The Rest of the Way Home (10-04-20)

It’s hard to believe the summer is over, and we spent the last few weeks making our way home. We had to take our planned stop in the Black Hills off the agenda, since we got delayed by almost a week with the truck issues.

The change allowed us to take 5 days and drove south to Abilene TX, where our friends Wil and Gayle recently relocated. After a fun filled two days with them we were on the move again.

Our next stop was a two day drive- El Paso TX to see Paul’s mom.  She is doing great, although like all of us, she is struggling a bit with the isolation these last few months. She is still working on her 90th birthday gift…a puzzle of her kids and grandkids.

It’s still quite hot in Havasu, so we didn’t want to rush home quite yet.  I had doctor appointments in Phoenix, so we worked our way there and found a place to stay that has a decent pool.

We sat down with a map and calendar to see if our thought about going to the north rim of the Grand Canyon was actually a good idea. We decided it wasn’t. Frustrating that we weren’t able to make it there this year, but I guess it gives us something to plan for next year.

We chose, instead, to drive to Williams AZ and spend a couple of days hanging out there.  Its only 2.5 hours from the house, but its at higher elevation, so its cooler. 

 

In theory we were going to do some hiking- in reality we went for a “Scenic Drive” – or, more accurately, a “bone jarring, teeth rattling drive down a dirt ‘road’”. 

 The views where we stopped to have lunch were pretty good but not worth the trip there and back. 

We took advantage of the great weather to eat out at a restaurant with outdoor seating and live music.

Now that we are home, we will spend a few days moving back into the house, and getting ready for a visit from our daughter and her friends in a week or so.

Winter 2019-2020 (06-30-20)

Well, I thought I was all done blogging, but now that we are traveling for the summer, I think I changed my mind. We will see how long it lasts.  My reasoning? Well, partly because I am more interested in writing when we are doing fun things, and partly because at least 7 times in the last week, Paul and I have asked each other things like....where we we when we ate those scallops that time?....did we hike that trail when we were here last time?......What year did we go to----?  And the answer could always be found in....you guessed it...my blog.
So, with that being said, here is a synopsis of what our winter was like...

Winter in Havasu is, thankfully for us, filled with family, friends, and fun.

  

The holidays were their usual crazy time, with Rvers in the yard and guests in the house.

We never know who is going to be around, but we are always happy when the crowd includes our daughter Jess.

Our friends are always up for a good time, so when the weather is nice, outdoor activities include games on the back deck, Teryx rides in the desert, and campfires in the back yard.

When the weather turns lousy, the fun moves indoors with dance parties, Guesstures, the annual Yankee Swap, and of course Farkle.

Of course, no holiday would be complete without the official weighing of the carrot cake!


















The festivities don’t end with the holidays- January brings the Balloon Fest, and more friends-

Whenever the weather permits, we make the trek to our favorite restaurant, El Paraiso, preferably in the Mustang, with the top down, but it isn’t always warm enough for that

February we hosted our annual WinterBlast party for the Fireworks festival.

As usual, we didn’t stay home the entire winter- we took a few trips for various reasons.

  In November we took an impromptu trip in the camper to meet up with Mike and Julie in Tucson for the Celtic Festival....

And were lucky enough to be there for another gorgeous Arizona sunset.

In December we headed to El Paso to check on Paul’s mom ( I finally remembered to get a picture!)...

















... and stopped in Phoenix on the way home for my cousin Linda’s Sweet 16 (60) birthday bash weekend.  Everyone dressed up as they would have when they were 16. Paul wore his Eagle Scout uniform (yes, it still fits) and I wore corduroys and a plaid flannel shirt. The birthday girl was dressed up as Homecoming Queen.













Well, that sums up the Party aspect of the PPP, but we also have the Project portion as well.


Large and small, we had lots of projects.  The biggest was probably the solar panels we had put on the roof. Paul has been waiting for the price of solar to be worth doing, and now we finally have the entire RV garage roof covered with panels.  He has fun checking our output every day.










Work wise, leveling the side of the yard was probably the hardest…We had literally tons of dirt brought in so that we could level the side near the fence.

 This makes it much nicer for parking our stuff over there.

Some of the projects mostly involved us just writing checks….those would include the new rain gutters along the back ( and some in the front) and the new shade, so that we can “close off” more of the back deck.

And, some of the projects could have been accomplished by just writing a check, but Paul chose to keep himself busy by doing things like making his own corn hole game….

A Short Visit to Phoenix (11-01-13)

When It rains, it pours.  We ordered our new air conditioner in Tucson from a warehouse in Phoenix, so we drove up there and stayed in one of our favorite resorts for a few days so we could install it and make sure there were no problems, before moving on. 




