A Horse with No Name

Hi Guys!  How are things? It's a beautiful day today! The sun is shining!

 First news!  I guess something about the desert (or maybe I can blame menopause) is making maintenance easier!  I'm now down to 131 lbs!  That's a size 4 jeans! Whoot! The other upside is that Jay appears to be having the hot flashes I'm supposed to get.  He's such a good guy to take those on for me! ;)

When we were speaking last, I mentioned chores that come with an RV.  One of those new to me is defrosting the refrigerator.

I remember as a kid that refrigerators needed that done, but I had never had to defrost one myself.  This is all about new adventures though, right?    The RV Dreams forum that I follow just happened to have a post about it. ;)  Total defrost time was about 15 minutes.

Just so you don't think it's only work...we did get into the desert last Saturday for a ride!  Many of our seasonal people here in the park have UTVs and there were two empty seats going out!  We asked Phil and Denise (our assistant managers) to cover for us and made a run for it.  All we knew was to pack a lunch.  No idea direction or time.  I guess when most people here are retired those things are not really important! ;)

"On the first part of the journey 
I was looking at all the life 
There were plants and birds and rocks and things 
There was sand and hills and rings 
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz 
And the sky with no clouds 
The heat was hot and the ground was dry 
But the air was full of sound"

We had such a great time.  It was nice to get out and explore.  The park has been slow to fill up this year we're told.  We have people booked, but many people have run into bad luck getting here.  We hope everyone else gets here trouble free! 

Everyone has really made us feel welcome.  We now have about 91% of the park booked for a month or more.  when your season is 6 months or less, I think that's pretty good. ;) 

Did I mention it's a beautiful day? It does get chilly here at night.  We've even dropped down into the 20s and 30s, but during the day (as long as the wind stays down) it's still t-shirt weather.  We had a great potluck breakfast Saturday morning. We have some great fires at night.  We roasted some marshmallows last night. People ask why we did this? Well, this is part of the answer.  It's just a simpler life.  We've walked away from the chaos.  Even the light pollution is less here.  The sky is amazing.  You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but each night we get a spectacular sunset and then the most clear sky.  We can almost set our clock by when we can see Mars.  We watch the space shuttle cross over us like little kids.  

The second question everyone asks is "how much does it cost?"  And in all the research that I did I never got a really clear answer.  The reason? Well, it really does end up being different for everyone.  The cost of whatever rig you decide on.  The cost of an emergency fund. The cost of gas/diesel. The cost of your site. (does it include electric)...These things can be different for everyone.  Things like food, entertainment, and life extras (clothes, beauty supplies, alcohol, smokes) will basically be whatever they normally are for you. 

We have found that site cost varies greatly between the east and the west.  Right now "in season" for us(in this park) you can get a month stay for $265 + electric.  Back east, you'd be lucky to get a week for that "in-season".  Obviously, the simpler you live, the less expensive it is.  One thing is for sure, we are certainly not spending more than we did in our "old lifestyle".  

It still feels a little funny being called the "kids".  People here are used to the managers being quite a bit older.  Most of them have great grandchildren our grandkids' ages, and many of them have parents in their late 90s or older.  We get a lot of advice from the older generation.  We filter it the best we can.  Some is very welcome and some we consider but then decide we need to learn for ourselves. ;)  We really listen about the desert though.  We know enough to know we don't know much when it comes to this stuff.  

These looks so cute, but are super sharp and will send quills in your direction.  As Jay says, EVERYTHING out here has thorns or some type of sharp protection.  My hands are finally healing from the scratches I got putting lights on the tree.  

Gotta go get the office opened up now guys.  I'll try to add more this week if I can.  I hope you all are having a safe and healthy week.  Remember to hydrate.  Cold weather makes us forget sometimes, but we still need to get our water in!  As always thanks for coming along on our journey! 

~Mikki 

Time in a bottle

Hey guys! How is everyone?  It's our day off! Now, before you get to thinking that means we're doing all kinds of exciting stuff let me share a secret with you.  While we do not have "normal" house maintenance any more (no lawn mowing, or big house to clean) we do have certain chores that need to get done and today has been that day.  We emptied our black tank today and did a back flush.  I have not spent a lot of time talking about black tanks (or poo) because so many blogs out there already cover that.  It is an important aspect of RV life but is really for the most part simple and not anywhere near as gross as you imagine it would be before you learn.  We back flush by running a hose through our bedroom window and into the bathroom.  There is a system that does it on the RV but that takes about 4x longer.  This is much quicker...you just need to be paying attention.  Jay and I do it together and make sure we don't get distracted while it's happening.  Basically after you open your black tank and dump, you close the tank back up and refill it with hose water to flush it out.  Then you open it and dump it again.  We did this twice until it ran clean through the elbow joint.  That's it.  Job done.  Super easy.  Of course, I've heard stories of people getting distracted and ending up flooding their whole rig or having a fountain come out their vent on the roof.  We're trying to make sure that never happens to us. ;)
The rig also needed a cleaning so I did some of that.  Let me tell you, I love that we only have about 200 square feet to clean!  I even cleaned the hardwood floors on my knees...all 3 feet of it! ;)

I did start off by taking a walk in the desert this morning.  I took the camera to share some images with you. ;)  First the sky last night and then this morning...

 Yes, we actually do have clouds occasionally.  Today we have our windows wide open and that is a double edged sword as many things are in this world.  Life has trade offs.  There is a breeze and nice fresh air, but there is also a fine powder of sand that lands on everything.  You can dust and it settles right back on your surfaces.  Luckily, there aren't many surfaces to dust!

