Category: 2017 Page 2 of 3

Eloise pointing to the patch of cactus she tripped into

A girl walks into a cactus…is not the start of a funny joke. It was a really bad night that Eloise has thankfully fully recovered from. She was walking next door in the dark to say goodnight to her little friend and tripped. Kevin and I spent an hour and a half picking cactus spikes out  of her. Poor baby! My fault for not giving her a flashlight. 🙁

Anyway, cactus aside, we loved our time in Moab, Utah. We stayed about 3 weeks in total. We loved the food. We loved the local vibe. We loved the hiking and biking and if you ever go there you have to try the Quesadilla Mobilla food truck! Yum!

View of Moab from the Sunset Grill Restaurant

It wasn’t all amazing tho: first there was the snow and then there was the wind. We encountered a winter storm on a mountain pass towing our 5th wheel from Bryce to Moab. We saw several tractor trailer trucks off the road and Kevin was ‘white-knuckling it’ driving down the steep, icy mountain pass. Yikes. We were all glad when we had finally arrived in one piece. Secondly, THE WIND is unrelenting in Moab. Of all the nights we stayed in Moab we could only have a fire/be outside in the evening about 5 or 6 nights. (That’s a lot of windy nights!) The wind blew over our hammock/hammock stand, ripped the hinge off our front door, blew away a few toys, and untold amounts of sand blew into our camper during several wind storms. Oye!

Layer of sand and dust on our printer after one windstorm the night before

We boondocked (dry camped) on public BLM land about 12 minutes from downtown Moab and had an amazing view of the La Sal Mountains. Moab is perfect for dry camping as there is free water and dump stations in town. We had long planned to come to Moab and there were several things we wanted to be sure to do. Our first order of business: a new mountain bike for Kevin. After lots of careful research and planning, his dream bike was finally found on pinkbike.com and he had an amazing time breaking it in. He rode over 100 miles of trails including the whole enchilada, mag 7, and slick rock.  I inherited Kevin’s old mountain bike and redecorated it appropriately. We have been able to enjoy several family bike rides since.

View from our camper of the La Sal Mountains

Kevin and his many biking adventures in Moab

Kevin’s old bike covered with stickers and a few other necessary accessories 😉

We had the good fortune of meeting up with numerous other fulltime families  and friends while in Moab which was a great blessing. We love meeting and getting to know other families on the road. First we met with a family traveling the US from Switzerland who happened to park right near us. Then we met up with the Logdson’s from Tennessee. We went out to dinner with them a few times, enjoyed a the Moab Jeep convention, went on a beautiful hike, and had fun playing and hanging out around the fire. We hope they will be able to meet up with us for a tour of Acadia in Maine later this summer!

So much fun with our little friends

Fun times at the giant sand dune right across from the entrance to Arches National Park

Then we met up with a couple from Escapees Chapter 8 who we had met during our two week trip to Mexico this past February. Donna has her hair dyed rainbow colors  and just loves playing with Eloise! Eloise couldn’t wait to try some temporary hair dye with her.

Purple, blue, and red hair!

Playing with our little friend Maya

Next we met with a fulltime family originally from Lithuania who we had met at several rallies in the past. Eloise got to know their daughter quite well over the course a a week while Kevin and Giedrius were able to enjoy numerous mountain bike rides. Together we all enjoyed the town aquatics center and playgrounds, several hikes in Arches National Park, and we also rented a Jeep with them one day. We rode our Jeeps on the 100-mile “White Rim Road” in Caynonlands National Park. It was such an amazingly fun and adventurous way to experience that national park.

The White Rim Road with our Jeep (we rented the blue one)

We have so many beautiful photos of Canyonlands National Park its hard to choose just a few to share!

Finally, we met with our Maine friends Cassie and Ryan who passed through Moab for one night on their month long tour of the US. (Eloise vividly remembers attending their wedding last fall and thus refers to Cassie as a ‘real life princess.’ Cute.)

The princess and her prince went on a few hikes in Arches with us, went to the local brewery, and were the first guests to stay overnight in our home in a long time! We all enjoyed hanging out with them before they headed on down the road to Las Vegas the next morning.

