New Rig!!

I can't believe that we have done this and I am so happy and excited.  For over a year we have talked about downsizing our camper and once we bought the house and got moved in it just seemed like the right thing to do.  Besides, we had a rainy day with not much to do so we went "looking".

When we bought our 38' Avalanche we were moving from our home to the camper with no second home and no storage unit.  We had to get everything we owned into that rig so we needed a lot of space!  Now that we have our home here in Yuma, we don't have to carry everything with us.  We can just take a little of it.  So, we have downsized by 8 feet and purchased a Cougar half-ton fifth wheel.

We really did just go out looking because it was dreary and cool out.  Our second stop found us at RV World here in Yuma.  I know they rotate the sales staff so we drew Jeff.  Jeff showed us a few campers and one was a 27' Cougar that we liked very much but it just seemed a few feet too small.  Then Jeff got a phone call and passed us over to Josh.  I liked Josh much better, maybe because he showed us  the 30' Cougar.  We still could not decide on which one we liked and we left with a "we will call you".

Two days later we called and Josh was out but Jeff was there so he came out to look at our Avalanche to see if they would take it in trade.  His assessment took all of about 2 minutes and he was on his way again.  I guess he just wanted to make certain that we really did have it.  So the next morning we were back at RV World and Jeff was there with no sign of the illusive Josh.  Again we looked at the 27 footer and the 30 footer.  The thing that we liked better about the 30 foot Cougar was that there was a loveseat that Jake could use!

I know, a sofa for the dog?  Yes!  We have bought a boat for a dog so why not a camper for a dog.  Jake is a big boy and he has to be somewhere!  We have learned that when we aren't looking, he will find a nice place to sleep so we might as well plan on it.

So we sat down to do the negotiating.  Part of me loves that and then there is the part of me that feels very ill equipped for it.  Anyway, we finally arrived at an agreement and we signed on the dotted line!  They would pay us money when the deal was done!  We didn't have to come up with one cent.  Well, that is not true as we had to pay the registration fee.  We agreed to take possession in a week.

Now the work began for Kirby as he had to remove some of his upgrades like solar panels and expensive batteries.  So we really did need that week.

On Wednesday we made the trade and our new Cougar now sits in our yard! 

On The Road To Idaho

How many people have a sewer dump on their street?  Well, my sister does!  It was time to leave them and head over the pass to Idaho and we needed to dump our holding tank.  Kirby just backed the rig down the road a bit and there was a sewer plug!  Can't beat that!

And then it was over the hill.  We decided to take the southern route towards Idaho Falls instead of going over Teton Pass.  Teton Pass is very, very steep but about an hour closer to our destination.  We decided that ease of travel was worth the hour since we weren't going very far.  We had traveled this route before, most recently last summer, and new it would be easy and beautiful with a lot of variety. 

We crossed the Snake River.  This river seems to be forever in our lives.   I am beginning to feel a personal bonding with it. (This looks like an old railroad crossing.)

I love these golden fields!

Best Rest Area ever!  View of the Snake River from the rest area on Highway 26.

Then we cut through on some country roads which is always more fun than highways and interstates.

And this is Henry's Lake State Park where we will be staying for the next few days. There are good hiking trails, we can ride our bikes and there are nearby scenic drives.

4th of July 2014

We are finally moving west.  We are on highway 90 in Minnesota and it turns west in Wisconsin.  We had been moving north since we left Charleston.

I must tell you that I really, really do not like holidays.  Memorial Day wasn’t too bad but 4^th of July this year was the worst.  Everyone everywhere gets their camper out of mothballs or goes to Walmart and buys a tent and they head out for a long weekend at the campground with all the family.  First it makes it hard for me to find a campground to stay because I have to know where we will be staying and that is NOT easy.  The good ones fill up weeks and weeks in advance.  THEY know where they will be staying – they have been planning it for months.  It seems that these northern people do this more than southerners or westerners.  Maybe because of their long winters.

