Bill and Debbys Wild Ride!

Texas fun....from Bill

2012-02-18T13:18:00.002-08:00

Texas came in like a lion and we hope it goes out like alamb. After visiting Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico we headed out just afterthe rain stopped, but I guess we were going faster than the storm because wecaught back up to it in Texas. We were on our way to Hamlin, Texas to visit Pamand Derrel, friends from the Philippines that I hadn’t seen in about 30 years. Ourroute had us taking some back roads, that didn’t look too bad on the map, butwhen we turned off the four-lane road and onto the narrowtwo-lane-with-no-shoulders-and-lots-of-trucks-going-70-with-a-strong-crosswind road,driving the RV became a harrowing experience. It was white knuckle time forabout 25 miles, then toned down to just driving at night in the rain on countryroads. Against all odds, and with only one U-turn, we arrived safely in Hamlinand parked on the street in front of D&P’s guest house. Let the fun begin!

We hadn’t been there half an hour when Barb Baillie, anotherfriend from the PI that I hadn’t seen in 30-some years, called from Maui. Ianswered the phone and had some fun with Barb before giving up who I was.Coincidence or telepathy? We’ll never know. But we do need to plan a trip toMaui very soon. That evening we caught up on the last 30 years, drank someyummy rum drink that Derrel learned from his son (rum, ginger beer, andsomething else), and enjoyed a delicious venison stew prepared by Pam. Terrificnight and we went to bed exhausted.

The next day we went to the lower forty (or rather 160 to beprecise) to visit the “man cave.” Derrel bought a quarter-section about 20miles outside of town to use for deer hunting. He built a large storage shed onit, half of which he turned into a game room (the man cave). We road around theproperty on his ATV and a converted golf cart and watched a beautiful sunset.Much beer was consumed and the wild hog that I was supposed to shoot never showedup. It was a blast. And then we went back for another special crockpot mealprepared by Pam. We were experiencing some very special Texas hospitality forsure.

The next day we were off to Austin to visit my brother Kurt.That was not to be, however, as Bebe wouldn’t start up after we had stopped forgas outside of Abilene. We had to get towed to a Ford service center to get anew starter. I had to pull Bebe back out of the gas station with the Subie sothe flatbed could get in front of her. Watching Bebe on the back of that truckwas almost as bad as the drive into Texas. The folks at the service center weregreat and had us back on the road in no time. Meanwhile, Derrel and Pam hadgone to their Lake House, about an hour south of Abilene and on the way toAustin, so that’s where we went to spend the night.

We had another great night with the Texas land barons andafter breakfast we were on our way to Austin; Smithville actually, just a biteast of Austin where brother Kurt and Chrissy were waiting with much food. Obviously,Texas is not the place to go if you’re looking to lose weight. It had beenabout 10 years since Kurt and I had been together, so there was lots ofcatching up to do. Kurt played some music on his guitar, the doves flew aroundthe house, and Chrissy served up a delicious meal; one of many we’d be enjoyingwith them this weekend. After breakfast on Sunday we did a walking tour ofSmithville, which didn’t take very long and we ate, and ate, and ate. Love thisplace.

Monday was a work dayfor both of us, but there was much music to be enjoyed in Austin, so we madeplans to drive into town to see a show. We had a quick dinner and drinks atMaria Maria then went to Antone’s for the Blues Jam. Lots of great music,highlighted by a chubby 12-year-old that played a mean guitar and had a stagepresence that could get him into the final round of American Idol. On the wayhome, we almost got wiped out by a guy that fell asleep at the wheel and afterjust missing us, went bouncing off the retaining walls like a pinball with carparts flying all over the place. We called 911 and checked to make sure he wasokay (which he was) before heading very carefully home. Phew.

Things happen just the way they are supposed to...

2012-02-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

Serendipity, fate, whatever you call it - you rarely can change it, so one just has to learn to relax and go with the flow... This attitude, if one could employ it round the clock, could serve you very well especially when living in an RV on the road. Recently we came home one evening to find that one of our pantry shelves had slipped one of the metal clips that was holding it up and it was leaning sideways. Now I must digress here and tell you that Mr. Bill LOVES to shop at Costco & LOVES to get a bargain, i.e. very large quantities or sizes. I was so very happy when we moved out of our South Lake Tahoe home 18 months ago that I could fit everything from my fridge at home into my one in the RV. Not quite the same with what was in my pantry but I did stock that RV pantry full! God forbid we got stuck somewhere and would need 8 cans of soup! But as my mother would say..."just because you can, doesn't mean you SHOULD". I had also been reading lately that after a year of traveling one should really go through all of their "stuff" and get rid of everything you haven't worn or used in the last year because most likely you won't use it the following year either. Well, it was late at night and Bill was beat so he crashed and I was left staring at this poor, almost broken shelf. I just couldn't go to bed knowing that it might break completely while I slept. So I started pulling everything out - now mind you, this is a floor to (RV) ceiling pantry, and this baby is stocked! I could not believe all the crap that was in there that I knew we would never use. So I started making piles, an especially large one was items that Bill used to cook with, specialty sauces and such, which I would ask him about in the morning. After living in the rig all of this time there were certain things I needed access to on a regular basis and there were other items that I was constantly moving in and out to the counters while we traveled and so on and so forth, you all have similar dilemmas I am sure. But now I realized that some reorganization was necessary, in addition to some purging as well. And purge I did! And rearrange I did! And it looks great, and you can see what's on the shelf, and the super heavy things are on the very bottom! And best of all I had replacement shelf clips on board!! We dropped off several bags of food with Bill's brother, Kurt, to be taken to the local food closet and we now have room - in our pantry, and in our souls. It is amazing what a reduction in clutter can do for one. So next time you are met with an unfortunate surprise, look at it as an opportunity - who knows how things will turn out!

New Mexico!

2012-02-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

After Yuma we headed out to the Land of Enchantment. A few months later (and colder) than originally planned, but we were going to do as much of the southern part of the state as we could. First stop was the Gila Cliff Dwellings. I had read about these on the Wheeling It blog and was intrigued. Even more so intrigued when the Cheddar Yeti crew (Jeanette & Dennis) sent us a link to the hot springs in the area. The Gila Ranch Hot Springs RV Park looked great on paper, so to speak, but once we spoke to the host we were a little wary of driving Bebe there. On the website it gave special directions to those driving big rigs and the host gave us very specific instructions to be sure to put the rig in 2nd gear when we got close. Ok...well, we thought we'll just let Jeanette and Dennis go ahead and scout it out for us (they are a bit smaller and not towing) and then let us know if it's ok to proceed. The problem with this plan was that we quickly lost all cell and internet connections. But my intrepid driver looked at me and said "we're going for it!". And so we did, and there was much rejoicing...anyway, when the road got a little scary we stopped and unhooked the car and I drove ahead to check it all out.

Bill did have to put Bebe in 1st gear through the jaw dropping views at 8500 feet, but we were there! We were not 100% sure that our friends were going to make it but we couldn't wait to set up and get our bodies into those hot springs! The Cheddar Yetis showed up about 30 minutes later and after that harrowing drive up we were all ready for a little R&R. Which is exactly what we did for a couple of days - no phones, no internet, just hanging out, hot tubbing, cooking, drinking, and getting to know each other among the sheep, horses and dogs right there at the rv park.

We went to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument which gives one a glimpse into the homes and lives of the Mogollon people who lived there 700 years ago. They built homes inside these caves in the cliffs at about 6000 feet - it was pretty cool!

Jeanette & Dennis aka Cheddar Yeti

Next up was Carlsbad Caverns - we decided to take the southern, longer route as the weather was a little stormy and it was a good idea! After stopping to get gas in town we thought we'd unhook the Subie but we weren't parked entirely straight and the tow bar wouldn't release. We headed over to Walmart to park overnight and tried again to unhook. While Bill got out the hammer and started banging at everything I went inside and did my usual RV.net forum search. And low and behold, guess what, others had experienced this same thing and several people had posted the solution - turn your car wheels either right or left! So out I went, got in the car, turned the wheels to the left and bam, tow bar released!! We did a little Walmart shopping and crashed as we had an early tour of the Left Hand Tunnel. We woke up to snow but knew it wasn't an issue as we were going underground. This was a super cool 2 hour tour with hand held candle-lit lanterns. Because of the weather the place was pretty much deserted and there was only one other person on our tour. It was completely dark except for our 4 lanterns and our guide was a great story teller. Afterwards we did the self-tour of the big room and got out of there pretty fast for our 5 hour ride to Hamlin Texas to visit Bill's friends he hadn't seen in 30+ years!
We had no idea that we had just crossed paths with Bob and Sini again as we found out the next day they had arrived about the time we were leaving!!