Neighbors have some pretty landscaping...that first pic is what they call a "wash"  where rain water slams through when we do get rain.

You see these signs quite often by a wash...if you do go in and get stuck, you have to pay the bill to get rescued.
Something caught my eye while I was walking and I came upon this amazing pet cemetery.  It has obviously been much loved.

 We also have a golf course out here...yeah, I was surprised too...

It is a beautiful 83 degrees  Here at La Paz as I type this.  There is a breeze blowing and the clouds have come in some.  We're expecting some winds due to the weather that will be effecting the north western states.  We are not expecting snow. ;)  However, we have taken down all of the awnings to be on the safe side.  We're read gusts up to 25 mph+ are expected by tomorrow.  And, there is actually a 20% chance of rain on Sunday!  I am not looking forward to the rain.  I know that seems weird, but the ground here is so hard it does little to absorb and you end up with flooding.  Also, I'm told everyone's roof leaks here.  Crazy, huh?  Like I said, trade offs.

The park is still pretty quiet.  We have had a couple of Passport America people come in.  Some of them find they like the park and stay extra.  We've done that a few times.

In case I haven't mentioned it, we love Denise and Phil (our assistant managers).  They are just super nice people and since they have been a maintenance team they are learning the computer stuff from us and we (Jay) are leaning the more technical stuff (electric, plumbing) .  It seems to be a really good mix for the Park.  We are all thinking we'd like it if they invited us back next year.  Now, don't get me wrong.  We have bad days.  We miss family.  The internet stinks and definitely  would need to improve for us to come back.  Yesterday we had a site that kept blowing their electric.  Jay, Phil and Denise dug a hole by hand yesterday for the new water tank. 7 foot x 7 foot by 12 inches deep.  They had to start it with a pickax and Phil used his truck to pull up the pole that was cemented in.  It's not even the busy season yet.  We'll know more after we deal with the craziness of January.  Most days are more enjoyable than not.

I know I haven't mentioned the title yet:

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you 

 If you've been paying attention you know that we live our life in song titles. :)  I know I've mentioned we need a cool new name for our RV adventures and the other night while we were listening to tunes and enjoying the night we decided the lyrics to "Time in a Bottle" really sum up our feelings about this lifestyle.

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do, once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go through time with

As we move forward, we'll be using this more and more.  Hopefully we'll get our youtube channel going soon.  I'll keep you posted.

Oh, by the way, I've lost 5 more pounds.  Officially lost over a 100 now.  Thank you all for your support and comments along the way.  It's certainly a privilege to share this journey with all of you.  happy November!

~Mikki

First sand storm

Hi Guys! How's everyone doing? Getting your steps in? Keeping hydrated?  Don't let the cooler months let you forget to drink your water!  I hope everyone is feeling healthy!

We're a little over 3 weeks out now working here at La Paz RV Park.  Seems like longer.  I don't mean that in a bad way.  It's just that the days here seem very long and blend into each other a bit.  It get tricky remembering what day it is quite often! Hard problem to have, right??  ;)

The weather has started to cool down. In fact I often need to bundle up now in the evening. (Jay says it's wonderful...the weather, not me bundling up...he thinks that's hilarious.) We're running in the 70-80s during the day and down into the lower 50s at night. The weather can be really weird here though.  This week we had a rainbow (sorry, I missed getting a pic) and then not long after that our first sand storm.  This was a learning experience.

First, let me say I actually had seen it coming but didn't realize it.  We went into town to find out about a sand delivery for the new water system, and since we have really awful internet here we stopped to see about a Winegard portable satellite . ( You knew they had me with the name, right?) DISH network has a special and it seemed like a good deal.  By dropping our phone package back to what we originally had (we had increased it to unlimited LTE but since we can't get that here we can't use the hot-spot feature) we can basically offset the price.  So they told us that the paper work and programming would take an hour or so and they'd call us when it was ready.  We picked up some groceries and headed back to the rig.  ~ Our new assistant managers made in to the park today.  Their truck had broken down about 140 miles away so they had to have service and didn't make it until late in the day. ~ I mention this to let you know that we had a few things going on and when the rainbow happened we thought it was cool but didn't really pay that much attention.

I was making potato salad and ribs for dinner, and the kids will know that I get pretty involved with making potato salad. :)  I got the call that the satellite was ready and I left Jay to pull the eggs off the grill burner while he was chatting with the our new help and hopped in the car to head back into town.  After I picked up the satellite and was driving back, I noticed this amazing looking cloud over the mountain.  It was quite a bit more orange that usual, but it didn't really click what that meant.  Anyway, I got back to the site and back to making dinner.  We actually had the ribs boiling on the grill ( we boil them in seasoned water prior to grilling to make them super tender) and I stepped into the rig for a second when I heard Jay yell "just let it go! watch out!" and then " Hon, we've got problems out here!"