All in all we had a magnificent time in Moab and can’t wait until next time…

Happy baby outside Arches National Park

We pulled into Bryce Canyon, Utah in the early afternoon. We wanted to stay right near the national park and we had a few options lined up but Eloise met a family in Zion who was also headed to Bryce. They were staying at Ruby’s Inn and Campground so we changed our plans to stay with them. The campground had plenty of room because it sits at 8500 ft of elevation (compared to 3000 ft at Zion). Who cares? Well that major change in elevation meant one thing: it’s cold. While it was warm in Zion it was ice cold in Bryce. It was disconnect-your-water-hoses-at-night-because-it-will-freeze-solid cold. Fun. (Truthfully tho it was a welcome change from the brutal heat of Southern Arizona…)

It was nice to need a light jacket for once! haha

We stayed 3 nights and enjoyed the indoor pool there. We played with our friends we met at Zion and enjoyed several hikes around the hoodoos at Bryce.

We took a day trip to the local ski mountain (Brian’s Head Ski Mountain) where Eloise got to try out skiing with Daddy.

They had a nice time skiing and someone enjoyed making snow angels just as much as skiing

We had originally planned to stop at Capitol Reef National Park and Goblin Valley State park later that week but further research informed us of two important details: 1) it was too cold and snowy at Capitol Reef (the Park was largely closed; the roads were still snow covered) and 2) there was no internet/cell service at Capitol Reef or Goblin Valley. So we headed on down the road to sunny Moab instead.

Kevin got a chance to go mountain biking on the Thunder Mountain trail in Bryce

Zion canyon

We didn’t realize it was Spring Break. For everybody. And that there was a marathon going on…

We pulled into Zion at around 5am. We didn’t have any reservations. The campground, South Campground, was first come-first-served and we had read that to get a spot you needed to line up early. When we got in line there were easily 10 other campers ahead of us. (None of them had a 39 foot camper tho) Our back up plan was to find some public land to camp on but thought it might be fun to try to stay inside the National Park for a change. We got lucky and there was room for us and we stayed there a week.

View from our window

The good: We were a short walk to the shuttle bus and the Visitor’s Center. We met several other families and kids who were on Spring Break and Eloise had fun getting to meet all of them. The campground was paved and she enjoyed riding her bike all around. The weather while we were there was mostly pleasant with one rainy day and there was a nice restaurant we could walk to right from our camper. Our favorite hike was the Wildcat Canyon trail which was located off of the Kolob Terrace Road which is a less popular area of the park. Amazing views and no people!

Eloise and her many friends

The bad: Because it was only early April, not all of the roads/hiking trails were open. Most notably the famous ‘Narrows’ hike was closed due to high water along with several other trails which were closed for maintenance. Roads in the northern park of the park were closed due to snow.  The park seemed under staffed for the number of visitors. The line of cars at the entrance gate to get from the nearby village into Zion was a mile long on some days.

Hiking views

The ugly: Over crowding. One day Eloise and Eliza and I hiked up to the emerald pools in Zion Canyon while Kevin was working. It was a short 3 mile hike. It was packed. We walked (trudged) right behind other hikers the whole way there and back. To access the many hiking trails in Zion Canyon you must ride the shuttle bus which was super packed and standing room only. We waited for 2 buses before I said the heck with it and pushed my way on the bus wearing Eliza and holding Eloise’s hand. In another example of the over crowding: there were several trail heads that you take your own car to that were so packed with cars that even in the early morning we couldn’t hike them as there was no place to park. Fun.

All in all Zion was gorgeous. Beautiful scenery. Unfortunately its proximity to major cities means this park has record breaking crowds early in the year. I can’t even imagine it at its peak. We had a nice time but did not achieve that quiet ‘back to nature’ vibe we were hoping for at a National Park.

The cool kids who finished the hike first and waited for us back at the truck

I have a theory: this place is named Lone Rock because all the other smaller rocks blew away in the wind…We’ve hit some high winds on our travels however this place takes the cake. Eloise asked “Will our camper blow over Daddy?” No. At least we hoped not.

Our home parked on Lone Rock Beach

We pulled on to Lone Rock Beach in Big Water, UT early on a Sunday morning. Because we had left Arizona we were now in a new time zone: Mountain Time. (Note: Lone Rock is right on the border of AZ and UT and all week long we crossed back and forth between Arizona time–they don’t partake in daylight savings time– and Mountain time. Boy was that annoying. We kept asking what time is it? oye)

Lone Rock Beach was amazing boondocking. So beautiful. We parked right on the beach and dropped the back deck. We pulled out the inflatable kayak and paddled over to lone rock and in the cove. Eliza was in no way a fan of her life jacket and wanted out of the boat immediately (thus we have no photos from that boat ride). Eloise enjoyed the paddle on the calm waters.

