Boondocking Prep for a Month???!

Blue Boy

Yes, it's true, we are going to "Attempt", with a capital "A" an entire month of boondocking in the desert with NO facilities....now, being the "civilized" folks that we are (and you can read that anyway you want!) we plan to partake of some of the services offered out there like the "Honey Truck" that comes by every now and again (WE HOPE) to empty our black water tank - that would be "poopy tank" to you non-RV'ers out there and also to have our propane tanks refilled by the trucks that come to you.  We purchased  a 25 gallon "Blue Boy" to empty our gray water (from the sinks & shower) into. This tank fills up very quickly but we hope to use our "Burning Man" techniques to slow it down a bit. Most likely we will need to empty this every other day or so. This thing is HUGE & you hook it up to your tow hitch on your car and drive verrryyy slowwwly to the dump station, it came with cheap rubber wheels, which Bill replaced with pneumatic tires (he is so very HANDY!). All of this will be easier than packing up Bebe and driving her over to the refill stations that are available out there every few days, because we like to set up our "home" and feel somewhat permanent!

Bill's new French Press in his "indoor office"

For Christmukkah we each got several gifts to help us with this journey - Bill got a "French Press" (which our friend Pix turned us onto!). We just tried this morning to use it for the first time & it would've helped if I was not still in recovery mode from the sleeping pill I took last night! As I added 3 scoops of coffee and then filled the water to just under the "4" line on the measuring cup - MEANING 4 ozs not 4 cups, DINGBAT, Bil kept saying you need more water & I sat there with a quizzical look on my face saying over and over, but I filled it just under the 4!! OMG, the bleach has definintely gone beyond just the roots in my hair!

 Let's see we also got a battery inverter, to hook up to our generator charged batteries, so we can have some electrical power for our computers & such when we aren't running the generator. We PLAN to run the "genie" in the morning and dinner time for an hour or two & work off the batteries the rest of the time. We can plug a power strip into the inverter to use our electrical stuff.  Unfortunately the inverter I ordered did not come with the cables for the inverter so we spent yesterday with "the boy"
looking for cables that would work. Today Bill gets to fiddle around with that and hopefully it'll all be good!


Also amongst our gifts were various and sundry solar lights & power chargers - one for our cell phones & a cute little computer flexi light that fits into the USB port....


So here we go...wish us luck & good weather, we could use a lot of each!!

December, December, December....where oh where do the days go?!

We had a great time spending the holidays with my family in Palm Desert, but it was time to move on, and I was anxious to get to Arizona where we plan to spend the winter. On our last day in PD Bill discovered a leak - oh no, here we go again...it is really never ending! He found a super RV repair shop in the western Phoenix area very close to Luke AFB where we could stay overnight in one of their "officer suites" for $40. Luckily we have this great home warranty insurance plan that covered everything but $50 & once they got the part the next morning we were on our way to Tucson, just a day later than planned. But, of course, Bill did lose a day's work over it which meant that he'd have to work the weekend to make up for that...all these little things are pretty exhausting...

The U.S. Military runs a bunch of RV parks on their bases all around the country. They are usually quite reasonable and you get the use of all of the facilities on base.  Bill is retired Air Force so we are able to use them. I had been reading about the "FamCamp" on the Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson - it was rated #1 three years in a row, and I just had to see what all the fuss was about, especially at $17/night.  They have a 21 day limit if someone is waiting to get in and parked in their "overflow" lot.  People stay the whole winter just moving in and out of the overflow lot which does have electric hook-ups. One usually only has to stay a few days before there is an opening in the full-hook-up area.
We were able to get in with no problem. I loved the change of scenery!
The base had a fabulous 2 story gym with an indoor lap pool and I managed to get over there a few times.

Tucson has a great hash, the jHavelinas - they r*n every Saturday and every Friday night they have a "hashy hour" at some local spot. We had met a Tucson hasher while at the Las Vegas Red Dress Run & he made sure we had all of the right info - we had a great weekend hashing and then on that Sunday we helped man a " Hash beer check", well I guess it's really called an "Aid Station" for a Tucson marathon. Bill ran into...(literally) 3 old running buddies from his Phoenix hashing/running days.  THAT was a lot of fun!

We were supposed to hang out in Tucson until the end of December when we're leaving for Quartzsite, but like all good plans....we are now parked in Queen Creek (just south of Phoenix)in the driveway of Bill's Phoenix hash buddies.  They have a great house with a ton of chickens & a goat.  We got here Friday in time to go to a wonderful Hash Happy Hour at another friend of Bill's, he saw sooo many of his old friend's there it was great.  Saturday we spent the day looking at RV parks, which was incredibly disappointing, BUT the highlight was that we finally met Eric and Karla in person! I met them through the NuRVers group that I found online & we have been conversing online for awhile now. We had a great happy hour with them & it was nice making that connection.  I got really sick on Sunday and Bill found a "doc-in-the-box" where I was diagnosed with strept throat & got some meds, so I should be good as - whatever- in a few days. I have been having a very difficult time sleeping & just getting really run-down. Having that military insurance sure does make it easy with this lifestyle we have.