Yeah. It was that fast. Just like that the wind came out of no where and ripped our little awning that had all the solo-cup lights out of the ground and up over the neighbors truck and it was two sites down before it stopped enough for Jay, Phil and Denise to grab it. (We did have it anchored but not enough I guess!)  I came out of the rig to help.  We got all the solo-cup lights off and believe it or not my humming bird feeder didn't break! suddenly an alarm was going off in the rig.  Like fire alarm style alarm. Very loud.  I took a look around but couldn't figure out why it was going off.  It stopped after a few minutes and we finished getting the awning put away. Yes, the wind was still blowing during all of this. It was also carrying sand along with it just for fun.  I was putting the awning back in the basement and noticed the grill flame had blown out but the propane was still going. The wind was dying down, so I went ahead and restarted the grill.  About that time the alarm started going off again.  It took us a little bit, (it's very hard to think when you have a very loud noise going off insistently and dogs freaking out from the noise), but finally Jay noticed a light on the control panel; flipped the LP leak warning switch off and the noise stopped. YAY!  Apparently, when the grill had blown out and I had the basement open putting stuff away enough LP blew into the basement to set off the sensor that there was a leak!  How cool is that?? I mean, it was loud, and stressful but now I know we never have to worry about not knowing if we have an LP leak! ;)  Our FBG will let us know for sure!

The sand storm lasted a total of about 10-15 minutes (seemed longer lol) but was a learning experience for sure.  I now know what I saw over the mountain.  The residents say you can't tell if it will show up when that happens. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And apparently that was a very little one.  Their advice (the next day) was shut your windows first or you'll have piles of sand inside. Yikes!

Just another lesson from the desert.  It can be so beautiful and change in a hot minute!

This morning I was awake early so I went out to open up everything here and walk the dogs...this is what 6:15 am looks like here...

One of the dryers in the laundry room has been acting up so we spent last night doing laundry and checking it out.  Exciting Friday night. :)

3 weeks isn't enough to tell us if we love it or hate it here yet.  We've had a couple of days of each so far.  The best part by far is the people.  Everyone is so super nice here.  They have been very appreciative of the work we are trying to do and really supportive.  We do miss everyone at home.  We're hoping that now that we have some help here, we'll be able to see some of the area and enjoy what makes the desert fun.  Hopefully I'll have some good pictures soon. ;)

Each day we get to learn a little more.  Sometimes the hard way, but hey, at least we're learning!  Thanks for coming along with us! More soon.

~Mikki

Winter Home

Hey Guys! We're here! I'm sorry it's taken so long to post but the Wifi here at the park isn't on yet. (Should be by the 20th!)  When you're borrowing in on someone else's you don't want to be a hog! ;)

Ok, so let's grab a water, coffee, tea or cocktail and catch up! At the beginning of the month we were just getting into Vegas.  That was a great time.  The Rodan + Fields convention was UNBELIEVABLE!  Seriously! The Garden Arena that MGM uses for concerts was PACKED! 15,000 consultants in attendance and thousands more virtually! This business is rocking!  One of the very best parts? Between the consultants and the Doctors' matching funds we raised $1.2 million for The Build On Foundation to help America's students in need learn how to help themselves and their communities.  These kids were fantastic!
They also revealed their new last product which I am super excited about so that was fun!  I had a super room mate so couldn't have asked for a better gal to pal around with the whole time!

Jay and the dogs stayed at the Sam's Town KOA.  It was a nice campground and he won back all that I lost on the strip at their little casino so we broke even. :)  He was happy to see me come back after being gone for 5 days.  He said it just wasn't the same without me! How sweet is that?  I got back to the site about midnight on Saturday or Sunday morning depending on how you look at it.  We were scheduled to leave that morning.  We both woke up thinking that wasn't a very good plan.  I made some coffee and walked up to the office to see if I could book another night...nope, they were full up.  Ok, guess that means we were meant to move on.  We decided just to pack up and head toward La Paz and see how we were feeling.  We weren't expected until Wednesday so we could stop if we felt like it.  Well, we ended up just driving right into Quartzsite!  As we were coming into town we saw the sign for Split Rail ( a sister park to La Paz) so we stopped to see if Mel and Anne (the managers there) had room for us.

We hadn't called to tell them we were coming so we weren't sure if we were going to be a burden but they were just the sweetest people ever!  They put us up in a site and we were able to start training with them on the computer and what our responsibilities were going to be.  I even got to do some much needed laundry!  They were super generous hosts and introduced us to our neighbor park managers (also owned by the same people) over at Burrwood, Cindy and Dick.  It's nice to put faces to names so we were glad to meet them and pick their brains as well.  But on to the main event! I know you want to hear about home base!

The town itself is small, but neat.  You can definitely tell you have landed in RV country!  To get to La Paz you come through town and head south on 95.  Drive about 5.5 miles south and you'll see a green sign that reads La Paz Valley and you take that right hand turn. Go all the way down that road until you see a sign that reads Pavement Ending and turn left! We are just up the road on the left from there!  Our park (can you believe it's ours? :) ) is older and on the smaller side but has a ton of potential!  We've got many 30 Amp and a couple of 50 Amp sites left for the season. (That is the type of electrical hook-up you use in the RV for those of you that don't know.)  Our seasonal rate is $1145.  That's for a year! Such a great rate! You can pay that a month in some places in Florida!  We also have nightly, weekly and monthly rates that are great.  We are a Passport America park and honor that up to 7 nights in a year (except in January).

We've been here 3 days now.  We have the laundry all cleaned and open for business.  The dumpster has arrived, and we are getting ready for the season to open on Monday.  There is a lot for us to learn but the handful of people that are already here have been super nice and welcoming!  They have really appreciated that we came in ready to work and didn't just hang out until the 15th to get started.  Last night we had RV YouTube celebrities Rv Adventure TV ~ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpCuPlxmWJOQOBiCabKTqg ~
come in for a couple of nights, but have decided to stay a week! Hopefully they give us a thumbs up on their channel!

