TooBusyForWork

Maybe getting my blogging mojo back?

This has been a long dry spell. I have been doing things, but I just haven’t been posting them. Oops! I think I will provide just a short (hah!) month by month summary.

January\February:

We continued hanging around in Quartzsite through January. We went on a few more side by side rides with the Quartzsite club. We learned a lot, and had a great time. I ended up not going to the quilt group there this year. We just had too much going on. We always meet a group of people from RVForum.net for a rally during the RV show, so that took some time.

We finished up at Quartzsite on Feb 5 when we headed to Death Valley for their Dark Skies Festival. We stopped off at the Needles KOA for a night to store the RZR across the road. Can’t ride them in National Parks, and we were getting ready for a lot of other activities. The festival was great fun, as usual. This one had a big astrophysics theme which I found fascinating. Leaving Death Valley on 13 Feb, we again stayed at the Needles KOA, just because it was a reasonable distance. We were attending an Escapees Hangout in Lake Havasu for the Western Pyrotechnics Association from 14 Feb to 23 Feb. Quite a difference from the very organized FMCA events we had attended, but fun. The fireworks each night were fabulous! If you haven’t ever gone, you should try to make it. It is dry camping in the rodeo ground parking lot. We picked up the RZR in Needles on the way back to Quartzsite.

We stayed at Holiday Palms for 3 nights (full hook ups!) drove the SxS a bit, then headed out to the Diesel RV Club rally in Perry, GA, dropping off the SxS in Needles again along the way. We spent on night in Willcox at the Escapees park there.

March:

1 March found us at the Tired Traveler RV Park, quite nice for the price. We headed through the DFW metroplex on I-20, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was as compared to I-30. We made it the next day to the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, MS. If you are there, make sure you visit the National Battlefield! It was very interesting. We had to stay two nights due to a big storm coming through. We then got to Americus, GA and the KOA there. I did a lot of frantic sewing to get ready for donations for the FMCA convention.

Result of an appliqué class at the FMCA convention

The DRVC rally was interesting as usual, and it preceded the big FMCA Convention in nearby Perry, GA. It was great fun, as usual. After all that commotion, I needed some peace and quiet, and we found it on Eufaula Lake on the Chattahoochee River at the White Oak Campground. We stayed on the Alabama side, and we enjoyed a few days of quiet. We then headed to Red Bay, AL again for somemore work on our problematic slide. Sigh. We have an appointment for September to get the mechanism replaced with a Vroom mechanism. We left Red Bay on 27 March to head home, spending the night at Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO and Crossroads RV Park in Mt. Pleasant, IA. On 29 March we made it home! We left the rig a few days at a local campground (George Wyth State Park) until we could get it winterized and ready for bed. It was COLD in Iowa.

April:

Now that we are home, it is time for exciting things like choir rehearsal, doctors appointments, and haircuts! Easter season is always big for church musicians, and this was not an exception. We did a Palm Sunday service, Good Friday service, and an Easter service, all of which were very satisfying. I even was part of a trio that sang at the end of the Good Friday service – “Were You There (when they crucified my Lord)”. We had a big family gathering at our place on Sunday evening where the entree was one of the fabulous Amana smoked hams. My, but that is lovely!

We also picked up a new truck that will hold the RZR and tow four-down behind the motorhome. F-150 Ecoboost four door, four wheel drive. We ended up taking it to RV One in Des Moines to get the braking system (an Air Force 1] installed. Ouch, that’s expensive! I finished one big quilt this month that was part of a Mystery Quilt class by Inspired to Sew. They run their Monday evening Mystery Quilt classes on Zoom, and I got most of the blocks done before we left for Arizona. I did a few in AZ, and I finished the remaining few in early April before putting it all together.

May to today:

I went to an RV Quilter’s retreat from 4-7 May. I finished one quilt, and got a few blocks completed on a second.

The exciting part of the trip was the night after the retreat ended when we got blasted by a massive hailstorm. The pretty new pickup on which I have not made even one payment, got a bunch of tiny dents and one big one. The motorhome lost two solar panels with huge broken areas on them, and one fist sized hole punched in the fiberglass. Ouch! There are a few scratches too, but those weren’t significant. Thank goodness for fiberglass! A metal rig would have likely been totaled. It turns out the solar panels protected us a lot, and replacing them is much less expensive than patching holes in an upscale motorhome roof. Much of the last two weeks have been taken up with getting estimates and temporary repairs.

