March 27, 2017
Arizona Oasis RV Resort
Ehrenberg, AZ

We left Indio this morning around 10am and headed east on I-10. Today we are only traveling 134 miles stopping in Ehrenberg, AZ, which is a few miles east of Blythe, CA. The winds were pretty strong hitting 20 - 30 mph. That made it difficult to keep the coach in the lane. This area is very dry and desolate.

Arizona Oasis is small RV Park with gravel (dirt) roads and gravel sites. It's not a great park but the choices in this area were pretty slim. This park is on the Colorado River and that is the big attraction. We were planning just an overnight stay here but the winds are expected to be even stronger tomorrow so we are going to sit tight for an extra day. Leaving here, we will be going north on US 95 which is a 2 lane highway (not a lot of room for error) and it is a 100 mile stretch running from I-10 to I-40.

We have a 65 foot pull thru site and have only hooked up electric.

Someday that tree will be nice ;>)

Up the road....

Down the road.....

Another surprise when we got to our site was a dead battery in the CRV. I discovered there is a big difference between the Accessory position and the On position on the ignition.....

Accessory, good.......  On, bad!!!!

Glad I hung on to that battery charger I used for the trolling motor on the old pontoon boat :>)

So we'll be heading on to Lake Havasu on Wednesday...

March 24, 2017
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree, CA

Today we decided to make the hour drive over to Joshua Tree National Park. We drove northwest on I-10 to CA 62 east to Joshua Tree. The drive takes you through the Palm Springs/Desert Hot Springs valley. This area is very windy and therefore contains hundreds of wind turbines.

Even though this is a desert area with temps reaching the high 80s this time of year, you get a beautiful view of snow capped mountains.

I believe this is Mt San Jacinto which has a height of 10,833 feet.

Traveling east on CA 62 heading towards 29 Palms (big Marine Base) you come to the main visitor center for Joshua Tree National Park.

I can't say that this was the nicest visitor center we ever visited. It was small with insufficient parking and extremely crowded. We drove a short distance past the visitor center and quickly came to a mile long line of cars waiting to enter the park. We took a few photos of the area and headed back out.

Note to self "never visit a California park on the weekend"

Probably not the most memorable National Park we have visited, but at least we got our fridge magnet ;>)

March 23,2017
Indian Waters RV Resort
Indio, CA

Well our 5 days of warranty items and the install of the towing system and window awnings turned into 17 days...... The kitchen and shower drain issue really stumped the repair Techs. It felt like one step forward two steps back as some things got fixed and other things went wrong. Suffice it to say eventually everything was completed except the window awnings. After reordering them twice they ended up on a truck in Washington and we couldn't wait any longer (big disappointment for Marilyn). We got to know all the folks at Holland Motor Homes and even became friends with Rita, the Receptionist.

Even though it was a very stressful and frustrating time, Rita was great and always looked out for us. Victor, our Lead Service Adviser/Coordinator always kept a calm demeanor and kept working the problems, even when we were losing it.

Today, Victor showed us how to hook up the car and test the towing system.

Then we hit the road for Indio....

I think Marilyn enjoyed riding in the co-pilot seat, but I need to work on my nervousness and short temper. I think that will get better as I get more used to driving the new rig....

We drove north on the 15 and drove east across the mountains to I-10 and then on through Palm Springs and into Indio. The temps jumped from 60s in San Marcos to 87 in Indio.

Indian Waters is a very nice, well maintained, older RV park.

We are in a nice and big concrete pull through....

We'll be here for the next four days and hope to see some of the sights like Joshua Tree National Park. Then we move on to Ehrenberg, AZ for an over night before heading on to Lake Havasu.

March 12, 2017
Holland Motor Homes
San Marcos, CA

On Monday March 6th we left Rancho California and made the short trip, an hour south on the 15, to San Marcos.

We are getting a few warranty items fixed and also having two window awnings installed as well as getting a towing system installed on the CRV so we can tow it 4 wheels down. That will allow Marilyn and I to ride together in the motorhome.

We expect to be here until Wednesday the 15th and then head over to Indio, CA which will officially kick off our travel year.