  The day we put it in, we discovered that our Fantastic Vent, the ceiling fan that vents pretty much the whole trailer, isn’t working anymore.  Since its less than a  year old, that didn’t make us very happy.  Paul called the company and they did some troubleshooting over the phone.  In the end, they decided they have to send us a new one.  At least they didn’t give us an argument.  They just asked when we bought it and where we want the new one shipped. 

So, back to the air conditioner.  Our biggest challenge was getting the 110 lb box up onto the roof.  We ended up renting a ladder from a place down the street.

We set the ladder up to “walk” the A/C unit up to the roof.  I went up on the roof to help pull and guide the box, and Paul pushed it up.  While we were figuring  out our plan of attack, our neighbor came over and decided we needed a second ladder so he brought his over. As Paul pushed the box up, Bruce helped guide it and kept it moving smoothly.  It was really nice having his help!








 

Once everything was up there, it was relatively easy to install the air conditioner.  Of course, Paul did most of it- I just helped lift it into place and counted the seconds until I could get down off the roof!

When we looked at our plans for the next week or so we decided to stick around an extra day so we could go to the Halloween dance. With the Passport America discount, we’re only paying $22 a night for this place and considering all the amenities, it’s quite a bargain and difficult to leave!  We met up with Bruce and his wife Michelle at the dance, and had an awesome time.

Since we had one more day, we started the process of educating ourselves about truck campers. A truck camper would sit in the bed of our F450. Nothing would be towed behind us.  If we want to take it off the truck while we’re in a campground, we can, but we can also leave it on the truck if we want to.

We’re not tired of our Mobile Suites, and no, it certainly isn’t suddenly feeling too big.

Our tentative plan is to spend next summer- about 3-4 months- in Alaska. For a variety of reasons, we would prefer to not bring our big 5th wheel up there.  Our main reason is actually flexibility.  We feel like in Alaska, it will be much easier to “blow and go”, boondocking ( basically just pulling off the road to sleep) along the way. 

 
It will be easier to park the truck with nothing being towed behind it, and we won’t have to make campground reservations.  This past summer, in Canada, one of our stresses was making sure we had a place to park for the night.







So, we went out looking.  We’re learning which brands are best, and which features are important.  We’re thinking we’ll try to buy something used, and then sell it when we are done.  Possibly before we even leave Alaska.   Are we sure we’re going to Alaska? Nope.  It IS our plan though.  Are we sure we’re going to get a truck camper? Nope.  We may end up taking our own rig, but it doesn’t hurt to educate ourselves!

Phoenix, AZ

Before we left Willcox, we grabbed another pie so we could bring it to my cousin Linda's house.  After making the easy drive to Phoenix, we pulled in to Usery Mountain Regional Park.  They have about 70 Rv spots but they were full, so we stayed that night in the overflow lot.  It really wasn't too bad- it was gravel and there were picnic tables directly behind us.  We didn't care much, since we were going to Linda and Michaels for dinner and would be back late.  There was no electric hookup in the overflow.  My only complaint is that $17 is a lot of money to pay for a parking lot.
I felt a little like a vulture.  We knew they would probably have room for us in the regular campground the next  night, so we drove through the campground scouting to see which spots would be opening up, and which ones were the best.
We had a great time at Linda's house.  I was sorry that some other cousins couldn't make it, but we had a great dinner and a fun time with Linda and Michael.

The next morning we played vulture again, to make sure that people were actually leaving their sites( they always have the option to re-up)- if you want a site you have to be at the ranger station at 9 am because thats when they assign them. We did get a nice one, with plenty of room.

We set out to hike around the mountain- a 7+ mile hike (Pass Mountain trail).  It was a meandering type of trail, not very difficult, and we were done by 1:30.  We're getting so we can move pretty fast if we want.  The scenery on the first half of the hike was great, but the second half was pretty boring, and pretty rocky, so we didn't stop too much along the way.  At least we got some exercise.
The weather was really nice so we sat outside for a bit, then ate dinner outside at the picnic table.
Yesterday we took our time in the morning- we fueled up the truck and did some errands, then headed off towards Nevada.  We split the trip into two days, since its about 425 miles, which is just a little too much to do in one day.  Instead, we had another new adventure.
For the first time, we spent the night on BLM land. (Bureau of Land Management).

Basically it is federally owned land that you can park your RV on for free, and spend up to 2 weeks, if you want to.  A lot of people use it for ATVing.  I did a little research and found a spot that wasn't too far out of our way, that I knew was accessible because people had posted on forums that they stayed there.

We got there early  in the day, which was great, because it meant we didn't  get antsy or anything.

After an early night we left this morning and arrived in Vegas around lunchtime.