Enjoying Phoenix with Taylor

One thing neither Gary nor I have mentioned is our biggest reason for hitting AZ first on our travels.  Our daughter, Taylor is a senior here at Arizona State in Tempe.  It has been a lot of fun to finally live where she goes to school.  No, she does not bring her laundry home for me to wash ;) but it is nice for all 3 of us when she comes home to eat dinner or just hang out.  She has also shown us some fun things to do here (like drink a bucket of alcohol at a local favorite ASU bar) and just recently after attending a Kings of Leon (!) concert, she and I took a road trip to the LA area to go to Disneyland (loved Cars Land) and Universal Studios (we are huge Harry Potter fans).  One more benefit of being in a rolling home, your surrounding area to explore can include some very cool and and fun things.

Enjoy Christmas from your RV

Merry Christmas week!!!  :)

It is a wonderful and warm 72 degrees just 6 days before Christmas and I can't tell you how thankful I am to be in the South!  I think we are ready for the holiday (Gary and Taylor are out shopping for my Christmas presents as we speak) and hope you are as well.

I just wanted to take a minute and encourage all of you soon to be RVers or if you are thinking of taking the leap to a house on wheels to remember that your RV is indeed your home.  It should be treated as such.  This time of year that means to decorate it for Christmas!!  Yay!!  I went to our local Walmart and Target stores and outfitted the coach for under $100. Small house means less decorations but still fun to do.

Each holiday will bring new opportunities for new and fun decorations so get out there and carry on what you did in your sticks and bricks home.  :)

Mesa and Phoenix during Christmas

Merry Christmas Season!
It seems everyone is busy this time of year and we are no different.  We have decided to take advantage of things that the Phoenix area has to offer, including the beautiful weather and 70 degree days.  :)  In addition to going to the pool, we have climbed a couple of hills and attended 2 Christmas light shows just to get us in the mood.

Our first little hill climb (and you can't even really call it a climb was to "Hole in the Rock" which is just what it sounds like.  Its history is one of time telling.  Historians think Indians used it to tell both daily time and monthly as well.  It is right outside of downtown Phoenix and next door to the Phoenix Zoo and the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.

After we walked up to "Hole in the Rock", we took in Zoo Lights which is a Christmas light show at the zoo.  They rope off the front part of the zoo around a pond/lake and decorate every tree with lights and also put up animal sculptures that are all done up in lights as well.  Gorgeous!  They also do a small music and light show every 15 minutes so we took in 2 different shows while we were there.  They also have yummy food and fun treats like hot cocoa and spiced up coffee.  Gary and I sort of giggled as we walked by many Phoenixians all bundled up against the "cold" since it was 63 degrees and Gary was wearing shorts.  :)

A few days after Zoo Lights we did a true climb.  It is called Piestewa and it's a little over a mile but you spend almost the entire time going vertical.  It took us about 40 minutes to get up and about 30 to get down.  It was a wonderful 73 degrees so you just can't ask for better weather.  While at the summit you can take in the entire Phoenix valley.  It really is a beautiful sight and well worth the climb.

Wanting to take in more Christmas lights we decided to attend the boat parade at Tempe Beach Park.  There were about 30 boats all decorated with lights and they actually motor down the river, stop in front of the crowd and turn a little to the right and left so you can get a great view of the boat.  Our favorite was a boat with the theme of "Finding Dory" complete with Dory and her friend the octopus named Hank.  What a fun way to celebrate the Christmas season!  It is such a novel concept to be able to do all of these fun things outside in December!!  Being from a cold weather state that has a true winter, I am used to bundling up with layer upon layer and still freezing.  It's very refreshing to head out in yoga pants and a sweatshirt.  I just cannot be grateful enough!

 

RV repairs when full timing

Getting repairs done on your RV is a different ball game compared to getting work done on your brick and sticks home.  We had our first set of warranty work done since we went full time and wanted to share that experience.

We have been having an issue with one of our leveling jacks losing hydraulic pressure.  We scheduled an appointment with the local Camping World here in Mesa for them to take a look at it.  As we were packing up the RV this morning, it was a very strange feeling, almost surreal.  That strange feeling grew as we dropped it off and drove away.  I realized that we had dropped our home and all of our belonging off at the shop.  That was the cause of the strange feelings, which ended up just being worry and stress.

If you go RVing for any length of time, be mentally prepared to drop your home and belongings off to a set of strangers at the shop.

Our short story on this topic had a happy ending.  We picked up the RV the same evening, they had found the problematic part and recalibrated the system.  We are so far keeping the coach level and the hydraulic solenoid is on order.

