On The Road Again, Continued !

Hi again! We arrived at our home base in Truth or Consequences NM on Saturday, Jan 28.  I am going to backtrack a bit from my last blog because I had such a poor wifi signal, I couldn't upload several of the photos that I wanted to show you from Sue's Pond near Yuma AZ.

Texas Canyon

First thing I want to set straight is that Texas Canyon is located at the second rest area as you enter AZ from the East!  The whole area of Texas Canyon is a beautiful area and worth exploring!  I spent several days there way back in the early 1980's when I was travelling and living in my slide in camper on my GMC pick-up truck! This area is wonderful for your imagination to explode.... remembering all the TV westerns!

RV Sue's Casita parked next to the pond. Not sure if I mentioned it or not, but this beautiful pond is located on BLM land (bureau of land management) and you can camp there for 2 weeks FREE, but there are no hook-ups. You have to go into Yuma to dump the black and grey tanks and fill up with water!

 The MotherShip and the BLT (Best Little Trailer) enjoying the sunset at Sue's Pond!

Quartzsite !!

We arrived on Friday the 13th !  Only a couple of hours (if that long) north of Yuma, we finally arrived at Quartzsite and found all of our friends and their shiny white Casita's nestled at the base of Dome Rock!

Friday the 13th soon lived up to it's reputation! As Chuck was unhooking our truck from The MotherShip, the electrical cord that connects from the truck to The MotherShip that runs the brake lights, recharge the batteries on board the trailer etc etc while on the road. When Chuck unhooked that cord between the MotherShip and the truck, that cord slipped off where he usually places it when he pulls the truck away. The cord got stuck behind the rear guard flaps bar that sits in the receiver hitch of the truck. Before I could yell at Chuck to stop, he pulled forward and pulled that huge electrical cord out of the MotherShip and it landed on the ground! Yikes!!!! One of our new and friendly Casita friends, Bill, came over and can you believe it??? Bill is a retired electrical engineer and in just a few hours and a couple of trips to town for parts, he and Chuck mended The MotherShip!!!!

Not totally fixed, but fixed enough to get us home. Trailer running lights weren't working and neitheWoW! So great to meet you! So nice of you to help us!

MotherShip Lives Up To Her Name!

The MotherShip soon became the meeting place! Several windy, cold days made sitting outside uncomfortable! We all gathered in the warmth of The MotherShip! From Left to right, Sue, Bill, Cleet, Chuck and Sue with the ever present Bridgette who never wants to leave Sue's lap! :-) ScottyBoy is comfey at Sue's feet!

Sue's Crew consists of 2 Rat Terriers, Bridgette on her lap and Spike at her feet! They keep her company on her travels in her Casita! Sue is a retired schoolteacher from Georgia and she has a cool blog you might want to check her out: http://rvsueandcrew.wordpress.com/

Unlike me, Sue posts almost everyday and she is a very good writer and her blogs are fun to read!

First Campfire

What a feast! Everybody donated something and we

hot dogs and had lotsa goodies to go with them!

Speaking of Dogs...  seems everybody had at least one! 
Jim and Carol brought the one, the famous in Casita worlds, Jerry the cat!

Meet Jerry, the Cat!

Jerry, the cat sits on Carol's lap at our gathering! Jerry is very social, he has been travelling with Jim and Carol for 6 years and loves it! Bill's wife Ann, even made a special stained glass window for Jerry's Casita (that he generously shares with Jim and Carol!)

Jim, Carol and Jerry!

Goin' to the Dogs!

Ann, relaxing with Samantha!

Bill and Julie, his lap warmer!

Clete and Diego!

There were several other campers with their dogs, but seems I got distracted and didn't get their photographs!  It was a fun group as you can see! We had a ball. I will post again tomorrow, more about the Quartzsite experience and our friends!

Wishing you lots of laughter in your life!

The MotherShip Crew,Geri,Chuck and the Hound Herd!

Fish Lake Utah

Radar LOVED Fish Lake! There were chimpmunks and prairie dogs everywhere and every chance he got he was at the windows looking for them!

    Please Mom?  I wanna go out and chase 'em !!!

          MOM! PLEEEZZZEEE! I wanna chase them!

First one popped up...

Then two !!!

                                Then THREE!

MOM! They are EVERYWHERE! I can catch them! 

I know I can!

Awww MOM! You are no fun at all!

For 4 days Radar kept us entertained running from window to window. Running from couch window to chair window to bedroom window! He escaped every chance he got to go off hunting! Needless to say, Radar had a great time... DoogieBowser and Scottie slept most of the time!

Chuck and I loved Fish Lake! The campground was rough, uneven but huge camp sites with picnic tables and a fire pit and a great view of the lake!

 That is The MotherShip in the middle, the bronze one!

We woke up the morning of June 29th at 6 am to hail pounding the roof of the MotherShip! It was LOUD!

