We Are Way Too Busy- Catching up again!

We spent the next 3 full days (9/20-22) in Bend trying to do way too many things.  I think the problem was trying to do the things we wanted to do as well as those of our friends.  They were not always the same, so we did not get to do all that we had wanted. We shopped, ate out, met up with friends for dinners at our campsite, the list goes on.

On our last full day there, John and I took off for the day by ourselves and felt much more relaxed.  But hey, this was our maiden voyage and we are so grateful to our friends for all the help they have given us.  First things first, we took our pups for a much needed run at the dog park.  They were extatic and got to play with some other furry critters.  We meet with a realestate agent to look at a house (BTW we still don't know were we're going to settle). We drove to some nostalgic places: DRR, Tumalo Feed, up the hill to where my bro and mom had property, etc. Our last night in Bend was spent eating leftovers that we didn't want to pack again.

On Wednesday we made one last stop in Bend to return a shank we had purchased that we just didn't need, then we were off to Sisters to grab a cup of coffee, and then on to Salem to meet with yet another realestate agent.  We spent the night there and had breakfast in Salem's #1 rated restaurant, for breakfast: Word of Mouth.  Were were not disappointed!

On Thursday morning we drove to Coos Bay were we spent another two nights.  We had dinner with Chelsey et all and watched the little ones for a few hours the next day.  Josh came home with fresh Salmon that we just had to have on Friday.  Come saturday morning we stopped by their home for a few more minutes to see Tyrus and Josh take off to go fishing.  Tyrus was sooooo excited.

We arrived back in Brookings just before two on Saturday and spent the next two hours cleaning out Senang and the truck, doing laundry, and putting our clothes away.  We are feeling very blessed to have such a wonderful trailer to call our own.  Now we have two weeks to make some changes to our Airstream before we head out again.  We will be going on our first official Airstream Rally at Champoeg State Park just south of Portland.

Brrrrrrr

Fall is definitely here.  This morning we woke up to a brisk 42 degrees and I bet it was not much warmer in our Senang.  After taking the dogs to do their business, John crawled back under the covers for a few more hours while I read with all three dogs huddled around me to keep me warm.  As it started to dawn, the temperature dropped even lower, and the dogs were shaking harder.  Without electricity I reverted to turning on the gas stove to heat up the interior of our Airstream.  Note to self: get a propane heater for use when boon-docking! Honestly, we had not anticipated doing any boon-docking for a while, but I guess sometimes it is just not to be avoided.  It has been a real learning experience and it has opened our eyes to other gadgets that we would like to get before our next trip.  The rainy weather is another whole story.  In itself it is not so bad, but with 3 dogs whose paws need wiping and coats need drying, has been quite a chore.  We are looking forward to dryer days ahead.

At 10:00 AM we left the grassy field in the over-flow area at Crown Villa Resort to get our new hitch installed.  Wow, what a difference it made.  We now have tons of clearance, thus no more scraping on little bumps. There is only one little problem with the new set up: the shank that comes with the new hitch is a couple of inches too short, which causes the tailgate of the truck, when opened, to hit the electronic jack.  A longer one has been ordered and it should be here by Tuesday.

By the time we got back to the RV resort, our place was ready for our occupancy.  It took a couple of hours to get everything set up just the way we wanted.  We are assured that this time will be cut in half as we get more acquainted with all that needs to be done.  When we completed our task we had a nice BBQ lunch with our friends, who are camped in the spot right next to us, followed by a much needed rest.  Before settling down for the evening, I went to Wallyworld to pick up just a few of those much needed items, i.e. a headlamp so that when I take the dogs out in the dark, I can free one hand from holding a flashlight so that I can hold the leash in one and pick up poo with the other.  So much to learn!  A BIG thanks to our dear dog-loving-friends who are sharing a wealth of information and little hints with us.

Catching Up (Sept 16th-18th)

Sept. 16th

On our first morning of waking up in our "new-to-us" Airstream, we were greeted by rain.  The soft pitter-patter was a welcome sound until we realized that we'd have to venture out in it to take our pups to go potty.  The parking lot was now a muddy, gravely mess that stuck to our shoes as well as the dogs' paws.  We all came back soaked from our walk and brought the outside in with us.  Shortly after cleaning up the dirty mess, Chelsey surprised us by giving us room-service coffees delivery.  What a doll!  We had not counted on having a cup of brew this morning since we did not have electricity to run our coffee pot, and the truck and trailer are too big to fit in a drive-through.

Our destination for today is Belknap on the McKienze River, about an hour east of Eugene.  What a beautiful drive, both on Hwy 38 as well as Hwy 126.  Along the way we stopped at a Walmart to pick up several "dog" towels as the forecast for today and Thursday is more rain!  As it turned out, we ended up at a Belknap overflow site about two miles away from the lodge.  It is very quiet here but there are no amenities. :(  We have to drive the two miles to enjoy the hot-springs, lodge, wifi, store, lawn areas, etc. Non or us are happy about our location but they have a no-refund cancelation policy within two weeks of the arrival date. We feel we were misinformed and they had misrepresented the accommodations where we ended up as they had said they were within walking distance. It is definitely not convenient! 