Not the biggest hail stones, but you get the idea!

Fist sized hole in the back fiberglass cap of the motorhome

An even bigger hail stone made this damage

My newest toy is a small bread maker by Zojirushi. I love it so far, and we intend on taking it with us on our trips. I also will post pictures of the other two quilts I finished when I have them completed. I think I am mostly caught up, and I am telling myself I have to keep this more up to date. I do it mostly for myself to keep track of what we have done and where we stay, but I will forget it I don’t post.

First week in Quartzsite

It has been busy, so that is my excuse for not posting sooner. Be prepared for loads of pictures!

We arrived on Saturday, 14 January. We basically got settled in to our site, and Kevin spread out all the outdoor paraphernalia we don’t often pull out. he has a new kitchen set up for the Blackstone grill, plus the rug and chairs all got pulled out. On Sunday we took our first ride with a local Side by Side (UTV) club called “Arizona Sunriders.” We had been following along their Facebook page, and they welcomed us on their ride. Here are some shots from the trip. We started out at the somewhat still active marble mine. I didn’t take any pictures because we did that last year.

We also visited a local landmark called Deer Run B&B. To put it mildly, it isn’t a real B&B. Instead it is a quirky spot at the end of a VERY rough trail filled with a hodgepodge of chairs, tables, and cute signs.

Part of the group at one of our stops. That’s Kevin at the back of our little RZR.

While on FB the trip had been identified as a relatively short, easy ride, it turned out into something that really stretched our skills and comfort! Luckily they later said it was probably the third hardest tour they do! We made it, so we feel accomplished.

On Monday we took a trip to Yuma and Algodones, Mexico. Kevin wanted to get new glasses, and he took his prescription from our ophthalmologist in Iowa to Western Optical there. He is quite happy with the new glasses, and they only cost $160 for frames, bifocal lenses, and coatings, about half the price back home. We ate Mexican food (of course!), and on the way back we saw three groups of feral donkeys along US 95 through the Yuma Proving Grounds. We only stopped to get pictures of this small group.

The weather has been wet and cold, both unusual for this time of year. On Wednesday it finally cleared up.

We spent some time just driving the RZR around the local area too. The top of a nearby hill shows part of the Long Term Visitor Area (LTVAs) near Quartzsite. Yes, it really is that crowded near town! However it gets a lot less crowded a mile or two away from town. Note this was middle of last week, before even more crowds came for the big rock show and the RV show (“The Bog Tent”).

We also took a trip to Parker, both to pick up the sticker that allows us to ride the RZR on Indian land, but also to grab some fabulous donuts at the little bakery there and to have lunch. We found a fabulous Indian place called Dee’s Cafe that I would recommend to anyone.

Yesterday we took another trip with the Sunriders to Swansea ghost town. It was a very active place with up to 750 people and multiple mines. Surprisingly most of the ore was originally transported to Los Angeles where it was shipped across the Atlantic to Swansea, West Wales, for refining and steel making. Eventually the mills were added to the town, and the town took its name from the former milling location. These are big ruins in remarkably good shape considering they are over 100 years old.

Rows of mountains from the site. Note the saguaros.

So far today we have driven the RZR some pictographs that are quite near our camp.

I have also been sewing. I now have all the rows done for a donation quilt that needs to be finished by the FMCA convention in March. Shouldn’t be a problem at all, which is reassuring.

The huge Big Tent RV show began yesterday, but opening day is a madhouse. We might go in the middle of next week, maybe at 9:00 am or 3:00 pm. Too crazy for me to be interested in prime time viewing. Besides, they always have good state fair type of food vendors – fry bread, funnel cakes, turkey legs, Asian bowls, all kinds of stuff! I do love my fry bread.

