Anniversary

On April 29, 2013 we moved out of the house and into the RV.  One year later we are loving the RV life more each day.  What is more remarkable is that after one year in this tin can on wheels, we love each other more each day.  We have been and continue to be blessed in so many ways.

From Atlantic to Pacific...

Gee the traffic is terrific.  When we left Midlothian on June 1, 2013 we headed to Rehobath Beach Delaware.  Our purpose there was to visit the Dog Fish Head Brewery.  We stayed in a campground right on the Atlantic ocean. Last week we made it to San Diego.  We did not stay on the ocean but at Mission Bay, which was a short drive to the Pacific ocean.  So we have now been from sea to shining sea and driven the length of the Mississippi River.  And we are just getting started!!!  And yes, we did get "Home" for the holidays.

Toilet Paper

Yes, I'm writing about toilet paper!  We all need it and we all use it.  So why write about it?  For most everyone you find a brand of TP you like and it is not big deal.  But if you are in an RV or boat you need special paper.  No Ultra soft, Angel soft or quilted toilet paper.  No we need a paper that breaks down and dissolves quickly so as not to clog or damage the black water tank.  There are several brands that meet this criteria and after testing a few we found one we really like.

Now the only place that we have found that carries this brand is Walmart.  This works well since Walmarts are everywhere so it makes it easy to buy.  Until Walmart runs out!  We stopped at 3 stores in the Mesa/Phoenix area, 2 in Yuma and all 5 had a space for it on the shelf but no product.  Well, shoot, now what?

So as our supply was running low we purchased another brand of lesser quality.  The new stuff is not bad but it is not as nice as the Scott brand.  We like a little cush for our tush and the new stuff just doesn't provide that.  So I went to a Walmart in San Diego.  They had 6 packages on the shelf.  I bought them all and we are now set for awhile.  Another crisis avoided...for now.

Major League Baseball

On April 14, 2014 we went to see the San Diego Padre's host the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park in San Diego.  We had had a great time at spring training in Arizona but getting back to the regular season was great.  The atmosphere at the ball park is elevated, there is more ceremony, and the stakes are higher.  We had a great time, enjoyed the park and saw an interesting game.  But a few things came to mind about watching baseball.

When we go to a game we are there to watch the game.  We both keep score.  Diana uses a table and a program called "6-4-3".  I score the old fashioned way using a score book and pencil.  The conversation during the game is about the game.  Wild pitch or passed ball, notice the shift, the ball strike count on the scoreboard is wrong.  That sort of stuff.  So I am presenting "Bob's Rules for Baseball Fans".

Rule 1.  Do not stand, walk or converse in front of anyone during game action.  Even if you are "just in the aisle" you are in front of someone.
Rule 2.  Game action includes just about everything all the time.
Rule 3.  Go to and from your seat ONLY between half innings.  And do not linger.  Move quickly.
Rule 4.  Return to your seat only between pitches.  Then get in sit down quickly.  Then distribute the food you brought back.
Rule 5.  Don't ask anyone with a score book any question during the action (see rule 2 about action).
Rule 6.  NEVER EVER leave a game early!  For any reason...EVER!
There may be additions to these rule during the game based on circumstances.

Bike racks

So we bought 2 bicycles with the idea of riding them around state or national parks or where ever it seemed right. We thought we'd travel with them in the back of the Jeep, unload them when we got or RV site and lock them to the RV.  But we have found that getting 2 bikes in and out of the Jeep is difficult.  So off we go looking for a bike rack to hang on the back of the Jeep.  No problem finding a rack that holds 2 bikes.  But when we get home we learn that while it may hold 2 bikes, it will not hold our 2 bike.  Back to the store to return that rack for one that says it will hold 3 bikes.  So we figure the rack is made for our Jeep, and we'll use the first and third slots thus giving us room for both bike.  Ta Da!  It hold the bikes great...unless you actually drive the Jeep.  Then the bottom support arm shifts upward and the rack rest against the vehicle in a way it should not.  We try a few adjustments that fail. Back to the store to return it.  This all happened over about 3 weeks.