Yuma & Los Algodones

2012-02-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

Right across the border as you enter Mexico.

We stopped for a few days at an Escapee rv park in Yuma to clean up after our Slab City stay and to go to the dentist in Los Algodones. This is a real popular thing to do with the retirees - with health care costs so high and with insurance being what it is, many people opt to go down to Mexico for their dental care. We are not quite "retirees" YET, but we are now among the many Americans that no longer have dental insurance. Quite a few of the dentists are American trained and as long as you get a good referral I think it's a pretty safe thing to do. With that being said, all we were going down for were cleaning appointments. We got a great referral from Jenn while we were at Slab City so we made an appointment and drove the 20 minutes to the big parking lot right at the border. As soon as you walk across the border you are slammed with hawkers asking you if you need dental care and/or prescriptions. Every storefront is either a dental office, pharmacy, liquor store or souvenir shop. We checked out the price of our favorite tequila, Clase Azul, & it was a little less expensive but not much. It was a very clean city & we didn't feel nervous at all walking around. Our cleaning visits were great, I was very happy that they used the ultrasound machines, and we each got a little bag with all the requisite dental stuff you normally get at your dentist. Not exactly sure if I would go down there for major stuff, but then it probably would depend on how much it costs and where we were financially at the time.

El Paraiso

I had done a bit of research on eating down there so first in order were refreshments at El Paraiso! The sun was shining and the band was playing American tunes for all of the snowbirders, it was a bit bizarre...I would have so loved to listen to music from the area. We moved on to a cute little place for lunch which was more in the center of town, away from the border, and had a great meal.

Alfresco lunch stop with more American music!

The sun was shining and the entire town was walk-able. It was quite a wait to get back into the US and Jenn told me later that they usually ride their bikes in and lock them up at the dental office and when they leave they can drive through with the cars and avoid the wait - very good tip!!
Twenty minutes later we were back at our campground only to find out that Sini and Bob were heading toward us for an overnight stay! They brought steaks and we baptized their newly purchased grill, it was fun catching up with them again & we expect to do so, here and there, on our trip eastward.

New Years in the Slabs!

2012-01-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

It was definitely about time to meet up again with someNuRVers and New Year’s Eve seemed the appropriate time. It was a year ago NYersEve that we first connected with this fun group & we’d had quite the time all year meeting up with the different peeps we met at our month long rendezvous inQuartzsite, AZ. We were sad that Kev & Angie (the founders) couldn’t join usbut Sam & Tracy and Maria & Brian were committed and Slab City was theperfect place for this group of derelicts to congregate. Maria & Brian hadconnected with Cheddar Yeti (Jeanette & Dennis) & they were coming too!We had all invited friends (non-rvers) to join in the fun so between 12/29-12/31 we slowly assembled a fine group of revelers. And talk about assembling! Jeanette &Dennis’ friends arrived with a truckload of plywood, a huge wooden frame &a bolt of some gorgeous turquoise chiffon material. We sat there, drinks inhand, watching them construct what was to be the highlight of our evening. ButI digress, I first must comment on theexpedition to Slab City.

The last few days preparing to leave Palm Desert were awhirlwind – you’d think that because we’d known for 2 ½ months when we wereleaving that we would prepare a little better, but NO! As usual, we had a tonof last minute shopping to do, mail orders to be made & dining coupons touse. Not to mention packing up after such a long stay in one spot. We did havea good time there, different for sure, but time spent with family means so muchand will have to hold me for about a year…

Now if you recall, on our fateful trip to Pahrump a year agowe came out of a parking lot a little screwy & ended up with a brokenbottle of olive oil all over the carpet. Post Burning Man we pulled up thecarpeting & now have beautiful wood floors – the perfect place for a soysauce incident! Oy the Soy! So upon our arrival to the Slabs we had severalhours of clean up, thankfully, nocarpeting to worry about but our catalytic heater was covered in it. Bill’swonderful ADD tendencies had him painstakingly taking it all apart and cleaningup every little piece of it, including the “plates”. We weren’t sure if itwould ever work again & just a little scared to fire it up without a firedepartment close at hand. Several days later we did just that, though, andaside from smelling just a bit like a Chinese restaurant for awhile, it workedgreat!

Salvation Mountain is at the entrance to Slab City and really sets the tone for the whole place. We visited here in November just to see what it was all about and the pictures just don't do it justice - here are a few pics of our friend Cindy (from Orange County) who joined us for NYers eve.

Maria & Brian’s friends, Kevin & Molly (with a truckload of firewood!), came from AZ and we found out Jenn and Johnny of ”Hitek Homeless” fame wereparked close by & they came over to join in the fun. I had orderedglow-in-the-dark eye glasses for everyone & Maria & Brian brought these huge sparklers and the fun ensued; we all ended up at “The Range” for music and dancing - another memorableNYers eve on the road!

Slab City reminds me of a real-life Burning Man. People of all ages, walks of life and living styles congregate together on this huge abandoned military base. This area was featured in the movie “Into the Wild”. There are no services out there – no water, electricity, plumbing, trash pick up – nada, nothing! They have a huge problem with trash but that does not take away from it’s appeal, at least to us. People are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Most nights there is live music at one camp or another, with bonfires and even balloon makers. We were very lucky to connect with Jenn and Johnny as they had spent a lot of time here and knew where things were “happening”.

An area started by a burner named Charlie with a vision of making art out of the trash found at the slabs.

It was amazing how much there was to do and see in thisarea. Two large stage venues for music (plus all of the other impromptu spots),2 libraries, an 18 hole “desert” golf course, numerous trips to “East Jesus”,the Oasis camp where one can get breakfast, lots of amazing conversation andeven a hot spring.

Now, the latter we had heard and read about and from thedescriptions we thought we might pass, but then we met Bob and Sini! Half ourgroup had departed by then and Bill and I were sitting at our campfire when henoticed that someone was out walking with a flashlight and appeared to belooking for something. We went over to help and met Sini who had lost herreading glasses. I mentioned that I had recently lost my headlamp and guesswhat, they had found one. At that moment her hubby Bob called out that he hadfound her glasses and we all went back to their rig – I was sooooo happy toretrieve my fav headlamp! Now just a few days before our friends left they hadmet Bob & Sini and invited them to join our campfire, Maria had commented that they seemed fun – andlucky for us, our paths were meant to cross. They had been full-timing ~6months, out of Seattle, both retired and around Bill’s age – and they loved hotsprings! We had so much in common and became fast friends. We met the followingmorning for a nice long walk at sunrise for our first dip in the hot springs–and YAY, so glad we made it there. We ended up extending our stay several daysjust to go again and have fun with our new friends.

After 10 days it was time torestock our propane and dump our tanks. We will surely be back – and next time,for longer!

Fun in Palm Desert

2012-01-24T07:34:00.000-08:00

My parents have vacationed and/or lived in Palm Desert for most of my life but I have never been to Desert Hot Springs. The RV parks there are considerably less expensive than the parks in Palm Desert and the reviews of them sound pretty good but to hear the people in PD talk about this place you'd think it was the crime capital of the world. They are known for their hot springs, though, and Bill and I started our research on where to visit. The choices run the gamut from the "mom & pop" 50's style to the L.A. free love all night party type (yes, Bill definitely wanted to see what that was all about!) to the new-age, mellow kind of spa that was really more our type (yes, really!). We chose the Living Waters Spa which is in a converted 70's motel called the Kismet Lodge - it's clothing-optional and small, with only one hot-tub, a pool, sauna, two massage rooms, a communal room and the most wonderful staff around. They offer a "Sunday Special" which consists of a 75 minute couples massage, all day soak and happy hour drinks and appies. Now I have been lucky enough to have had a trillion massages in many different places but NO WHERE have I EVER had a massage like this. I can't really say more than that except we came back and will continue to whenever we are in the area.

Big Bear is only about 1 1/2 hours away and there lived Bill's roommate from his USAFA days - I have been hearing him speak about Bobby Anderson for years now and it was finally time for us to take a little drive to visit him; and of course what's a day trip all about without a little detour to the local brewery?! Big Bear reminded me a lot of Tahoe, which I sorely miss, and we were lucky to enjoy a little snow storm while there. It's a cute little town I could live in.

We did a little golfing in PD - we are truly "duffers" but we know how to have fun! This was just one of my amazing drives of the day:

We managed to attend the "La Quinta Blues & Brews Festival" which was a great day of sunshine, beer and excellent music!

