 route on several occasions, and have stayed in the same campgrounds many times along that route.  In fact, my first stop after leaving the home base is a stop in Lake City, FL – just over a 3 hour drive and about 200 miles.  There is a campground there that I’ve stopped in probably a half dozen times.  But when I went to make my reservations in February – one for April going out, and another for October on my return, they would not make the October reservation saying it was too far out and that they only take reservations going out 6 months.  That’s ridiculous and probably some new rule as I’ve not had issues making reservations in the past.  Oh well – their loss!  Now I’m going to find someplace else to stay in the area.  And boy, did I find a great place!  A local farm took a piece of their land and created 6 pull through sites with full hookups.  Nothing fancy – no swimming pool, no camp store, no dog park.  Just a grassy area for six nicely sized sites with power, water and sewer connections sitting along a fence line having various farm animals (at left, bottom right).  It was amazing!  Very quiet except for the occasional rooster cock-a-doodle-do or a donkey he-haw.  Soon after my arrival, the owners of the farm even brought over a half dozen farm fresh eggs.  Wow – what a treat!  This place is no doubt my new favorite in the Lake City area.

Another really nice campground that I stayed in a bit further down the road in Moss Point, MS, was this beautiful and spacious lake view site (at left, top).  Presley’s Outing is both a 113 site campground, and a day use facility offering fishing, boating,  swimming and beach lounging.  It is privately owned and managed by I believe a third generation Presley, and is very family oriented.  So much so in fact, that alcohol is strictly forbidden in the park.  Well, I obviously carry a fairly diverse collection of wine onboard the RV, but I respected their rules, and kept it stowed away for my entire stay.  Sadly though, it pretty much rained the entire time I was there so enjoying walks along the lake and such were pretty much washed out.  I’ll have to stop here again in the future – hopefully getting some much better weather.

So I had mentioned prior about some really bad weather that I was driving through.  Lots of storms, some severe, were rolling through the southern section of the country as I was trying to make my way west.  Some of these storms I ran smack into while driving and towing.  Certainly not ideal!  Some of the rain was coming down so hard that you could not see more than a few feet in front of you, requiring some really slow going and a focused attention on the tail lights of the vehicle in front of you.  As I was rolling through one of these storms while traveling through Alabama, I came upon this really bad accident on the opposite side of I-10 going east bound.  I was very fortunate that this was in the opposite direction of travel from where I was heading as the interstate was fully closed, and traffic was being diverted off the highway several miles ahead.  I read in the local news that apparently a west bound tractor trailer had crossed the median into the east bound side, and hit another tractor trailer head on.  There was one reported fatality and others who were seriously injured.  This pretty much shut down this part of I-10 for the better part of the entire day for cleanup.  Very sad for those impacted, but certainly lucky for me that it occurred on the other side of the interstate.

Beaumont, TX

Except for that which was described above, my travels through FL, AL, MS, and LA were mostly uneventful.  Four stops each having two night stays with little to no events or attractions to take part in, made for some quick and restful progress along my westerly trek.  My fifth stop would take me to Beaumont, TX – a place I had stopped and explored back in April of 2023.  So I checked in with Roadside America to see if I had missed anything last time, or if perhaps something new might have come about.  Well, it would appear last time I did not get to check out the Edison Plaza Museum featuring history and artifacts related to Thomas Edison.  The museum is located in a historical 1929 utilities substation building having lots of character.  I honestly don’t recall why I didn’t see this on my last time through town, and alas it would be that I don’t get to see it once again on this trip either.  Despite the regular hours of operation coinciding when I was there, apparently the folks who run the museum were attending some sort of special meeting that was going on and thus closed the museum.  Well darn!  I would have really liked to have explored this museum having lots of coverage of his many inventions and innovations.  Well – maybe next time?

Boerne, TX

My next stop of any significance takes me to Boerne, TX – a place that I’ve been every other year since 2020, making this my 4th visit.  So again, there won’t be any Roadside or other touristy things to explore as I’ve pretty much been there, done that with them all.  Rather, I’m here to visit with my dear friend Brenda and also her family.  In fact, the Friday that I arrived, Brenda was in another state wrapping up a multi-week vacation, and not scheduled to be back until Saturday afternoon. So instead, I met up with her sisters Judy and Carol, for a wonderful dinner and of course some card games (at right, top).  They prepared a wonderful ham steak and potato dinner, with thinly sliced and fried zucchini and squash – prepared in a way that I’d never had that was absolutely delicious!  I brought an oreo pie for dessert – of course taking a picture of it to send to Brenda to show what she was missing.  That terific meal was followed up with a couple card games of Golf.  Judy won the first game, but I came back with a vengeance and won the second by a landslide.  It was tons of fun and I thank Judy and Carol for a terrific evening.

Since Brenda would just be arriving back on Saturday afternoon, we decided to let her get back and settled, and I would get together with her on Sunday.  We all met up at Judy’s house where I caught up with Brenda’s husband Lee and Judy’s husband Gordon.  I was even blessed with once again seeing Brenda’s niece (like a daughter) Jamie who drove into town for a visit. A wonderful Pizza lunch followed by, what else, some card games (at right, bottom) wrapped up the day.  Always great seeing and catching up with Brenda and her family.  Thank you for all the hospitality!

