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Our New House

It was brought to my attention that we haven’t updated our Blog since 2013. Since we have become stagnant and haven’t really traveled for a while I didn’t have much of interest to post. Not that our life isn’t interesting, there just isn’t much RV Travel going on.

Well recently we have turned another page in our lives. We decided since we like our lifestyle so much that buying a house wasn’t in our plans. However we have pretty much outgrown the RV so…

We bought a Park Model home in the same resort where we have lived for the last 11 years in the motor home. If you are not familiar with a Park Model, it is a small 400 square foot manufactured home. Ours however is a bit more than a simple park model. First off ours is set in the ground so it is ground level, then a 200 square foot addition was added making it 600 square foot overall and the whole thing is stuccoed and the roof is tiled. There is also a 117 square foot building on the property, which serves as a laundry room and a shop. This building is attached to the house by a covered patio with outdoor kitchen. Along with the real residential appliances they topped it off with an air conditioner that can turn the house into a meat locker in the 120-degree Arizona summers. You can see more photos by clicking on the link in the left column.

I have added a link to the photos of our house HERE.

So, although we are keeping the motor home, it looks like we are not Fulltimers anymore.

Best wishes to all our readers and I hope your travels are as enjoyable as ours.

I will leave the Blog up because I know others enjoy reading about our travels.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

What a nice day

It was looking a little iffy this morning. After laying in bed, listening to the rain falling on the roof of the motorhome (which I really like) we thought today was going to be one of those “stay inside and relax” days. Shortly after waking, the rain went away, the sun poked out, the wind stopped and it warmed up real nice. The day was GREAT! I did nothing but sit out on the patio and enjoy the day. It doesn’t take long before someone will come by and sit for a while and chat. Especially since our site is right on the walking path. One of my neighbors came by and said I had the life of a palm tree. I never heard it put that way before. When evening rolled around we saw some pretty nasty clouds off in the distance and it wasn’t long before we were hearing thunder but it past right around us. The weather report says it’s only going to get better from here on out.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Problems uploading photos again

Looks like I am having problems uploading photos again. If they get it fixed I will go back and add photos. I will let you know when that happens.


There has been a lot going on around here. There is construction on the lot next to ours, which I am not too happy about. Their new patio cover is now blocking my view of the mountains from the coach window. There are two remedies though. One is to sit out on our patio in front of the motorhome and the other is to pull the motorhome all the way up past their patio. I would rather leave the motorhome where it is and sit on our patio and enjoy the view since the weather lately has been great.


Over the weekend Susan’s parents came out from Vista California to visit. They were impressed with the resort and what I have done with the lot. Susan’s Dad was looking at some available lots. Not sure if he was serious or just curious.

The resort has been party central. Seems there is always something going on at someone’s place. We have been hopping from lot to lot every evening for cookouts, cocktails, and munchies. Susan is enjoying not having to prepare full on meals and delighting all with her side dishes. We had a cookout the other evening and got to give the new grill a good workout with 10 steaks.

I have got a lot of comments on my cactus garden that I threw up in little time with little money. Since I added grass, palms, and such, I decided I needed to do a little desertscape to keep in theme with the area. I even installed a post for my Satellite dish. I am thinking of adding a big rock or plant to camouflage it a bit without blocking the signal. I am just not sure what it will be yet.

They are selling lots fast around here. This is probably the best time of the year for them since the park is full and the weather is great.

Monday, January 22, 2007

I hate wind

I see no good reason for wind. At least for my benefit. I know it is useful for a lot of things but I have no use for it. That being said, sometimes I wonder why I bought an RV lot in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It is more windy than not around here. And I am not talking about a nice gentle summer breeze, I am talking 10-30 mph a lot of the time with gusts to 40 at times. We still enjoy our place in Havasu though. I have found a spot in front of the motorhome that is blocked from the wind and have set up a sitting area. It is quite comfortable there and it overlooks the “Green Belt” and pool area.

Funny thing, the other day, a neighbor planned a get together for some dogs and burgers. He had arranged to use the clubhouse because of the cool and windy weather we have been having.


Turns out it was the best day since we have been here this time.


It was sunny with breezes below 5 mph. Needless to say, we didn’t use the clubhouse.

The park is really full this time of the year. We are leaving for about 3 weeks soon and I was not going to put our lot back in the rental pool for that time but since I have not seen a lot sit empty for more than a couple of hours I might as well make a little money. I know someone will be on it the whole time we are gone. It will help offset our 3 week travel costs.

I have pretty much finished my lot upgrade project for now. Now if the wind would just slow down so we can enjoy it. As I stated in the previous post, I planted a few plants. I am afraid, with this wind, they are going to grow sideways instead of up. As you can see in the photos, they are quite young right now and have a lot of growing to do.