 The campground was near a stand of beautiful Aspens

The "Pando" stand of Aspen was near us, but we never made it there. The stand of Aspen known as the Pando is a clone colony of a single male quaking aspen and is estimated to weigh over 6,600 tons making it one of the heaviest known organisms in the world. The name Pando means "I spread".  Hard for me to think of Aspens as an organism, I just love them!

Here is the link to the blog when we passed by these same Aspens in the fall. The colors are magnificent!

http://phunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2010/09/fish-lake-road.html

Today we leave and head down to Bluff Utah for four days! We loved the Cadillac Ranch campground when we were there last year, so we are headed back for another visit! Lots to see and do from there!

So we are on the road again...... 

Happy Trails from The MotherShip!

Geri, Chuck, Scottie, DoogieBowser and Radar!

Our new rig

OUR NEW HOME ON WHEELS!

Chuck and I have been talking about buying a new, larger home on wheels for several months. It was mostly daydreaming. We weren't really unhappy with our Oliver, but we are more than week end campers and just a tad less than fulltimers on the road. This journey was supposed to be just for a few weeks, it's now been almost 8 weeks since we left home base!  Seems like we aren't getting any younger either, that climb over the wife bed was getting harder and harder to accomplish! Then about 2 weeks ago, we started actually looking, walking through pull behinds mostly. Chuck didn't want a 5th wheel and of course that meant a new vehicle too and we both loved the Suburban! So the first lookandsees were all bumper pulls.  Then last Wed. we headed up to Crystal River on a heads up from a friend about a trailer they saw at the Tampa RV show a few weeks ago. It was called an Everlite by Evergreen. It is made from about 50% recycled materials and it is 100% recyclable at the end of it's lifespan.  I laughed when I found out that the pillop top of our mattress was filled with recycled water bottles!  I laughed because I could only imagine a lumpy mattress! I promise you that the mattress is one of the most comfortable mattresses we have ever slept on! We liked the bumper pull they had on display at Natures Coast RV in Crystal River, it was ok, more room than the Oliver.... but I just had to go lookng some more and ended up next door at the 5th wheel. At 30' it was only 2 feet longer than the bumper pull but it felt much bigger and much roomier! It felt HUGE!
Chuck came looking for me calling out, "Geri, where are you?" and as he came close to the door of the 5th wheel, I answered, " Honey, I'm home!" and he knew it was all over now!
He walked in and loved it as much as I did! A full sized fridge you holds more beer.... ya know ???  So....  still not convinced we asked our friends Paul and Diane to come up with us. They are on their third 5th wheel and knew more about them and what to look for than we did.
So on Thursday, we all went back and took a look! Diane loved the interior! Paul gave us a thumbs up on the construction. This trailer is put together as well as the Oliver with full length beading welds, aluminum frame construction and all! So after Paul and Diane went home, we decided to go look for a truck! We drove down to Dade City and found the perfect truck at the perfect price and we knew we were done for! We were gonna be pulling a 5th wheel! So here are some photos of our new home on wheels.

Still parked at the RV lot, Nature's Coast RV in Crystal River, Chuck looks over the Everlight.

The pantry area is huge, the fridge is huge and I now have a 3 burner gas stove and a convection/microwave oven!

The dinette is big enough for four or a good game of dominos! Like the Oliver, it makes into another bed. There are large storage bins under the seats.

From the back of the trailer, looking forward, you can see the kitchen to the right, dining area to the left, 32" Jensen TV and entertainment center and the steps to the bedroom! There is even storage under the steps!  Look at that jazzy light fixture over the dinette!
I even have a double sink now, to wash AND rinse my dishes in.

Chuck loves the two swivel rockers at the back and both come with great reading lamps overhead!

The couch is also a hide a bed! Will make into a double bed! All the furniture is soooooo comfey in our new home! We have one slide out which you can see here, includes the couch and dinette area.

We now have a queen bed where we can each get out on either side of the bed with no more climbing over each other. There is hangable storage closets on both sides, foldable storage above and AND the bed lifts up offering even more storage under the bed!

As you enter the bedroom area, the full sized shower is on the left with a full sized sink and medicine chest outside the shower area and on the right is the private bathroom. In the bedroom we also have a Jensen 19" tv, more counter and storage space beneath that!

Chuck and I with our new (used 2004) Ford F-450 and our new Everlite by Evergreen 5th wheel home. What was so amazing is how well the colors of the trailer matched the color of the truck!  I just wish the colors on this page really did justice to the interior and exterior of the rig! Such pretty browns and bronze tones!    We love it!

Chuck and Geri are happy campers!  Now, if you want to know all the details of the new rig, contact Chuck at tumblwede@yahoo.com.  I don't know any of that technical stuff! I just know how to say, "Honey, I'm home!"