We were lucky to see a few friends while in town & as always had a great time making new ones on our trip to Idyllwild - another fabulous town we must go back to. We did a little restaurant/bar hopping and ended up at a wine bar where we met two great couples; one of which we followed to another hot spot in town playing Celtic music. At the end of the evening we exchanged contact info & they actually checked out our blog & found out we had even more in common than we thought - they're "burners" too!

We will definitely be heading back up the mountain to spend more time with them!

Utah National Parks Whirlwind Tour - by Bill

2012-01-24T06:38:00.000-08:00

After a wonderful visit to Orvis Hot Springs it was time to head back through Utah, stopping for the first time to visit several of the National Parks there. We started by visiting Moab, a small town on the Colorado River that’s home to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. We stayed at Ron’s Pack RV park on the south end of town. Ron’s is a rustic spot but has all the amenities and Ron, though a bit chatty, was full of good tips on how to spend our short time there. He suggested seeing the sunset from Island in the Sky @Canyonlands NP, so that became our first objective.

First stop though was at the Moab Brewery, where we had some yummy burgers and excellent craft beers. Best was the Scottish Ale, of which we should have bought much more.

After lunch we headed to the north end of town and took the road along the Colorado River surrounded by towering cliffs of Navajo Sandstone to see the campgrounds there. We stayed on the road for about 15 miles and wound up at a Vineyard that Ron had told us about, unfortunately, the bar was closed so there were no cocktails or wine to be had. This area is where many westerns were filmed back in the day, and the restaurant was filled with photos of well-known actors in scenes from the movies they filmed here.

Next it was up to the mesa known as Island in the Sky. The drive up was spectacular with incredible views of mesas, cliffs, and vistas beyond compare. We stopped here and there to take in the sights, then headed to the Grand View Point to take in the sunset. We hiked along the cliffs overlooking Canyonlands NP which rivals the Grand Canyon for their beauty and size. The sun was getting low and the shadows and colors playing on the canyons below were amazing. We got to Grand View Point just as the sun was sinking below the horizon and were blessed with one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.

The next day we were off to see the Arches. What a surreal place that is. The arches were pretty cool, but the whole park was filled with unique landscapes carved from the sandstone laid down millions of years ago when this place resembled today’s Sahara Desert. We took a couple of short hikes to see some of the Park’s famous sights and scared ourselves by looking down from the cliffs we were perched on top of. We saw several rock climbers scaling the towers in the park and it’s beyond me how they can do that.

Our next stop was Zion National Park outside of St George Utah. We camped overnight at Walmart (our first Walmart camping) and drove in to the park in the car. This park is basically a valley like Yosemite with steep cliffs and towering mountains all around. They have buses to take tourists through the park so we hopped on board and took in the spectacular scenery. We took a couple of hikes and on one, stopped to sit in the grass in a sunny spot to enjoy our lunch. Just another magical day on the road to nowhere in particular.

Colorado Hot Springs

2012-01-11T18:08:00.001-08:00

September 29, 2011

We went to bed on Thursday night with great intentions toget up early, go the Garden of the Gods and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately,getting out of bed in time to make that happen proved a bit too challenging, sowe slept in and started working on a backup plan. Having set “visiting hotsprings” as one of our top priorities for our travels, we set about searchingfor springs not too far from Colorado Springs. Turns out there are many, butthe one that caught Debby’s eye was Valley View Hot Springs, about 40 minutessouth of Salida, CO, which made it a 3-ish-hour drive from the Academy. Onpaper, the place sounded terrific. In person, it was awesome.

The journey there and back was just a bit longer than ourstay. First stop on the way out was Safeway, where we restocked on Chaka Ummmmsauce, our favorite steak marinade. Ate those steaks tonight with cousin Rick. Itwould have been fun to have had them with us last night so we could have stayedlonger at the hot springs. They have a huge kiosk with multiple grills and afire pit that also has a grill, where we suspect much mingling occurs at night.

It was the perfect day for a drive through the mountains. Froma distance, we saw towering peaks that seemed forever away and in the end wewound up in the foothills on the other side of them. It’s been a delayed fallit seems this year, but as the sunsets get earlier, the trees put on their showin spite of the warm weather. The mountainsides were awash in the glory ofautumn; a perfect harmony of colors. We followed the Arkansas River through theBig Horn Canyon without seeing any big horn sheep, but we did see a lot ofpeople—rafting in shallow water and fly fishing for the ever elusive trout.

Let’s get to the good part—the hot springs. Wow. Many timesduring our visit, we both said, “this is the best yet.” Picture yourself a fewhundred feet up the side of a mountain, facing west, sitting in a shallow,gravel-bottomed pool looking out over a valley with a range of snowcapped 14,000footers on the other side. Magnificent storm clouds over the distant mountains(but not over ours) made the afternoon sky vibrant. It was truly magical.

The spring’s source is about 300 feet above the entrance tothe hot springs. There are a series of pools along the hillside that get warmeras you move up the hill and closer to the source. I think there are other“sources” downhill from what they call the “top pool” but in any case there area good half dozen or more soaking pools that are built in the stream that flowsfrom the top. Water temperature was not too hot in any of the pools, in fact Iwould have liked it hotter in the lower pools. All the pools had spectacularviews and we found ourselves all alone, which is always nice. From the toppool, formed by a dam in the outflow near the source, you can look down and seethree smaller pools cascading below, and the valley and mountains in thedistance. When the sun set, it was clear that it was worth the drive. Can’twait to go back and spend the night.

For our RV-ing friends, there’s about 7 miles of dirt roadto get to the springs. Not the worst we’ve been on, but I wouldn’t take my rigthere, mostly because there’s not really any space for a big rig at the resort.Class C would be okay. We saw some there. There are a lot of RV parks nearbythough, and some BLM land that you may be able to park on. Also, someincredible tent camping sites within crawling distance of the pools.

October 12, 2011

It just keeps getting better. On our way from ColoradoSprings to Palm Desert, we took a small detour to visit Orvis Hot Springs inRidgway, Colorado. Ridgway is located between Montrose and Ouray at the foot ofthe towering San Juan Mountains. The setting was incredible. It was abeautiful, warm and sunny day and we were surrounded by the snowcapped peaks ofthe San Juans. The hot springs were just off Highway 550.

These springs were much more developed than the ones atValley View. They had pea-sized gravel bottoms and the pools had concrete andstone walls that offered plenty of places to sit. The landscaping was very niceand there were several lounge chairs scattered about the lawn where you couldchill, away from the pools. The large pool was about 4-5 feet deep and had apipe waterfall on one end. I tried sitting under the fall, but the water wasprobably about 110° to 112° and it was hard to stay under it forlong. This pool was by far the most popular and it seemed there were a lot ofpeople there for the middle of the week. At noon the water was about 100° but itwarmed up gradually throughout the afternoon. Sitting on the north side of thepool afforded awesome views of the mountains through trees afire with thecolors of autumn.

There were several other pools on the grounds, including one thatwas connected to the large pool and had a cooler waterfall and a muddy bottom.The hot pool was super hot at about 110°. It was smallish with room for only 2or 3 people. It was next to the sauna, which we didn’t use. There were twoother pools that were smaller and shallow, one of which was for smokers.

The lodge had nice showers, lockers, and a kitchen for useby guests. We used the kitchen to heat up our chicken quesadillas and were toldby one of the employees on our way back to our lounge chairs to be careful notto break our dish. I’m so glad he told us that or I probably wouldn’t have beencareful. Dooh!

Colorado 2011

2012-01-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

What a fabulous place to HAVE to go visit family, ha ha! Last year Bill's family had a big reunion in Colorado Springs - Bill hadn't seen most of his relatives in 30 years! We had a blast & found out we had a lot in common with his cousin Becky, who is now known as Rebecca... She is about my age and just recently married a guy who is Bill's age & he just happens to also be Jewish. We really had fun with them and definitely wanted to see them again and spend more time together; luckily for us with our lifestyle it's a pretty easy thing to arrange.

They live in the Snowmass area in Aspen, up a windy, curvy road that definitely put Bebe to the test. Parking Bebe was a huge issue, and we eventually were ticketed but cousin Rebecca pulled her magical strings and got it taken care of. We stayed at their lovely home with their cute dogs, spent hours, cooking, shmoozing, and getting to know each other. We took a long drive out to their cabin along some great river in a beautiful area, the guys fished & Bill pulled a beauty out of the water - Andy put it on his smoker & it was yummy.

Next we were off to Golden, CO for more visiting - this really happens to be my favorite part of rv-ing, meeting up with family and friends everywhere...