We've had a few more interesting mishaps with Bebe, like trying to start the generator while plugged into our friend's power - guess we shouldn't try to do that again. And, oh, it took us about 3 days to figure out how to make the TV work just off the antenna and not plugged into cable. We made a real mess of everything though and who knows if we'll be able to get it working again once we want to plug into campground cable again - oh the joys...

Bill's son, Will got into Phoenix last night and is staying with his step-dad for a week. We plan to find an RV park close by on Friday and hang out with them for Christmas.

I can't believe in a week it will be 5 months on the road....what was I thinking???? We both agree that we went into this prematurely and because Bill is working full-time the only time we can see the sights of the area is on the weekends.  We have definitely learned a lot and hopefully will get smarter at this.

Money, Money, Money!!!

So we went into this thinking we were going to save ALL this money, well, please, someone tell me exactly when this will happen?! Bill keeps reminding me that we just started and really have only been 2 months out of Tahoe - but in the RV full-time 4 months.  We have realized that spending a week or 2 here and there is NOT cost-effective and to really get the best deals at the campgrounds (except the military campgrounds) one must stay at least a month. The Palm Desert parks are pretty pricey, it's also the warmest climate in the winter, and my family lives here BUT it's also not a place we really want to spend too much time in - it's very spread out and I've done more driving and spent more money shopping than I should. 


We have stayed at Shadow Hills Campground once before when we had our little 24' Lucy & have enjoyed our visit here again except for the train noise throughout the night. It's a nice campground and very close to my parent's house & about 2/3rds the price of all of the other top campgrounds here. We checked out some of the other cheaper ones around here and except for one on a lake close to the mountains nothing could compare...so here we'll stay...

Headed for warmer parts!

  I think we have both had our fill of the Casino campgrounds! It was nice hooking up with our friends Bettyann and Dave at the AVI, but there is nothing to do there if you're not a gambler...so now we are at the Fountain of Youth Spa on the Salton Sea in Niland, CA. There was an email review from one of the camping clubs we belong to that sounded good to us and included a 4 nights for 3 coupon through 12/31 - it is sort of on the way to Palm Desert where we were headed for Thanksgiving so we thought we'd give it a try. And am I glad we did! I was a bit nervous after reading some of the online reviews that this wouldn't be what we expected, but that is why you have to really "weigh" the reviews that you read, cuz we REALLY like this place!

a view from the road as we were approaching the
Salton Sea. There is an abundance of farm land out
here & the run-off, along with 2 rivers from Mexico
have made it saltier than the Pacific.

 It is a bit trailer-trashy with a lot of park models (kind of like permanent trailers) mixed in with the RV's and the landscaping is nothing to write home about, but as we checked in at the gate I noticed people riding bikes to and from the pools, activities and home...and I knew right away it was going to be OK! We got a nice big spot to park Bebe in with one neighbor not too close to us and no one on the other side at all. There is plenty of room at this park right now although I have heard during the winter it is more packed with people in the overflow lot.

Duncan, Alf & Bill (my Bill is in black in the back)

      


We headed right out to the hot tubs...there is one mineral tub and the steam rooms are mineral water as well. There are 3 more hot tubs and 2 pools & one is dedicated for lap swam in the early morning. There are tons of activities planned and clubs to join that are either free or for a very small fee. I was thrilled to see that there was a dance the following night and that there are 3+ hikes planned each week, one of which was the next morning at 8am.

towards the top you can see Bill making his way up

Now, getting Bill out the door at this time (even though he is up around 5am most every morning) is quite the challenge, but he made it and we showed up early, Bill with 2 water bottles and me with one in my fanny pack - found out from Duncan, our leader, who sported a "Give Blood with Duncan" shirt that it would be a 4 hr hike so we ran back to our rig and got our camelbacks and some food, and it's a darn good thing we did!!  I didn't know what to expect but Bill had thought it would be a long hike cuz these old geezers don't move so fast, hahahahaha............who had the last laugh! We got back & 2 more guys were there (70ish) wearing the "Duncan" shirt, and we should have known right then what we were in for. As we walked through the park to get to the trail head lots of folks came to chat with us on our way out, everyone is SOOOO friendly here! We were hiking the chocolate mountains and not going to the top, THIS TIME - just about 1200 ft.  The terrain was "sketchy" at best with rocks, rocks and more rocks, scree in the steepest of climbs made it a bit scary...at one point I felt like I was at the top of a black diamond ski slope looking down and completely scared! The guys told me to just act like I was on skis and "side slip" down...OMG - what a site! Anyway, we got home 5 hours later and hit the hot tubs...passed out on the sofas and never even made it to the dance :(
The weekly and monthly rates here are not too bad, with the great winter weather, friendly people and activities - we will be back!

