Leaving Oklahoma, we had to decide where we wanted to go next. We had thought about going to New Mexico, but the temperature was extremely cold with the lows being 15-20 degrees at night. We wanted to attempt to avoid really cold areas to prevent potential freezing of the pipes, so we chose Sedona, AZ to be the next destination.

The drive from OK to AZ would have been 12-14 hours depending on the route and how long our rest stops took so we knew that we needed a couple of overnights before getting to the final destination. We originally had planned to go further south into Texas to get to the southern section of New Mexico in hopes to seek out slightly warmer temperatures, but going south to El Paso, TX and west from there didn’t seem to be warm enough to warrant an extra day of driving. We decided that it made more sense to drive directly west cutting the distance of the trip down significantly allowing for two quick overnights rather than three.

Our first overnight along this drive was on the eastern side of NM, right on the border of Texas. As we drove west through Texas, we had the pleasure of enjoying the beautiful sunset. Because the land in Texas is all flat (or at least the parts we were in), we were clearly able to see the entire sunset without any obstructions. The sun was incredibly bright orange, making it difficult to look directly at as it was setting.

We arrived at our overnight location after dark and it was FREEZING! We needed to unhitch the truck from the trailer so our set up took a little longer than it could have if we avoided the unhitching process. We were miserable being outside! We were both freezing during the set up!  

Thankfully, the hosts of this location allowed generator usage because we needed it to power the RV battery so that we could turn the fans on for better airflow to heat the inside.

Despite using the generator, it was still chilly inside. Our cat, Sammie, loves sun and warmth so she was not a happy camper that night. She tucked herself under the covers in between me and Ryan, using us and the blankets to provide her with warmth. She was the cutest little baby that night.

The next morning, in the daylight, we were able to take in a better view of our surroundings. We had stayed at Windrush Alpaca Farm, which we booked through Harvest Hosts. It was our first alpaca farm so we were excited to see the animals.

We had to delay our exploration of the property, though, because Ryan had to change a flat tire. It hadn’t given us any issues while driving, but each morning for the past few days he had to keep putting air in the tire to make the low tire pressure light turn off, so we knew there something was wrong with it. He finally had no choice but to switch it out for the spare since the air pressure of the original tire was now more than 50% depleted. 

After he finished up, we went to the Alpaca store! It was a nice, little store with a variety of alpaca products. I ended up buying an alpaca hat while Ryan got a pair of alpaca socks. With them being made from the alpaca fur, they are extremely warm, which made us happy since it was still freezing there even in the sun.

The lady who owns this farm was extremely friendly. Upon our arrival the previous night, she had given us delicious oatmeal raison cookies to enjoy and a bag of food for us to feed the alpacas. After visiting the store, we attempted to feed the animals. 

Alpacas are crazy!

The males and females were kept in separate fenced in areas. The males were awfully aggressive with each other. They were constantly running after each other, starting fights, and their grunting was loud and angry. We tried feeding them, but they were pushy, which made me very hesitant. I was afraid of them biting me when taking the food out of my hand because they were anything but gentle about it.

We tried feeding the female alpacas because they were much calmer, but they wanted nothing to do with us. They barely even came over to the fence to see us and when they did, they quickly walked away, unimpressed by the food we were offering them. So we had no choice but to give the remainder of the food to the males. I was just happy that by the time they were done eating, I still had all of my fingers.

After feeding the alpacas, we hitched the truck and set off for our next quick overnight stop. We planned to stay at a Walmart outside of Albuquerque, NM, which was about 6 hours away. Since we were staying in a parking lot, we couldn’t unhitch or open the slides, which meant that the set up upon our arrival would be very quick, so we didn’t mind getting a late start that day.

We arrived at the Walmart parking lot around 7:00 and were greeted by an even colder night! And because we were staying in the parking lot, we didn’t feel comfortable leaving our generator out all night. We were afraid that someone might come by and steal it while we were sleeping. So we were unable to use the batteries, which power the fans allowing the heat to blow around. This resulted in significantly limited heat, causing it to be an even colder night.

This is the exact reason we want to invest in solar panels for the RV. Having solar would allow us to use the batteries during the night, which could power the heat or AC while we are boondocking (no electrical hookups). We would also be able to turn the lights on at night so we could actually see things. 

Since we couldn’t even turn on the lights, we went to bed early that night so we could get an early start on the last portion of our drive.

We were on the road by 8:00 that morning. I had trouble getting out of bed because it was too cold outside of the covers, but I knew that if I wanted to reach the warmer destination, I would have to drag myself out of bed sooner or later so I threw on the thick hunting jacket my grandpa had given me and I was ready to go. The jacket really warmed me up. 

Once again, Grandpa came to my rescue.

We drove about 3 hours to the Sedona View RV Resort in Cottonwood, AZ. We would be staying here for 1 week with plans to drive the 30 minutes into Sedona for the amazing hiking experience we had heard so much about. 

The resort we stayed at was quite large. We were lucky to get a great back-in campsite with an incredible view of the surrounding mountains from the Prescott National Forest, along with the rock formations in Sedona.

The resort was also extra special to me because each campsite had its own Christmas tree. We unfortunately didn’t have any outdoor Christmas light to decorates, but we were blessed with the beautifully decorated tree of our next-door neighbors. It worked out better for us, too, because their tree was right outside our window, so we had a prefect view to enjoy the decorations.

Once we reached Arizona, we were both so much happier because of the warm weather. The second we stepped out of the car and could take off our numerous layers of clothing, we knew we would love our time there. We were able to enjoy the warmth provided by the sun and were surprised by how much the temperature dropped once the sun went down for the day. Out of all the places we have seen so far, this is one of our absolute favorites because we love the warm weather.