The Snowbird Journey: Navigating Through Seasons

As snowbirds, we spend five months of the year outside of Tucson, mainly in Minnesota and North Dakota where we have family. We usually leave near the end of April towing our Scamp travel trailer, and we’ll spend much of the summer visiting states we’ve only flown over.

With an aging parent in Minnesota and a growing granddaughter in North Dakota, we’ll need two cars this summer. We just returned from bringing Kate’s car to Bismarck.

We’ve done the trip in two very long days, but we prefer daylight driving, especially on the many two-lane roads we often travel. We could plan to see sights along the way like we did once two years ago which I’ll share later this month.

Usually, we’re on a mission to get where we’re going.

Before we left, this hummingbird caught my eye. I’d never seen one sit still. There she was in the nest she’d made in our carport.

When planning a trip this time of year, we can’t count on the weather. The week before we leave, we keep an eye on the weather forecast for our planned route, then delay or shift to other routes if needed.

Kate prefers to drive and I’m the navigator.

The I-10 corridor from Tucson to New Mexico is a nightmare. It’s a main trucking thoroughfare and it needs to be resurfaced.

This year, we took a different route though Arizona’s Tonto National Forest and Globe. It was cloudy when we left, but as we approached the mountains, the clouds cleared…

and we had beautiful driving conditions our entire trip.

We usually finish several Audible books during our summer travels. This trip, we caught up on our favorite podcasts.

When you’re traveling over a thousand miles, interesting billboards break up the monotony. Not a favorite, but the most unique of the trip outside Globe, Arizona.

A snowcapped mountain view from I-25 in Colorado south of Colorado Springs.

If you’ve never driven through parts of the heartland, ride along with us. What state do you think this is?

If you guessed Nebraska, you’re right.

Thankfully, the weather was great, and the roads were clear the entire way. There were traces of snow in Bismarck, but the weather was in the high 40s.

Once we landed, we were in hibernation mode.

We awoke to snow on our last day. After spending four nights with our granddaughter, it was time to fly south for the remainder of the season.

Allegiant flies direct from Bismarck to Mesa, which has been the only place I’ve flown from without having to make a dicey connection in some snowy airport.

Kate’s Hyundai Tucson gets far better mileage than my Ford Explorer pulling a Scamp. During this one-way trip, we drove 1,550 miles averaging about 33 miles per gallon. The most expensive gas was $3.879 in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and the least expensive gas was $2.719 at Costco in Bismarck, North Dakota.

After we landed in Mesa, we had to rent a car to get back to Tucson. Nearly all the rentals were booked so that ride cost more than the two Allegiant tickets we snagged during a sale.

The trip did confirm one thing…it will be difficult to focus on writing when we hit the road later next month. Until then, I’ll enjoy my writing time and start planning ahead.