The Avi Casino KOA...on the Colorado River

This is an interesting place...our friend's Dave and Betty Ann who we met in Pahrump told us about it. The price is great, the campground has full hook-ups, good wi-fi and is pretty empty. The first night we were put in a spot backing up to a busy road - it was a large site but we were up all night. We moved the next morning and have a great spot without any neighbors but the wind has been blowing constantly since we got here - I HATE the wind! We do still hear a lot of the traffic, but the temp is nice, the casino has a beautiful pool you can use & there is a great beach right on the river - and IF you are a gambler there is lot to do. It's not too smoky in the casino & they have some great meal deals...but there is just not much here for us. I can't ride my bike into town (Bullhead AZ) because the roads are narrow without paving & there is a bridge I could get killed on!

We drove into Oatman - a cute little old mining town where the wild burros roam, we brought along a bag of carrots & Bill couldn't wait to get out there and feed them...they are aggressive and he had 5 all at once pushing in on him, he finally escaped into a store & they stood outside waiting for him, it was pretty funny to watch! They did a little wild west shoot-em-up re-enactment from the saloon out into the dirt road which was entertaining and a nice way to spend the afternoon.


Dave and Betty Ann arrived on Monday 11/15, and Bill had to go to Tahoe for work overnight, so it was fun to have someone to hang out with. They are really nice people and we hope to run into them again on our travels. We will stay another 2 nights (total of 9) and then head on out to the Salton Sea for some better weather before we hit Palm Desert for a few weeks with the fam...

Visiting Bill's son Will in SoCal

Will's military ID card expired when he turned 21 back in March 2010 and we have been trying to get him a new one for quite a few months! In May we made several attempts while in L.A. for a cousin's wedding...but didn't have all of the right docs, we thought he might take care of it this summer - he is not covered by any medical insurance until he has it! After our stop at Camp Pendleton we made plans, once again, to do this...we had Will get another letter of current registration from his school, made an appointment at the local military base and off we went - SUCCESS, finally!!

Will recently moved to a new house and luckily for us there was a nice spot in front for us to park, plug into the house electricity and use their washer and dryer! The latter was the part we enjoyed most, of course...having had many of our children come home bearing bags of dirty clothes only to tie up the washer and dryer for a weekend, we got a little thrill out of doing the same to him! 

I love that he's got his hair long again! We had a great visit, spent two nights there and went to dinner with Bill's friend Cindy from his Arizona days. We were happy to hear his projected graduation date is May 2011, although he may have to take a class or two this summer.  Bill's daughter Madeleine graduated in June 2009, my daughter, Lauryn graduated this August and my son, Jake, will graduate next month - with Will's graduation next year we will be done, woo hoo!!

Our first Military Base Campground!

We spent a week at Camp Pendleton's Del Mar Beach campground in Oceanside, CA and it was fantastic! Didn't hurt that there were record high temps in November where it hit the 90's but with the cool ocean breeze we were perfectly comfortable! Bill had a conference at the La Costa Resort in Carlsbad and the campground was an easy 15 minute drive. Gretchen and Peter, our Tahoe friends, were also at the conference and we had them over one night for a BBQ. It was so nice having an evening with friends! Bill was home in time to enjoy the

 beautiful sunset and some time on the beach most days. Wednesday the conference arranged a pub-crawl of the downtown Gas-Lamp quarter and we were shuttled down there in a beautiful limo for 20+. We hit a lot of the roof-top bars and had a lot of fun. 

Friday night I got to meet Bill's good friends, Scott & Jean. Bill was at the Air Force Academy with Scott, crewed for him on a few of his 100-miler's and also ran quite a few of the Tahoe relays with him as well. It was great to meet these people I have been hearing about for years! They have a lovely home with a beautiful gas fire-pit on their deck where we enjoyed the evening after a Mexican dinner at a local restaurant. It is truly one of the best things about this life-style that we get to meet up with old friends that have moved away.  Sunday night we went for dinner at Marni & Marshall's house - Marni is a good friend of mine I met in 2005 in Walnut Creek. They moved away a couple of year's later to Modesto - where I visited a couple of times and 2 years ago they moved to San Diego. I also had lunch with Marni the first day we got here. It was wonderful seeing her and Marshall and their daughter, Hilary. They have a beautiful home and we had a great visit!

Life on a military base is definitely not dull! I woke each morning to the young Marines running up and down the beach in front of our RV and each afternoon the armored personnel carriers (I thought they were tanks - well, they looked like tanks to me!) rolled by!  We had fun shopping in the MCX (Marine Corps Exchange) and finally found the portable gas grill with a stand I'd been looking for. 

We went for a couple of long walks on the beach, but other than that I have gotten NO exercise - we found out from Bill's friend's Scott & Jean, at the end of our stay, that there was a great gym on base, walking distance from the beach, which I finally found on our last day there - have to check that out next time! 

Here's a pic of all of the RV's parked on the beach BEFORE the weekend:

Most of the San Diego beach campgrounds are $60-$90/night and we stayed here for $35 - it was a great deal and a beautiful beach...the only complaint I had were the public bathrooms & showers, which Bill likes to use, but he found them adequate, so I really can't complain! We will be back!!

hashing and hot springs.......

Well, this is what it is supposed to be about - and am sooo happy we are making it happen!  Went to the Las Vegas hash last Saturday and was thrilled that they love the hills and shiggy as much as we do - was definitely an "XS trail" and we were almost DFL (dead f'ing last) but not quite! Bill made some yummy salsa & we got to see 2 namings - it was worth the 3 hour round trip drive, especially because we will see all these wankers again soon at the Las Vegas Red Dress Run at the end of the month!