We were very excited to hook up with our Quartzsite NuRVer friends Kev & Angie, & Maria & Brian who were all converging in the Denver area. We had spent a little bit of time in Golden in 2010 visiting our Tahoe friend & Bill's co-worker, Jake, who had moved there and we really loved the town. We stayed in a great little city-run campground that was right on the river, walking distance into town & around the corner from the big city rec center - and oh, did I mention, stumbling distance from the GOLDEN CITY BREWERY?!

Love, Love, Love Golden...met up with the NuRVers at the brewery & then for all you can eat pizza, much fun ensued...visited Kev & Ang at their campsite for a BBQ & discovered a new & improved way to make s'mores - must toast & melt the choc on the graham first!! Got to see Jake again & then off to CO Springs to stay at the famcamp at USAFA, Bill's alma mater....

We had some amazing fun with cousins, Mike, Gaye and Rick - lots of pool playing time with Rick! Maria & Brian met us again to sample a few breweries.

The Air Force Academy rv campground was beautiful & except for the constant train whistles it would be the best ever...loved their gym & they had yoga classes every day. We got together with Bill's classmates TJ in the Denver area & Chuck & Shelly in CO Springs, he also got to see classmate & former Phillipines roomate Gary Grant who was visiting from Albuquerque - I got to see the cadets marching & even attended High Holiday services at the Jewish chapel on site. Bill visited a friend's grave there and found a golf ball on it! We'll be back next year for sure as it's Bill's 40th reunion!

Letting go.......

2011-11-15T02:56:00.001-08:00

Ok - I have to do this....I can't seem to make myself sit down and write enough to catch up from my last Burning Man post to the current time, so I am just going to let go of my anal self and jump forward to NOW and maybe I'll catch up in a more round-about sort of way!

We are now in Palm Desert, didn't "plan" to be here, but here we are! We were in Colorado Springs parked at Bill's alma mater - the Air Force Academy campground having a wonderful time hanging out with family, old friends and NuRVers too when I received an email from the owners of an rv park where we've stayed before in Indio, CA - 3 miles from my parents home in Palm Desert. I think they had read my resume on the workamper.com site and were wondering if we would be interested in coming to southern California to work at their park. Well, this was an interesting proposition! My mother had just been in the hospital for a week and my sister had flown down from Alaska to help her with her recovery and was making plans to go back home. We weren't sure if my mom was truly on the mend but everyone thought she was. I had been feeling very guilty about not being there with her, but was soooo grateful that my sister could. Our "plans" at the time were to head south to New Mexico for awhile and then slowly make our way east towards Florida to see Bill's mom in Tampa. But the opportunity to go stay at this expensive park, one we were familiar with, for free (well, not exactly free!) and spend the holidays with my parents just couldn't be ignored. When things happen like this you just gotta do it! So we hashed out all the details with the park, I would work in the office about 22 hours a week and Bill would help with some outside work about 5 hours and we started to make plans to leave our little spot in C Springs. Our Florida plans will just start a little later...

Which route to take...oh my, this was quite a decision as Bill was very familiar with these mountains and we had some snow already and he was really concerned about our taking a "safe" route. But I soooo wanted to see some sites and do some fun stuff! He found a route for us that included 3 national parks - in Moab - Canyonlands & Arches and Zion in southern Utah. We finally got to actually spend some time in Utah! (we've raced through this state 3 times driving from CA to CO and back) We also had a fantastic stop at a hot spring, but more on all of that later. We took about a week to travel from CO back to southern California and stopped for two nights at Nevada's Treasure RV Park in Pahrump, where the "famous" pic of Bill working outside in the gazebo was taken. Finally in Palm Desert we arrived around dinner time at my mother's house. We had taken great pains to keep our plans a secret from my parents as we wanted to really surprise them and we did! Although, not exactly according to plan...there is that word again! So here we are in this nice little park enjoying lovely weather, working our real jobs and our rv park jobs and spending some time with my parents and my brother and his family. Next week my kids fly in for a week for Thanksgiving, my sister and her family arrive from Alaska, and cousins from L.A. are coming too, it's going to be quite the family get-together!

Now to get to the fun stuff!

Man Plans and God Laughs...

2011-10-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

,,,one of my favorite sayings of my mother. She said it often to me growing up, constantly warning about the dangers of that dreadful word...I think I may have to rename this entire blog to Learning the art of NON-planning!! I have been getting better, but it's slow going...

Post burning man we had reservations at the Grand Sierra to stay in an upgraded suite for a night while we "decompressed" - ha ha ha! Little did we know that the entire place had been taken over by teenagers (or they looked & acted like them, anyway) to see some fabulous light show that night. The mass of altered people was really more than we could deal with and we couldn't even go hang out at the pool or jacuzzi which was a pretty cool spot.

So we spent the night, cleaned ourselves up and took Bebe down to Carson to stay at an RV park to get her cleaned up and replace our carpets with wood flooring. I had found this guy that does flooring while we were in Tahoe - a co-worker had used him and he did good work, I met him and we set up a date post BM. Unfortunately the product he was using was inferior and after spending 5 days getting it almost 80% in we were very unhappy and he felt the same. At this point we were supposed to be on our way to Utah and Colorado. But he generously offered to rip out all the flooring, get a better product, take the rig to his shop and just work round the clock and try to get it done in 3-4 days. In the meantime my friend Jen was in the area and we went out for a scrumptious lunch together in Minden - on her way home there was a most interesting experience between her and a porta-potty, and sadly, the porta-potty won! She texted from the hospital that her ankle was broken and she was in a boot up to her knee....not good. AND Daniel, her lover/roomie was out of town for 10 days - she had just taken him to the airport that day! So here we were with no place to live for a few days and here she was almost totally incapacitated and needing some help, how mysteriously God works! So back we went to Tahoe....just can't get away from that place, hmmmm. It all worked out well, we helped Jen out a bit and got to say our last goodbyes one more time! Our flooring guy was working like a mad-man to get it all done and when we finally went to pick up our rig the floors were fabulous! Worth the wait and all the hassle, especially because we could be there for our friend.

So off we went on our mad dash across Utah, once again, totally bummed that this seemed to be the only way we could get to Colorado to see Bill's cousins before they left town & were swamped with other obligations. I WANT TO SEE UTAH!!!

an old army boot camp site in Green River, UT

Now that we had a year of traveling under our belt & a bit more experienced we were committed to try to boondock whenever possible. Boondocking is camping without any hookups, one can do this on the side of the road, in an approved rest stop or far away amongst nature and beauty. Most of the time you will not only save money but have a more interesting experience as well. At some point we hope to really outfit Bebe with a major solar array to do this for very long periods of time...but I digress... I found the great website OvernightRVParking and for a small annual fee you can pop in your location or zip code and get information on all of the possible spots to park for free or for a very small fee. We used this our entire trip from CA to CO and loved it.

Burning Man 2011

2011-10-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

Bill's 5th and my 4th Burning Man brought us to a new camp, living in our home amongst other like-minded nomadic souls...this was quite a switch from our previous visits where we have camped with our hash friends. But since we were bringing Bebe this year we thought this was a better fit & it was! We spent weeks preparing Bebe for her maiden voyage to the playa, hoping against all hope that we could keep her relatively dust-free (hahahaha!) and let me tell you, she looked sweet on the inside - all decked out in orange fur, tie dye pillows, batik prints & crazy throw rugs. Bill bought rolls of filter material and covered the window screens and air conditioner vents & we just hoped for the best. We found a home for our plants with Reno hasher Sir Rubs a Lot & his green-thumbed wife, dropped off our sheepskin seat covers for cleaning, grabbed our Leopard Martini Lounge friend Matt & off we went, playa bound.

Waiting in line is always an experience!

In the past we have always come in at midnight; driving out to the playa was quite a different experience in the daylight, the vast desert was beautiful. NuRVing friends and fellow Quartzsite camp-mates, Sam & Tracy, were able to get "early-entry" & secure a good location for a bunch of big rigs & we were the 2nd ones in on Sunday evening.

Sam & Tracy

We had a 2-hour wait to get in, which wasn't bad at all & it was fun checking out all of the other rigs & people in line. We set up camp & hopped on our bikes to go see "the Man." By the time we returned several other campers had arrived & we got to meet a bunch of the people we've been corresponding with over the last several weeks.