Lone Rock Beach

We enjoyed playing in the sand on Lone Rock Beach and met a few other kids enjoying the beach that week too. It wasn’t super warm but it was in the 60-70 which was warm enough for a kid haha. (The water was cold! But some kids did go swimming. Brr!)

Our neighbor on the beach (who we had just met) warned us of two things: 1.that if there is any wind in the forecast then to make sure everything is tied down, 2. people get their car/truck/camper stuck in the sand here all the time and to be careful.

Hard to see but this is a photo of blowing sand and the rental boat on the beach

We checked the forecast before we went to Lone Rock and there was no wind mentioned. We re-checked it after we arrived and found some light/moderate winds on Tuesday. We didn’t think much of it and went on with our business. Tuesday afternoon the light wind started. Around 5pm the winds intensified and we were sure our awnings were pulled in and all the lightweight items outside were stowed away. At 5:30pm we saw our heavy vinyl kayak and paddles flying in the wind down the beach. We ran after them and secured all of it. At 6pm I noticed our other neighbors running down the beach. I peered out the window and saw a medium sized speed boat up on the beach and people running towards it. Kevin went out to investigate. After 2 hours, Kevin returned. He (and our neighbors who had rented the boat) went out into the wind storm to Lone Rock to save 2 kayakers (a father and son) who had become stranded there when the winds picked up. Oye. Glad no one was hurt. (They had called 9-1-1 but were informed it would be hours before help arrived so this rental boat was their only immediate rescue.)

It should also be noted that while we did not get anything stuck in the sand here (thankfully) we did witness several people who did. Kevin even helped tow one person out of the deep sand.

Glenn Canyon Dam

We were glad when the winds were gone. We were able to enjoy the beach again and also visited nearby Glenn Canyon Dam (took the dam tour which was interesting), hiked out to Horseshoe Bend, and toured Lower Antelope Canyon. At Glenn Canyon Dam we were able to tour all the way down to the generators. Lower Antelope Canyon was beautiful, but a little pricey, crowded, and felt like a mile long cattle march through a canyon.

Pretending to cry as we were stuck with wall to wall people in Lower Antelope Canyon

The whole family at Horseshoe Bend Arizona

We had planned to stay at Lone Rock for a whole week however we re-checked the forecast and saw moderate/high winds in the forecast for Thursday and left. We knew that another day of sand-blasting was not going to be any fun so we hit the dusty trail towards Zion National Park.

Gorgeous Lower Antelope Canyon

We pulled in to Tuscon, AZ a few days ahead of schedule to relax at a campground with a pool and escape the snakes of the Sonoran desert.  Eloise practiced riding her new bike here and found she really enjoyed bike riding.

Enough pictures of Eloise. Here is Eliza liking her walker.

Our flock: Fulltime families (other families who live and travel in their RV full time) all flew into Tucson for a week long rally and we had a blast.  The Fulltime Family rally was held in conjunction with the “57th Escapade” hosted by Escapees RV Club. The family rally was just a small cohort of the large event. The Escapade included seminars, an RV market place, food vendors, club socials, RV sales, and nightly entertainment including a talent show. Of course we really didn’t partake in any (or many) of those events as we were busy meeting and socializing with other families.

Eloise loved meeting all the kids and (mostly) enjoyed “Kidscapade” the kids day camp which was held on two days of the event. (Did she come home half way through both days? Yes. But she did go back to play after a snack at home.) The kids painted, played with water squirt guns, ran in sprinklers, flew kites, played dolls, rode bikes, and genuinely enjoyed running around in the soft green grass. (Grass! In the desert!) Eloise really loved playing with her two new friends: Willow and Eliza (a new Eliza!). They all ran ragged late into the night and unfortunately we were busy chasing them and didn’t take as many photos as we would have liked! As part of the talent show the kids all went on stage to sing a song while they held their art work that they created at kids camp. (Everyone was supposed to paint a picture of their camper. Eloise had other ideas for her art)

Painting #2: Glitter and paint on paper titled: “Tornado camper” – Eloise age 4 and 3/4

One day several of the dads got together to go mountain biking and had a very enjoyable kid-free workout.