Ozona, TX

After a nice 3-night weekend stay in Bourne, my next 2-night quick stop would take me to Ozona, TX.  A place I’d never heard of or been to, I didn’t have high expectations of doing or seeing much in this small town.  Much to my surprise, it did have some interesting things to explore.  Ozona is the town seat of Crockett County – so named in honor of Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman who died at the battle of the Alamo.  The entire 2,800 square mile Crockett County has some 2,769 residents – 2,663 of which live within the 4.7 square miles of Ozona.  So needless to say, once you’ve seen Ozona, you’ve seen everything in Crockett County.  The downtown sign proclaims Ozona to be the “biggest little town in the world”, and despite its tiny population and rural setting, was quite the impressive little town.  A 13 foot granite monument in honor of Texas hero Davy Crockett sits in a little park in the town center since 1939.  The town even hosts an annual David Crockett festival in the Aug-Sep timeframe. Across the street was the Crockett County Museum – a very nicely done regional museum that occupies a historical 3-story building filled with all sorts of county artifacts and memorabilia. It was a really nicely done and representative museum.  Also while walking around I noticed these pictures lining center/main street, featuring the names and pictures of Ozona High School graduates.  What an excellent tribute to these graduating seniors, and not something I’d seen in any other town in my travels.  Likely something truly unique to this quaint little town.  Well done Ozona!

Las Cruces, NM

After another quick stop or two, my next stop takes me to a nice 3-night long weekend stay in one of my favorite places – Las Cruces.  I was last here exactly 3 years ago and at that time did all the touristy stuff there was to see.  At the time, I also visited with former workmate Allan and his family.  So for this trip, it was pretty much just catching up with Allan, his wife Sarah, sons Leo and Teddy, and SIL Samantha.  Allan, Sarah, Teddy and I got together for dinner (at right, bottom right) after my arrival on Friday, to one of my favorite restaurants in Las Cruces – La Posta De Mesilla.  It was Allan who introduced me to this place back in my working days, and it has been one of my favorites since.  So it’s always great to visit with friends and get a great meal at the same time.  Speaking of great meals, I was invited over to Allan’s house for a mid-day Sunday smorgasbord meal featuring smoked ribs, smoked mac cheese, Mexican corn, and lots of extra’s (seen at right, bottom left).  Absolutely delicious!  The ribs spent 6 hours in the smoker in various stages of cover and saucing, while the mac cheese was also subjected to the slow smokey cooking style.  Oh so good!  Thanks Allan and family for a wonderful visit and an always terrific home cooked meal!  I was even treated with an amazing collection of leftovers for yet another scrumptious meal.  Yummy!

Wilcox, AZ

My next quick stop was in Wilcox, AZ – a sleepy little town with just over 3,000 residents surrounded by many of Arizona’s prominent mountain ranges.  Also, its high desert springs valley location and temperature variations is also well suited to wine production.  I’ve not been to this area before, so once again I consulted with Roadside America to see if there was anything of interest to see here.  Most notably, lots of things related to Rex Allen, a Wilcox born native who spent the better part of his youth here in Wilcox.  I’d frankly never heard of him, but apparently he is known as the Arizona Cowboy.  He was born in 1920 and died in 1999 and was a film and TV actor, singer, songwriter, and also narrated many Disney nature and western productions. Well, I was not much of a cowboy fan or B western watcher in my day, and much of his career would have been before I was born or when I was a little tyke.  It’s possible that I’d heard his narration on some Disney shows, but I would not have known it at the time or now for that matter.  Anyway, Wilcox has a nice memorial statue of him in the center of town.  Both he and his TV and silver screen show horse named KOKO are buried here.  A museum and hall of fame is across the street, but sadly was closed on the only day I had available to tour it.  So I guess I’ll leave not knowing much more about Rex than I had before I arrived.  Also in town was this noteworthy Roadside treasure BBQ restaurant that serves its patrons in an old railroad dining car attached to the restaurant.  Having just had BBQ ribs the prior two days, I decided to skip having another BBQ meal.  But it was cool to look at!  Lastly, on the corner of the street was this nice little veterans memorial paying tribute to the locals who died in service of their country.  Nice place to reflect just coming off of Memorial Day.

Final Thoughts

Well, I’ve covered just about 2,000 miles thus far working my way to California, have made 11 stops, and I’ve burned through over $1,300 in fuel costs, and $1,400 in campground fees.  Who said RVing was inexpensive?  Oh well – it sure does beat working!  I’m just a week and four stops away from landing at my entry point to historic Rt 66.  Just three more 2-night stays and just over 540 miles left to go before arriving in the Santa Monica area.  From there, I will begin my much slower-paced week long stays for the subsequent 16 weeks, travelling along the entire 2,448 mile stretch of the Mother Road.  I’m sure looking forward to slowing down, and also going back to mostly playing tourist.  Much of the past three weeks have been mostly travel, mixed in with some friend visits along the way.  But now I’ll be back in nomad mode exploring all there is to see on this historic roadway as it celebrates its centennial anniversary.  Let the fun begin!  Till next time, be well and safe travels.  P.S.  I wish these cookies were real – certainly would be among my favorites (but only if double stuffed)!

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!