Today was our first time to fully set up Senang, our given name for out Airstream.  It took a solid hour if not a bit more. Afterwards we went to the Lodge at Belknap to enjoy the natural hot springs, followed by returning to our site and having a chili dinner at our friends' Twinkie, their given name for their Airstream.  Now we are sitting in our cozy accommodation with our pups by our site.  It doesn't get much better than this!

Sept 17-18

We have been concerned about out trailer hitch being very low to the ground.  It seems that the slightest bump in the road will cause us to scrape.  Not good!  Our friends agreed with us and recommended that  we have it checked once we get to Bend, our next destination.  Since that is to be on a Saturday, we decided to be pro-active and make an appointment.  It is a good thing that we did as they could only see us on Friday.  We left our site at Belknap after a beautiful hike up to the Proxy Falls.  The sun was shining and the vegetation was lush green.  Other than wanting to get some more hikes in around the McKenzie River, we left Belknap without too much regret.

Our first stop was coffee at the Sisters Coffee Company followed by the trailer hitch dealer.  We quickly found out that the system we have is just too big for our truck, causing the hitch to scrape.  The only solution is to get a new one. All we see is $ signs, but it is a matter of safety so we made an appointment to have a new one installed the next day, and YES, they were able to schedule us in.  

We had a pizza dinner with our friends, then we bundled up for the cold night ahead, once again while boon-docking as our campsite is not available until the next day.

Boon-docking

Sept. 15th, DAY ONE

Our original departure date for our Maiden-voyage with our friends was schedule for the 16th.  After a conversation Tyrus on the phone asking "see Oma?," we realized that we could break up our first day travel by going part way to Cools Bay a day earlier, to see Da Boys.  We let our friends know, and agreed to meet at Bellnap on the McKenzie River, at the end of the day on the 16th.   We pulled into The Mill Casino where we boon-docked (no hook).  Chelsey swung by and picked us up, took us to her home, where she had prepared a nice pork-roast dinner.  Not bad for our first meal on the road.  We visited with Tyrus and Rowan and then were taken back to our 1st class accommodations. To our surprise, our friends were parked right next to us when we arrive back to our Airstream at 9:00pm.  A couple of beers later and we were all ready for bed.  But, first we had to take our 3 pups for a potty break.  Yep, 3 dogs! (This will be a challenge.) They all complied by doing their business right away. Everybody on/in their beds, and to lala-land we go.  Our bedding was nice and toasty although the mattress is harder than I like.

PS: our refrigerator/freezer with all of it's perishables did not switch over to the propane mode automatically as it should have.  Temperatures were quickly rising to above 40+ degrees, and we were concerned that all our food would be spoiled by the next evening. We called the previous owners and they gave us some tips that may help. John worked his magic and we were back to having a working ice-box.

On The Hunt!

For many years John and I have been desiring to enter the RV word.  We've looked at all different types of vehicles, weighing all the pros and cons. A motor home would give us easy access to all the amenities while on the road, without having to leave the vehicle.  We could pull over, shut off the engine, relax and enjoy the comforts of home. Of course the cost of one of these is up there.  In addition, we would have to purchase a tow car to pull behind us so that, once we were at our destination, we could go places with ease. We rented a 30' motor home this past winter to try it out, and we did love it. The cost to purchase one that we would like was daunting however, and once you drive it off the lot, it greatly depreciates.  And, because of our lack of mechanical knowledge, neither one of us felt comfortable purchasing an older, used model.

In the spring we attended an Airstream Rally with some friends.  This renewed my interest in these one-time-futuristic-vehicles that peaked my interest decades ago. We were impressed with the quality of construction of all the different models we saw.  Many of the vintage models had been refurbished to their original interiors, or some had been totally gutted and remodeled to include modern amenities.  We left intrigued with the Airstreams and decided to look into what these babies sell for.  To our dismay, Airstreams are not cheap! Our only option would be to purchase an older model, hopefully in good conditions, as neither John nor I desire to spend countless hours remodeling an RV.  We really just want to hit the road.

To cover all our bases, we decided to look into more conventional pull trailers as well.  Brand-spanking new ones were much closer to our proposed budget.  These trailers were also considerably larger in living space due to the slide-outs that came with them. Unfortunately, we found their construction flimsy. And, once again, as soon as you drive them off the lot, they greatly depreciate.  We were obviously prepared to make an investment to enter the RV world, but we also wanted to be wise about it.  With further research we discovered that Airstreams have a history of maintaining their value quite well, so we opted to see if we could find a used one that met our specs. To our surprise there were not many for sale, and when one did hit the market, it was usually gone in days, if not hours.  To make a very long story short, we did find a 1996 Airstream Excella, 25', that meets our needs and wants.  We contacted the sellers in June and send them a deposit to hold the trailer, with the rest to follow upon inspection.  We drove down to the San Diego area to close the deal in July and found this Airstream to be all that it was advertised to be, and then some!  We had an instant connection with the sellers and they agreed to keep the Airstream parked at their home until we could return with our  truck to pull it home.