Cherie & Chris

Technomads Chris & Cherie originally started this camp a few years ago & I was excited to meet them as they really helped us out when I was trying to decide on internet options when we started full-timing; plus I had been using a couple of the iPhone Aps they had developed. Fellow full-timers Ayo & Yair were "organizing" our camp this year & pre-burn I found out that they were Jewish and Ayo was doing some work with Camp Ramah where my kids camped every summer, and Quartzsite friends Tom and Schelby with KSvert that came to visit us in Tahoe were camping with us too!! So we had some good vibes about this group going in...

We didn't spend a lot of time in camp but we knew a lot of people at BM this year so we did a lot of visiting, which was super fun! Bill's co-workers Steve & Julie, our last camp - Leopard Martini Lounge, the new Hash camp and good friends Daniel & Jen were included in our romps about "town". Monday night was the long-standing Leopard Martini Lounge Party - it was great seeing everyone, especially decked out in their finest "leopard".

We had a couple of fun "date nights" with hash friends Cheek and Doggie, and Pix & PT aka Sparkle Pony. Both date nights were planned with a specific location & a loose meeting time - and can you imagine, each event we showed up and no one was there! Amaaazing, I know! Of course, it was totally expected that that would happen, but in both cases, a bit later and in different locations we met up with our friends and had a splendid time. Cheek was determined to get us out for an all-nighter, which we had yet to do, even after all the times we had been there. We are more the get up early and explore all day, than the, sleep all day and stay up all night, kind of burners. But we took naps and had a blast....of course, Bill came home bloody and still has scars, but it was a night to remember. The most amazing thing of all was that we found each other, or rather Doggie found us, in the pitch black while riding our bikes!

Luckily she had seen our bikes in Tahoe and knew what they looked like. We were supposed to meet Pix and Sparkle at the Little Black Dress Party and then have them over for dinner - they were a no show at the party but were waiting for us when we returned and we had a fabulous evening.

Camp Nomadia held an informal get together for people curious about our lifestyle with a question and answer session, which was fun to be a part of. But it was the same day the hash held their annual Red Dress Run, so off we went! I think there were way over 100 people with a lot of newbies at the hash. And of course, more blood for Mr. Bill!

We stayed an extra day to avoid the long exodus out and instead baked chocolate chip cookies and delivered them to the people waiting in the 6-8 hour line to get out...we were soooo happy to not be them!

Camp Nomadia

The weather was the best ever and the playa floor was a joy to ride on, unlike previous years where the dust/sand was so thick it was impossible to bike through. It was a very "chill" burn for us and it was just what I needed this year...clean up is still in progress, months later, and I think this may be the last year for us...at least for Bebe!

POOF! 2 months flew by...

2011-09-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Guess that's what happens in life at this stage of the game....all of a sudden you pop your head up & it's fall! Our last month in Tahoe was a whirlwind - finishing up my workamping gig, preparing for Burning Man, Bill cleaning out his office and saying goodbye, again, to all of our friends. The latter is truly the hardest part, especially because this time we really have no idea when we will be back in town. The Tahoe office of Bill's company is now closed with the remainder of the employees telecommuting from home. We thought they were going to lay him off at the end of August before we went to Burning Man, but that isn't happening so fast. His new company, Polaris Environmental, is getting some attention, so it could be any time now that this takes off. Our NuRVer friend, Maria, helped Bill set up his website and it looks great, just what he wanted, thanks Maria!! You can check it out at polarisenvironmental.com.

Awesome campsite - CHECK!!

We did have a few fun adventures before we left the lake - like going tent camping with Daniel, Jen & Socrates at Buckeye & Travertine Hot Springs, wow, now that was cool! We found an awesome campsite and Soc's agreed as he got the best spot! The weather was perfect, the hot springs divine and the food, well, with foodies Cheek & Doggie (hash names) how could it be anything less than fabulous! Mr. Bill got some fishing in and provided us with trout both mornings, which we had fun dressing and cooking over an open campfire.

You should see the one that got away!

Everything's better with a little bacon ;)

Cheek took us on a long drive up to Mono Lake and we saw the cool Tufa Towers & June Lake, which is the cutest little town. This was an area neither of us had been before and it was super cool to have our own tour guide!

We had some fun times catching our favorite music around town - especially with our Tahoe Valley Campground friends playing at the Flight Deck & Murphy's.

There were a few concerts at the campground too...

And nothing would be the same without copious visits to our favorite local brewery...Mt Tallac Brewing

We had a visits from friends Tom & Schelby but no pics :( & from our friend Cindy who we dragged along to tailgate the Phish concert with Michelle - Bill had a tough time of it, to be sure!

One of our last beach days was again planned with Cheek & Doggie...we rode our bikes and met them at Pope Beach & brought all the fixins for a sweet BBQ

good times!

Then our preparations for Burning Man began in earnest...we were taking our home there and tried to take all the precautions we could to protect Bebe. With lots of good advice and some of our own well-earned wisdom we hit the deck, flying! Covering all of the upholstery with the sticky carpet plastic stuff, I then made slip covers for the dinette and captains chairs, purchasing ones for the sofas. I also covered all of the window coverings & remaining upholstery with bright orange fur! The fur works as a great magnet for any flying sticky playa dust & because I just used a staple gun to apply it, the fur came off easily and really did it's job. I can't even BELIEVE I didn't take a pic of Bebe decked out in her fur! Here are a few pics from our preparations...stay tuned for our Burning Man 2011 Blog

New slipcovers, pre-fur!

Blue hair & feather bangs for Burning Man,
courtesy of my daughter Lauryn!

Our friend & nail technician extraordinaire, Lillian decked Bill
out with the most awesome BLING for Burning Man!

Life in Tahoe....

2011-07-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

is really pretty fabulous...the weather finally changed & summer is here! My little workamping job is pretty good although I am busy with my CPA work so my weeks are flying by. We hosted a few happy hours which were fun & plan to do some more. Our friend Gina, who Bill knew from work in the bay area & became my friend when we met her up here in Tahoe in 2008, moved back last week from Sacramento - sweeeeet! Things are odd at the brewery, our old hangout, as the brewer is thinking of shutting down, the weekly concerts are now more like once a month & we've been by for happy hour & found the place closed...life has changed for so many of us. Friday night there was a sweet concert with our friend Jen & Bob's band "Daughters in Arm" & a huge 4 band concert Saturday night that was pretty epic - fellow hashers Beav & LCL came to visit & we got to catch the last band. Our bike rides to the beach & hiking are still the best. We had great hopes to hare some hashes when we got here but obviously our priorities are not there since it's already been 8 weeks & there isn't one on the calendar yet!

We had a lot of fun on the Slow Rollers Poker Ride last month & got a few slides in on the condemned super slide!

Socrates, Daniel's doggie has been enjoying our wagon in some comfort!

I think this is how I would like to travel at Burning Man!!

Finally got over to Sierra Hot Springs and our good friend Becca joined us for a wonderful afternoon - Bill made a 3 point shot from quite a distance without choking her! The weather was perfect, we brought goodies & Becca brought reinforcements, it was very hard to leave...

We've been lucky to have lots of visitors this summer & Angie (of NuRVer fame) came up & spent a few nights at the motel down the street. Boy do we miss her and Kev!! My daughter, Lauryn, may actually get her butt up here to visit this summer too. And speaking of kids...my son, Jake, got a great full-time job up here in Tahoe which may actually turn into something permanent. Bill's daughter, Madeleine is celebrating her 24th bday today & is graduating with a masters degree from Cambridge this month and son Will is hoping to graduate next spring, cross your fingers!

Bill just found out his office here in Tahoe will be closing at the end of August & they will lay him off & re-hire him through his new company as an independent contractor. This couldn't have worked out better for us & we may be really spreading our wings & traveling to Florida for the winter. Just spoke to fellow NuRVers Kev & Angie & they are thinking we should all party in the Keys & enjoy some bikini weather instead of our Burning Man fur coats in Quartzsite!

Speaking of Burning Man....our replacement camo netting came in & is fabulous, provides shade & a breeze! We've gone through our old costumes & pulled out some to donate, purchased some new fur for the bikes & the cornice boxes around the windows in Bebe, but I've got a few sewing projects I NEED to make time for! Our friends, Daniel & Jen gave us one of those Capice Shell Chandeliers that I think will make into a fabulous dress, & I need to sew all of the slipcovers out of the batik pieces I bought in Quartzsite. We've been reading about RV detailing, post Burning Man & trying to decide if we should tackle this ourselves or pay a bizillion dollars to a company to do it for us.... We'd also like to pull up our family room carpeting & replace it with the wood laminate we have in front of the kitchen. Hoping to do this in Denver while we're in CO visiting family and friends. Our plans for camping at Burning Man have changed drastically...we are going for something new and different this year and instead of hanging with the new Hash Camp next to Leopard Martini Lounge we are going to camp with Camp Nomadia, a bunch of full-timing (& wanna-be) RVers. I think a better fit for us this year since we will be bringing our home, Bebe. The Hash Camp was becoming a little more structured experience than what we were looking for.

