About That Downsizing (November)

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Avid blog readers know that we began our RV traveling from Tucson, where we lived for 12 years, on April 22, 2011.  Additionally, Roger was commander of Davis-Monthan AFB during our Air Force days here. (1994 - 1995). Yes, Tucson has a special place in our hearts.

Tucson has been a great place for the continuation of our downsizing into the Unity. During this time we moved one storage unit's contents closer to the Air Force Base (that storage is joining the things we took out of the Tour). We will load a U-Haul trailer on November 21 in preparation for moving those things to Ft. Worth.

After much thought Roger and I decided to trade in our Terrain for a lighter Fiat Abarth Cabrio (convertible). What a peppy car and much easier to tow behind our 24 foot Unity! This car has manual transmission and can be towed in neutral. Thank goodness I have had other cars that were manual and after a few minutes behind the wheel, it all came back. So far we are very happy about our decision.

One morning I woke up to find this huge moth on our stars and stripes windsock. He waited patiently for me to take his picture.

                                      

The past few weeks have found us fine tuning our lives in the Unity, working on bike safety with new locks (we now use five) in hopes of slowing down any would be thieves, preparing the Fiat for towing and enjoying family and friends in the area.

 It is much easier to air the Unity's tires.

 Our new bikes with their 5 locks (we are having the cover made here)

 The Unity is so easy to drive in busy traffic and park in shopping center parking lots.

We love taking Bear on walks in the morning. He is quite a trooper on our 4 mile jaunts.

 Bear and Roger pose in front of a sahuaro cactus.

We took a break this past weekend for a day trip to Sonoita, Patagonia, and Nogales. The Fiat was so much fun. Because we were so close to the border, there were several Border Patrol stops along the way.

 Border Patrol Stop

 Chirachaua Mountains

 Even southern Arizona has a Fall.

A major border patrol stop on I - 19 back to Tucson.

Thank you for being so patient as I have missed two publishing Saturdays. We will be here until November 22nd when we start our trip to the Ft. Worth/Dallas area for the Thanksgiving holidays. 

About That Unity (October 15 - 25)

Dear Family and Friends,

Our last days at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas were filled with exercising, walks with Bear, continuing our downsizing tasks in preparation for the switch from the Tour to Unity.

We did manage to spend a wonderful evening at Caesar's with guest artist in residence, Shania Twain. Her show was such a thrill as she sang all of her standards. Yes, she is "still the one." The finale was "I Feel Like A Woman" with a full music ensemble, fabulous wardrobe and great scenery.

We left Nellis for San Marcos, California, on Monday morning.

 Roger is leaving the Tour for the last time at San Marcos.

 The combination of the Tour and Terrain have been great!

 Holland RV did a great job of welcoming us to our new home. Roger, Bear and I are standing in front of the Unity.

 This Leisure Travel Van is 24.7 feet long. It has a Mercedes Diesel engine. Though we bought it in California, we had to pick it up in Yuma, Arizona. Holland RV drivers drove it to Yuma and we followed in our car.

 San Diego traffic is among the worst that I have ever seen. We are following the Unity.

 Hooray, we take delivery of the Unity and head off to Tucson. At this point we cannot tow a vehicle until we have driven 1,000 miles. I followed in the Terrain.

The inside of the Unity is quite snug. I like to think cozy! We are still in the process of arranging household items for the best fit.

 The twin beds make into a very large bed. We selected this model of the Unity for the additional storage, both inside and outside the coach. The bedroom television is behind the cabinet on the left.

 Bathroom (the shower is across the hall)

 The kitchen with the microwave/convection oven that sits on the refrigerator is across from the sink and cooktop.

Both driver and passenger chair swivel around to watch the television in the kitchen.

As you can imagine we have been busy settling into our new Unity. We have lots to do while we are in the Tucson area in preparation for our final year on the road full time. Thank you so much for your interest in our travels. We appreciate your desire to be a part of our lives.

About That Transition Time (October 14)

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from Las Vegas! Roger and I continue to work toward our transition from the Tour (43 feet) into the Leisure Travel Van (Unity at 24' 7"). As you know from the last blog, we made a quick trip to a storage locker in Tucson, with the things that will not fit into the much smaller Unity. We will pick up the Unity on October 22 in San Marcos, California. Eventually (November) we will haul the storage  load to Ft. Worth where our surplus things will stay in storage as we travel our last year as full timers to the East coast.

Roger has been very busy planning the coming year. We will spend the Thanksgiving holidays with family in the Ft. Worth/Dallas area before heading east along the Gulf of Mexico. We intend to spend the winter months in Key West and then travel north to Maine and Canada, as the weather permits. We will drop back into the US in Michigan and then make our way back to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We intend to drive around 10,000 miles. This is quite an ambitious plan!

In the meantime, we have enjoyed the Las Vegas sights. Though we have driven across the new bridge (Arizona to Nevada via the Hoover Dam) several times, we have never walked it. There is a wonderful pedestrian bridge that spans the Nevada State line to the Arizona State line. It was a great way to see the dam with the Colorado River behind it.