Parents socialized by the fire every night and it was nice to relax and discuss topics with those who are living in their RV too.  We got many a tip on new places to visit and recommendations on campgrounds and boondocking and dry camping spots. We even fell in love with the propane fire pit while we were there and knew we had to get one! Of course many good laughs were had and we can’t wait to meet everyone again down the road.

Come on Mom, haven’t you ever seen a baby eat a Popsicle on a 95 degree day before?

Gila Bend was interesting to say the least. On the one hand it seemed to be a quiet little town with nothing going on. On the other hand there were some interesting kitsch metal sculptures sprinkled around the town and there was this place: Space Age Lodge. Weird.

Perhaps the only neat thing in this town

Being silly with the sculptures

We pulled in to a brand new KOA in Gila Bend to take a quick break from boondocking. We did laundry and cleaning. We decided to join in on a group campfire at that KOA and their fire pit was so new that the hot logs from the fire exploded a pocket of cement into the crowd! Luckily no one was hurt and it certainly woke everyone up that night! We did enjoy some yummy fire roasted s’mores too.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument at sunset

After a brief stay at the KOA (which was pricey) we moved on to Holt’s Shell RV Park which was $11 per night for full hook up! Woot. While Kevin worked we explored the town and indulged in long showers, deep baths, and unlimited laundry. It was here that we saw our first black widow spider on a rock wall. (Not sure why we didn’t take a picture…maybe because I was busy running away…) We decided to stay here for a week to explore the Sonoran Desert National Monument. It turns out that there are no hikes in that national monument that don’t require an off road vehicle to access. Bummer since we had pre-paid to stay at that RV park.  Live and learn.

Desert flowers we saw on our hikes from this area

When the week was over we moved south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where there was known to be better hiking opportunities. We tried boondocking on BLM land there however the internet was too slow for Kevin to work (another bummer) so we moved to the campground within the monument which was amazing with internet and fantastic desert views.

The weather had started to get hot a week or two before and daily the temperatures here near Why, AZ, were reaching 85-90F. Hot temperatures bring out the rattle snakes. We knew that. We had been running all over the Arizona desert for the better part of 4 months now and had yet to see any real wildlife beyond a few roadrunners, rabbits, and one snake in the fall (Kevin saw it at dusk in Quartzsite, AZ). We decided to go on a short hike that left from our campground to an old mine.

Mommy and Eloise checking out the old abandoned miners house

It was a well traveled trail and we saw at least 15 people hiking it as well. It was hot but we left early in the morning. On the way back home Eloise was hot and tired so I lagged behind with her while Daddy and Eliza hiked ahead. Well, just a quarter mile ahead on the side of the trail was large adult rattlesnake that was rattling and posing to strike! Kevin sprinted back down the trail to warn me. (I asked if he snapped a pic but he said that wasn’t on his mind at the time haha).

We hiked off trail way around where the snake was last spotted and hightailed it out of there. Kevin went to alert the ranger since there were so many other hikers on that same trail but by the time they made it back to the spot the snake had slithered away. Amazingly, the ranger told Kevin that there had been no snake bites in the history of that National Monument! We had paid to stay at the campground for 2 more nights but packed up and left that same day. Kids and rattlesnakes don’t mix and if the snakes are coming out of their dens then we are going to move out of their way!

We had such an amazing time in Mexico that we really regretted scheduling RV repair work for the day after we returned. We would have loved to extend our stay!

1. You know you’re a bored kid at a repair shop when you start making a chair out of magazines. 2. Hiding in the laundry bag at the laundromat. 3. Swimming at the hotel pool

We dropped our camper off at La Mesa RV in Phoenix and went to an inexpensive nearby hotel for the night. Once the repair work was finished we headed over to Cummins Onan to have our generator checked out because it had started acting wonky before we left for Mexico.  (Just the latest thing to break for us!) After a few hours we were told it was a bad spark plug and hightailed it out of Phoenix to the quiet BLM area near Saddle Mountain about an hour outside of Phoenix.

The scenery was beautiful at Saddle Mountain in Tonopah AZ. We hiked up a small near by hill to take in the view of the amazing wildflower bloom. The next day we hiked up Saddle Mountain which was a tough hike with few trail markers, 3 miles round trip, and 1700 ft elevation gain. The view of the valley was rewarding and Eloise hiked almost all the way up on her own!