We have spent many days at our storage unit getting rid of more & more stuff...probably not too much of that left, maybe one more charity pick up. We will plan to stop there before and after Burning Man, then probably not again for quite some time.

And that wraps up another exciting blog!

How to stop the merry-go-round!

2011-06-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Our life seems to never stop! We have to make a concerted effort to have a day or evening with no plans...seems eXceSs didn't get his hash name for nothing! Yesterday was the big day to pack up Bebe and take her down the hill to have the fridge recall done. I have been really concerned about this "fix"- from everything I have read the company responsible is not really fixing the problem (bad cooling units) but inserting a part that will shut down your fridge before it gets too hot & burns your rig down. This actually just happened to a friend of ours last month in the middle of the night. Luckily his smoke alarm worked & he got out with his life. This spurred all of his friends to promptly follow up on the recall notices we were just receiving. The other problem with this "fix" is that the part they put in is super sensitive & I have heard many complaints about it malfunctioning & then having to replace the fridge on your own dime! Eeeks I say! Oh well, we don't have much choice.

We picked Friday to do this in Carson City, NV because we had scheduled dermotology appointments in Minden, which is close by. And while in the area we thought we could go visit our storage unit & see about downsizing. In our most ambitious dreams we saw us spending a few hours moving the garage sale stuff into the new smaller unit to start organizing ourselves. Ha ha ha!! We took a look at the 5x5, which is 1/4 of the unit we have & looked at each other & laughed...we went into the office to talk to them about a 10x5 & they offered us our current 10x10 unit at the 10x5 price - we don't have to move anything!! BUT we still want to get rid of most of the stuff so we are starting tomorrow with our first charity pick-up from the storage unit & trying to give away as much as we can to our friends, as this is the "good stuff" we couldn't part with!

Had room for 6 to crash if they "spooned"!

After getting burned, spliced & stitched @ the dermatologists we made our way to our fav Mexican cantina in Carson City - El Charro Avita where we drowned our wounds in margaritas...back up the hill to prepare for the RTO'ers (that's Reno Tahoe Odyssey) 36 hr relay race our hash friends were in - we've hosted the last 2 years and just cuz we weren't in our big house that was no reason to stop us! Bill & I hosted 2 groups of 6 at 8pm & midnight - they came to shower, eat, sit by our campfire & take a nap. We had a fun time trying to figure out how to make our dining table into a bed...after much experimenting I went online to my fav RV tips site - rv.net forums, posted my problem & within 5 minutes had the answer!
Saturday we had a tough time getting going...but we did end up at our fav little place for happy hour, Blue Water Bistro, then off to hang out at our old digs with friend, Daniel.
I didn't leave my bed on Sunday!

It's still snowing!!

2011-06-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

It's June 1st & it's still snowing - JUNEuary!! This is not exactly what I signed up for! Look at this pic, do you see something missing?? Like a whole lot of other RV's?! The campground is pretty deserted right now, we had a few folks here over Memorial Day & there are actually tent campers out there in the snow, craziness!

Update on the workamping gig - met with the asst manager, Lori, who is a doll & she is going to try her best to work me into the schedule, I am low-man on the totem pole as the newest employee but I have skills she WANTS! So training starts next Wednesday...

My daughter, Lauryn, who is 27 and a new hair stylist (September 2010), has a pinched nerve in her right hand. No feeling or movement at all. She is supposed to start work at a new salon next week, and with no workers comp or unemployment to fall back on it's a scary time for her. I drove down to the bay area, where she lives, on Tuesday and took her to a chiropractor. I am not a believer, but Kaiser gave her a splint, told her to soak it and sent her home...just not good enough for me. This Dr. took full x-rays, found her scoliosis that was treated as a teen -that along with the accident she had 6 months ago when she was rear-ended while stopped & her car totaled are the culprits that have left her in this situation. He spent a lot of time with her and she went back again yesterday. She now has some small movement if she holds her hand up, so we have hope!! She's overcome a lot of adversity to be where she is today, roadblocks keep getting thrown in her path...but she perseveres!

Bill, Eric, Daniel, Karla & Jen

happy with his strikes!

First strike of the night!

Last night our friend Daniel decided we should all go bowling, I mean what else does one do in the middle of a winter storm, right?! His girlfriend Jen & our RV friends Eric & Karla joined us & we had a blast...several hours of beer drinking, whooping it up & silly frolicking got us all out of our funk, and it was fun to watch Bill using a "house ball" and still striking gold! He sold all of his bowling balls & bag for our move into Bebe, but I stashed his beautiful white bowling shoes deep in the basement of the RV, so at least he had something & it was obviously all he needed as he bowled "180" with none of his "stuff"!

We got home to frozen water pipes to Bill's amazement "it was supposed to freeze tomorrow night, not tonight!" So out he went to see what could be done & we didn't even need the hairdryer to defreeze, he got us disconnected & onto our house water & we were good to go. Awoke this morning to Daniel's motorcycle with a frozen windshield & XS' mark!

South Lake Tahoe & workamping initiation

2011-05-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Sooo happy to be back in South Lake Tahoe....as we drove into town my heart was full of joy, how I have missed this magical place! We had a whirlwind first week here with Bill's birthday celebration at the Mt. Tallac brewery and a couple of other friend's b-day celebrations as well. The 2nd day here we had snow, which melted pretty quickly, but the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend it started early in the day & just kept on coming! We had planned to go to Sierra Hot Springs for a few nights over the holiday weekend but traipsing around nekkid in the mud & snow somehow just didn't appeal to us, so our good friend Becca (aka masseuse extraodinaire) drove up from Sacramento & we all hung out at our old house
enjoying her "handy-work", the hot tub & Jen's yummy stir-fry. We ended the night with huge bowls of buttered popcorn, The Producers on the tube & a great dance-along!

Last night, as the snow was starting to accumulate, our good friend, Daniel (who now rents the home we used to here in Tahoe), showed up on our "doorstep" covered in snow & chilled to the bone. He had just ridden his motorcycle through the storm over Echo Summit. He disrobed in our "mud-room" which is the first step into Bebe & stood in front of our amazing heater for an hour! His girlfriend, Jen & doggie, Socs showed up a while later & an impromptu, totally Tahoe evening ensued!

Workamping 1A - being the anal person that I am, while in Tahoe a few weeks ago, I went to the campground & completed all of my paperwork so I would be ready to go when we got up here. After checking in last week I was told they had forgotten one form so after that was completed it would be 3-4 days before I could start training...ok, no biggee, just give me the 1/2 rate on my campsite rental, I don't care!

Unfortunately though, it seems as if the manager who I've been dealing with up until now has not shared any of the details we have talked about with the asst manager who does all of the scheduling. The manager had told me I would have a "clerk" position, checking people in at the counter, 3 days a week -8 hr days. I wasn't too thrilled about this as I had told him I was an accountant & could really help them out in the office, but I was happy to help out wherever they needed me. I had also told him that I could only work Mon-Thurs as I wanted to have the same days off as Bill did. He said it wouldn't be a problem, unless it was an "all hands on deck" time, & that they would either schedule me Mon-Wed or Tues-Thurs. I guess once the asst mgr got a hold of my application she saw my skills & had altogether other ideas for me...which I found out yesterday. Now I have to wait until Wednesday afternoon to find out more...oy vey! I am not so sure this is going to work out...stay posted!

the California foothills....

2011-05-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

We love the foothills! Grass Valley really spoke to us and we have now been on the east side for a few weeks in Jackson & loving it here too. Not overwhelmed with the Jackson Rancheria campground...but it is convenient, clean, & they have free laundry & 2 hot tubs! Neither of our internet connections worked & the park's wifi was really awful the first 10 days we were here & really stressing us out but the last couple of days it's been great. The campground has a parking lot set up on a cement slab with a picnic table & full hook ups, including cable TV (which I haven't had in about 6 weeks)! There is some nice spacing between the rigs BUT we have had a few issues with our neighbors...the "LOUD" family & people that leave their dogs tied up outside to bark at every passerby...I think this is the hardest thing about RVing...inconsiderate neighbors, but we always have the ability to move, so it's really not soooo bad!