It's currently 4:44 pm and it's 91 degrees but I have the windows open and there's a nice breeze coming through.  Jay still thinks it's hot! ;)  He's lost 8 lbs since we've been here and I've lost 4 lbs.  He's got the golf cart working now so he may slow down without having to do quite as much trotting to sites!  We do more work in the morning and late afternoon to evening.  Noon time is office work time because it's been warm out even for me. ;)  They tell us it will dip down some next week and keep getting cooler from here.  We'll see.  Personally I think this time of day and through the night is perfect already!  We can sit outside, have a cocktail, watch the sun set and the moon come up.  I tried to get you guys a shot of the full moon last night but it was so bright it didn't come out very well!  We couldn't see the International Space Station go by last night, the angle was too low, but it's supposed to be higher tomorrow night and we're hoping to get a view! The sky here is amazing!

That sunset is from my chair. Not a bad way to take it in.  We have mountains on 3 sides of us.  No snakes or crazy insects yet (although Jay says he swears he saw the craziest bee ever today) but we have a bunch of bunnies and we're pretty sure there was a coyote here in the park last night that Paris told off and it took off running.  Left us a pile of scat to clean up.  Guess Paris really scared him! LOL

We'll be working our tails off this week, I'm sure, getting the rec hall ready to go.  It's got this great kitchen to play in.  Hopefully we can put together some breakfasts for people and maybe a shin-dig or two.  Won't be ready to have a Halloween Party like we're used to this year, but who knows what next year will bring!

Just wanted to give you an update.  I'll try to keep you posted as we go!  Come see us if you can! We see rental RVs around a lot so we know they do have them if you don't own one.  Come see what it's all about. ;) 

And thanks for following along! 

~Mikki

"...God made life a gamble And we're still in the game.

Hey Guys!  We made it to Nevada!  We're currently parked at the Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino.  We're only about 14 miles from the KOA that we have booked for the rest of the week.  Yes, originally we weren't supposed to be there until Tuesday, but we made great time so we called and added an extra night to the reservation.  We'll be heading there tomorrow.  We stayed here for "free" for tonight.  Of course, we gave a donation to the casino so not really free. :)  I can't complain.  I played for a few hours at the roulette table for $20.  Great entertainment for less than a movie at the theater.

Let's catch up.  Last we left you we were in Amarillo.  We had great weather there. Nice breezes, cool mornings and warm days.  We got to watch some stealth bombers take off from the near by airport so that was cool.  Something to consider when booking your campgrounds;  apparently, many of them are close to airports and train tracks.  Trains are everywhere out west!  LONG trains!  Sometimes there must be about 200 cars going.  We have not had a problem with them.  Our Dutch Star is very sound proof.  I'm not sure about other brands, but even the dogs don't seem bothered unless we have the windows open.  Speaking of the dogs, they are still doing well.  We picked up another dog bed for $5 at walmart and they sleep in them side by side on the other side of Jay while we're driving.  There's just enough room on his left side for them there.  They are getting their places down when the engine starts now.  It was nice having a walmart to be able to pick up some familiar things like their dog food and not have to worry about that being new too.

New Mexico was beautiful.  Really.  I couldn't stop snapping pictures.  The rock formations and the colors were amazing.  It made crossing into Arizona a bit dull.  The landscape was fairly flat and plain for the first several miles. I 40 has been a pretty good road.  The quality has mostly been good, with not too much construction.  The only challenge has been the crosswinds.  sometimes they come out of nowhere and really take Serendipity for a gust!  After seeing all the rigs at Newmar we now know our Fat Bottom Girl is actually quite trim and svelte coming in at 40 ft 11inches.  The most popular model sold is their 43 foot Dutch Star, but they also do quite a few 45 foot ones also.   Many of the RVs on the road out here are larger but we they also have many sensors and gadgets that can go wrong so we're pretty happy with our girl.

We started climbing a bit yesterday and reached the Arizona divide. Over 7000 ft and quite a bit of green around.  Views were much more spectacular.  Also, coming down today the scenery wowed us as well.  I would really have liked to stay tonight at the welcome center in Boulder City with the spectacular views of Lake Mead, but sadly it was posted no overnight parking.

It's a bit surreal that we are here in Nevada.  This week is exciting because of the R+F convention and then next week we head to our new winter home in Quartzside.  What an amazing life we have.  We keep looking at each other and saying can you believe it? ;)

We happened to be in the right place at the right time to help another couple that got locked out of their rig.  That's the second couple we've been able to help.  We often talk about how blessed we are that life has led us here.  We hope that we can pass on fortune as we go.  After all, life is short, live in the moment and make it count.

So here's to all the soldiers 
Who have ever died in vain 
The insane locked up in themselves
The homeless down on Main
To those who stand on empty shores
And spit against the wind
And those who wait forever 
For ships that don't come in.

Here's to you and we hope you are all following your dreams whatever they may be.  Thanks for following along. 

~Mikki 

When that sun is high in that Texas sky

Hey Guys! How is everyone?

First things first, Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter Alana.  ;)

Now, let's see what has been happening since last post? Someone brought to my attention that I have mentioned slides but didn't explain what I meant by that.  Slides are sections of the coach that can expand out and give significantly more space! We have two slides. One is in the bedroom and one in the living space.  Here is an example of the rig with the slide in and the slide out. Judge for yourself. :)

Quite the difference, no? ;) 

So we left Nappanee on Saturday but later in the day.  One of the things about being further west is the sun rising later which has confused the dogs and allowed us to sleep later in the morning.  This is helpful because I seem to wake up in the middle of the wee hours and stay awake for awhile. Not sure what that is all about yet but working on it.  