This Saturday we had to choose between going back to LV for another hash OR to Death Valley for the hot springs...and luckily for us we made the right choice - Tecopa Hot Springs here we go! The ride was a short 30 minutes of desolate desert (maybe that's redundant!), sparse and beautiful...checked out the little town of Shoshone where we would return later and headed into Tecopa where we had quite a few choices as to where to go. Ended up at the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort where for $8 you can go into a little private indoor hot springs pool...this was ok, the water was a nice temp but for ambiance...forget it. We sat outside and read, then went to find the Labyrinth - this was cool, we left an offering and made a hash true trail arrow - 

went back for another dip in the spring and then to check out the much touted Pastels Bistro - well, in the middle of nowhere sits the most fabulous place to catch a bite or a meal...the food was special and everyone there like a little family. We noticed ads for a play that evening & they were finishing up the construction of an outdoor playhouse while we were there...made a note of the time and thought, maybe, just maybe we'd come back. Headed into Shoshone to check out a bar I had read about & inquire about the big hot spring pool at the Shoshone Inn. The "Crow Bar" was great, had an amazing drink the new bartender made up called the "Red Headed StepSister" YUMMY!! Vodka, cranberry juice, sweet 'n sour & a splash of soda - had two!! The Shoshone Inn's pool was just for guests of the motel (rundown joint for $85) or the RV park - the girl at the desk told us to go check out the mud pools on BLM land and gave us directions so off we went! Fabulous - is all I can say, sooo happy our travels led us there, we had read about it in our "book" but Bill wasn't that keen on going and sitting in mud, BUT it's just a muddy bottom we found out! It's a very short walk from the road and we took our chairs & some beers to watch the sunset. Met another couple there who were camping overnight and after I slipped in the mud we made our way into the

the springs - actually one big one that winds down the valley in the reeds, quite magical and it starts at 118 and cools down to about 107 (where we were!) I think this my favorite hot springs so far, why do I keep saying that?!
The sunset was beautiful, the birds getting their dinner & squawking away...just what we were looking for...
....Bill took some great pics!

Back to Shoshone to buy a bottle of wine for the play which was one of those audience participation melo-drama's - we had our chairs, out under the night sky with a bottle of very bad wine and we couldn't have been happier........

Random thoughts...

We have booked our first flight home...luckily Bill has 3 meetings he has to attend over 3 days and I have 2 clients to meet with so it really is worth it! We are staying with friends in Reno one night and at our old house in Tahoe the other night. It should be downright chilly at the end of October but I'll have a chance to see the Aspens in all their glory.


I am getting a bit nervous about not having any set winter plans...I realize that this is going to be my nemesis - NOT PLANNING! But I keep reading posts about how all the good campgrounds fill up early & we have no plans!! I think the rough and dirty plan is to hang out in Quartzite boondocking with some of the "NUrvers" until mid-January & then head down to Cabo for a month to see Panty Free. I would love to just chill down there through the end of February. Then come into AZ for March & April. There is a really cool military campground in Tucson but you can't make rezies there and you can only stay for a max of 21 days if there is a waiting list. Because we really don't know the lay of the land we are a bit hesitant to commit to a monthly stay & want to go check out some campgrounds while we are there in January, first. This may be a huge mistake but one we will recover from, I am sure...I am a planner, as I said, so just "winging it" is difficult for me, but it is good to step out of one's comfort zone - and I am surely doing that with this whole adventure!  The fact that I will probably be super busy with work March & April really makes me nervous when I think that I won't have a secure base to work from...


I have noticed that when we land somewhere I go to great lengths to make it feel like home, this is possible with a month-long stay, but probably not for less than that...we will see how that goes!

Our October digs...

Life doesn't suck, ok??? We really landed in a sweet spot in the middle of an incredibly dumpy town! I found this RV Resort online & was intrigued...we knew the town of Pahrump was a Dump, BUT we kept telling everyone this place "online" looked fantastic. As our date to leave Tahoe approached I was getting more and more nervous, but then I called to confirm our spot & was told we got the best location! Some of the spots here are owned & we got one of them & did they do it up nicely! The resort here is really beautiful, lots are spacious & we don't have any neighbors close by - it's pretty empty right now but we hear a big rally is coming in this weekend & it will be packed. There are 2 pools, full gym w/beautiful locker room, jacuzzis indoors & outdoors & our favorite, a little bar & grill complete with pool table & bowling alley! And YES, i can wear those spiffy new bowling shoes I got at the brewery!!


Bill set his office up nicely & has an escape plan in order should the intermittent thunderstorms approach, but the roof is good so that helps! Right now everything is going according to plan...but we all know that won't last long! The weather is glorious & we spend our evenings outside or in the little bar.


I had a frustrating Monday with fax & cell phone failures but everything seems to be fixed right now. We've made our plane reservations for the first trip home to Tahoe for work for both of us - I am just hoping we don't have to do that too often as it's pretty darn expensive!

