Tag: arizona

2025 in Review: Miles, Memories, and Finding Our Rhythm

By The Buchanan’s Rolling Down The Road
December 2025

Every year seems to move faster than the last, but 2025 felt like it moved at highway speed. From desert mornings at Boyce Thompson Arboretum to lake days in Ontario, new states on the map, mechanical challenges, and finally settling into winter life on a quiet Mexican beach — this year reminded us why we chose this life.

Winter & Spring in the Arizona Desert

We started the year camped and volunteering once again at Boyce Thompson Arboretum. The desert welcomed us back with cactus blossoms, hummingbirds at the feeders, and the ever-present coati wandering through the grounds. Miss Laurie spent plenty of time rock hounding, while we both enjoyed the familiar rhythm of volunteer life.

January through March were filled with great company and simple adventures:

  • Kayaking the Lower Salt River with Ray & Karen, watching wild horses along the banks
  • Off-roading Box Canyon with Al & Carmen, followed by unforgettable Mexican food
  • Visits with friends in Show Low, Tucson, and Gilbert

Of course, no season is complete without a mechanical lesson. A leaking freshwater tank on Thunder turned into a full replacement, along with a new SeeLevel tank monitoring system.

Saying Goodbye & Heading East

April marked our final month at the Arboretum. A volunteer thank-you dinner, final walks among blooming cactus, and a special highlight — watching my grandson Andrew play baseball during a Phoenix tournament — made the goodbye meaningful and bittersweet.

On April 28, we turned Thunder east and began our spring migration back to Ontario.

The journey was a familiar patchwork of:

  • Walmart and Cracker Barrel overnights
  • Welcome centers and Harvest Hosts
  • Visits with friends and family along the way

We crossed back into Canada on May 8, settling into short stays until our summer site became available.

Summer at Sunni Bank RV Park

By mid-May, we arrived at Sunni Bank RV Park in Ontario, where summer truly began. Reconnecting with longtime friends Bob & Irena turned into a season full of laughter, food, and friendly competition.

Highlights included:

  • Kayaking the Grand River
  • Cornhole and washer board tournaments
  • Campfires and sunset conversations
  • An ongoing (very serious) search for the best Lake Erie perch

Spring rains left Thunder sunk deep enough to break patio stones, and our open site — great for solar and Starlink — came with the challenge of nearby roosters. Still, once settled, it felt like home.

Summer Curveballs & Small Victories

Summer also brought its share of challenges:

  • A leaking washer/dryer valve
  • A burned-out solar charge controller
  • Leveling system switch failures
  • Weak chassis batteries

Thanks to persistence, ingenuity, and Bob “knowing a guy,” everything was repaired. We also restored our Clam screen porch — a favorite spot for afternoon naps — and fully embraced cornhole as our new obsession.

Birthdays were celebrated, briskets were smoked, and long, slow summer days reminded us how important community is on the road.

Fall Travels & New States

October arrived quickly, and with it, packing up and climbing Thunder out of the spring ruts — literally. From there, we headed west on a new northern route, adding four new states to our travel map:

Nebraska • Wyoming • Colorado • Utah

Highlights included:

  • A charming $10/night city campground in Beaver Crossing, Nebraska
  • Climbing I-70 through the Rocky Mountains (with a bag of chips exploding from elevation)
  • Six nights boondocking near Goblin Valley State Park
  • Exploring Lake Powell and quiet desert mesas

Each mile reminded us why we still love long travel days.

Vegas, the Border & an Unexpected Breakdown

We paused in Las Vegas, splitting time between our time-share and keeping Thunder comfortable at the Elks Lodge — a perfect solution for us and Mister Sam.

Mid-November, we headed south toward Mexico. The border crossing at Mexicali was smooth… until one mile later, when a torque rod failed. With no good options, we strapped it up and carefully drove 185 kilometers south to San Felipe.

Sometimes the only option is forward.

Wintering in Mexico

We’re now settled at El Dorado Ranch Resort in San Felipe, Mexico, where life has slowed to a gentler pace.

