April and May, 2018

First of all, I guess I should answer the question I posed in my last blog post- what happens when people get bored? They go shopping.  And boy, did Paul and I go shopping.

Our first major purchase was a new truck camper. We spent a fair amount of time looking at campers, and even toured the Lance Camper factory in California.  One of our favorite brands was the Host Camper but in the end we decided it was too big and too heavy for what we wanted.  We ended up with an Arctic Fox 1150- slightly smaller and much lighter than the Lance we were giving up.

I didn’t take the time to do some nice, staged pictures, so these will have to do.  The bedroom area has a ton of storage.

Overall the floor space feels much larger than in the Lance, but I did have to buy a step stool, and I am not all that vertically challenged.

Looking back towards the rear of the camper, the bathroom is on the right, and the dinette on the left.  The bathroom was our biggest compromise.  Its not exactly big, and has taken some getting used to- but we are managing, and we really like the feel of the lighter camper, going down the road.






Over the last two months we have taken it on two test runs- one to a nearby state park, towing the jet ski, and another to Fresno CA to see friends, towing the Jeep. Based on those trips, we have made some modifications and additions, to make it better suited to our needs.


The annual boat show in Havasu occurs in April and Paul and I made the “mistake” of going to it.  We have been sort of thinking about a boat, and renting one for a day in March made us more antsy to own one.  Boating, after all, is the main reason we built a house in Havasu.  So off to the boat show we went, thinking we would look at deck boats- maybe a bow rider.



The first booth we came to was Avalon pontoon boats. We had no desire for a pontoon boat but they were giving free demo rides. Uh oh.

Avalon advertises that “this is not your Grandpa’s pontoon boat”. And they aren’t kidding.  This boat cruises at 45 mph. 

Although we investigated all other options (spending 8 hours looking at boats, with temps of 100 degrees), in the end, we bought the boat that we took for the demo ride.

We have already gotten a lot of use out of it, and even took it for a sunset/stargazing cruise (not pictured).

Oh, we also bought a sign for over the sliding glass door-

Although April and May were quieter months, we still had visitors, including our daughter, and took several trips with the camper.


Memorial Day weekend is typically our last “hurrah” before we take off for the summer.  This year, as usual, my cousin Linda brought her friends for a fun filled, crazy weekend.











They brought a boat with them but on Friday we all piled in our pontoon and headed up the lake.












The weather was perfect for a trip through Topock Gorge to one of the restaurants on the water.















Saturday was too windy for boating, but we all managed to have a great time anyway.











Sunday we were back on the lake, using their boat, and our jet ski.  Perfect weather.

Unfortunately I found out over the weekend that my favorite uncle had passed away, so I flew out on Sunday evening, headed to Boston to attend his funeral.

As soon as I got back to Havasu, we pushed hard to pack up to leave for the summer.