April Showers...are pretty darn cold!

Hey guys! Holy cow! I had no idea it had been so long since I had blogged! Wow!  I'm so sorry!

Ok, so catch up...back in January, we had a broken water pipe! That is why we went through so much water! One of our residents was walking his dog and noticed water coming up from the ground.  Wohoo! It stinks that a pipe broke but was amazing it came up instead of down and Jay and Phil were able to fix it!  We have had NO problem with water since that fix.  I think it probably had been leaking for awhile and this was finally a fix for it.

How do I explain this winter at the park? Well, it's been building slowly.  My tasty Tuesday meals have taken off.  We now have a rec hall budget.  Also, we are at 50% yearly residents.  We were at roughly 20% when we started.   The owners have invited us back for next winter and when we had our residents meeting they clapped when they heard we had accepted coming back next year.

It is extremely satisfying to think we made a difference here.  When we came in they warned us this was an independent group and we wouldn't make much headway with them.  It means a lot of to me that we have got almost all of them to come and contribute to our meals and activities.  (You know I always love a challenge) And now we have the word out that it is an extremely friendly park.  Word spreads like wild fire here!

I started writing this in April and most people had headed out.  Wow, what an amazing winter we had. People were putting deposits on sites for next year already.  We can't understand why most people started back north so soon..  It was beautiful in AZ in April! Really!  80s in the day and 50s at night .  The sleeping weather was perfect!  We had to head out to make it to Maine for our youngest daughter's graduation from college or we would have stayed a few weeks longer!

How do I explain the lure of this life?  Well, for those of you experiencing the arctic snow this year, you probably get it, (We made it back to Maine around May 1st and let me tell you, we were freezing!) but for those that are content with their geography, what makes Quartzsite special?   It really is a community.  We could live in a neighborhood the same size as the park and not know anyone, but there we take the time to do things together.  We've encouraged everyone to join in the activities.  It's not everyone's' cup of tea, but most have joined at least some of the fun.

For those of you wondering about how we like living in the RV, I can tell you we love it.  It really has become our home.  I love that even though the small space can get messy quickly, it also cleans up just as quickly.  It encourages us to get outside and enjoy nature and it really is cool to have your whole house with you where ever you go.

Now, the big question...can we continue to afford it?  Well, that is not as quickly or easily answered.  We don't want to make it sound like it's all roses.  We have heard that many people get into this life and feel they have been mislead by no one mentioning the challenges.  Any of you that know us personally know that we are not independently wealthy.  We have made many choices that a lot of people would cringe at.  One of those choices was to take a big chunk of my retirement money early so that we could be debt free.  I don't regret being debt free at all but it does create some extra stress in other ways.    Since we are a long way from 59.5 we took a huge penalty for taking the money early.  I had under estimated how much we would get hit.  In 2016 we paid more in taxes than we've made for income some years.  This carved a big chunk out of our safety net that we had in savings.  Why is that such a worry?

Well, besides the obvious need to have money for repairs or emergencies, we also need to make more to cover our costs.  The winter months at the park are great in many ways.  It covers our basic costs of living, provides a warm place to live and is a fun place to work that doesn't enlist much heavy lifting.   It does not, however, cover the "extras".  For instance the cost of diesel to travel from Maine to Arizona or back. ( One way, with tolls runs about $1200. ) Nor the cost of insurance on the rig to full-time, (quite reasonable at  $900 yr). We are about to find out the cost of maintenance as it's been 7000 miles and we have an appointment next week to have both the engine and the generator serviced,  ~ and it does NOT cover the summer months.

Without some type of part time income this summer we will quickly bleed too far into savings. So, we are looking for some part time work.  Originally we knew we would have to take this step.  We just had planned to take this summer and spend it enjoying Maine and the grand kids. So we need to be a bit more proactive.  Our budget is moderate and we have yet to keep to it.  This is not unusual in the first year, in fact everything I've read said "it's highly unlikely to be achieved" but we are getting closer! My R+F business covers my health insurance and hopefully will continue to grow.

We are also seriously considering gate guarding which pays much better than the park and appeals to us with the descriptions of being remote.  We kind of like the idea of being away from everything for jobs. Of course, that is a long term plan for next summer.  We are in Maine for the season and will return to the park for the winter.  This is one of the challenges I mentioned.  You need to think about things long term to be able to find work ahead of time, usually 6 months before the job starts, but still be flexible because life still happens and things can change quickly.