The hunt for a truck had started shortly after deciding on an Airstream.  We started looking for newer "used" models with low milage. Quickly we discovered that these trucks are so popular that they were selling for just a few thousand $ less than the brand new ones that came with warranties. So, we opted for a new one. We decided on a Ford F-150 Echo Bust.  According to all the research John did on the Airstream Forum, this truck would do the job required of it. We ran into a problem however. A Ford F-150 Echo Bust could not be found anywhere on the western half of the U.S. that also had the big towing mirrors.  The 2015, F-150 is a new truck and the usually available "after market mirrors" are not yet out. We ended up having to order one made to our specs.  It would take approximately 8 weeks for delivery.  Ouch!  Not what we and the sellers of the Airstream had counted on.  They were eager to get our Airstream out of their RV garage so that they could start on their next Airstream "project."  Our new found friends are into restoring vintage models, and they needed the space to work on their 1956 model.

Our hands were tied.  No truck, no picking up the trailer!  We then found out from the sellers that they were planning on vacationing in Oregon, in August with their 1965 vintage model.  Yes, they have several Airstreams.  A friend of ours suggested that we ask if the sellers would consider using the now "our" Airstream, still in their possession, to take their Oregon vacation, after which we would meet up with them in Oregon, to get our trailer.  The sellers agreed to this, and because we still did not have our truck when they were in Oregon, they also agreed to delivering our Airstream to our front door!  WOW! What a great solution.  They got our trailer out of their garage, and we didn't have to navigate the busy freeways to and from San Diego again to pick up our Airstream.  We are now the proud owners of and Airstream and a  Ford F-150!

Homeward Bound

DAY 18:
Our last day in Mesa was quite uneventful.  We stayed around camp most of the day as it was really too hot (for us) to do much of anything else.  We cleaned the windows of our rig, swept and wet-mopped the inside, did laundry, and packed up all that had to be stored down below.  Then at 4ish we headed to a doggie park in downtown Phoenix before we had pizza at the number #1 restaurant in town.  Now that all our basic needs were met, we were able to leave our pups in the car for a few hours while John and I attended a Dancing With The Stars performance that was on tour.

DAY 19:
Before skipping town we had to return our rental car in the northern part of Phoenix.  Off through rush hour we went, one behind the other.  It only took an hour to our surprise.  It was nice to be together again when driving the rig as a copilot comes in sooo handy!  Off to Wickenburg we went. It is a cute western town that, according to John, has one of the best museums he has been to.  Nice boutiques and eateries line the main streets.  We had to watch out for the branches of  the little trees that lined these streets.  More than once we had not choice but to be scraped gently by them.  By noon we hit the road for our final destination for the day, Needles, CA.  (More pics of Wickenburg to follow.)

 We ended up staying at the same resort where we stayed on our way down.  Since we got there a little earlier, we actually met some of the other campers that were there.  Rob and Doreen from Montana, were kind enough to show us around a bit and give me a ride to the store to purchase some milk.  We also met the activities  coordinators from camp.  What nice couples.  We would have stayed a few more days and partaken of Taco Tuesday, but we have a deadline to get home.


DAY 20:
We had planned on being on the road by 7:30 this morning but one last conversation with Rob and Doreen delayed that by half an hour.  Breaking down and pulling out has almost become second nature.  John does the "outside" and I do the "inside' work.  Lucky me!  I don't have to put on "THE GLOVES" to do MY chores!  We stopped in Barstow for gas and a late breakfast at Lola's Mexican restaurant.  It was a small place that had excellent food.  So good in-fact that I had to buy some of their home made salsa to take home.  On the road again to Bakersfield where we arrived at Orange Grove RV park at 3ish.  It did not appear to be very full but that is because we were one of the first to arrive for the overnight stays.  By 5:00 the place was packed.  Orange Grove RV park is part of an orange orchard, and one of the perks is that we got to pick oranges.  Oh they are sooooo good!  After walking the dogs and a much needed shower, we settled down for the night.

Fecal Face

DAY 15, 16, 17 :
The last three days have all melted together.  We're still at Mesa Spirit RV Park and we're using that as a spring-board to activities in surrounding areas.  We spent the majority of Day 15 (2/5/15) with our Mesa friends (Alvin 96, Miss Ellie 73) that we met in Panama last year.  They are a lovely elderly couple that is entertaining to be around.  They bicker back and forth in the spirit of fun.  We went out to lunch, got lost with Miss Ellie behind the wheel, and picked citrus fruit from their trees to bring home.

The next day (16) we woke up good and hungry as we had skipped dinner the night before.  We treated ourselves to a southwestern breakfast that was "out of this world".  We were now energized to take on our first lesson of shuffle-board at 9:00 am.  To say the least, shuffle-boarding is a SLOW game!  For someone who's a bit more of an aggressive player, this is not your cup of tea.  It wasn't mine!  I was glad when the session ended and hoped that Pickle Ball would be better suited for me.  Unfortunately we just found out that the next lessons are not scheduled until Monday.  In the afternoon we took our pups to a great doggie park in a neighboring community where they playfully chased balls and made new friends.

Yesterday (DAY 17) we went for a hike on the Wind Cave Trail, just east of Mesa.  It is a moderate trail, the last half of which has a pretty steep incline.  The trail is very rocky with lots of loose, rocky soil.  It was Saturday and the trail was full of hikers, some with their little ones and many with their pups.  I can't say enough how proud we are of our doggies for taking on this hike with us, not that we gave them a choice.  Teddy did especially well.  His short legs made climbing onto the rocks harder.  He also seemed to be bothered most by the heat, and I could tell that he was ready to be done and I debated carrying him at one point.  By then however, we were almost at the top so, to save his pride, I let him climb the rest of the way to the outlook.