 Roger stands in front of Hoover Dam which holds back the Colorado River and Lake Mead.

 Arizona State sign

 Nevada State sign

 A picture of Lake Mead taken from the car on the way back to Las Vegas.

On Sunday, we decided to see the movie, "Captain Phillips." Imagine our surprise when we randomly chose a newly refurbished movie theatre with the most incredible reclining seats. Is this the wave of the future for movie theaters? There were lots of staff members to instruct us in the usage of these seats. Also, the theater has a no tolerance policy for talkers and cell phone users. By the way, "Captain Phillips" was outstanding. We walked away with an even greater appreciation of the Navy and the Seals who were instrumental in rescuing the Captain from Somali pirates.

We continue to spend our last week in Las Vegas, leaving for San Marcos on Monday. Thanks for checking in with us.

About That Las Vegas (September 29 - October 4)

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from Las Vegas!

Our last few days in Park City involved hiking, biking and spending lots of time with Warren and Lea.

Roger and Bear hiking Silver Spur in Park City

We left Park City on Wednesday and drove to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. We have stayed at the Fam Camp before and were glad to return to familiar surroundings. It is very quiet on the air force base due to the government shut down. It is very sad not to see jets in the sky over Las Vegas.

Roger and I have some exciting plans to tell you. We intend to be on the road (full time) for one more year and use that year to travel on the east coast. We have decided to down size from the Tour to a Leisure Travel Van (Unity model). There are several reasons: 1. ease of travel on the East coast, and 2. planning the next chapter of our lives in Ft. Worth, Texas (ahhh, the call of the grandchildren). We do not want to have a coach as large as the Tour for travel use in Ft. Worth. The smaller LTV is just what we want for periodic trips. In the process of doing the planning, Roger happened to find the exact model of the LTV that we want in San Marcos, California. In short, we purchased the LTV and will pick it up in two weeks. We have been very busy trying to consolidate our belongings. This past weekend we took a load from the Tour to a storage unit in Tucson. We rented a U-Haul trailer and drove to Tucson on Saturday, then back to Las Vegas on Sunday. The great part about the trip was that we got to see our son Michael and daughter-in-law, Bridget.

The Terrain did a great job of pulling the trailer.

Bridget and Michael took us out to dinner in Tucson.

The next two weeks will be spent relaxing and enjoying Las Vegas. Then we drive on October 21st to San Marcos, California. Thank you for checking in with us. I will keep you posted on our exciting new adventures in the LTV or as we call it, the Sprinter (the van is on a Sprinter chassis) RV.

About That Fall in Park City (September 22 - 28)

Dear Family and Friends,

We are into our second and final week at Park City. My favorite time of the year is Fall and Park City is a wonderful place to be for the season. Roger, Lea, Warren and I took a fantastic mountain bike ride on Armstrong Trail on Monday. The leaves were outstanding in their color, the sky a vivid blue and the temp was perfect for the ride. Warren and Lea are excellent mountain bikers  and they were very patient with me.

 Warren and Lea

 Lea, Warren and Roger taking a break.

 Roger and I at the bottom of King Con lift which we skied last winter.

It is fun to see the ski runs before the snow accumulates.

 My favorite picture of Lea with the Fall color.

 One last pic of Roger and me enjoying the three hour ride.

What a difference two days make in Park City. The weather went from a beautiful Fall to the first snow of the season. Thursday and Friday were cold and wet days with snow accumulating in the higher elevations.

 Park City Ski Resort

 Snow on the windshield of the Tour.

On Saturday the sun came out and the snow melted. Roger and I were thrilled because we are driving to Las Vegas on Wednesday. Thank you for checking in with us. We appreciate your interest in our travels.

About That Park City (September 15 - 22)

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from Park City, Utah!

We left Sisters, Oregon, on Monday, September 16th. Leaving the high desert of Sisters, we followed the Oregon 20 to Ontario, where we picked up Interstate 84 to Mountain Home, Idaho. We stayed in Mountain Home for two nights and visited Mountain Home Air Force Base, where our younger son was born. What a disappointment to find our old street completely gone with newer base housing in it's place. After all it was 37 years ago.

 Bear wants to show off his new toy from Sisters!

 Oregon 20

Snow fences off of Oregon 20 indicate the heavy snows in the area during the winter.

Mountain Home Air Force Base

We left Mountain Home and drove on Interstate 84 south to Interstate 80. It was on that road that we drove through Salt Lake City to Park City, where we are staying for two weeks. We are having fun seeing my brother and Lea. In addition, friends from Tucson (Steve and Susan) were here this week and we had a great time catching up. Warren and Lea invited all of us over for a halibut dinner.

 Andie (my brother Warren's Airedale) and Bear are having fun.

 Roger opening the wine at Warren's.

 Halibut that Roger caught in Alaska and sent to Warren is on the grill for dinner.

 Warren is helping Lea get the table ready.

 Tucson friends (Steve and Susan) join us for dinner at Warren and Lea's.

 Steve and Susan with children Hilary and Spencer.

 Yum, Lea is an awesome cook!

We look forward to another week in Park City. Thank you for checking in with us! See you next week.