Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Escapees North Ranch, Congress, Arizona

May 14, 2020

Temperature 89 Degrees

Giddy up oom poppa omm poppa mow mow Heigh-ho silver, away

Another beautiful day that God gave us today.  I believe each day is a precious gift given to us by Him and meant to be lived to the fullest.  So we do.  Whether we are sitting playing dominoes, shopping, sightseeing, or whatever.  We absolutely love the life that is ours.

Early evening we had our good luck bunny come to visit us right at our sight.  What’s that you say?  Are we superstitious?  Yes and no.  I don’t believe that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck.  However, does it really hurt to believe in good luck bunny?

Elvira is now ninety five per cent prepped and ready for the road.  This evening I:

• put all the wheel covers away
• emptied the tanks and put the sewer hose and slinky away
• removed the front screens from the windshield and cleaned the windshield
• cleaned the rear view mirrors
• drained Wesley our water softener and put it away
• secured the step ladder to the back ladder
• lubed the front steps and ensured that they will fully retract
• checked and made sure all fluid levels are right on the money
• put our welcome mat and the turtles away for their trip to our new home
• put our chairs away
• put other odds and ends in the car, I’ll find a storage locker for them later

Tomorrow morning we’ll have about an hour’s worth of work to do before we can leave.  Our goal is to be on the road by nine o’clock.

Which should get us to our new home – Fort Beale RV Park – around or before noon time.

In terms of packing up, guess what we did tonight?  We finally put our Mexican Train set away.  I swear you could almost hear each domino cry a bit as we packed them away.  Don’t worry my little friends you will be back out soon enough.

That was our prep day for travel tomorrow.  We’re now at the end of another day on The Road of Retirement.  Time now to put our feet back and relax a bit before we call it a night.  As I said earlier it was a great day to be alive.   We’re going to miss this park.  Especially the full time residents.  Ron and Cathy to name just two.  Both of them and everyone here are really a super bunch of people.  We’ve also met and made some new RV friends – Linda and Donna to name just two.  They are full timers and travel solo.  We’re more convinced then ever as of now that this is where we will one day retire to.  Give us a few more years and we’ll know for sure.

Thought for the day.

Thanks for coming along today.  Hope you had as great a day as we did.  Keep those comments and suggestions coming.  Keep safe.  Wear your mask – if not for yourself then for someone else.  Remember, six feet apart or you could end up six feet under. Wash your hands often.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

 

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Escapees North Ranch, Congress, Arizona

May 13, 2020

Temperature 83 Degrees

Nobody Is Home

Unwanted Guests

Packing Up and Getting Ready

Spruce Up

What a wonderful morning that I woke up too.  The temperature was at 59 degrees!  Maybe that is why I stole the covers from Barbara last night.  The day was absolutely spectacular.  Abundant sunshine, clear blue sky, moderate temperatures and a refreshing wind blowing through Elvira.  A carbon copy of yesterday.  Yes, we want to live out here.

Look in either direction from Elvira and is easy to see that there are not many people still in the park.  There are a total of 111 sites and I would dare say maybe three or four dozen are occupied.  Soon, our site will be empty as well. Yipee!

We’ve had many unwelcomed guests in our rig over the years but moths are a first.  Every night we have to get rid of at least one, two, or three.  Poor Linda next door had a total of nineteen one night.  Since that first night she stated there have been at least five or six or more a night she has to get rid of.  I have absolutely no idea where they are coming from nor how they are getting in.

I started getting Elvira ready for Friday’s journey.  Today I checked and adjusted tire pressure.

I lubed the slide rails.  Then I started picking up odds and ends on the outside and storing them in different lockers.  Tomorrow, I really get serious and put everything away.  I’ll dump the tanks at night, put all the hoses away, and make sure we’re ready to go come Friday morning.

Lunch today was a Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.  I added a handful of Frito’s and a strawberry lemon aid.  Yummy.  You better believe I was once again a member of the clean plate club.

Today was hair cut day for both of us.  Come on now, we have to make a good first impression when we arrive at our new neighborhood.  Why, I’m even considering shaving.  Now how about that.

That was the sum total of our very normal, not very exciting, matter of fact day on The Road of Retirement.  In the terms of temperatures these are the days we love.  Otherwise, we sure do miss our sightseeing trips.  Speaking of which we were informed today that our trip to the Grand Canyon is sort of off again.  We can take the train trip, but the bus trip and the afternoon lunch have been postponed until July 1st.  Pooh.  Ah well, we’ll take a few weeks to decide exactly what we are going to do.  A minor inconvenience for us and by no means nearly as bad as that which some are having to cope with.

My thoughts exactly.

Thanks for tagging along today.  Hope you had as great a day as we did.  Keep those comments and suggestions coming.  Keep safe.  Wear your mask – if not for yourself then for someone else.  Remember, six feet apart or you could end up six feet under. Wash your hands often.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Escapees North Ranch, Congress, Arizona

May 12, 2020

Temperature 85 Degrees

Victron Battery Monitor – Another Item From the Wish List Fulfilled

Slide Shelf Reinforcement Finished

What an absolutely beautiful day we had today.  Plentiful sunshine with clear blue skies and the real winner, moderate temperatures all day.  Point of fact with the winds that were blowing there was no need for the AC today.  We opened all the windows and enjoyed the breeze that blew through from one end of Elvira to the other.

Two projects were completed today.

I finished the reinforcement of the slide motor shelf.  I know, I forgot to take a finished picture.  Just take it from me the L bracket is on the other side  of the shelf.  I was only able to install one in the front.  There was just too much electrical wiring and what not in the back and I could not get the drill in where it needed to be.  I’ll probably revisit this again when we are up in Kingman.