We worked a lot the first week we were here, and had to be in Tahoe for a few days, and Sacramento another day. The main reason for our Tahoe visit was the Slow Rollers Bike Parade to kick off the Amgen Bike Tour starting in South Lake Tahoe. We were lucky that the snow finally stopped & we had a sunny day. We met at the brewery to gussy up our bikes & hook up with friends - Gary, Steve, Robert, Carol, Richard, Matt, Daniel & Virginia.

While in Sacramento we finally made it out to the Lockdown Brewery, which has become a Sacramento Hash favorite - we have been hearing & reading about this place for a long time & it was fun that our friend Matt was working behind the bar!.

Finally made it to Lockdown Brewery!

This last weekend Bill got to really experience his 3 day work week, with 4 real days off! We lounged at the pool on the first nice day we've had, went wine tasting in Plymouth, spent the day in Volcano & just took it easy. Loved wine tasting over here...it's free, just like the good ol days in Napa & everything is super close, with friendly people & good wine! My favorite was our day in Volcano...a sleepy little town of about 100 residents. They boast two "hotels" which house 2 of the highlights we had read about - the Whiskey Flats Saloon & the Union Pub. We had drinks at the former & lunch at the latter...we also ended up back at the Pub later in the afternoon when we heard good music playing on the patio & enjoyed some fabulous tempura. The surprise was a little wine bar owned by a wine maker...we stopped by early in the afternoon & were told they were going to have a latin jazz band playing later. By the time we left the Pub the 2nd time, I was pretty tanked & ready to head home but Bill (aka eXceSs) shouted "I'm not done yet!" So off we went to the wine bar in search of more fun! We sauntered in to be met with music that was anything BUT latin jazz ...seems they didn't show up so one of the employees got together with another guy & the two of them, one on guitar & one on harmonica, were the entertainment! And they were pretty darn good...Bill ordered a beer & we sat down by the pot belly stove. We noticed a group gathering out in front on the patio so we went outside to hang out & met the friendliest folks - we sat down at one of the comfy seats & just hung out there with all the locals who were wandering by & stopping to chat. The owner brought me a full glass of his port, on the house, which was so delish I had to have another! We had such a great time, I can see us settling down in a place like this, somewhere down the road...

Interesting People...

2011-05-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

I am quite curious about all of the campers I see around me. I wonder, constantly, what their stories are; if they are on vacation, if they are full-timing by choice or circumstance; this keeps me endlessly entertained but surprisingly empty of satisfaction. I spend hours looking out my windows or sitting outside looking at RV's with their doors and windows all closed and wonder what is happening inside. At the hash last night I was mentioning this to Poker, a Harriette (female hash house harrier) I've spent little time with, but enjoy and she suggested that to quench my thirst for information I should start a blog on just that topic - people's stories, and use that blog to knock on doors and actually interview those that will allow me some insight into their lives. People do like to talk about themselves and are often flattered that someone else would actually be interested in them. Then there are always those that are private and sometimes suspicious of ulterior motives. My first thought was that I can hardly keep up with the one blog I am writing right here, but blogging has provided me with an unexpected outlet I enjoyed in my youth that I have neglected for 30 years - writing. It's something to think about...

traveling around at the end of tax season......

2011-04-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

is NOT a good idea! What was I thinking leaving our snug little nest in AZ at the end of March??!! Well, we did have a wedding to attend in northern Ca on April 10th and Bill had 2 meetings in Tahoe right after that, soooo we decided to start our travels north, visiting along the way.

First stop was to visit Will, the youngest child who had just celebrated his 22nd birthday - after a little celebrating....we made our way up to Mercey Hot Springs. Our friends Pix & Mrs. G mentioned this little spot as a great place on our way up to the Santa Cruz area - and we are soooo glad she did! Off of interstate 5 a little before the Los Banos exit you head west on a little windy road. There is NOTHING around but a few cows grazing and Mercey Hot Springs! They have little cabins for rent, campsites & full-hook up RV spots. You must bring all of your own food and drinking water as there are no stores and nothing available at the springs. They have two areas - one for clothed bathers and one for clothing optional. Lots of individual tubs where you can regulate your own water

temperature. It was beautiful and serene here, we stayed 2 nights and did a little hiking and a lot of soaking! Definitely worth a return visit or two...

Next stop was to Casey & Betsy's (hash friends) home on Skyline Blvd in the mountains high atop Saratoga, again, what were we thinking??! Round and round we went, up and up, oops - we went the wrong way!! Maybe time to unhook the car...after some amazing driving by Mr. Bill we managed to get ourselves up to their home with a beautiful view.

We got settled in and we all headed down the hill to Santa Cruz for drinks and appies with more hash friends, Pix & Duhh (aka Patty & Judy) - so good to see them, it had been a really long time! But we've all kept in touch on Facebook which has been our lifeline during our travels. We spent a few nights up here wine crawling Saratoga and new friends from Quartzsite, Tom & Schelby, made the trek up to BBQ with us on a stormy night too. We had a great time here and look forward to seeing most of these folks at Burning Man this summer.

Lauryn at work!

On out to Marin to park in front of, yet another hasher's home - Tongueless & Fits In...much more level here and just in time to head out to the Gypsies Hash in SF. Had so much fun meeting up with hashers we had not seen in a long time like GAS, BJ & Lois Lame & &... did I mention it is TAX SEASON and now April??!! We celebrated the 5th anniversary of Bill & I meeting at my first hash on April 9th at Dr.K's home, who made us a fabulous dinner.
Also got to see the eldest child, Lauryn, in the East Bay. She did my hair at her salon in Concord & we got to check out her new digs! We had dinner with my best friends in Walnut Creek - Joanne & Gary, Beth & Aaron, Susan & Ron, Marie & Jon and Judy - again, it had been way too long and it was great seeing everyone - should have taken a picture!!

Now finally we were heading out to Livermore for the wedding. I was excited to see my son and a bunch of my old Sacramento best friends. We spent a night in the hotel parking lot & took the shuttle to and from the Ruby Hill Winery for the wedding. It was now April 11th & I was starting to panic...

We made reservations to stay at the Beale Air Force Base FamCamp rv campground because we still had to head up to Tahoe for Bill's meetings and a few of my own. This was a safe place to leave Bebe for a week and cheap too! I was so surprised at how beautiful this military base was. Very quiet and pastoral, cows grazing everywhere and the most space we've ever had - all at $14/night. Not much to do here, though, they do have a gym with some yoga classes & a golf course where we both can play for $20, a bowling alley and lakes to fish in.

Snowbirding in AZ 2011

2011-04-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

We spent our first winter at a "55+ senior rv park" in Mesa Arizona. In December while we were in Tucson we drove up to Phoenix to check out a few of these parks. They are EVERYWHERE and all look pretty much the same. The first one we looked at kind of freaked us out...it had about 65% "park models" which look like a double-wide trailer, activity rooms for everything imaginable, pools, jacuzzis, concerts, you name it - sounds good, right? Well, not to me - it just looked SCARY! I said to Bill, I'm just not sure I can do this! I'm not a "joiner", and am just a bit eccentric. And not only that, the majority of the people here were not even close to 55 - they were more like 70+. I turned 53 this February, but Bill's senior status of 60 could get us both in. So off we went to see 5 more of these parks all within several miles of each other. At our last park we were going to meet a couple I had connected with on the NuRVer's site. I had been following Karla and Eric's blog for a few months and they sounded like a fun couple who shared a lot of our interests. They were retired and in their late 50's. We ended up there late in the afternoon and were greeted with cocktails and appies to our delight and much excitement from their adorable dog, Cora. By this time we had gotten a little used to the senior parks and hanging out at Karla and Eric's rig, they actually started to seem palatable. Eric took us on a little tour and told us that they had applied to workamp at the first park we had looked at. They were hoping to get a job bartending at the pool tiki bar two days a week. I was just a bit bummed because I really didn't like that park & I was kind of hoping we could hang out with these folks this winter. But then I started wondering if I didn't like that first park because it was just the first one I had seen and hadn't quite "bought into" the whole idea or if it really wasn't as good as some of the others we saw. Anyway, neither of us us were ready to commit to a long-term stay at this point, so off we went to play in Quartzsite with our other NuRVer friends (see previous blog).