Hiking up Saddle Mountain

The next morning we decided to start the generator during breakfast (to make a giant pot of coffee..yawn!) and of course it wouldn’t start (Kevin knew the cause of its issues couldn’t be simply a bad spark plug) so back to Cummins we went. We boondocked in their parking lot for the whole next week while Kevin worked. We were able to get some much needed supplies in Phoenix and visited the Children’s museum which was a neat place to learn and play for both girls. Our generator was finally repaired (it was a bad coil) on a Friday at 4:30pm. We were glad to hopefully have that repaired for good and headed south to Gila Bend.

Phoenix Children’s Museum. She loved pretending to serve ice cream to other kids at the ice cream stand. We played with that for quite some time while Eliza napped.

First let me say our trip to San Felipe on the Baja in Mexico was amazing. The food was yummy, weather was great, traveling with Chapter 8 was fun, and everyone we met was very nice: no bad hombres where we were!

Now let me back up…

“Chapter 8” is a subgroup within the RV network Escapees. This group travels to Mexico by caravan once a year and we had signed up to join them many months prior. There were 60 campers in total and we all met at the Yuma Fairgrounds in early February for three days to meet, re-organize, purchase Mexican RV insurance, and finalize plans for our 10 day trip.

Ralph letting Eliza drive

We had the good fortune of also getting to travel with Kevin’s grandparents Ralph and Lorraine who brought their own RV over to Yuma from Alabama. Eloise was excited to see them for sure!

Once the big group was all packed up and prepped, we divided into smaller caravans of 8-10 rigs. We were assigned to group #4: ‘Rainbow’. We utilized CB radios and followed each other from Yuma, crossed the US-Mexico border, and down to San Felipe Mexico. In total the drive took us 6 hours (which included a few wrong turns!)

View from our porch on the beach

Our parking spot was boondocking on the beach and it was amazing. The beach was clean and the weather was nice. Unfortunately Kevin did have to work the majority of our time there but we will be back some day.

Eloise had fun playing with Grammy Lorraine and Grampy Ralph too and I was thankful for a few hours break from Eliza each day.  Eloise truly enjoyed camping right on the beach and loved the company of all the other people we were camped near too. Of course, as the only young child on the trip (beside Eliza) she was soaking in all the extra attention from the adults. We all had a nice time together.

While we primarily stayed and enjoyed making sand castles and flying kites on the beach, we did venture out to see some local sights. A few highlights:

• One fun side trip: Kevin and Ralph were invited  at the last minute to tag along on a 4×4 trip out to towards the mountains. They stopped at a desert shack, out in the middle of nowhere (with no electricity), where a local man sold cold beer from his very humble abode. It was a unique experience for sure!
• One day we decided to take our truck out and walk around the town of San Felipe. We did a little window shopping, bought Eloise a new Elsa dress-up dress from a kids princess dress store, and had a nice lunch out.
  

  Town of San Felipe

  

  Eloise modeling her new dress that Daddy bought for her

• A few times we enjoyed the pool at El Dorado Ranch (a complex next door where we had passes to use their facilities) 

It should be noted that Chapter 8 is not a tour group and relies on volunteers to accomplish each aspect of this trip. The mission of Chapter 8 is also charity work in Mexico however due to work obligations and the girls we were unable to truly participate in this beyond donating and participating in the charity auction fundraiser. Next time. The good people of Chapter 8 truly worked hard to help us ‘newbies’ all feel welcome and they also organized several dinner outings at local restaurants which were fun and delicious.

Chapter 8 Group Meeting with our fearless leader Cynthia

I’ll admit, I had some reservations driving our camper into Mexico however it was primarily a seamless trip and our good experience with Chapter 8 assuaged any fears that I had. We all met many new friends and look forward to meeting them again at next years rally in Ensenada Mexico!

Enjoying margaritas with the leaders of Group ‘Rainbow:’ Jackie and Koz

Special thanks to…

• Jackie and Koz for doing their best with navigating the drive down and then later for taking Ralph and Lorraine out dancing!
• Randy for help parking our big rig
• ‘Rainbow’ for the bubbles and the sand dollars
• Carol for the fun times with “Tank” the turtle
• Lorraine and Ralph for entertaining Eloise and Eliza
• Cynthia and Chapter 8 for the matching Mexican ponchos for the girls

Eliza being a good sport playing dress up

We promised to reassess our thoughts on living full time in a 5th wheel every 4 months during the first year so here is our second installment.

We have officially lived in our new home for 8 full months now! My my how times flies. How have things changed after four more months? Well, I’d say we are just now finding our groove. It feels like home and we finally have upgraded, fixed, remodeled it to be perfect for our day to day life.