Friday, January 19, 2007

I think I’m done for a while

I’ve just been working my butt off here. I dug ditches, put in irrigation, planted 3 Lantana, 4 Bottlebrush, 5 Oleander, 3 Palms, and a cactus garden. I also had some artificial turf installed. There is no way to keep real turf alive around here so artificial is the only way to go. Man, they have come a long way with this stuff. It looks so real. Today it is raining, and what a relief. I did absolutely nothing today. I think I am about done… Yeah Right!
I have given up trying to keep the motorhome clean since they are doing construction on the lot next door. They are extending their patio area and building a Casita. Just about every other day they are throwing dirt around and creating a bunch of dust. It doesn’t take much since the wind it always blowing around here. Hopefully today’s rain will clean most of it off.
I used our new grill for the first time the other day. I grilled two burgers. I was thinking something was wrong because it took 30+ minutes to cook two thin burger patties and they were still slightly pink inside. My neighbor says that’s normal when the outside temperature is in the 40s with a good wind blowing. The patties were also frozen when I started.
We were disappointed to find that our friends two lots down had sold their lot. Turns out they bought a house only about 2 miles from the resort and are planning to live here year round so we will most likely be seeing more of them. Also the couple they sold their lot to are real nice people. All worked out good.
In two weeks we are back on the road again. Hopefully I can relax and enjoy my handy work in the mean time.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

What the heck

I thought when I sold the house that I was done with moving and yard work. Today I went out in the 34 degree weather and built a cactus garden on my lot. Then later Susan and I went out and picked up a few plants and I did some planting. This afternoon a good friend called and asked if I would help him move some stuff out of his storage into his new house. At least I don’t have to spend all weekend working on the yard like I used to when I owned a house. It’s supposed to be about 27 degrees tonight with wind chills of 22. It is not supposed to be above freezing until 10:00a tomorrow morning. Good thing my new plants are guaranteed.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

WOW


What can I say besides WOW. The weather changed day to day around here at this time of year. Today was a bit windy but warm and nice, however this evening the clouds came in and tomorrow it’s supposed to rain. Sure makes a nice sunset though.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

What a surprise


I went out this evening to take a little walk and found that 3 lots down were some good friends of ours. They have attended a couple of rallies with us at San Antonio Lake near Paso Robles, California. They were just passing through from Quartzite and will stay for a couple of days. The funny thing is, our neighbors purchased the lot they are on as a rental lot and they were a bit disappointed it hasn’t rented yet. Our friends are their first renters. Also when our friends came in they were assigned a lot at the other end of the resort but had problems with the water and were moved to 3 lots down from us. This is so cool.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Busy Busy


Check out our new addition to our lot here in Lake Havasu. Now we are going to have to have all our friends over to check it out. Since arriving here we have been going and going. It wasn’t more than 2 hours after arrival that we went out for $1 tacos. Last nights cocktail hour lasted so long that no one had time to prepare dinner so we went out to the local steak house for dinner. Finally tonight we had a good home cooked meal. Susan hosted a taco fest for some friends at our place. Tomorrow we are up bright and early to head on over to the swap meet in town. Today I had the landscaper out to discuss installing some artificial turf on the lot. He will start the install later this week. This means I will have to go to work installing irrigation and putting in some plants. I am going to have to plan another trip back here soon to just sit and relax.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

All is OK

Well I got to drive the motorhome today with no wind. I was able to drive with one hand at the bottom of the wheel as I did before the alignment. It handles well. I think I do have a slight bit more wander than before the alignment but I can get used to it.

We are now at our RV Lot at Lake Havasu RV Resort. It’s good to see our friends here again. We all went out for $1 tacos at one of the local restaurants and had a great time. We are looking forward to spending more time with our friends.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Almost there

First off, I did find a mistake in the mileage calculations I mentioned in the last post. I must have reset the trip odometer since the last fill up because I was off a little over 100 miles. Actual mileage is more around 8.1 mpg. I feel better about that.

We have moved down the road to Indio for a 1 night stop over. We are now at the Indio Elks Lodge. They have quiet a few sites here, however with the upcoming FMCA rally, almost all sites were taken. It was only about an hour drive, but being we had the motorhome in the shop for half the day we didn’t arrive here until around 2:00p. They made some major adjustments to the front end of the motorhome. It seems the alignment was way off. That explained the tire ware I was getting. I was reluctant to have anything adjusted because the coach handled so well, however I didn’t want to replace front tires every 20,000 miles. I don’t know if it was the high winds coming here, but I noticed a little more wander than I remember. Tomorrow we are back on the road again heading into Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Monday, January 1, 2007

Our work is over

I hope everyone had a good New Years Eve and We wish you all a good New Year.

We left San Elijo State Beach this afternoon. Our Camp Host jobs are over for another year. It was sad saying goodbye to all our new friends. When we return later this year, they will probably have a whole new set of Park Aids. We are now in Redlands, California. It was a fairly easy 2 hour drive north. I say fairly easy because we were bucking some pretty good winds during the last hour. I calculated my mileage and it came to only 5 mpg. I am hoping I didn’t fill it all the way the last time (I don’t remember) and it threw my calculations off. I usually am in the high 8s. We will spend one night here then up early to take the motorhome into the shop for some routine maintenance. They say it will be done tomorrow and we can be on our way. Hopefully it won’t be too late. Susan is happy because it’s dinner out tonight and breakfast out tomorrow morning. It’s been so long since I used the GPS for the car that I had to relearn it all over again so we can find our way to dinner and back. I managed to find a pretty nice park right around the corner from the service center. We made reservations about a month ago and it’s a good thing we did because we got the last spot. This place is clean and neat although a bit tight. Everyone is super friendly. While hooking up, two couples came by and chatted. It just feels comfortable.