Cottonwood, AZ, Amarillo, TX and a TORNADO in TN! February – March 2023

After we left Las Vegas we headed back to one of our favorite campgrounds, Thousand Trails Verde Valley in Cottonwood, AZ. A great location, close to Sedona. The largest RV sites we’ve seen in over 2 years on the road and we finally visited Alcantara Winery right next door – don’t miss it!

Yes that’s one site – just love it! And right on the edge of a hill – can’t get more privacy.
Beautiful high desert views – loved the snow capped mountains.
A little cold – had to wear a heavy jacket for walks and bike rides.
Beautiful day in the sun at Alcantara. You’ll notice G is already wearing his hat from the winery – this is one thing we buy as souvenirs – we don’t buy knick-knacks – no room in our tiny home but hats are also wearable!
Music at Alcantara. This might be us in a few years – I can accompany G with a tambourine.
Loved his guitar and their hats and it was good music!
We met up with our fiend Rodney’s sister (at Alcantara Winery) and they invited us to their cousin’s new distillery – Redwall Lounge in Sedona. (say all that twice!!!) It’s who you know – even on the road!
Would highly recommend a visit – a gorgeous location and really good spirits!
Enjoyed Redwall’s outside lounge.
Even got a personal tour of the distillery.
Love dog friendly places!
Sorry if I offend anyone who is from Amarillo but we were not impressed. It’s very dirty looking with paper bags in all the trees, from being blown around and no greenery to speak of. The wind is relentless – I realize they call this the “dust bowl” for that reason and it didn’t help right after I snapped this photo we had an 83 mile an hour wind gust – talk about dirt everywhere!
And then the rain came and we had mud. I don’t like my sky the same color as the ground.
Tip: don’t leave your truck window down…we still have red dirt in cervices everywhere in the truck!
The Cadillac Ranch was just about the only sightseeing we did here. Maybe we missed something in this area…

Our last stop before getting back to NC was Tennessee. I didn’t know we were heading to part of “tornado alley” but we did. We stayed at Thousand Trails Natchez Trace. Huge campground! The parkway right outside the campground was really pretty – nice to see so much forest and greenery. This is where Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition died and was buried.

Right outside our campground in Hohenwald, TN
Damage from the tornado that was 5 miles from our campground – on the ground for appx 40 minutes. We were in the storm shelter (lower level racket ball court) with tons of other families and everyone’s wet dogs for over an hour – nerve racking and the first time we’ve ever had to take shelter. When that alarm goes off on all your devices, you need to move quickly, to seek shelter somewhere other than your 5th wheel! I always take notice of where we can go in the event of a bad storm, when getting to a new location.
This was a storm with hail, our second week in Hohenwald. Nerve racking after the tornado the week before! You’ll notice on campground information with a map – if they list where the storm shelter is…you’re in a location where you might get bad weather.
This is a bridge right before you get to Nachez Trace – luckily it’s not the only way to the campground entrance…but as you can see people have come that way and not noticed the height warning AND lost air conditioners and other things from the top of their RVs. You HAVE to know what your height limit is people!
We stay at Harvest Hosts as much as we can for overnights on travel weekends. You are encouraged to spend $20 with the business. This is the most RVs (of all sizes) we seen staying at one – it was Crafty Bastard Brewery in Knoxville, TN – good food!
And of course we NEVER pass up a Buc-ee’s! Best bathrooms and brisket sandwiches EVER!
If you’ve never been, do yourself a favor and go!