My original route had us going from IN into Iowa and down through CO.  After talking to my dad we decided to change that a bit.  He suggested taking 35 to I40 and taking that across the lower states to avoid the mountains. Jay was all for that.  The mountains are harder on engines and harder on diesel consumption.  After looking at the maps, we decided we did not want to go anywhere near Chicago.  Even the outer rim so we took the southern route through IN and down I44 To get to I40.  This did add about 300 miles to the trip but they were easier miles so we thought it was worth it.  After traveling on I40 for awhile, Jay is happy with the decision and we have made up quite a bit of time.   We did not really enjoy OK.  Now before anyone says anything, I'm sure OK is a great state with many fine things about it.  Things we experienced? Well, for one thing, the bugs.  They are HUGE! Our windshield was completely covered and they make the same sound hitting it that a bird makes hitting the picture window back in Maine. No, seriously.  Jay spent the whole time he was fueling up washing the windshield! 

Also, my worst nightmare happened.  Dobby did not like OK.  He wanted to stay in the rig. I had to carry him out most stops.  As soon as he did his business he wanted back in.  Paris tends to want to stroll and check things out.  One morning I had both of them out and he slipped out of his harness.  I had stopped double hooking him through a collar because he had been so good.  This was my worst case incident happening! Fortunately, I had been teaching them that the rig is "home" and when I screamed "Dobby home!" He went and sat by the steps until I could get there to let him in.  Whew! He is now being double hooked each time we go out.  

Another stop had Paris getting these awful thistles in her paws!! It looked like regular grass but she started crying right away and Jay picked up to see these awful things in her paws! We got them all out and she seems fine but we felt so bad for her! 

We had a strap come loose on the outside of the slide.  Our first repair job! I got it back in place and Jay added silicone to adhere it back in place. Seems to be holding great.  So, I realize it sounds like we've had an awful time but really it wasn't!

The weather has been great for the most part, Just a little rain that helped wash the bugs from the windshield.  Mechanically the rig is going great.  Until tonight we still had not paid for a night spent anywhere.  We have felt completely safe.  We stopped at Camping World this morning and bought a surge protector for the whole rig.  This was on my wish list but the price almost sent Jay into fits. :)  We picked up a couple other items as well and filled the tank.  Nothing like dropping $700 before noon.  Yikes.  Good thing we had been good and not paid to stay anywhere! ;) 

That all changed tonight.  We have averaged close to 300 miles a day and we decided we needed to make a stop for full hook ups.  We wanted long, hot showers without depleting our reserves and we wanted to do some laundry.  So there was a KOA right off I40 in Amarillo.  We stopped to see if they had a site.  It's actually pretty full here.  To get a pull through (not a back in site since we have the tow vehicle) that has 50 amps they only had water, and electric. What a coincidence!  What we need is water and electric!  We just dumped on Saturday and can still dump before we leave for free if we need to. (Which we probably won't) This is a nice park.  I ran the google map and found we only have a little over 800 miles left to Vegas and 7 days to get there so we are staying an extra night here!  All of us can use a break from driving and it has a great play area for the dogs plus we can zip to Walmart in the car to pick up things we're getting low on.  

We have been fixing meals in and doing well with the budget so even though it's a little on the pricey side ($42 per night) we are feel good with it.  It has great internet and cable included in the price as well.

All together Texas has been very welcoming.  The bugs toned down and the road has been smooth with not much construction or traffic.  Both dogs like it here and people are friendly.  

I ain't got a dime but what I got is mine
I ain't rich but Lord I'm free
Amarillo by mornin'
Amarillo's where I'll be

I know it's hard to see them, but Red, Ursula, and Mr Kaplan are enjoying traveling the old Route 66 as well.

I'll keep you posted as we go...gonna hit that shower now.  Thanks for following along!

~Mikki

time in Nappanee...

Hey Guys! How is everyone heading into the weekend?  We are currently in Nappanee, IN.  We did arrive yesterday but not early enough to get any service done. So why are we still here? Well, actually it's pretty cool.

                                        this is the horse hook up at the grocery store in town

But let's go back and review things I forgot to mention last time.  First things first. We really did not like driving in MA.  The traffic was heavy and they were just jerks to drive near.  People did not respect how long it takes a 40,000 lb vehicle to stop.  Once we got to I84 it was much better.  And NY stayed pretty good. (Actually, the rest areas in NY were great! Huge pet walking area!)   I84 transitioned into I80 and traffic was pretty low and the construction was not bad at all.  When we crossed into PA the road was great. Jay said he would gladly do the whole trip on roads like I80 through PA.

Ohio seemed really long.  It was turnpike, but the first part of it was rough.  It got better as we went, but the construction got much worse.  In places down to one lane for long stretches.  Crossing into IN the road went immediately down hill, but did get better once we turned onto IN 15.  (I have done more with geography in the last few days then the last 15 years!)

We are definitely learning tricks as we go.  Lesson 1.  Tape the toilet paper roll.  ;)  After traveling the first day I opened the bathroom to find an invisible cat had unrolled the whole thing!  What else? Oh, Pilot does have a truck entrance... Jay did a fantastic job getting us out of that tight space! Backing up with a tow vehicle can be done (he proved it) but it is stressful!  I am so glad he is on top of things! He checks the tow car each time we stop and after we spent the night in Ohio he noticed that the ball that hooks the dolly to the back had loosened up. Scary! That's why we do the checks. Oil usage has been great, not burning any.  We think we are getting about 7mpg but that's not entirely accurate because we run the generator when we "dry dock" in the rest areas.   We were looking forward to full hook ups at "Camp Newmar".