Our days include:

  • Quiet mornings on an empty sand beach
  • Pool time, hot tubs, and water volleyball
  • Pickleball lessons for Miss Laurie
  • Cornhole games and fresh shrimp on the grill

While we’re still finding our social rhythm here, everyone has been welcoming and kind. Christmas was spent mostly on the beach — different, but just right for this season of life.

Looking Back at 2025

As the year comes to a close, we’re reminded that this lifestyle isn’t about perfect plans. It’s about adaptability, community, and finding joy in the in-between moments — even when something breaks, a route changes, or time moves faster than expected.

2025 gave us new states, old friends, challenges overcome, and a deeper appreciation for the road ahead.

And somehow, it still feels like we’re just getting started.

Day 3009

Day 2380

Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Day 1 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

Lets start by saying today is going to be a busy day. Our planned departure time was eight o’clock and let me just quickly say that we failed to meet that first objective. It looked like I was in good shape for meeting our departure time but everything just seemed to take longer than I had anticipated. This happening doesn’t change our destination plan, it just means that we will be a wee bit later.

Because of tightness in maneuvering around the host camp area we have to pull into the RV lanes of the Arboretum parking lot to hook up our towed. This will be the first time I get to try all the improvements that I made to the towbar, the new safety cables seem great, the new power cord connector and having the power cord ran through the towbar is a real game changer. The chance of damaging anything has all but been eliminated, in the past I have cut up the power cord when it got out of position and I had damaged the safety cables a number of time probably to the stage of compromising their integrity.

With a quick check of lights we are pulling out of the Arboretum parking lot and heading east on highway US-60, this is the most direct route back east and although the Salt River Canyon is a challenge for any large vehicle. You work your way down into the canyon bottom with numerous switch backs and with lots of “Jake Brake” operation to cross the Salt River and start the climb back up the north face of the canyon. A terrifying yet beautiful journey, as we climb the north face we are reaching higher elevations and the temperature is dropping as we are climbing and the first town we pass through is Show Low and as we look north the clouds look as if they could be snow clouds.

This group of photos was from the Salt River Canyon as seen from the drivers seat, the decent and climb back up the northern face, there were even some Mexican poppies in bloom.

We will be east bound on US-60 until we have crossed the New Mexico state line. Our first time change as we move from Arizona Standard time to Mountain Daylight Saving time. We had driven US-60 last spring but we had taking it all the way to Interstate I-25, this spring we are going to head north on State Highway NM-36 to NM-117 which will meet up with Interstate I-40 west of Albuquerque. Our destination is a RV park at a casino in an area called Casa Blanca. We had stayed there way back in November of 2019, a small park with 5 pull through sites, full hook-ups for around $20 American. We are at around 6000 feet of elevation and expect the temperature to be low enough that a heater may be required.

As we move on eastward on US-60, the weather is turning a wee bit nasty with a shower with some snow flakes. it just happens that there is a rest stop a few miles up the road and we decide to have a late lunch and give this storm a little while to blow through. Lunch today was some left over pizza warmed up in the microwave. The temperature has dropped off as we have lost the sun and the temperature is now 48ºF (8.8ºC), after lunch I tried to laydown for a nap, but I was unsuccessful, so we started Thunder and continued east to NM-36. We have never been on this stretch of road before so it is a new adventure, and while NM-36 didn’t offer much when we hooked up with NM-117 that all changed, this had to be one of the most pleasant surprises that we have had for a while.

The photos above were pulled from the dashcam that is mounted on the windshield of our coach, the data line on the bottom records date, time, speed of the coach, and the last numbers are the coordinates from each photo. This camera is ten years old so not the best picture quality, but it is reassuring to have documentation is any issue should occur.

We made it to the Dancing Eagle Casino RV campground by five o’clock, and managed to get one of the pull through sites, I only connected the power cable as we had no need of the water or sewer connection tonight. We watched television and Miss Laurie made a curry shrimp dish on rice for dinner, there was a lot of light from the casino, truck stop and the grocery store, but overall the noise level was good and we were able to operate the heater overnight.

Day 1 Stats: 305 miles (491 kilometers) and the solar harvest was 132 amp / hours the cost of camping was $20.40 US or $27.90 CDN.