Spencer Hot Springs

We finally purchased a few books on hot springs...since this is all about hot springs & hashing! So we headed out of Reno east on hwy 50 & ended up on a gravel road that had not been leveled out in some time...once we were about 1/4 mile into it we knew we were in trouble AND there was no way we could turn around - so on we went for another 7 miles, with Bill muttering "...this better be worth it!"...and it WAS!!  A few natural hot springs that had some rustic ways of controlling the temp, which worked great - we got there in time for sunset & happy hour & after putting together some of the yummy things I purchased at the farmer's market in Tahoe we hiked up to a secluded one that happened to be the best! As we watched the sunset we could hear the braying of the wild donkeys in the distance...and again in the morning, it was wonderful. 

We met a young couple at one of the other hot springs that had been traveling for a year - in a tent and a little car! We spent the night & got up early for the sunrise & noticed one or two other people there who waved but no one close by, it was a fabulous experience, EXCEPT for the road!!


We stopped in Beatty for a drink & on our way out of the parking lot we took a sharp, too sharp a turn with a dip & our pantry store swung open & a huge bottle of olive oil broke & spilled all over the place, what a mess! Gotta get that door latch fixed! Bill got a rug cleaner & we're good as new now, thank goodness cuz we just weren't that keen on replacing the carpet right now...we do eventually want to replace it with the wood flooring that is in the kitchen but NOT RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!


On On to Pahrump!

Blast off!!

Today is the day we leave Tahoe to start the real adventure! Didn't sleep well & wanted to leave the campground at 8 but it was about 9:30 when we actually headed out. Bill had a conference call at 9 with a client & took it with his earpiece while cleaning Bebe's windows & other assorted tasks. Put the bike rack on the Subie with the hatch up only to discover we couldn't close the hatch- duhhhh, take it off, close the hatch & start again!

Took off for Carson city to the RV svc center where they showed us how to attach our toad (Subaru)

then on to Costco & Trader Joes for gas & snacks. Started getting texts from our hasher friends Daniel & Jen who were laying a photo trail for us to follow with pics of beers and other local sites! Finally figured out where they were &

 joined them for some beers & lunch courtesy of Daniel..as we left they ran out to he road with "on out" signs (hash lingo) it was quite a surprise & fabulous send off!!

We are now headed to Spencer Hot Springs outside of Austin NV where we soak, relax and spend the night! Hashing and hot springs - purrrrfect way to start the "adventure of our lives"!

final preparations for the big adventure....

Spent Monday getting the hitch put on our new Subie...

Spent Tuesday getting the tow bar attached to our new Subie...

Spent a bizillion $$ doing all of this..but actually saved over $700 by buying the parts myself online & taking everything to the RV place in Carson City to install, they were doubtful that I had everything, but I did - woo hoo!

Also had the brackets installed for the Guardian Rockshield we purchased to protect our Subie from stuff kicked up from BeBe...

the new tow bar hook-up

our new hitch

This weekend Bill will install the auxiliary braking system and we will start to pack up & see what we do and do NOT have room for to take outta here!  Another trip down to storage, for sure, to drop of some unneeded things and pick up some others we thing may be useful.  I think we are going to be ok, space-wise, which I am pretty shocked about. We may actually have room for a box load of firewood & I think we are going to purchase a small gas BBQ because we have really used our gas grill (from home) here most every night. We trashed our camp stove in 6 weeks but luckily had a brand new one in storage we had never used - I actually think we will get more use out of this one, so that's cool. 

I am getting a bit nervous....Bill has only  5 days left in the office so this weekend is going to be intense, making sure he has everything he needs & preparing for both of us to be in this tiny space 24/7. 

drips and drains & all those pesky homeownership horrors!

Our friend, Jen, noticed a little "wetness" when I pulled something out of the basement (what we call all the storage down below) & that it was located right under the sink...oh no, here we go...Bill is incredibly handy but when it comes to plumbing he just screams!!  I have found that it really is the only thing that totally unglues him - tee hee!  Anyway...drip, drip, drip, under the sink is damp and then I notice a week later that another spot farther away is wet...we can't find the RV plumbing part he needs, blah, blah, blah, he unscrewed it, put some vaseline on it, adjusted the water pressure and voila - no drippage! We ARE keeping an eye on it but omg, what is next, I am sure I can't even imagine!


We finally opened up all the boxes we ordered for the tow bar assembly & hooked up the part that goes on Bebe easily, now to pay the blood suckers to hook up and wire the Subie on Tuesday...had to buy a hitch to go on the Subie which U-haul will do Monday morning...are you adding all this up $$$$$$$ ? Now we are talking about solar panels for the roof that can angle up for some boon-docking power to our computers. 


We have 10 days left in Tahoe and I am both sad and excited, sad to leave my beautiful Tahoe and all of our amazing friends and excited to really start on our adventure. 


There is this great site NuRVers.com - people more like us, working, burners, young-minded and they are having a New Year's eve party in Quartzite. A few of them boon-docked out there last year & it's really really CHEAP! One described it as burning man without the dust & costumes! But they also have access to dump stations and water. So we are trying to educate ourselves about boon-docking long-term & still being able to work. Not sure if this will happen during tax season though, that may be a little too stressful. I think I need a pool & jacuzzi during March & April ;)

lessons to learn.......