Other things we've discovered living in a rolling home?  Well, some of the roads in the US are in really deplorable condition!  We literally had the back splash shake off the wall! We can last about 10-14 days of dry camping.  Sometimes it's tricky to find places to park for the night when traveling.  Yes, Walmart and some other places let you stay overnight there...but.... one of the things no one talks about is that Walmarts are often in heavily populated areas.  We are 41 feet and then additional tow length and though Jay is an excellent driver, he doesn't love getting into congested areas that he's not familiar with.  While the parking lots themselves are usually big enough, the ways to get in and out of them are not always big rig friendly! We have actually found some very nice parking places (free) that are away from the beaten path, but it's not something that is guaranteed and  probably not something everyone would be willing to look for.  Staying someplace unexpected for free not only helps the budget, it's one of those cool things about this life. ;)

So,  we will be looking for some part time work, and enjoying the family and Maine for a few months.  If you know of someone hiring in the Augusta area for a part-time, temporary job let me know! :)  We will be continuing to carry on as long as we can.  Please feel free to add us to any prayer chains, and of course, if any of you out there win powerball and want to donate to us, we'd be happy to accept! ;)

Talk with you again soon! Don't forget to hydrate!
...and as always, thank for following along!

~Mikki

May you have a strong foundation When the winds of changes shift...

Ever think you had prepared for something and then find out it was a much bigger situation than you thought?

Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long.  I hope everyone out there is doing well.  Let's talk weight first...
the desert has continued to do it's job.  I'm sure the walking 3-5 miles a day keeps things moving. I'm down to 130 lbs as of this morning.  Never thought I'd see that again!  ;)  I've been struggling lately to get water in.  Can tell I'm not hydrated enough.  Woke up with a headache in the night.  Gotta go back to making sure I'm sipping throughout the day!

Speaking of water, I'm going to vent for just a moment so bare with me.  I'm pretty sure I explained when we came to La Paz that first month we had to work on installing an extra water holding tank.  It was 1100 gallons and more than doubled what had previously been here.  We were excited when it was done and water flow has been great.  Part of managing an RV park is filling the sites and since January IS the prime season here, we are full!  Downside?  We ran out of water.  Yep, having all these rigs here sucked down that 2000 gallon supply we had plus drained the wells.

Jay and Phil have been working their butts off to coax more out of the wells, but there comes a point when you have to shut down the pumps and let them rest.  In the meantime, one of our wonderful residents helped us out by bringing us a tank of water! Two more of the guests stepped up and helped re-plumb the new pressure pump we bought so we could transfer the water.  It was only 950 gallons and was a stopgap for now, but helped those who were completely without water. So why you ask would I vent?  Well, besides the stress of feeling responsible for making sure all of these people having water in the desert, we got our first two star review.

I understand you can't make everyone happy and things do happen.  But the gentleman in question admits in his own post that he had 3/4 of a tank of water when he came in.  He has a motorhome so that probably means at least 75 gallons.  He is in a 50 Amp site which I don't have a lot of, and he is hooked to sewer.  We are not a resort.  We are in the middle of the desert and our prices reflect that at $25/day at peak season.  Places in town are charging up to almost twice that.  The only complaint he seemed to have was the water and if he had an empty tank maybe I would be more sympathetic, but people who did have empty tanks have been so supportive it makes me grumpy.  Sorry.  I know that is not showing much grace.   As my birthday approaches tomorrow I'm trying to work on that.

"May God bless and keep you always 
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others 
And let others do for you"

Today, that gentleman is leaving, and though it's only in the 50's the sun is shining!  I got to help a lady a couple days ago that needed help with her propane tank.  Her husband is very, very ill.  He will be leaving us some time this year and she held my hand, tried not to cry and thanked me for bringing her dinner and just being there for her and I had this feeling inside that came up and told me "this is why we are here".  There are some tough days.  Then there are days that are just amazing.  We are so blessed with this life. Speaking of blessed, I was thinking last night about how blessed I am to have both of my parents still here.  I got birthday cards from them both and I know many of you would love to have yours with you.  💖

"May you grow up to be righteous 

May you grow up to be true

May you always know the truth 

And see the lights surrounding you

May you always be courageous

Stand upright and be strong

May you stay forever young"

We're having a potluck bash tomorrow to celebrate my birthday! And the managers from one of our sister parks has invited us to come to their gospel music concert tomorrow night.  Should be a great birthday.   

Paris and Dobby say hello!  They are still loving the RV life.  Their new "cage" that is huge is a big hit because they can sit out with us and not have to be on their leashes.  It's been colder than I like and we had a huge rain storm last night. (That was good for the well) So they went out and did their business pretty fast and came back to snuggle under the electric blanket for the night! ;)  I think they love that blanket almost as much as I do!

I've gotta wrap up now and go to work.  Still working on the water situation and electric bills went out yesterday so I'll have people wanting to pay.  :)  I hope you all have a wonderful day.  Get your steps in and remember to hydrate!  And remember, no matter where you are today:

"May your heart always be joyful 
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young"

Thanks so much for coming on the journey with me!

~Mikki 

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