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!

We’re on Island Time, Mon! (01-07-13)

   Our playlist consists of Buffett and Marley down here in the Keys.

Usually when Paul and I get to a new place, we immediately start exploring, but before we arrived in the keys, I reminded him that we were going to be there for a long time, and it was just a place for us to relax and wait out the winter months, not so much a place for us to explore.

  I needn't have worried.  The minute we hit the Keys, we both flipped over to Island Time.  The first few days, the truck didn't even move- we rode our bikes and walked the beach, and in general frittered the days away.

Coffee and cocktail hour are both outside on the picnic table. 

Why on the table?  Because this is the view:

We've also taken care of some household chores.  Paul installed our new Fantastic Fan-the vent fan that is in our ceiling.  This one has a remote control, so we don't have to reach up 8 feet to change the fan speed. The real bonus is that the "old one" got moved into the bathroom, so it can now be opened with the flick of a switch instead of reaching all the way up to open it manually.

We don’t have satellite TV, which can make watching TV very frustrating sometimes.  If we’re going to be without it for a short time, it’s not a big deal, we just read books, but some of us prefer TV.  I looked again recently at prices for Dish etc, but it just isn’t worth it for us- especially since you don’t get local network channels.  Since we’re going to be in the Keys for a month and the stations we can pick up with our antenna keep fading in and out, we ordered something called Sensar Pro, which should boost our reception.  We’re in the perfect place to give it a good test. 


  While he's been busy with that, I have been taking care of the year end paperwork and sending my camera back to Panasonic.  For some reason, the lens cover doesn’t open and close properly anymore and it’s still under warranty so off it went. 


 

Speaking of warranty, while we were in Orlando, our two nice Coleman chairs developed tears in the seat.  Much to our surprise, the tag says there is a 5 year warranty on the material.  We called Coleman, and after sending them the specific pictures that they asked for, they shipped us two brand new chairs! They were very accommodating when we told them we move every week or so, and got them shipped quickly.  Great customer service!!

I've never worked so hard to make campground reservations.  I started making reservations for the Keys 11 months ago, as soon as the window for booking opened.  Campsites sell out within seconds of being available, and since we were on the west coast at the time, we had to get up really early to try to book sites at 8 AM EST. Once I got what I could at that point, I have checked for cancelations almost every day, sometimes up to 3 times a day, ever since.  Why bother?  because the state parks are about $43 a night, and the private parks run about $80-100 a night.  I had to book a couple of private parks to fill in some gaps, but have been able to cancel some of them when I picked up more state park sites.  So, from now until mid February, we'll be moving around a bit between Marathon (the middle keys) and Key Largo, but we'll be in the keys for about 6 weeks.