The return trip down the trail was easier on all of us.  But, because it was very narrow, it was now our turn to move over and let those going up have the right of way.  At times the pups got vegetation stuck to their coats that I quickly removed as I was not sure if any of it may have contained stickers.  Apparently there were no stickers.... good, however Otis and his irritable-bowl-syndrome did manage to get some sh*# on his hind legs.  And, do you know what happened?... I got some on my hand while removing some innocent leaves.  The worst part was that I did not realize it until a second later,  AFTER I wiped away a fly that had land on my nose. I would have entitled this post Sh*# Face but then you would have thought I had gotten plastered as is the usual meaning for this idiom. No, I got poo all over my nose, and it smelled horrible, and all we had was some water.  No soap, no disinfectant wipes, no tissues, no nothing! I did the best I could to remove the stench from my nostrils and could not wait to make it to the bathrooms at the trail head.  What?  No soap! No toilet paper! No paper hand-towels! What kind of facilities is this?  It is a paper conservation site.  They only had a blow dryer to dry hands, the soap and toilet paper were out, I imagine because it was such a busy day.  As you'd understand, I was eager to get to a place where I could wash up.  A ColdStone Creamery on the way to our RV was our next stop.  We ordered our decadencies and off I went to the bathroom.  NO SOAP again!  What is this, a conspiracy?  We rushed back to our RV where I scrubbed my face raw with tons of soap and hot water, followed by a two hour swim in a well-chlorinated pool. I finally feel clean.  Our TOP (Teddy, Otis, Pippa) were more than glad to be left in the RV while John and I were at the pool.

We enjoyed a Mexican dinner from a whole-in-the-wall, and then we spent the rest of the evening around the RV drinking coffee and eating some treats we had purchased earlier.  The pups were pooped and slept the rest of the day away.

An Unexpected Find

DAY 14:

After one day in the black-top parking lot world of Mesa, John and I were ready to leave this busy civilization behind, at least for a day.  We decided to head to the McDowel Mountain Park just a 40 minute drive from where we are staying.  It is supposed to be a beautiful desert park with many trails to chose from.  We made it there just before noon and gave our pups an opportunity to drink some water before heading onto the trail.   The park ranger at the entrance had recomended the North Trail for us as she saw that we had dogs with us, and it was supposed to be an "easier" desert trail.  There were many varieties of cacti to be seen and felt. After having been on the trail for a few minutes we were glad we had heeded the ranger's advice and not gone for the more moderate trail.  The North Trail was indeed an "easy" hike for us, but for the dogs it was much harder.  They were hot, tired quickly, and poor Teddy got multiple cacti thorns stuck in his paws... three times.  (Teddy has had a rough vacation!)  The other trails were a bit harder in grade and narrowness, which would have made it even more difficult on the pups to not step on throny vegetation.

We had worked up an appetite so we decided to head back to the town of Fountain Hills that we had come through on our way to the park.  It had looked so cute and we were now ready to explore it.  The town has a small lake in the center with a fountain that shoots a stream of water 350 to 500 feet into the air, every hour for 15 minutes. The only times when the fountain does not blow is if there is a wind higher than 10 mph.  There is a nice walking path all around it that is frequented by the locals all day long in the winter.  When I say winter, here that means 75-85 degree temperatures.  It was fabulous.  In the summer when the temperatures easily reach 120 degrees, the people only use the path in the wee hours of the morning.

The whole town of Fountain Hills is very clean, landscaped beautifully with native plants, and the people are very friendly. We used Trip Advisor to help us find an eatery.  The #1 in town is DJ Bagel Cafe.  Neither John nor I can remember a time when we had such good sandwiches.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of our orders.   Next time we make it down to AZ in an RV, we will stay around Fountain Hills.  There is supposed to be a beautiful Native American site that is right on the river.  Live and learn. Next to Sedona, this is our second favorite town we've visited.  Back in the RV, everyone is taking an early evening nap, except yours truly.

 Before going to bed tonight we decided to try the pool that is in our section of the park.  The water was a balmy 82 degrees and the air temperature was 76 degrees. The hot-tub was too warm for me; it was huge... 20 feet in diameter.  There is only seating around half of the hot tub so I can only guess that this is so you can walk or swim in it.

I Miss You Sedona!

DAY 11:
This morning, while the birds were still sleeping,  we got up for one last meal out in our favorite town thus far.  Cafe Jose, where the locals eat, has a $4.99 Huevos Rancheros special that was to die for. After that we gassed up our rental car, dropped it off in the RV parking lot where it will be picked up, and broke down camp.  We were so sad to pack up as we didn't get to hike anywhere near enough trails.  Sedona, you are breathtakingly beautiful! We will come back to see you again!!!

Pippa travels on the sofa and now thinks its "her" spot!

We arrived at our Phoenix campground around 11:00 AM and we were looking forward to have a day or two to relax at "home."  We had been on the move so much that relaxing had not been high on the agenda. But first we were off to a Super Bowl party in the afternoon at Alvin and Miss Ellie's home in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix.  We had a wonderful visit with our elderly friends and have made plans to meet one more time before we leave town.  While we were at Alvin's home I became increasingly concerned about Teddy's health.  His neck seemed to have swelled up considerably over the past few hours.  We ended up taking him to a 24 hour emergency vet where they had to reopen the drain holes, where the tubes had been removed.  This will
allow the release of the fluid buildup.  He was put on another round of antibiotics and pain meds.