Today the Victron Battery Monitor was on the install list.  I was back and forth as to whether I could or should tackle this one myself.  Ninety five percent of what was done I could have absolutely completed without an issue.  It was that last five percent meaning the electrical connections that always seem to throw me.

I, therefore, called in the experts.  The owner, Credric, is well respected in the park and has done quite a bit of work up here.

I have a high regard for someone who keeps his truck or trailer as well organized as he does.

In addition as he removed parts and pieces from Elvira he didn’t just lay them on the ground.  Oh no, rather he spread out a mat and carefully laid each piece removed on it.

The shunt was of course installed in the battery bay.  The real work, though, involved snaking the remote cable from the battery bay. . .

over the wheel well, through the wet bay. . .

up through the refrigerator compartment. . .

to the agreed upon mounting location for the gauge itself.  I wanted it installed on the wall outside of the bathroom.  Unfortunately, it couldn’t be installed up front with the other gauges,  there was no room for it and no way to get the cord all the way up there.

Here is the small monitoring gauge in its permanent location.  The wire from the battery box to here is covered with a wire loom and properly support with small grommets from back to front.  Bonus, this gauge is Blue Tooth Enabled so I can also monitor everything from my phone.

With the Victron while boondocking in either a Harvest Host or Boondockers Welcome location I can now properly monitor:

• the battery voltage of the house batteries
• the battery voltage of the chassis batteries
• the actual current flowing either in or out of the house batteries
• the amount of amp hours consumed from the house batteries
• the state of charge of the house batteries
• the amount of time of how long the house batteries can support the present load before they need to be recharged.

All of this is absolutely important, especially since we are now using a residential refrigerator.

Projects are now finished for the foreseeable future.  Time to just enjoy Elvira.

Later in the day Barbara decided she needed some space.  When we stopped and thought about it we have been in each other’s face since mid March.  Not a problem if we were still using a laundromat to do our laundry.  That, really, used to be our standing joke.  We can get along without a problem as long as there are laundromats along the way!  That, of course, is no more since we have a washer/dryer in Elvira.  A new plan was needed.  So off she went today to do some grocery shopping on her own, and just look at what she brought back with the groceries.  Along with the groceries she came home with a delicious Chinese Supper!

Oh, I almost forgot.  Yes, we once again played a round of Mexican Train!

That was the sum total of our day on The Road of Retirement.  Time now to begin getting ready to get back on the road.  Little by little I’m finding storage locations for all the stuff we’ve hauled out over the course of the last several months.  Come Friday and we’ll be ready to go.  You can bank on that.

On the lighter side.

Thanks again for joining us today.  Hope your day was as fantastic as ours.  We also appreciate all your comments and suggestions.  Keep safe.  Wear your mask – if not for yourself then for someone else.  Remember, six feet apart or you could end up six feet under. Wash your hands often.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Escapees North Ranch, Congress, Arizona

May 11, 2020

Temperature 89 Degrees

Mom – Thanks So Much We’re Living Our Dream Because of You

Odds and Ends

Another beautiful day given to us by the good Lord today.  Clear blue skies, abundant sunshine, more reasonable temperatures.  What more could one ask for.

Today we are living a life we only once dreamed of.  A life of adventure and travel.  A life of exploration and new discoveries.  We are, truly, on the road today in large part because of my mom.  When others questioned our desire to live full time on the road, not my mom.  She constantly encouraged us to go live the life we wanted to.  Over and over again when she was alive and I called her on the phone to talk to her she would say Are you both still having fun?  I would answer You bet!  To which she would reply I’m so happy for the two of you, just keep living your dream.  That is, indeed, what we are doing.  In addition, Elvira is in a very real sense a gift from her.

With this in mind both Barbara and I wanted in some way to acknowledge her for her love and support.  We finally decided on this.  We proudly display it on the front dash just as you enter our rig.  It will remain there until someday in the future we finally come off the road.

This is the remote control panel for our current converter/inverter.  Up until now it was just there.  But you know what happens when you are confined and become bored?  Yup, you began to investigate the components of your rig.  I dug out the manual and began to run through the various menus.  Interestingly enough I found a number of settings that were incorrect.  I made corrections and even found out how to put the panel into power saver mode.  Imagine that.

Last Wednesday a Class C Motorhome arrived at North Ranch and parked two spaces down from us.  Yet, who owned it, how many were in it remained a mystery until last night.  Each day we would see the patio awning go out, then just before it got dark it would go back in.  Yet, no one ever came out.  Finally, the mystery was solved.  Linda came out last night to go into town to go shopping.  I spent a few minutes talking to her and discovered:  she hates the heat so she just stayed inside last week with the A/C on; and, she is a full timer traveling solo. Another new acquaintance met and made.

Yup, Mexican Train again today.

Our big meal of the day.  A huge chef’s salad for Barbara.  Crab cakes, rice and a nice cold Sam Adams for me.  Oh, Barbara did grab a glass of wine before she sat down.  Absolutely delicious.

Today I also had a wonderful conversation with Dennis, a good friend of ours who we first met when in Florida.  Each month he and I spend a few minutes on the phone catching up on what is going on in each other’s lives.  I really look forward to to our phone calls each month.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We continue to find fulfillment in our days here in Congress but are definitely looking forward to new seeing and exploring new and unexplored parts of this great country.  Till then we’ll enjoy each day here that the good Lord continues to give us.

Check this out.

Thanks again for joining us today.  Hope your day was as great as ours.  Keep those comments and suggestions coming.  Keep safe.  Wear your mask – if not for yourself then for someone else.  Remember, six feet apart or you could end up six feet under. Wash your hands often.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!