Because I am an accountant and work quite a bit during tax season I did want to find a place to stay for February and March and not be moving around. As we got closer and closer to February I was in a bit of a panic because there was no rv park that was calling my name. We had put down a deposit on a place in Yuma for 2 months as a back-up but we really wanted to be in the Phoenix area. Bill had lived there for 7 years and had a lot of friends he hadn't seen in about 10 years and they also have a hash there, so we would have lots of social opportunities. One day we took a drive down to Yuma to check out the park there and it was nice but under a lot of construction with loud power tools, so not conducive to either of us working. During this time I had been chatting back and forth with Eric & Karla. They had gotten the tiki bar job at Valle del Oro (that first park) & another full-timing couple they knew was going to join them there. I called the park and all they could give me was 2 weeks, they were that popular! Eric had assured me that once we were there it wasn't going to be a problem extending our stay as their friends had done just that. So with great trepidation we left Quartzsite and headed into the seniorville abiss........

AND.....we had a great time! Parked in a primo spot steps from the mailboxes, laundry room & great bathrooms. Daily floats in the 95 degree pool & hanging in the jacuzzi.

Bill's usual position at the end of a long hard day of work!

We didn't take advantage of most of the amenities, except for the gym, the driving range and the tiki bar, of course.

Bill hitting some balls

But it was fun hanging out with Eric & Karla & our new friends Sherry and Sharon from Maui. We hashed, introduced our friends Maria & Brian (from Quartzsite) to hashing and hit the golf course with them too - we had both been carrying around our golf clubs for 7 months - that's a lot of valuable space!

In Bill's spare time he made us a great bike rack, he later painted it navy to match Bebe

And we met up with quite a few of Bill's old friends - had so much fun we booked 3 months for next winter, officially becoming snowbirds. Although secretly I am hoping to be in Mexico for the winter ;) - just not sure that is going to happen, as it depends on what is going on with our work and if we can find a caravan down there to travel with.

4 Weeks Boondocking - CHECK!!

2011-02-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

We did it! And what an experience, totally heightened by hangin' with the NuRVers for sure.

Above are some pics of our NU friends we hung with during the month at Quartzsite...

Kev & Angie: our fearless organizers, Kev started the NuRVers & got us all together, but they both were incredible hosts to all of us - amazing meals, hunker-down time in their 40', 4 slide motorhome & all around good fun (also burners)

Sam & Tracy: tie-dyed from head to foot at times, these crazy, fun-loving burners also entertained us in their 40' rig & they had the fabulous grills that they cooked extraordinary meals on for us

Schelby & Tom: bay area folks, not full-timers but long-time burners, joined us for NY'ers eve & brought some fabulous appies with them & a NY'ers cake!!

Maria and Brian: a cute young couple who just started full-timing from Kansas dropped in for the night and then returned a week later to spend a couple of weeks with us. We met up with them & Sam & Tracy post Q for a great sushi dinner in Scottsdale & we are planning a golf outing with them on Friday

Alex & Charon: our "Carney" friends who are sword swallowers, fire throwers & Charon is also tatto artist

Jim & Renee: joined us at the end, long-time full-timers who have a great blog Live.Work.Dream

And of course all of the pets! Malomar, Dottie, Odie, Ernie, Buddha, 3 legged Wyatt & the two very freaky hairless cats that were amaaaaazing!! I think we were the only ones without one, but that was fine by us...

We went out for meals, drinks, enjoyed the daily sunsets - which sometimes were 360 degrees, biked into "town", shopped, played drunken silly games and just thoroughly enjoyed each & every day!

Some pics above of our amazing happy hours, breakfasts & dinners...totally unplanned. Kev called them "crowd-sourcing", I call them YUMMY! About 4-5 pm each day someone would stroll outside to start the fire, or bring out appies or drinks...and one by one, as we were finishing up our work day, we would slowly join the group around the campfire & start to discuss meals....and then miraculously we would have another feast! Occasionally one of us would announce, we have dinner taken care of - woo hoo!! Some mornings, usually weekends, Sam would be outside with his awesome fire-pit grill cooking up a breakfast that would take over an hour to eat, Maria cooked us up a great egg scramble TWICE & then there was the morning that Angie, our brunch angel, arrived at our door with the most wonderful eggs benedict por deux!

A couple of pics of our fun...most of the time the camera/phone was nowhere in sight! We hared a mini-hash just to show everyone what we were constantly talking about, Bill & I went on a few hikes & it was my first real experience with the desert landscape, one day it was actually nice enough for some to set up work-stations outside under our canopy. On a trip into Blythe, CA - just over the border Bill spotted an AECOM sign (his firm) & found out they had a little field office there in a building with an old furniture store!

More pics of our fun - the BIG RV TENT SHOW, bringing a million rvers (or so they say), the entire town is one big flea market & strolling from tent to tent was a favorite past-time...I was happy to finally get a big flag pole to fly our hash flag on with a cool solar color changing light on top & Bill finally got the Mexican wrestling mask he had been coveting! The Beer Belly Bar was the only place at the Show to buy beer & they also had a bunch of TV's so Maria & Brian could follow their fav Kansas basketball team.

We went primarily to meet the peeps I have been online with for 6 months or so but also to save some $$...now we accomplished the first objective, but let's take a look at the 2nd...

$200 Gas to keep our generator going (electricity)
$ 80 BLM camping fees for 4 weeks
$ 65 Propane (for the fridge, hot water & heater)
$600 Groceries & Booze
$200 Dining out
-----
$1145 - compared to....about $1500/mo for campground fees, food & entertainment, so aside from the $400 we spent on the catalytic heater (which we will use all of the time as it is more efficient than our furnace) we did save a few bucks & we ate like kings. This is one experience than can never be duplicated!

THANKS to all of you who joined us on this "wild ride"!!

Quartzsite AZ!

2011-01-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

3 couples here for the month, we're on the left,
Sam & Tracy in the middle and Kev & Angie on the right

We made it through our first week boondocking out here in the desert! We found our NuRVer campmates - I found them online a month or so before we started full-timing. These are young or "young-minded" full-time RVers many of whom are still working like us! Some are Burning Man veterans so we have a lot in common with these folks. Anyway, our intrepid leader Kev found us a great spot & we had 5 rigs here to celebrate the new year - now we are down to the fearless three-some and we're having a lot of fun. This is much like the Burning Man experience except that there are no dust storms or costumes...that's about it. We arrived to FREEZING temperatures, fierce winds and rain which lasted through New Year's day. Our rigs are circled up like an old wagon train with a great campfire in the middle. When it's too cold to be outside, like most of last week, we congregate in each other's rigs for drinks and meals. We have done a lot of pot-luck dinners & are enjoying getting to know one another. The other rigs are 40ft diesel pushers, one with 2 slides and one with 4 & they are really beautiful and roomy, we are definitely the smallest at 35ft. But the other two rigs which were here over NYers were smaller travel trailers - we RVers come in all shapes and sizes! Jan 22-30th brings the "Biggest RV Show on Earth" with about a MILLION people here - this is a tiny little town on the border of CA & AZ with tons of BLM land where people camp out. There are individuals, groups & some very large organized peeps like the "Buffs" a "naturalist" group of about 80,000 at their peak.

these signs are all over the place

Right now there is a lot of empty space but filling in a little bit more each day. The town is made up of a trillion flea markets & the area is also really known for their Rock, Mineral & Gem Show. But you can find just about anything here...except maybe Sushi!

a lot of empty space right now

5ft wrenches!

We are employing our best Burning Man practices taking sponge baths, brushing our teeth with bottled water, washing dishes in basins & using paper plates we can burn whenever possible. After the first week we only created about 8 gallons of gray water which is so great! Before Bill went to "dump" using our new Blue Boy we both took nice long showers & I washed my hair - which I have to tell you felt FANTASTIC!

first use & it worked great!

Our campmates, Sam and Tracy, have this totally cool campfire cast iron cooking skillet - it has a rod that goes into the campfire and this large square cast iron plate which has a hole in it and fits onto the rod at various heights, it can then swing around on the rod to be on or off the fire - it is really fun and easy to cook on. Last night I brought out the leftover rotisserie chicken I had in the freezer, threw that on the griddle mixed up with some taco sauce & water, then on the 2nd griddle I threw the tortillas on & then loaded them up with the chicken & cheese, put another tortilla on & then flipped them, we made a ton of these - super yummy meal!
We haven't done too much exploring of the flea markets because of the weather and work commitments but I think we will venture out today. Tomorrow we head into Palm Desert where my parents live to take a nice long hot shower, do our laundry, visit Trader Joes & Costco & luckily enough be there for my nephew Izak's family b-day party!

Boondocking Prep for a Month???!

2010-12-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

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?!

2010-12-22T03:31:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2010-12-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

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.......

2010-10-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

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!!

2010-10-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-09-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

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.......

2010-09-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

...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

2010-09-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-09-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

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.....

2010-07-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

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.......

2010-06-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

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......

2010-06-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

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