DAY 12:

Our new campsite where we were planing to stay the duration of our Phoenix visit,  was nice enough with one exception.  It was right next to an airport and boy did we hear that.  It was hard to get any sleep, and the morning and afternoon were not any better.  It was so bad that we complained at the office;  they apologized and were willing to refund us our money without penalty for less than a 72 hour cancellation.  Apparently the airport has been crazy busy with private jets coming in due to the Super Bowl.

Giant cacti at the outlet stores.

Now we had to scramble to find a new place to stay that would be more agreeable. Within an hour we had broken down camp and were on the road again, this time in separate vehicles: the RV and our rental car for the week.  All this during rush hour, one behind the other, over freeways that had construction zones. This was just a tad bit intimidating without a copilot to rely on for directions.  Thank goodness for Apple MAPS app.!  We could not have done it without you.  We drove down to Spirit Mesa Resort, where there was just one dog-friendly space for us. Yay!  We were piloted to our site by an employee driving a golf cart.  He then guided us into our spot only to find that the construction that had been done the week before on that site had not settled and our RV tires were sinking as we were backing up.  We told them that this site would not do as our automatic levelers  would sink too.  To make a long story short, they did find us another spot that was actually much nicer and right next to a fenced doggie area!  It was 6:00 pm before we were settled and John and I were ravished.  Neither of us was up to starting the "fixing dinner  process," so we treated ourselves to yet another dinner out. Then we slept the night away.

DAY 13:
I started my day with doing two loads of laundry while John "gently sleeps," again. LOL  Our first order of business is to complete the registration process for which we had arrived too late the evening before. Then we were off to take the dogs and ourselves for a much needed walk.  When we got back we started meeting all sorts of doggies and their people.  I guess that is the beauty of being right next to the doggie potty area.

Breakfast and coffee on our patio.

There are folks here from all over, some that are here just for a week or two, and others that are here for months at a time.  They have pot-lucks for "all folks from Ohio," or "all folks from Alberta," or "all folks from Minnesota," etc.  We haven't heard of a pot-luck for folks from Oregon yet.  Maybe we'll have to host one! :)  Tonight we BBQ the chicken that was supposed to have been last night's dinner.  I was going to bake some dessert but John has this thing


about not using any of the propane appliances, so no dessert for us.  Tonight we poured over the pages of activities that are offered at the resort this week and we've decided to let ourselves be know in several of them over the next few days.  The Caldwell name will be remembered as true competitors or as fools who didn't know what they were doing.  Regardless, we'll have fun doing it.

Munds Wagon Trail

DAY 10:

View of Sedona in the Valley

After a steady rain the last couple of days, we were scheduled to have a break in the weather.  With this information, John and I decided to get a hike in first thing in the morning, before the sun rises over the canyon walls.  If we thought we liked the trail hike around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte a few days ago, then this was ten times better!  Yes it was muddy, but hey, we're here only a few days.  It 's now or never???  The Munds Wagon Trail is a wilderness trail that zig zags across Oak Creek's dry river bed in numerous areas, except it wasn't dry today.  The creek was filled with running water creating waterfalls and areas that we had to traverse through.   Yes, we got wet but we had so much!!!  The dogs loved the trail too especially having drinking water available as needed.  We turned around after a 1 and 1/2 hour hike one way as we did not know for sure how long it would take to continue the trail all the way around one of the red rock mesas.  The hike back took a little less time probably because we did not stop to take as many pictures.

Forging through Oak Creek

Morning mist

When we got back to the rental car we had to clean the dogs before we could load them up.  Thank-goodness we had thought of brining a bucket with fresh water to put their paws in to clean them up a bit.  We also had plenty of doggie towels spread out on the back seat.  Then, when we got home, we took Da Boyz into the RV shower one at a time to clean them up completely.  Pippa, being a little taller, did not need a shower as her height kept her from dragging her belly in the red clay.  Only after we cleaned the pups did John and I get to shower.  Our red clay-coverd shoes are still sitting outside the RV waiting for their turn.  The washer and dryers at the camp do not permit shoes in the machines, and I understand why! We also found out that the marathon that was scheduled for today was cancelled due to the flooding of many sections of the trail.  Only the half marathon, the 10K and 5K were run.  Apparently this was a very unusual and sizable rainfall for this neck-of-the-woods.

Cathedral Rock

By 12:30 we were on our way to Jerome, a revived ghost town known for its copper mining the first half of the 20th century.  After WWII it was discovered by hippies who have claimed it and have turned it into an artisan town.  John enjoyed going through the museum while I walked the pups.  On our way back to Sedona we stopped  at the infamous Cathedral Rock to get a closer look.  It is supposed to have some beautiful trails around it as well but due to the rain we just didn't get to it.

Delayed Photos of the GC

DAY 8 continued:
I wrote yesterday's entry before we went to dinner with our new neighbors.  So let me just catch up quickly. We dined at the #1 Trip Advisor restaurant in Sedona: Casa Sedona and it was fantastic.  It is not your traditional Mexican food.  It is REFINED Mexican food at it's best!  I had a salad with fresh goat cheese and John had the Spinach/Fennel enchiladas with duck.  The prices were, to us, very high for Mexican food, but for Sedona they were fair.