Sedona

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  This is my first post for our blog and I tend to be a little more "verbose" than Gary so if we you like short and sweet, I am not your gal.  ;)

My parents came down for the long holiday weekend.  One of the places to see that has always been on their bucket list is Sedona, AZ.  We packed up the car, met my brother along the way and headed north. Boy, are we so glad we did!  This small, cozy, mountain town reminds me of my favorite mountain town back home.  It is full of boutique type stores, yummy restaurants and of course, gorgeous scenery!  The landscape is definitely one of the most beautiful on earth.  Red rock walls, trees that were still turning to fall colors and the open spaces.  Every where you look takes you breath away.  It is what you think AZ looks like when you think of this state.

Gary has decided to do some research about its many hiking trails in preparation for when we go back because we definitely will be back with our hiking boots on!

Thinking about getting an RV?

One of the things we wanted to add to our blog is our thoughts, challenges and experiences in transitioning from a house to living out of an RV.  This will be the page where we share what works for us, gear that we find essential and any other tips that others thinking about going part or full time RVing might find useful.

If you have questions or comments, let us know.

Setting up the blog, finally...

Sorry about the delays to those we made the promise to document our adventures in a blog.  I am now getting it set up and will back post the ups and downs over the last month.  It is hard for me to believe that we have been gone a month already, but time does fly.  We have been busy enjoying the Phoenix area and hanging out with Taylor. 

Let’s see if this works and then we will post back updates tomorrow.

Let the fun begin!

NASCAR

The whole point of going full time in the RV was to see and do things that you wouldn't normally do.  Put a NASCAR race into that category.  We went to the Phoenix raceway today and had a great time watching the cars turn left for 3 hours.  The beginning and end were exciting, which is pretty standard for NASCAR, and the driver Danelle was rooting for ended up winning in a crazy serious of events on the multiple restarts.  Hurray for her driver, Joey Logano.  I was pulling for Kyle Busch, only because I like the M&M car.

We picked up seats off StubHub, which I love, for pennies on the dollar.  We were right on the start/finish line and high enough to be able to see all of the track.  We spent more on drinks and food than we did for our tickets.

Grand Canyon

After a couple of hectic weeks, it finally feels like we are settling down into the RV and allowing ourselves to enjoy it.  Now it is time to start exploring the area.

We decided to take a trip up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was a fairly long drive from Mesa, but the views were worth it.

Heading out!

We packed up the RV with what we thought we would need and pointed it south.  We are going to be spending a few days in Las Vegas before continuing on to the Phoenix area to spend the next 3 months.  I am so excited and nervous that I haven't been able to sleep for the last two days.  The drive to Vegas should be interesting.

Let the adventures begin!

West Yellowstone KOA

Our first road trip in the new rig saw us heading to Yellowstone at the end of their season.  We booked a week at the West Yellowstone KOA.  The park had large sites with tables and fire pits, but limited trees.  Their Wifi was good and the cable was a savior as we got no satellite dish service.  The main building has a small restaurant, that we did not use because we did not need to use it, and a small convenience store.  The people working to check you in and out were a little gruff, but we were there for the very end of their season and they were getting ready for a nice long winter.  The convenience to the west gate entrance is the appeal and we will definitely stay there again when we go back to Yellowstone.

We give the park a 3 out of 5.

Our first trial run trip

We had been hearing from everyone that you needed to take a few small trips to find the problems and work out the bugs before heading out on a long journey.  After a few overnight trips at a local park in Boise, aka living in a van down by the river, we planned a week in Yellowstone.

We booked a spot at the KOA in West Yellowstone and headed out.  Thankfully the trip went well and we didn't find any new major problems.

Deciding to go full time RVing

We started discussing the possibility of going full time on the RV at the first of this year.  When the door back into Micron closed on me in June, we made the decision to take the jump and do it.  We desperately needed to downsize, so the extra "stuff" started to go.  The Sun Valley condo was the first thing to go in February.  I was extremely sad to see it go as it was my escape and hideaway during the mentally tough times post-Micron.  Danelle, however, was ambivalent about it.  After a couple of months I asked her if she missed it and she didn't hesitate at all to say no.  Sad...

Next to go was the boat, cars and motorcycle.  It got progressively easier with each one.  Now we are just waiting for the house to go and we will be cleared out of Boise and our big possessions.  Say goodbye to :

And then we said hello to our new Winnebago and the Jeep as the tow vehicle.  

Time to take a few test trips.