...there are soooo many of them! Thank goodness for all of the great advice out there, I sincerely don't know how we could do any of this without it! It's been quite chilly in the morning lately here in Tahoe - down to 30 degrees! So we've taken to turning on the heater for a bit just to take the chill off ....had no clue what we were doing to our propane consumption until something prompted me to ask Bill how our tank was and low and behold we were on "E"!!!!!!! This was on Saturday & of course, Labor Day Weekend...tried to call around to some propane companies up here and of course, everyone was closed, called the campground office and guess what - the propane delivery peeps came FRIDAY! We could pack up the whole rv and take it to a tank to fill up but OMG that is quite a process...so we decided to just stop using the heater and hot water & ride it out until we could deal with it this week....we've been showering at the campground facilities but washing up & doing the dishes with cold water. On the RV.net forums this morning I saw some chatter about whether or not to heat your water with propane or electricity as some RVs have both - when I asked Bill about this he checked ours and GUESS WHAT?! WE HAVE BOTH TOO and immediately switched it to electricity - woo hoo - hot water!!!!!!!!  gotta laugh..........

towing.......oy vey

It's always when you think you've got to be all done buying crap when you get hit upside the head! When we bought our little BeBe she came with a tow bar to use to tow a car behind you. The previous owner had a Mini Cooper so we knew there was going to be some adjustment to whatever 4wd we purchased...but had no idea we were in for another $3000 purchase!!! The set-up of this little excursion we call "full-timing" has definitely turned out to be way more expensive than we expected. But of course, we do like to do things "right"...


So far we have purchased shade screens for the front, driver & passenger windows for when we are parked - they do keep out 85% of the sunlight & since all of my computer info is up there I have to protect it!

Then we got a "bra" for the front because after our CO trip BeBe got slammed with rocks...next were the seat covers which of course, we really needed too, cuz we sit in them all day working & that fake leather just wasn't too comfy in the heat...then the tire covers...the new (towable) 4wd car...and now the tow package....once we purchase the mounting blocks specific for our car then we have to make sure we have all the right wiring and something new - an auxiliary braking system! I did my best buying all of the parts online, saving us about $500 but we are still going to have to pay about $1000 to get this all hooked up, then, maybe THEN we will be done and can start saving all that money we set out to do with this venture....we will keep you posted! 

funny happening while doing business....

Last week we had our new sheepskin seat covers put on - the guy from Reno made the trek up here to install them for us, so very cool!  While I was at yoga (with our car) Bill worked from home while the guy was here and at 9:10 remembered that the conference call he had at 9:30 wasn't one he could take from home/rv, there was a woman coming up from Sac to take the call with him at the office!  Realizing that there was a huge possibility that there would be no one in the office he gave the seat cover guy a check in case he wasn't back when he was done, threw on his clothes and jumped on his furry bike and pedaled there. She was in the parking lot waiting in her car when he discovered he forgot his office keys! As if it wasn't crazy (read: Tahoe) enough to see this guy on his furry bike ride up for a meeting, he jumps in her car and off they go back to the campsite where they take the call at our picnic table under our cute shade structure complete with candles and hanging Japanese lanterns....just doing bidness RV and Tahoe style!!

BLOGGING 101 - HELP!

I am trying, so very hard, to learn how to do this, but I have no idea what I am doing!!  I've got the posting down, but am having a hard time trying to put up a slideshow...


Anyway, life is good so far, we've settled into a little routine and we watch our neighbors come and go.
We just purchased our toad, a 2010 Subaru Forester, manual transmission - because it is very easy to tow, we don't have to do anything to it, so we've been told...but now as I look into having the towbar attached and the purchase of a supplemental braking system I realize there is NOTHING easy about this full-timing thing and it's pretty pricey as well.  So much new information to digest and figure out...I think this entire year will be one big learning experience for sure.  We are trying to choose between the Brake Buddy, which has been around forever and people are very happy with and the Ready Brake/Ready Brute system, which seems simpler and is less expensive - I am leaning towards this but am still researching them. I don't know anything about this stuff!!


We went away for a long weekend and left BeBe at the campsite, put everything away, tied the awning down and everything was just as we left it when we came home - woo hoo!  My daughter graduated from cosmetology school and we had a fun celebration.  My son graduates this December from CSU Sacramento and I just made my last tuition payment.  Madeleine, Bill's daughter, graduated UCLA last June and is in Cambridge to get her masters in psychology and his son, Will, is at Chapman college in Orange, CA starting his senior year (we hope)! So the timing was/is perfect...we had to make sure there was no place for anyone to move back in with us!!

Here is a pic of the graduate with my mom and me...


Back to trying to post my pics...wish me luck!

2 weeks down!