DAY 9:  Rain, rain, go away.  Come back some other day!  The much needed rain in this region has kept us from going on the hikes we had so looked forward to taking with our pups.  Walking in red clay however, is just not fun.  Besides, it was rainy, misty, and cloudy so we would not have seem much anyway.  We took the opportunity instead to check out the local native artifact vendors that are along Hwy 89A, 365 days a year come rain, sleet, snow, blizzards, etc. We also visited some galleries displaying Navaho and Hopi woven rugs and jewelry.  If you want the real "quality" McCoy, you pay for it though!

                          We finally downloaded some of our Grand Canyon photos.  We've had trouble moving them in an orderly fashion however.   :(

John took this picture of me from an opposing cliff.

Center top corner is trail head down the canyon

Enlarge view of trail down.

  

View of the Colorado River

    

Javelins and the Grand Canyon

DAY 7:

A little statue in Sedona

The first order of business each morning is to take Teddy, Pippa, and Otis our for their "relieve walk."    I do this while John gently sleeps the morning way. LOL.  It has been a little more difficult to take them potty by myself since Teddy needs some extra care.  This morning Otis, as usual, was the first one out of the RV, but it was not as smooth as it usually is.  He darted off under the RV and started to bark wildly.  I had to reign him and settle him down before I could do anything else, but that was easier said than done.  We were surrounded by a herd of Javelins, a native small pig that roam freely in this part of the country.  At first I thought it was just six or seven, and then I saw the whole mob, probably two dozen of them.  I had to pick Otis up and get us both to safety as I had heard that Javelins can be nasty if feeling threatened. Once they were gone, I took the pups for their walk, fed them their breakfast, and proceeded with our day.

The magnificent Grand Canyon did not disappoint! We took our rental car for the two hour drive to see this natural beauty on Wednesday, as the weather was predicted to be clear.  We left our rig by 8:30 AM and got to our destination by 11:00ish.  After checking into the Visitor's Center we approached the canyon cliffs with great anticipation, but we were saddened that the whole canyon was filled with milky clouds.  You could only see the other side of the divide, and we were concerned that we may not get a full impression of the grandeur of this magnificent national park.   We proceeded to take our pups for a three hour walk along the south rim.  As the noontime hour came upon us, the clouds parted and we were able to soak in the beauty that the GC has to offer.  We  ventured out on some of the fenced cliffs to get a more impressive view of the canyon floor.  We did get a peek of the Colorado River between the steep canyon walls.  More pictures to follow.

Apple slices, nuts, and  bottled water sustained us for lunch.  Even the pups enjoyed some fruit.  There were many tour busses loaded with visitors from Japan.  Apparently we were a site to be seen as many of these visitors wanted to take a picture of us with our pups.  Pippa especially seemed to be of high interest.  We were amazed by the attire many of these Japanese people were wearing:  stilettos, dress pants & shoes, shirts and ties, etc.  You would have thought they were going out to a nice restaurant rather than a wonder of nature.  By 3:00 PM all five of us were tuckered out and we were more than happy to get in our little rental and head back to camp in Sedona.  Once we had arrived at our RV and changed our clothes, we headed out for our first dinner in a restaurant at The Golden Goose.

DAY 8:
Squealing during the wee hours of the morning brought to mind the Javelins I saw the previous day.  They were surrounding our RV again and I had to let our pups know that all was okay.  Today was a much needed day of rest.  No long car ride for this family!  Today we just want to stick around "home" and see a bit of the townsite Sedona.  We did take our pups on an hour walk up a dry creek-bed so that we would feel better about leaving them in the car while we window-shopped.  We met some of our neighbors and their dogs, sat on the patio while the dogs chewed on their toys in the doggie kennel, and I did some laundry.  It was nice to just relax.

Teddy and Otis napping outdoors

John and Pippa doing their thing.

So many trails choose from

DAY 6:
Today is our official first full day in Sedona and we couldn't wait to hit the trail, but before we could put on our hiking boots, we had to pick up our rental car.  By the time we were done with the car we realized we had to feed our hungry tummies.  Cafe Jose had been recommended as the place where the locals eat.  We enjoyed our 11:30AM breakfast. It is served all day, and then w went in search of the park pass we would need through-out our stay.  Because one of us is over 62 years, we got a life pass to all national parks for just $10.00.

We chose Bell Rock/Courthouse loop trail for our very first hike.  It was reported to take about two hours and we figured that's all we would have time for today as it was already 2:10 when we got to the trail head.  Bell Rock can also be climbed, but we figured we would just go around it especially since we had our pups with us.  The trail was very nicely maintained and clean (if red dirt is clean).  It was also well marked which is important as many other trails come and merge onto the loop we were taking.   The terrain changed from powdery red dirty, to red boulders, to rocky flats that looked like they have regular flash-floods come over them.  The biggest treat were all the rock formations that could be seen around each new bend.  The colors were the brightest when the sun was directly on the.