Here are the original questions with our current answers after 8 months:

Aren’t you cramped living in tight quarters? No, still not cramped. Its a 40 foot 5th wheel. Plenty of room. We have donated/sold even more items that we have not been using to make even more room.

Do you miss your old house? No! (Eloise still reminisces about a few of her old toys and has a list of items she’d love for me to dig through our storage unit to find for her this summer haha)

Do you find you are missing anything in your new home? No. We really have everything we would want to be comfortable. It’s a fully equipped house on wheels including dishwasher!

Are you doing this to save money? No however we have been able to realize cost savings by free camping or boondocking vs staying at campgrounds.

How do you work/how is work going? Kevin’s office remains in the converted the toy hauler area and he is able to shut the door to keep out the every day noise from the girls. Internet connectivity can sometimes be an issue but with our cell phone booster we have had very few issues (with the exception of some video conference calls.)

What are your favorite parts about your new home? This answer hasn’t changed: time spent outdoors and increased family time with an emphasis on shared experiences, meeting new people, and reuniting with old friends. We have met so many new friends and experienced a number of new places that have been truly amazing. It is an incredible way to live for sure.

Enjoying a fire with new friends

What’s your least favorite part about your new home? Added stress from repair work remains the least favorite part of this lifestyle.  We just finally had a repair completed that started 4+ months ago. And still ‘moving days’ remain stressful as we take down, drive, and set up with two small children. We get better every day and are efficient however obviously kids are unpredictable and can throw the best laid plans aside. Unfortunately Eliza does not like her car seat and does not nap in the car…(well, she doesn’t like to nap in her crib either haha)

Field trip to the “Desert Bar” in Parker, AZ with the Xscapers group

What one piece of advice would you give to anyone else considering doing something like this? Do it!  Ignore the naysayers and embark on a life changing experience. In fact, just this past January we parked for two weeks with more than 50 other rigs in Quartzsite as part of an RV gathering for Xscapers.

The Xscapers is a group of full time RV-ers who are typically younger and still working (vs. the parent group: Escapees who are typically older and retired). We belong to both groups but clearly identify with the Xscapers group which was happening to have a 2 week boondocking rally in Quartzsite in January.  It was a great chance for fellowship among those who live this lifestyle. One of the highlights for me was the “home tours” where at least 30 rigs opened their doors to showcase what they had done/renovated/changed to make their RV their home. Of course it’s also fun exchanging stories from the road and sharing favorite camping spots too. We made numerous new friends who we hope to meet again down the road.

Kevin took a last minute ski trip trip up to Mammoth Mountain with his friend Nate at the end of January. During the 4 days they were there they got 8 feet of fresh snowfall! So much snow landed in the bed of the truck Eloise was able to make a snowman when he got back home to us in Quartzsite AZ!

The day after Christmas Kevin surprised Eloise with a last minute trip to Legoland Discovery Center and Sea Life Aquarium in Phoenix. It was a long day but we all had a nice time.

After Christmas we celebrated my Birthday. “You’re how old mommy? Wow.” Thanks Pumpkin.

My birthday brownies. Eloise had a big hand in the frosting and decorating.

And then New Years. For New Years we moved back down to Quartzsite AZ and rang in the new year around a bonfire with another full-time family and a few people we had met the last time we were in the area.

A few days into 2017 Kevin had a work trip planned to New Orleans so naturally we tagged along. We left our home in Quartzsite under the watchful eye of some friends and flew out of Phoenix. It was Eliza’s first flight and she was a champ. (Honestly you can put her in the baby carrier and she’d be happy doing anything)

“I’m not tired”

In New Orleans we shared renting a house in the French Quarter with another family we are long time friends with from Fayette, Maine and it was nice.

Why didn’t we make the Davies family get in the boat with Lucas? Next time!

We visited:

• Children’s museum
• Insectarium
• Aquarium
• Zoo
• Cafe Du Monde (twice!)
• Burbon Street
• Joan of Arc Parade

Kevin had several work meetings to attend so he didn’t make it on all of our outings but we still had a nice time together. (Mommy even had a night out with her friend!)

Mommy being funny at the Joan of Arc Parade

When we got home we had an appointment for our RV to be reviewed by another dealership for repair work. We invested another 4 hours to have it inspected in Phoenix and hope to have our slide issue finally repaired (for the 3rd and final time) by the end of February.