We were able to get all the paperwork done and even received our Tennessee license plates. I thought for sure one of us was going to have to fly to Knoxville, but Marilyn got to know Tim at the Roane County DMV very well and he did a great job of making sure we got our plates. And the plates only cost about $50..... any questions why we use TN as our state of residency?

So that's it for now.... not real exciting but everyday is full of things to get done. Can't wait to hit the road.....

February 24, 2017
Rancho California RV Resort
Aguanga, CA

Well we've been staying busy with family outings and get togethers. Last week we took a trip back to Vegas to attend Sydney's Jamz National Cheer competition. We stayed at The Orleans Hotel where the competition was held... very strange to see all the young kids running around a Casino. Sydney's Cheerforce team did very well and placed 2nd in their division.

Another thing that has taken a lot of our time is the purchase of a new motorhome.... yeah, we have been dreaming of having a motorhome and finally took the plunge. Every time we would see a motorhome come into a park where we were staying and see them hit a few buttons and be all set up, practically without leaving the vehicle.... well, we were quite envious.

We decided to go to Camping World one day to pick up a few items and saw a  RV Dealer next door. We told ourselves we would just go look and you know how it goes from there. In fact, the Salesmen joked about a lot of people who end up buying a $200k roll of toilet paper from that Camping World.....

We purchased a 38 foot Fleetwood Discovery XL model 38K. Here are a few pictures.

I hope to have some better photos soon but this is what we have for now. As you can imagine we are frantically trying to arrange and rearrange everything to fit in all the new spaces. We were amazed at how much space we had in the old 5th wheel and truck,,,, but we were able to find a spot for everything.

We  are also planning this year's trip which begins in 2 weeks, This year we are traveling around the southwest. Our plans are to go to Lake Havasu, the Grand Canyon.  Lake Powell for a family reunion on a houseboat, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, then head over the Rockies into Denver, then Colorado Springs, and down to Santa Fe and Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival and down over to Tucson and Yuma before returning to Southern California. It should be another great year and a great trip.... we can't wait to see it in our new home.

December 17, 2016
Rancho California RV Resort
Aguanga, CA

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I would do an update to let everyone know what we've been up to...and so I don't forget how to do posts :>)

Our first trip around Temecula was to the Leoness Winery. Temecula is famous for their vineyards, and there are several.

Even the grandkids had a good time... after wine tasting we had a really nice meal at the on-site restaurant.

On November 7th, Jen surprised Marilyn with tickets to the filming of the Dr. Phil show. So they made the drive to LA and visited Hollywood and sat in the audience for the taping of two shows....Marilyn was thrilled....

On November 17th we flew to Denver to spend Thanksgiving with Julie and her family. Upon arriving we were greeted with strange white stuff falling from the skies.... it brought back memories of many years ago.

Anyway the snow looked great on Julie's new backyard water feature.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent some quality time with the Colorado kids and grandkids.

After Thanksgiving, Steven treated us with tickets to two Colorado College hockey games.

This one was against Air Force....

And this was against Wisconsin....

As the Strength and Conditioning Coach, Steven oversees the warm ups before each game... Here is Coach Woody...

We had a great time and really enjoyed the games...... Thanks Steven

We flew back to California the beginning of December and Marilyn quickly decorated for Xmas.

On December 3rd, we went to Sydney's Winter Piano recital.

Sydney has been taking lessons for several years now and it has been fun watching her improvement over time....she is really very accomplished.

And most recently I attended Evan's final soccer tournament in Coronado with Marc while Jen and Marilyn drove to Ontario, CA for Sydney's Cheer competition.

Notice the Coronado Bridge in the background....

Love those dippin dots after a game.....

Sydney's Cheer completion went very well and she had a couple of very good performances...

And finally, I attended Evan testing for his next stripe in Karate...

He earned his final Junior brown belt stripe... next up will be for the junior black belt.

So you can see we have been pretty busy doing a lot of really fun, family stuff. We are now on final countdown to Xmas and have several things scheduled such as the San Diego Harbor lights on Sunday, a trip to Julian, CA for their famous pies, baking Xmas cookies... and of course Xmas and New Years.

Marilyn and I both want to wish everyone a very safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.