As I mentioned, Ohio took us awhile with all the construction, so we didn't get to Newmar until almost 3pm.  Obviously we were too late to get on a walk-in service list.  No big deal.  Our rig has run great and I really wanted to see the factory tour which we could take on Friday (today).    We did the Newmar tour today. It was really cool. We went to the 1:00pm show and was so glad we did because the first half of the plant was done working and we didn't have to stay behind the yellow lines. We got to go right up close to see how they build them from the frame up.

We are staying here another night.  Most of the rigs that are left are here for long term service since all the techs have gone to CO for the rally that is happening there all next week.  Newmar provides FHUs for owners so we have stayed here for free.  Well, we did take advantage of the parts store to stock up on bulbs to all the unusual lights, and new A/C filters and vent covers. (Remember all the ones I cleaned? Well they are pretty brittle and discolored) We had also been told the filters are really hard to find.  These should last us for a long time.  We got new shields for many of the outside lights that the sun has faded to different color also.  So I guess it wasn't really "free". :)  We carry 4 gallon jugs plus some regular drinking water bottles with us.  Our fresh water tank hold 105 gallons of water but it has not been treated yet to be able to drink the water.  The grey tank (think dishwater and shower) holds 65 gallons and the black tank (think poo) holds 45 gallons.  When you have FHU you don't have to think about those numbers because it all just works. :)

We got really lucky last night because the regular old tv antenna brought in CBS and we were able to watch the Pats play.  We sadly do not get NBC so no Blacklist yet.  We also do not get cell service here.  Verizon and AT&T have coverage in the area but T-Mobile does not have contracts with them for this area.  We actually had been very pleased with T-Mobile's service up to this point though.  We have some free WiFi here courtesy of Newmar but it gets a bit spotty.  People can message us and we can hopefully catch it without too much of a time lag.

We unhooked the car and went into town to do some grocery shopping.  The market was cool! Besides the horse hook up they had every register open, a bagger at each lane, and the cashier takes your cart and unloads it while they ring you up so they can sort the way they want and it's super fast! We were pretty impressed!  Yes, there is a liquor section. (You knew we were looking for that, right?)

I have to say Newmar has totally impressed me. Not just how quality their products are, although that helps, but how they treat their customers and their employees is pretty cool.  We saw many, many employees while being here and they have all been smiling or at least looked like they were enjoying their jobs.  A gentleman who was checking part prices in the parts store against prices on Amazon said they were right there or better.  Some owners here are kind of grumpy because they have new rigs and there seems to be quite a few problems with them and the repairs are behind with the rally coming up. We're just glad that while our FBG might be the oldest one here, she's also the one that doesn't need work. ;)

We will probably head down the road tomorrow but we're enjoying the evening here.  Hope all is well in your world! Thanks for coming along.

~Mikki

RV living yet?

Good morning everyone!  Most of you may know that we started across the country on Monday.  Where are we? Well, currently we are in PA.

How are we doing?
Great! We are healthy. We've met some great people already.  None of our mistakes have been huge.  The dogs are cooperating.  Lots of pluses there.

So what could be better?
Well, when we travel the slides are in.  We are super fortunate to have two slides. They make a ton of difference in space.  Last night we stayed at a rest area so we didn't put them out.  It's fine. We can get to pretty much everything it's just tight.  It makes us grateful that we have slides normally.  I'm sure Jay would say it would be better if I were driving too. (Well, maybe he would, mostly he'd close his eyes and hope)  :)  I actually did move it about a foot yesterday.

We stayed at a super nice welcome ctr in Danbury, CT.  There was a free dumping station so in the morning he pulled up to it.  He then had me move the coach up about a foot more for comfortable hose reach.  Let me tell you.  It's different.  They say it's like driving a car.  I've never driven a car with brakes that reacted like that!  I'm sure I will adjust and I will drive at some point. I need to learn for safety but I'd rather we get a bit more comfortable with everything else first.

Jay has done fantastic! (We knew he would, right?)  Even with the extra 15 ft we have in length with the dolly and tow car he's been amazing.  GPS got us a bit turned around in CT and we had to go through some tight spaces but he handled it like a champ! So proud of him.

What have we done for bone head mistakes?
Well the aforementioned GPS folly was a piece of fun ;) and we almost missed an exit yesterday creating the need to quickly cross 3 lanes of traffic...note that with 56 ft of vehicle this does not make truckers around you happy!  But I am adapting!  I have figured out a way to use the atlas, NEXT exit book and the GPS in coordination so that it gives us a double check.  We don't trust any one source (including me) that much but if at least two things verify with each other it gives us about a 95% confidence boost.

Where are we going?
Well, our first goal is to get to Nappanee, IN home of Newmar (the makers of our rig).  We heard back from customer service and they take walk-ins Tue-Thur so we have a shot at getting there by Thursday.  We'd like them to take a look at the awning and make sure it's safe to go.  Then on Friday I'd really like to take their factory tour and see how they make the coaches from the bottom up. I'm sure it's a ton of helpful information.  Plus! There will be parts available.  We need to replace some light covers that are super yellow and brittle and find some hard to find light bulbs.
After that we are on to Vegas for the Rodan and Fields convention.  Jay will stay with the dogs in a KOA campground while I head in town to stay in the timeshare for that event.

How has the coach handled?
We've only had about 1200 ft of elevation so far but she's doing great!

I'll keep you posted as we go.  We changed our T-mobile plan so we can have our phones as unlimited hotspots.  This is not perfect, but it's working so far. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep you updated regularly! :)

Hope you all are doing well!  Thanks for following along!