When we got back to the car, the dogs as well as the both of us downed some water, and then the pups were more than happy to sleep on the back seat on our way to town. One stop was a must for us.  We had been so consumed with all that we would need for our RV trip that we totally forgot to pack a day-pack to carry bottled water, snacks, 1st aid kit, etc.  We had to stop at a sporting-goods store to get that pack. We all need water on the trails.  We are now back at "home" and all three pups are out for the night.  I think John and I will turn in early as well as we have another big day planned for tomorrow.

We took a bunch more pictures but we're having trouble transferring them to the laptop.  The wifi at the campsite is not the greatest. :(

ARIZONA are you ready for us?

DAY 5:
3:15 AM.  Drowsy with sleep I hear noises followed by Otis and Pippa whining and panting heavily.  I wonder what is going on.  I make my way to the living room were I put on some clothes and shoes.  I am a chicken at heart so I'm not about to go outside without my protective Pippa, and Otis has to come too.  I hear it again and this time I realize that what I've heard: coyotes, and they are very close by.  Our neighbor's dog is going nuts and now Pippa and Otis are all excited as well.  The coyotes are howling followed by a sequence of yapping.  My pups take advantage of being outside and do their business before I drag them back in the RV in order to get some more sleep.  All this excitement happens while John and Teddy sleep through the whole ordeal.  There are definite benefits to being hard-of-hearing!

We have an appointment at 8:00 AM to have Teddy's drainage tubes removed from his neck.  While there we learn that the howling followed by yapping of the coyotes is indicative of them having killed a prey.  We are told that usually coyotes are hard to find during the day but that off-leash dogs who pick up on their scent and chase one, will undoubtably be lead towards the pack of coyotes and then attacked.  Good to know!  The appointment takes just minutes.  I explain that we have no need for other services but we are told that the tubing can only be removed after an examination.  Yea right!  After paying a $50.00 bill and walking back to our rig, I swear I hear howling and yapping coming from the clinic.  We've no doubt been easy prey.

As soon as we cross over into Arizona, the scenery seems to change. Everything is neater, cleaner somehow.  We stop in Kingman for a coffee and inquire if there is a place where we can get good fresh masa.  A few phone calls and we know where we'll need to stop on our way home.  :)  The scenery around here reminds us of central Oregon with its many pines.  It is beautiful.  We turn off I-40 and turn on to the I-17 and then Hwy 89A to Sedona.  It is the scenic route and boy was it ever gorgeous.  The road itself is a steep grade, dropping 2500 feet in about 10 miles with many hairpin turns and in sections very narrow.  It is like driving Hwy199 "narrows" for 10 miles while going down hill. The speed limit in this section ranged from 40 to 10 mph.  Many times we wished we could have stopped to take pictures but there were just no turn outs.  The good news is that tomorrow we get our rental car and we'll go exploring over the next 5 days.

The town of Sedona is so cute.  As we drove through, we noticed that it was crawling with Snowbirds.  We look forward to joining them in window-shoping tomorrow and the days to follow.  The town is said to be very dog-friendly and even has

a restaurant that "caters to our K-9 friends".  We love our campsite at the Rancho Sedona RV Park.  We are nestled in the trees that in the summer will provide much desired shade.  An Airstream pulled in next to us, and would you know it, Kees the owner is from The Netherlands.  He owns his Airstream and truck, keeps it parked in storage state-side, and then comes over for several months at a time throughout the year.  His significant other is Italian, and they met in Spain a few years back.  It is such a small world!  Cheers, Salud, Proost!

Needles, CA

DAY 4:
We left our campsite in Bakersfield this morning in the hunt for a nearby Walmart and Starbucks.  We had finished our case of water and were in desperate need of more, and we needed our morning cup-of-joe to get us over the Tehachapi Mountains. What should have taken 10 minutes to find turned into 40.  We had a good idea as to where this Walmart and Starbucks were supposed to be so we just headed down Hwy 99 until we could see it. The only problem was that the fog was soooo thick that you could barely see the car in-front of you, needless to say a Walmart that was on the opposite side of the road.  We ended pulling off the road and engaged the Apple Maps app.  We now knew which exit to take, followed the directions, got our necessities, and headed over the Hwy 58 to Barstow.  We were grateful that it was a quiet Sunday morning or the detours of the hunt could have been a lot longer.

Our rig has a standard gas gauge and a window that shows how many miles 'till empty.  This window has proven to be very accurate. It stated that we had 243 mile until empty.  Barstow was just under 170 miles down the road so we figured we were good to go!  And, I think we would have been fine!  However, climbing those steep mountains probably used more gas than the little "gas window" had accounted for so, rather than pushing through to get cheeper gas, we opted to be on the safe side and gas-up some 20 miles west of Barstow, the first gas station we had seen in over two hours.  Later we realized that we paid about 35 cents per gallon more at this lone station.  That is not too terrible for a car that takes 12 to 15 gallons, but our RV was thirsty.  It gulped 73 gallons!  Next time we venture across a desert we will have our tanks filled to the rim.