Well, we are now two weeks into our full-timing lifestyle....still in Tahoe, only about a mile from our home, so not too much of a change right now - it makes for a nice transition.  
Moving was quite different this time as we had to decide: toss, sell, storage, RV? for each and every item we owned! I ended up with one office box of scanning left to do - I am about 30% through it now and Bill ended up taking a lot of stuff to his office but has been slowly getting through it. The movers we hired moved at typical Tahoe time and it was a very long day from 9pm to 7pm BUT they got everything into a 10x10 storage unit and we were very grateful! The first year's storage cost us $800 and we will have a year to decide if this is the life for us for awhile or not...


Our Tahoe campground is like real camping and we've set up a sweet outside area with an additional canopy, our big grill from home and our little traveling fire pit - we spend most evenings there just chilling and welcome visitors! I have actually been getting some work done and try to get outside for an hour or so here & there to just chill in my little lounge chair, it makes you feel as if you really are on vacation - just that little bit of time. The campground has a heated pool, tennis, basketball, volleyball, movies, music, ice cream socials and karaoke and was packed when we arrived but now as we are getting into the middle of August it's thinned out a lot - we met Carol, a wonderful woman and her bird, Zach, and we hope to catch up with them along the road again sometime.  


This weekend we are on a little outing (sans RV) to visit our friends Dr. K & Suzanne in Truckee and then will hop on down to Walnut Creek to celebrate my daughter Lauryn's graduation with all of the family, then head into Sacramento with my mom and for Bill to check-in with the Sacto office, then back home.


Our friend, Daniel, is moving into our old house & we've left our washer/dryer there for him and for us to use while in town - a great deal for both of us!


The plan right now is to stay in Tahoe until the end of September and then move on to http://www.nevadatreasurervresort.com/  a beautiful RV resort & spa in a dumpy little town for a month or two if we like it...we have a spot reserved with a gazebo & stainless steel BBQ.


Will be posting pics soon of our newest & latest digs!

stressssssssssed

Things are getting crazy around here!!  But my wonderful husband reminds us not to forget that we love each other....he is such a smart man!

FINALLY got BeBe back from her little check-up down in Carson, they had her for 5 days & basically said they couldn't fix 4 of the 5 things we brought her in for, blah, blah, blah...but nothing too important so I am going to LET IT GO!!  Traipsed her across town to get fitted for a BRA - yeah, I know, I don't even wear one but Mr. Bill INSISTS she needs one!  Picked out a pretty gray one which we will shlep down to Carson AGAIN on Saturday to pick up...think the sunshade for the front window came in today, too!

Swamped with work, wouldn't you know - nothing for months and now busy, busy, busy - but I won't complain cuz it will help pay my son's tuition!  The last tuition payment I HOPE, getting excited about that!

Getting a u-haul manana to take the sofas & a dresser down to my daughter in the bay area - the downstairs is looking pretty bare...but we do most of our living upstairs anyway, so it's all good.

Bill & I packed again last night, his job is to pack the electronics & all the pics - huge job but he is doing great!
On Out...

Final garage sale - check!

Well, the final garage sale is now behind us - we really had a fabulous time yesterday - Tahoe is such a cool place & every day we are gone I know I will miss it. We arranged for a charity pick up at 2pm & only had about 5 garbage bags of stuff left to give them - NOTHING went back in the garage, it was really awesome! Took a long soak in the jacuzzi with our friend Virginia & piled all of our food we aren't going to be able to eat or put in BeBe (4 boxes) over to the Brewery for our friends to pick through...they were overjoyed!


We are now down to the bare minimum - our bedroom & office furniture & the sofas & coffee table - the sofas are going to my daughter next week & the rest will go in storage, really not that much to store. We worked in the kitchen for 5 hours the other night & did a good job getting our storage items down to a small pile. I had a complete breakdown when faced with the realization that it was not practical to bring all of my baking & cake/cookie decorating stuff - I sold all of my frosting pastes in the garage sale as you just can't store that stuff.  We have a complete mess of our Burning Man/Hash stuff in the downstairs bedroom that I am going to have to deal with soon...


Today I will try to pack a little & then we will ride our bikes to the beach, tomorrow we will go hiking. I am a bit relieved that we had to cancel our Mt. Whitney trip as I have so much to do in the next 10 days and finding the training time for that kind of hike is difficult. 


I have moments of excitement and sadness, intermixed, but know that wherever I am with Bill will be home. It is incredibly liberating to be getting rid of STUFF & live a simpler life....

Checking in.....

We had a fabulous time at Bill's family reunion in CO Springs...& an interesting time on the road. We stayed in a few campgrounds overnight on the way there, boon-docked in front of Jake & the Winters' homes, 4 nights in a fabulous campground in the Garden of the Gods & for our last stop in Elko, NV on the way home we parked in the Red Lion Casino parking lot - the best & one we actually made $$ on!! Called first & asked if it was ok & they told us where to park...we had 24 hr bathrooms, Starbucks open extra early, plenty of places to eat & I won $170!!!  Pretty cool, eh?!

It was so much fun seeing Doano & her brother Bob (patriarch & matriarch) with all of their family. Such a great group & we really connected with Bill's cousin Becky & her new husband Andy - they live in Aspen & we have a lot in common  -definitely have to pay them a visit in the future!

