Wicked Wanderers

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.

Yea, this post is a little belated. OK, its over a month and a half late. You can blame her tho:

She is so happy, 24/7. Never seen a baby like it but she just doesn’t quit. Nap time: all smiles. Bed time: smiles…Go to sleep baby! Mommy’s tired…ZZzz…I digress…

The week leading up to Christmas was not filled with the hustle and bustle of preparations. We were boondocking on BLM land in Tucson and toured Saguaro National Park and Colossal Cave. Saguaro was beautiful with such a unique landscape. The hiking trails were short and it took us only 1 day to get the sense that we had seen the majority of what the park had to offer. We took a short detour over to Colossal Cave and Eloise enjoyed the 1 hour cave tour. (Eliza slept through it).

Christmas Day in our home was quiet and focused. We moved from Tucson up to Desert Shadows RV Park in Phoenix on Christmas Eve. It was nice. There was a pool. No running around to endless parties. No winter driving. No massive amount of gifts or wasted monies. Yes we missed our friends and family but Santa was able to find our RV and everyone had a splendid time. We had Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant; it was delicious and there was no clean up at home!

The perfect sized tree from Walmart decorated with handmade paper decorations. A reasonable amount of gifts stacked underneath.

Family photo Christmas Day. Eliza’s eyes follow Daddy where ever he goes…

Daddy setting up the much anticipated “Crystal Empire” from My Little Pony

Tearing open a card

Eliza enjoying her first snuggles with her new elephant

In the morning we shared a video of Eloise opening presents with family and later enjoyed a quiet afternoon watching Christmas movies.

There are many things we love about our home but as time went on we realized that not everything was perfect. It became increasingly clear that the girls were going to need their own separate space a lot sooner than we had anticipated. Toys were spread all over the camper and Eloise’s high loft bunk was not ideal so we decided to make a few changes.

Change #1: Replacing the rocking chair with a couch (Eliza wasn’t too keen on rocking anyway)

Change #2: Replacing the love seat with a dining table with stools

Change #3: Removing most of the back storage in the toy hauler bay and relocating it up to the high loft space where Eloise’s bunk was

Change #4: Moving the ‘master’ bedroom to the lift bed in the toy hauler bay

New foam flooring

Change #5: Moving all the toys and both girl’s beds to the old master bedroom space and adding bunk beds

Some of these things are still a work in progress (especially the re-decorating) but so far we love it!

Yes, we boondocked at Ikea. It was quite and we asked permission first. (Coincidentally Eloise loved “Smalland” and begs to go to “daycare at Ikea”).  As we were packing up in the morning and preparing to head North, Kevin noticed that a giant crack had formed underneath our bedroom slide. It was the same slide that had been repaired by Camping World in NH many months prior. We emptied everything out of our bedroom (what a damn mess) and hurried over to the nearest Camping World for inspection (since we were still under warranty).

What a mess

Meanwhile, my Aunt and Uncle along with mom Mom and Dad flew into Phoenix for a week long stay at the Villas of Cave Creek. We waited an entire day at Camping World for their assessment of the situation (after holding it for 6 hours–they reported they could fix it two weeks from now).

Due to this setback, Kevin now had a ton of work to catch up on so the girls and I gave him some peace and had several nice visits with my family at their rental villa where we enjoyed the pool and outdoor lawn toys.

Fun watching Uncle Dick with the giant Jenga blocks

Eloise and Daddy relaxing in the hot tub

Mem and Eliza catching a nap in the Arizona sun

It was nice to chit chat with other adults (sorry Eloise but I get tired of hearing about My Little Pony day in and day out) and let other people hold little Eliza.

It was a fun week, but it was time for them to go home to the frozen tundra of the North and once again we headed South….to Ikea! We had cranked up our renovation and needed a few more low priced Swedish home goods to complete it…

This is what I got when asking her to pose for me and my mom! haha