Off to Nevada . . . Again

Before our house is complete and our new grandchild (we're told it is a boy) arrives, we're going to make one more trip to Nevada. We don't know when we'll be able to get out there again. This time, we'll store our trailer in San Angelo and make the trip sans trailer. We leave Saturday morning. We have rooms -- some of them comped -- at 3 hotel/casinos in Laughlin and Las Vegas. We'll be gone for nearly 3 weeks. When we return, we'll check on our house, then take off on another trip -- this time with our trailer -- before returning to San Angelo to finish the house and move in.

I'm not sure how we will go on our trip to and from Nevada. We have 2 general routes, which we call the northern and southern routes. Basically, the northern route, which is generally shorter and easier, means getting up to Interstate 40 as quickly as possible, somewhere between the Texas/New Mexico border and Albuquerque, then following that highway all the way to Kingman, Arizona, before detouring off for the last 40 miles to Laughlin.

San Angelo to Laughlin via the northern route. Of course, there are little tweaks to this route, such as going up to I-40 through Clovis, NM, rather than Roswell, NM.

The southern route is a bit more complicated. From San Angelo, we get to either I-20 or I-10, then follow it through El Paso, southern New Mexico, and southern Arizona through Tucson. From the Phoenix area, there are 2 routes to take the final distance, one heading northwest through Wickenburg and the other heading west to the Colorado River then working up to Laughlin from there.

San Angelo to Laughlin via the southern route. As with the northern route, there are tweaks to this route, such as going west from the Phoenix are to the Colorado River, then following the river north to Laughlin.

Both routes are roughly about 1000 miles. We prefer the northern route, but during winter that route is susceptible to some pretty harsh weather, so the southern route is safer. I just checked the weather along the northern route for the day we will be traveling, and there is a good chance of snow west of Albuquerque with low temps in the lower teens. We'll probably follow the southern route; we don't like cold and snow, at least not unless we are safe and snug in a solid brick and mortar home with a good heating system.

We followed the southern route a little more than a year ago when we went to Laughlin. We had planned to come back on the northern route, but the weather did not cooperate. Entries on the blog for that trip begin with Trip Report: Return to Laughlin, Day #1.

I do not know what type of connectivity I'll have on the trip, so my postings will probably be few and far between. When I do get connected, I may post several entries at once.

I hope to see you down the road . . .