By the time we knew when we would be leaving Kentucky all the government campgrounds were filled up.  Our route was to take us right by the Wisconsin Dells and I sure didn’t want to go there!  It is all about kids and waterslides.  You should see that place – amazing!  Huge indoor water parks!

We ended up at a place in Wisconsin that even Jake didn’t like.  He got all worked up the first day and had an upset stomach for the next two days.  Poor Jake.  I don’t know what it was that set him off but something did.  Kirby had found this place because I was getting so frustrated trying to find something that I liked.  Well, we didn’t realize until we got there that we would have no sewer.  Now there is nothing wrong with not having a sewer.  We do it all the time, but not when we are paying $44/night!

Sky High Camping Resort has over 350 camping sites, not lots, but sites.  Sites which are really close together.  Each site was full for the holiday.  Each site had an average of five to six people on it, most children.  Do the math.  That is TOO many people and dogs in a small space.

Children running and screaming. Dogs barking. Golf carts going by all the time and radios blaring.  This place made me crazy!  It made ME crazy.  It didn’t seem to bother the folks that just do this once or twice a year.  They took tracker rides, played basketball and volleyball, swam in the pool, played miniature golf and drove the golf carts which were for rent, all over the campground.  It was pretty scary to me to be walking Jake and see a golf cart racing towards me with an eight year old driving it!

Actually it gave me a feeling of what a refugee camp would feel like.  Just way too crowded.  And we PAID to get to be there!  Are we dumb or what?  Next year we will plan our whole trip around where we will be for 4^th of July!

The only picture I took the whole time we were there is of our rig on our site.  It was a nice site and we enjoyed the day playing cards at the picnic table and we had dinner outdoors….watching all the people!

Here is the link to our holiday last year.  It was much better.

Indiana

We finally left Kentucky yesterday and have arrived in Indiana!  What a beautiful drive we had over the hills and through the trees - and through the heavy rain!  We have never been in that kind of rain with our RV before and my heart went out to Kirby.  All I could do to help him was to keep my mouth shut! At times we could barely see the road ahead and there was traffic all around with no shoulder to pull off.  Not a fun time but soon it was gone and all was right with the world again.  Enjoy the photos!

Just look how beautiful and picturesque the countryside is.  I am in love - again.  (Travel is so wonderful)

We are visiting our friends Steve and Janice in Crawfordsville, Indiana and staying behind their house by the barn (which really only holds their RV - no horses or animals!)  After lunch they drove us around the town.  It is all just beautiful Americana!

The Lane Mansion was the home of Henry S. Lane, governor of Indiana and US Senator during the 1860's.

Kentucky Update

We haven’t been doing anything to write home about but I do need to update everyone.  I don’t even have a fresh photo.  I was out with Jake this evening and was going to go back for my camera to get some pictures of the sky but got carried away talking to my Ohio neighbors and totally forgot once I got home. 

So this is how our week has gone.  On Friday Kirby visited his new Dermatologist here in Lexington, KY.  They did not put him out but gave him some local anesthesia in his leg and then proceeded to remove the large squamous cell carcinoma cancer that was growing there.  Seventeen staples later they sent him home.  He has done a lot of reading since then.  He is a good sport about all the sun damage that was done while he was a small child growing up in the San Joaquin Valley in California where the summers were sweltering.

I don’t know where the days have gone.  I have made a couple of trips to Walmart and I too have done a lot of reading.

Break – I just looked out the window and decided to try to capture the nasty weather we are having so here is a current photo!

I am reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.  It is a Pulizter Prize winner and I am really enjoying it even if the main character is a thirteen year old boy.  Last time I read a book with a young boy as the main character was Catcher in the Rye.  This is much better!  Kirby just finished a book about Flying Cloud, an 1850’s clipper ship.  He loved it!

Today we visited the University of Kentucky’s Dental Clinic.  I am having some dental problems and they were able to get me in for a consultation.  I was so impressed by the whole staff and the doctor.  Again – I think I am falling in love with Kentucky!