~Mikki

Well, that wasn't supposed to happen...

Hey Guys! How's everyone?

So I thought I would give you a little update about our RV adventures.  Some things have gone great, like we discovered that the City of Augusta Sewer Treatment facility has a free dump station that is big rig friendly.  By big rig friendly, I mean Jay can drive the FBG in and around the site and then back into the area to line right up with the dump station.  I do not mean I would attempt this as it is a very tight road and I do NOT back well...but I digress...

That was great. The dogs have been wonderful! They really seem to love the RV life. Having the electric line installed after disconnecting the hot tub has made it so we are pretty much full time in the rig as we purge and figure out where everything is going to go.  We have even figured out how to use the patio awning that is huge on the side of the rig so that we get some great shade. See? Lots of great stuff.

Now, those of you that have followed the blog or know me, know that I like to research.  I watch videos, read blogs, follow forums.  I have been doing this about RVing for about 3 years now.  There is always (yes, pretty much always) that post that newbies have about a horrific moment.  You know where this is going, right?  Ours happened yesterday.

It was a beautiful day.  I was doing a few things around inside the rig and Jay had been puttering around doing some stuff outside.  There was suddenly a very big noise and the fluorescent light cover on one of the lights dropped onto the floor.  Before I could even ask "what was that?" Jay said "it went up over."

Yes, he was talking about the big beautiful patio awning.  A gust of wind that came out of nowhere took it and ripped the hinges right off the side of the rig and the awning was now laying on the roof.  I think both of our hearts stopped for a few minutes.  For one thing, if you take a look at where we are parked there is a power line that runs above the rig.  I have to get up on the back of the rig and lift the cable line each time we pull in or out of the driveway so that it will not catch on the back ladder. Not a big deal, but I am HUGELY aware to stay away from that power line.  I couldn't see how close it got at that point but lets just say I think we were super lucky in how it landed.  Also, we could see holes in one side of the rig where bolts had actually pulled out.

Soooo... 

 I'm proud to say we did not panic.  We knew we couldn't leave it the way it was (besides the fact that we would not be able to move the rig, the mysterious gust of wind could return at any moment) so I climbed up on the roof to investigate.  It should be noted that I knew going into this adventure that while Jay is fully on board and does pretty much all the outside maintenance, he does not do roof work.  ;)  Once we get over 6ft it's all me.  After I got up there I could get to both sides with no problem.  I was able to ease each side over to Jay and he got the awning to extend gently,  I climbed down and we evaluated what we had to work with.  Again, incredibly lucky.  No real damage.  The awning did not rip.  The poles did not break or bend.  Now that we could see closer, we could tell this was NOT the first time this had happened. ;)  The bolts that came out had done that before.  By working together; me on the roof for the left side hinge and Jay on the ladder for the right we were able to reset everything and get it back to normal!  We had planned a stop at the Newmar factory in Indiana on the way out to AZ anyway. Now we just have more reason.  We'll have them take a look and make sure it's all secure and do anything they might need to reinforce what we have done.  But I have to say we were pretty proud of ourselves for getting it back together! 

We did admit (after it was back to normal) that we were both pretty scared when it happened.  Hey at least it wasn't a black tank newbie catastrophe! I think it actually gave us some confidence that we can and will handle what ever comes along with this new life!  

I know this doesn't really seem to fall in line with information about having bariatric surgery and if you are a first time reader you may be confused, but I believe it does have to do with a healthy life. As we set off to explore all that the world has to offer we plan to exercise our bodies, minds and imaginations.  I hope you will continue to come along with us! Hopefully we have more fun and less "learning" moments, but I'm sure there will be a lot of those too!  ;) 

It's hot, have you got your water in? 

Thanks for following along!

~Mikki

You knew I didn't mean it, right?

So...all that about "hey, we need time to figure her out and we're not going anywhere"...yeah, that was short lived. ;)

How are you all doing?  We are doing great! Except we are suddenly on a time crunch! I know, I know! But let me explain...

Remember back in May when we went to the RV Rally in Tennessee? One of the great things we learned about was something called Workamper News.  It's a site that links RV owners looking for employment with jobs out there in the RV world.  So, since we are now RV owners out here in said world, I decided it was time for us to join.  I mean, we need lots of time to look at these things, right? We need to build a joint resume and figure out what kind of job we might like or be good at...and really, what are the chances of us getting hired right away?? We need practice interviews and stuff...

Come to find out, the site has a resume builder.  So Jay and I combined our experiences and job skills and came up with a resume.  We'd been talking more and more about not wanting to winter in Maine. I have been about getting out of the snow because I'm freezing in August; we really do not have experience trying to get the rig through the cold weather without sustaining any damage; and really if there was something in warm weather, why not, right??  So we started reading the open positions.  Now, as you can imagine this late in the season we weren't really expecting to find anything.  I mean most places are advertising now for next summer. But there were a few places that had something happen and needed help for part or all of the winter.

I have read about Quartzside, AZ since we first started talking about RVing.  Apparently it's a small town in the middle of the desert and most months has a population of about 3000.  Each January anywhere from 500,000 to 2,000,000 RVs descend on the area.  CRAZY! Google some of the images!  So of course when there was a job opening to manage an RV park in Quartzside, we're in right??  Let's send out this resume and see how gently they turn us down...