Today's drive from Bakersfield to Needles was pretty much all through the Mojave Desert.  It was beautiful how the color of the mountains change in places, but it was also very barren.  We cruised at 70 mph for much of the first half and saw many of the mountain ridges were covered with windmills. During the second half of the trip we found out for ourselves just how windy it can get there.  The wind kicked up forcing us to slow down so that we would not be blown off the road.  We arrived at the Palm River Resort (http://www.palmsriverresort.com) around 3:00 pm.  Teddy and Otis don't seem to mind the driving too much, but Pippa is not too sure of the whole RV thing.  She sits in the same spot and pretty much pants the whole time we are on the road.  She then reluctantly climbs in after having been outside for a while.  We hope that a few more days of this will get her to realize that this IS fun!

The Palm River Resort is on the Colorado River. After leveling the rig we took a nice stroll along the river's edge with Otis and Pippa before heading back to our home-on-wheels.  We talked to several people that are staying here, and many of them are true Snowbirds, staying from mid December until mid March each year.  There are also quite a few modular homes that "flying Snowbirds" use for their stay, as well as the used as vacation homes.   After dinner I settled down with my computer and John with an atlas, studying our route for tomorrow.

Ready, Set, Go! (Snow-birding Days 1-3)

WE ARE DOING IT!!!  We are finally trying the long-awaited RV mode of travel.  Sedona and Phoenix, AZ here we come!  We are looking forward to visiting friends and seeing natural wonders, including the Grand Canyon of course.  On Tuesday (1/20) we picked up our Newmar Bay Star from Guaranty RV in Eugene and drove it home to Brookings.  Mission completed!  We made it home very uneventfully and felt more confident each mile we got closer to home.  Once in Brookings we spent the next day loading all those items we felt necessary for a four week trip with our pups Teddy, Otis, and Pippa.  We were assisted by wonderful friends who are loaning us a portable BBQ, an outdoor rug, chairs, foldable dog fencing, etc, etc.  Did we think of everything? Oh yes, we have that electric heater that was a must according to Joop & Ine's RV experience.

DAY 1:
Bright and early on Thursday 1/23 we were ready to hit the road.  We had been warned about the difficulty of navigating Hwy 199 with an RV but we did not want to head down the coastal route. We figured that if we went through the "narrows" before the sun was up, we could use our emergency flashers to warn others, specifically semi trucks, that they were about to come upon novice motorhome drivers, and that they would possibly need to give us more than our share of the road to prevent complications.  LOL  Some healthy fear was definitely at work as we headed towards our first hurdle.    Truck traffic was pretty heavy for such early hours, but as we proceeded into the narrow stretch of the road, very slowly I might add, it was as though someone had waved a magic wand and made all traffic disappear.  We had the complete section of the "narrows" all to ourselves.

Our first stop was breakfast at The Teapot on Wheels, a new little restaurant we discovered just weeks before outside Gold Hill, that has great RV parking across the street.  After filling up on delicious food we were now ready to leave our own backyard.  In planning this trip we allowed for potty breaks for all five of us every couple of hours.  The one for this leg of the trip happened to fall just outside of Weed, CA.  Unfortunately we had our first "incident" there.  We had parked the RV, leashed our pups, and were walking to the doggie area when a lady with a male pit-bull broke lose from her grasp, knocked her down, and charged our dogs.  First Otis, who barked and yelped wildly, and then, without notice the pit-bull turned to Teddy,  grabbed him by the throat, and tossed him to and fro like a rag doll.  The owners and we alike attempted to loosen the dog off of Teddy.  John eventually succeeded, but not without Teddy having multiple puncture wounds in his neck.  Needless to say we had to take Teddy to the closest vet, where drainage tubes were inserted in the biggest holes, stitched up, and sent on our way.  We were grateful that the owners of the pit-bull were very sorry and did all they could to make things "right."  They followed us to the vet and they did pick up the $400.00 bill.

Needless to say, we got to our Redding destination later than expected.  Teddy was on my lap, still somewhat sedated.  When I got up I realized that Teddy had lost bladder control, wet through not only the towel he was laying on,  but my pants as well. Pff.  What a way to start the vacation!

On to the positive... the camp space that we were assigned in Redding was a "back in" space surrounded by trees, lamp post, and other RVs.  This was our first test.  Could we back this baby up without hitting anything?  YES WE CAN! It takes two to complete this task; John and I make a great team!

DAY 2:
The next morning we hit the road heading for Sacramento.  Rather than staying at an RV park we opted to park on the street in-front of Nolan and Anneliese's new home.  Thank goodness this was an uneventful day!  We spent the rest of the day visiting with our kids, walking Otis and Pippa (Teddy is to not walk much for a few days), eating at the Indo Cafe in oldtown Sacramento, and going to the movies.

DAY 3:
Another uneventful day, yay! We left Sacramento at 9:00 am, stopped for an hour coffee break around 11:00, and arrived in Bakersfield around 2:30pm. We chose to use CA Hwy 99 which is apparently under construction.  In many places the shoulders were "closed",  lanes were narrow, and truck traffic was heavy. This made driving the RV a bit more stressful as there were just inches between our mirrors and those of the semi trucks next to us.  We took Otis and Pippa for a nice long walk once we were settled in our camp site.  This was refreshing for all of us.  Dinner tonight... a salad with chicken that John had deboned before we left home.  Brrr. The evening is getting cold outside here in Bakersfield.  That heater is coming in handy already.  Better to use the electricity that comes with the hook-up fee than having to pay for propane fill-ups. Thanks Joop & Ine.

Teddy says that the view is nice from the driver's seat.