So then we figure we may have to break down and put a trailer hitch on the Jeep and by a rack suited for that.  So we go online and between the hitch and a low price rack we will spend twice as much to haul the bikes as we invested in the bikes to begin with.  The search continues and we find a strap on rack that has great reviews and is reasonably priced.  But, no one around here carries it in stock and it will take 5 - 8 business days to get it.  We won't be here that long.  But wait, we can order it to be delivered to us and if we don't like it we can return it to a Target store.  Shipping is 7 - 10 business days.  So if and when we find a place we will be that long that is near a Target store, we might order it.
In the mean time, we will load the bikes into the back of the Jeep!

Sea level

On April 7 we left Yuma and headed toward San Diego.  We plan to spend about 2 weeks in San Diego.  Our time there will of course include a Padres baseball game.  As we were driving west across the desert, we saw a sign that said "Sea Level".  Then we headed down a bit more before beginning to climb.  In about 45 minutes we saw a sign that said "4,100 FT".  The landscape had changed from flat and rolling terrain with sparse vegetation to rounded boulders piled high and very little vegetation.  It had become very stark.

Then we drove for about 30 minutes at around 4,000 feet with ups and downs and lots of turns.  Finally, we began our decent.  A 6% grade for 13 miles!  As we came down the vegetation returned and became more lush with taller trees and shrubs and even some grassy areas.  As I write this we are parked just east of San Diego and my altimeter show us at 403 feet.  We'll be at sea level at a different park next week.

The RV worked hard going up  and coming back down with the engine running at high RPMs.  There was a sign to turn off your air conditioning to reduce strain in the engine.  So we did.  But an advantage to being in an RV is the we started the generator and were able to run the house AC keeping the entire place cool with no additional stress on the motor.  This was very nice since it was 92 degrees outside.

Rally

We attended our first rally in Yuma, AZ.  In the RV world we have rallies where folks of a common interest get together to trade information, stories and socialize.  We had heard of this rally while we were in Mesa and since we were coming to Yuma anyway we decided to attend.  This rally was offered by Fleetwood Motor home Association(FMA).  Fleetwood is the manufacturer of our RV and we are members of FMA.

Fleetwood had service techs on sight and all service was done for free.  You just pay for parts unless they were under warranty.  This is a great service since most places that service RVs charge a least $120 and hour.  A local RV dealer also brought the full line of Fleetwood RVs to the rally so everyone could go thorough them and see what's new.  We walk through all of them and like ours best.

This was a small to medium rally and there were about 85 Fleetwood motor homes parked in the RV resort.  We attended lots of seminars and learned a ton.  Each night we'd walk back to the RV, dump all our paper from the seminars and crash.  During the social times we met some great people and gained even more information.  We had such a great time we will be attending next year's rally.

We had already planned to attend a Full Timers rally in Oregon in August.  This one will be very small...probably less than 20 RVs.  But we also added a large rally later in August.  It is also in Oregon but should have well over a thousand RVs.  Once we have attended these we will see if and how rallies fit into our plans.

Mesa

What a great 7 weeks at the Apache Wells park in Mesa, AZ!  We met some great folks and plan to stay in touch with them.  We spent time with our nephew, Ken.  Diana's brother Dale and his wife Christy stopped by on their way to Green Valley, AZ.  We took several days and drove the Jeep to Las Vegas to see our friends Ben and Carol.  Plus we achieved our goal of seeing a lot of spring training baseball.( see previous post)

We had such a great time we plan to go back for at least part of next winter.  We will still be in the western part of the US and plan to be swinging south in the late fall.  We are not sure of the exact timing but we'll definitely be in Mesa.  We'll winter in Mesa then head toward Texas as the weather warms.