As it turns out, the emails turned to a phone interview and the interview went well.  We really liked the sound of the Park.  It's good sized but not huge (about 90 sights). About 20% are full season already.  The season goes from October 1st to April 15th.  One of our conditions was that we couldn't get there until after my R+F convention the first week in October and they agreed to that. ;)  So we found ourselves signing on as managers! We have our winter gig! La Paz RV Park.  The seasonal rates are fantastic! Where else can you get FHU (full hook up) sites for the whole season for the equivalent of 43 days?

Ok, now don't panic! We have taken our FBG (Fat Bottom Girl) out to kick her tires.  We took her to Shore Hills Campground and RV Park for a few nights.  Got to run her through her paces.  And got the dogs used to walking on their leashes and riding in the rig.  They did great btw.  We have even tried out the washing machine!  We decided we need at LEAST 10 days to get out to Vegas for the convention so the plan is going to be heading out on September 19th.

There it is! 20 days! Get completely moved in and ready to go.  So much for taking our time and having months to decide what we're doing. ;) You knew that wasn't really our style anyway, right?  I mean it's pretty much a given that we're "go big or go home"!

So what do you think? Ready to go on another journey...??....

Since we're leaving the 19th, I had to move my appointment with Dr. Trieu. I will now see him on my surgiversary (the 15th).  Can you believe it's been 2 years???

Thanks for coming along.
~Mikki

...Absolute Beginners...

Who doesn't love David Bowie, right?  And since we last talked we bought our new RV from a couple named Bowie! Nice segue, right?? ;)

How's everyone doing out there?  Doing your walking? Drinking your water? Keeping up on your protein?  Feeling pretty good here...did over 5 miles today.  Decided I needed to give you guys an update!  Holy Cow it's August! The time really does fly! Next month will be my two year surgiversary!  CRAZY!  Been in maintenance mode for 5 months now and doing ok.  I'm fluctuating between 137-141 lbs.  I actually drop down when I go too long without walking.  

What else? Oh, yeah...I retired.  :)  Well, not really. But yeah, retired from Evergreen.  The doctors and team gave me the most amazing send off! The gifts were really thoughtful and overwhelming. I am very lucky to have them all in my life!  Oh and as I mentioned at the top, we bought the rig!! Ok, y'all it's a 40ft Newmar Dutch Star 4095.  For those of you that don't speak RV...that means it's freaking big.  ;)  

Here are two of my beautiful grand kids eating lunch in her.  We've named her Serendipity and call her our fat bottom girl...cause she is and we all know they make the world go round. 

Everyone wants to know where we are going first...well, that gets a little complicated!  First off, we have to move in to her.  I know, I know. You're think, geez, Mikki, you've know you were doing this for 3 years...what's the hold up?  Believe it or not, we're trying to learn about her before we take off and make all kinds of mistakes.  Now, I know, you're now thinking that doesn't sound like us at all! LOL We do usually dive right in.  However, this girl has got a lot going on and we don't want to hurt her if we can help it!   My darling Jay has driven all kinds of large vehicles in his life, and even he is a little nervous about just taking off in her! After all, we are absolute beginners...

Nothing much could happen
Nothing we can't shake
Oh, we're absolute beginners
With nothing much at stake
As long as you're still smiling
There's nothing more I need
I absolutely love you
But we're absolute beginners
But if my love is your love
We're certain to succeed

So, that being said, we're gonna start off with some small trips around the state and see where it takes us.  We always knew we'd need to be back in the area next May for our youngest's graduation from college.  Our big splurge is a plan to spend a month in the Keys.  :) 

My business is taking off. I've got a promotion and a raise already! :)  Rodan + Fields has given me an amazing opportunity to take a business on the road! I am so grateful.  I love that I'm working with such a great group of people and I love that the company is growing! We are expanding into Australia soon! How cool is that?   I love that these skin products are made by dermatologists and are a wonderful tool to bring my skin back to healthy.  Did you know your skin is your largest organ? I mean think about that.  We talk about hydration being good for our skin...uh, yeah! If I told you there was a regimen that could make your kidneys look and feel 10 years younger wouldn't you want to do that? Taking care of your skin is so important! I have soooo been guilty of NOT doing that.  A lot of nights I didn't even wash my face!  YIKES!  Almost 50 years of abuse my skin has been taking!  But now, I'm on the road to recovery! 

It's easy to get carried away talking about it because it really works!  If you care to check out my website, here is the link:   https://mikkistudley.myrandf.com  take a look around if you need skin care!  We're the #1 anti aging line and the #2 overall skin care line (only second to Clinique which has been around for decades!).  If you are looking for a business venture and would like to join me in this journey or even have questions about how it works then shoot me a message! I'd be glad to share! It's too good to keep to myself!

I'm writing this in the RV and I hope to keep up with all our adventures here.  There are a ton of blogs about RVing out there...and also many videos on youtube...I'd like to think that maybe I'll get adventurous enough to create a video...if only to show the amazing places we hope to see!  Again, as with the sleeve...many of the blogs are pretty negative.  Of course it's good to see reality but I hope that I showed you the journey through my sleeve as a positive experience and I also hope that, no matter the challenges, we can show that the world of RV living can be positive too!  I have a few updates to do...not a lot because she's in really good shape, but I want to put on some new hardware and maybe update the back splash to give her a personal touch.  I used the convection oven with the kids the other day so I know I can cook in her! :) I just need to figure out what we need to take.  All the advisers say use things that can have multiple purposes so I'm trying to think like that.  And in the RV world less is more...ha! imagine that! Just like in the sleeve world!  :) 

Thanks for sticking with me guys...got your water in?

~Mikki