Hopefully we will be out exploring the area again soon.  (and sampling some bourbon!) We are so fortunate to have such a great place to be sitting out all this “stuff”.  We just need to get the weather to dry up a bit and Kirby’s leg to heal!

Change of Scene

 Can you believe that the picture above and the one below are from the same RV park? 

 When we arrived at Whispering Hills in Georgetown, Kentucky we planned to stay here one week and they gave us the pull through by the pool which we did not like.  Today we have extended for about a month and we got to move to this beautiful quiet spot in the trees – with grass for Jake.  First thing he did was lay down in it and roll around.  I call it “worming”.  He was so happy!  This site is not at all level and it took major work on Kirby’s part but we are nicely leveled up now and tucked in waiting for some weather to pass by tonight.

To back up a bit, when we were in Charleston Kirby had the opportunity to be examined by his former dermatologist since we were in town - just a normal annual exam.  She found a spot on his leg and did a biopsy.  Then we left and they never called with the results so we assumed it was fine.  Please folks, don’t ever assume that.  It appears that the results got “lost” and weren’t found until Kirby called to tell them that the spot where they took the biopsy did not look good.

Fortunately Lexington is a city full of good doctors and one agreed to see him on a day’s notice.  He is now scheduled for some surgery this Friday and we will need to remain here for two weeks after that.

We do love this area and now we get more time to explore it, drink more bourbon and ale and enjoy the countryside and the quaint downtown!

Goin' to Florida

Our departure from Paul B. Johnson State Park in Mississippi was interesting.  First we had to drive over the lake’s spillway.  Remember, we had come in the back way so we hadn’t enjoyed the fun of doing this when we arrived.  We did see it when we went looking for the office that first day and there was a lot more water spilling over than there was today.  I inquired at the office yesterday and was told that there is always water on the road there.  I guess you get used to it.  It is the main entrance.  Kirby went slow and it was a piece of cake!

 So, we hadn’t been this direction on our way in.  As we reached the gatehouse and we were faced with the question – right or left?  Our GPS was indicating a right turn so off we went as I pulled up Streets and Trips on the computer.  We were WRONG.  But, we were saved by a church and not for the first time.  Churches usually have nice big empty parking lots that are nice for big rigs to turn around in.  Kirby negotiated the turn around and we headed back the way we came and found the correct right turn that put us out on HWY 49.

And speaking of HWY 49 - that is the most fun stretch of highway I have ever seen.  If we had been in a car, we could have stopped at so many fun places – lots and lots of fruit stands (this time of year you have to wonder what kind of fruit they have), flea markets and antique stores. Just checking them out from the truck was fun.

Part of my entertainment on today’s drive was knowing I am in the south. 

“You know you are in the south when” –

Boiled Peanuts

Crawfish

Catfish

Humidity

We arrived in Pensacola before noon and found the Moose Lodge.  We had emailed with them and had a phone conversation yesterday to ascertain that they had hook-ups available.  Yesterday I was told that they had plenty but to arrive early.  We arrived early.  They have nothing but permanent trailer people living out there.  Some of them have homesteaded the next door sites as patios.  It was nasty and there were no hook-up available of any sort.  So disappointed.  We were looking forward to the adventure of meeting people at the Moose.  I quickly got on my computer and found us a place just past Pensacola.  It is a lovely RV park and just as nice as RV parks can be.  A campground it is not!  And the internet doesn’t work well.  Even our jetpack is not doing a very good job.  We must be out in the boonies! But that is not what we came here for.

We came for FAMILY!  I get to see my very most favorite aunt ever tonight and lots of first, second and whatever type of cousins.  Can't wait!

There were quite a few of these guys at the park and I was remiss in not getting a picture of them all.  Each was unique.

Mobile, Alabama.  I always love being here but have never stopped.

Always know - there IS light at the end of the tunnel!