Since we got home I have been trying desperately to catch up on my work, I even got a new client upon my arrival! We climbed Freel Peak on Sunday - the highest mountain in the Tahoe Basin - I am still recovering...Sold my kitchen table on Craigslist in an hour!! Now have to clean out my fridge & get it up on the web...last garage sale is this Friday, the house is getting cleaned out of furniture but there is still way too much STUFF that needs to hit the road! Gotta get my tush in gear.........

1st long voyage.......

We had a good night at Angel Lake RV Park in Wells NV and we were off for a long drive to Wyoming, stopped at Western Hills RV Park in Rawlins - this was a cute place that had a mini golf course - headed out to play about 5 min before the office closed and Mr. Bill always the boy scout had us bring our headlamps, playing backwards mini golf in the dark was a blast!  Tried for an early start to Golden, CO to see our friend Jake but that was just futile!  Got into Golden around 3:30 & promptly headed out with Jake to his favorite local brewery Golden City Brewery - great little place, boy if Jeff could fix up his place a teeny tiny bit like this he could really make some dough!  Stopped to pick up some beers & grub for a great BBQ.

Spent the night in front of Jake's house & this morning we will go out for a hike, try to get Bill's bike fixed as he forgot to let out some of the air out of the tires before we started climbing in altitude & the tube popped - plus he just wants to get it tuned up since his last crash!  Then we are off to CO Springs to see Bill's old academy friend Chuck - this is fun!!

On Out to Colorado Springs!

We are finally on the road! Took us awhile to get out of the house & then shopping trips to Costco, Sierra Trading Post & REI - gearing up for our Mt Whitney hike. Finally left Reno at 430. Arriving into Wells, NV around 830 to spend the night in an RV park that got pretty good reviews &$25.
Bill's doing great but can't wait for a cocktail!

We have a move date!

Booked our movers for Monday, July 26th - so guess we will be living in BeBe in the driveway for a week!  AND found a good storage place that won't cost us an arm & a leg in Minden.  This morning we got the mirror repaired In Carson from our little sideswipe $500 later...and a few other minor repairs so she's set to go to CO on Saturday.  

Need to START packing!! Have to get rid of as much stuff as we can so we are not paying to store stuff we won't use down the road...I'm beat! 

a few more chores......

Woke up at 4am AGAIN - so much to do, my mind is running, running, running...
finally got up at 5 and doctored up the fishing vest I bought Jake for Burning Man-it came out great and now Bill wants me to fix his up a little bit more, hah! Will make him a few hats to take to gift & then I am done with that!

Sold the roll top desk & nightstands yesterday - woo hoo!  That was a huge chore...have decided to sell our big kitchen table & 6 chairs and my bedroom TV & stand...have to cut down on the storage!  Speaking of storage I have got a mover coming over today to give me a bid on all the furniture & someone is coming by to pick up all of our books!  Moving slowly in the right direction!

Trying to get things done!

Dental work - yuch!  I've been lucky & never had to deal with it but have these 3 old fillings the DDS keeps telling me that "some day" we should replace them and since we have dental insurance now and a dentist I thought it best to just go in and take care of it...........well, 2 they replaced and the 3rd needs a crown - OMG - a crown, now a really feel O*L*D!!  At least it will be porcelain and not gold...

Got up early and made Jake a pair of wild pj pants for Burning Man:

Aren't they foxy!  Just a few more things to make for him & then I can pack the sewing machine!  Speaking of packing...OY, gotta start!!

Went and picked up the Verizon MiFi today - we will see how that works on our trip to CO & decide if we want to keep it - we have 30 days and 5G's to check it up.  Yesterday we got our traveling/folding fire pit - it is soooooooooo cool!  Today I am expecting our really cool self-adhesive hooks to put up EVERYWHERE in the RV, can't have enough hooks!!

Have some work to catch up on & then to pack up BeBe for the trip! Tonight we are going on our first "training" hike for Mt. Whitney - should be fun...

Monday, Monday, Monday

Well I got the blog up today, that was a big accomplishment! 
Our first trip in BeBe was to bring her home from L.A the weekend of the 12th.  We were sooo lucky, on the shuttle ride down to the Reno airport we got a call confirming the sale of Lucy (our old '94 25' rv) woo hoo - good start!  We drove BeBe home through San Luis Obispo where we stopped at a Pub Crawl Hash & hung out on the beach a bit, the drive home from there was quite challenging through very windy rodes to get back onto I-5. Had an uneventful ride home until going over Echo Summit where we were sideswiped by a truck pulling a trailer trying to pass us and cracked our mirror. Bill tracked him down and we got all his info. Heard from our friends that this is something we should get used to and to keep the mirror part # handy - good to know!


Just got home last night from the BlueGrass Festival in Grass Valley. This time she was loaded up with all of our creature comforts, we had full hook-ups for 4 days, nice neighbors, amazing weather and a wonderfully relaxing couple of days, which was most needed right now.


Bill is swamped with work & I am swamped with numerous "to-do" lists...

New Blog!

Welcome!  I have no idea what I am doing...so bear with me...pics and info coming soon...