On the way west

We are finally in Arizona. As I noted in the last post, we spent Sunday night at a Walmart in Arkansas, then Monday night in the parking lot of the Grand Casino in McLoud, OK (near Shawnee, OK). We were able to have dinner with my sister and nephew in Oklahoma City which was nice. We saw high winds and red flag warnings were getting posted, so we left a few minutes before 7:00 am to try to make it to Amarillo, TX before the storm got bad. We barely made it. The last 30 miles or so were pretty white knuckled driving, but we got to our reserved spot at the Big Texan Ranch RV Park. We ended up leaving all but one of the slides pulled in. The winds were steady at 30+, and the gusts were 60-65+. Definitely not the time to leave the slides out. For anyone not familiar with the big slides on a big motorhome, they all have some type of vinyl covering over the top of the slide. Ours are made out of Sunbrella, and they fit pretty snuggly. But the noise they make when they start flapping in heavy winds can drive you crazy, so we bring them in. It isn’t a safety thing.

The wind warning went through Wednesday night, so we decided to just stay put in Amarillo for two nights. We went to Palo Duro State Park, just a short distance from Amarillo. Kevin and I had taken Alan and Mark here the first year we owned a pop up camper. Mark was a toddler, and Alan was 5 or 6. We hadn’t been back since, so it was time. It was cold and the wind whipped right through us, so we definitely just drove through the park. Pretty nice scenery though.

From the visitor center looking into the sun and wind.

This is lush compared to the surrounding land

They had “glamping” available for $75/night

We made it to the Seligman, AZ KOA for tonight. Both days were more driving than I like, but there is snow coming in behind us in Flagstaff. This KOA must have gotten drenching rains recently, probably leftovers from the California deluges. There are puddles everywhere. But we are able to finish up laundry, fill up propane, take on fresh water and dump gray water, and generally get ready to dry camp for the next few weeks,

And just a hint of how lovely Arizona sunsets can be. No editing; these really were the colors.

Out of Alabama on the way west

We had a good trip in the Red Bay Area. Ricky McGee at Pro-Finishes touched up a bunch of dings and scratches, a few fairly big. Great paint match, and the guys were super interested at making us happy with the outcome. We also had good work at Precision RV where they found a broken slide slider, a fairly common problem, and one I have been surprised we hadn’t had yet. We are not gentle on this MH! They not only replaced the broken one, but let us buy a spare since it might happen on the other side of the slide in the future. We could find someone to fix it, but getting parts is what always takes a long time. They also discovered and fixed a leaky hydraulic line for the same slide, adjusted all the bay doors so they shut easily and evenly, installed a propane furnace igniter that Kevin had bought but didn’t want to install (the current one was only working intermittently), and re-tensioned the slide toppers. Hopefully the slide toppers won’t hold as much water after rains now. Then we had Rocky Johnson do a complete detail on the motorhome – wash, wax, put 303 on the roof for UV protection, inspect the roof while he was up there (everything is still good), and polished the wheels. The coach just gleamed, but of course it had to rain later that day. Sigh. At least the wax is a good protection.

As usual we stayed in Red Bay RV Park which is like all but one of the Red Bay area spots – a gravel parking lot with full hook ups. This time we had a particularly outgoing group, and we met some nice folks.

We ate at all the standard places – Stark’s for breakfast, Cole’s for the absolute best smoked chicken I have ever had (and fabulous white sauce!), Home Town Pizza for great great pizza, and Big Star Grocery for some of their specialty snacks. I even bought extra of their fruit cake cookies, and I froze them in sets of twos for future consumption. Each cookie is the equivalent of a big slice of fruitcake, so two is plenty for the pair of us.

We left Red Bay this morning a little after 8:00, and we are now in Morrilton, AR a bit west of Little Rock. We are spending the night at the Walmart here. It started out pretty noisy, but it gradually got nice and quiet. Monday is Shawnee, Oklahoma at a casino. I went to college in Shawnee, so it will be interesting to see how it has changed.

Yet another Red Bay visit (with a day trip to Huntsville, AL)

After we left Bowling Green, we drove Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO. Nice place. We had a huge pull through site with full hookups at $45/ night. We didn’t have to disconnect the UTV trailer from the MH, and there was still room for the Jeep. We decided to stay 2 nights, knowing New Year’s Eve is noisy a lot of places. This place was nice and quiet, mostly with a mix of long term residents and migrating snowbirds.

The night we arrived, 30 December, we went to Lambert’s Cafe, home of the “throwed rolls”. It was decent cafe food, but you don’t go just for the food; you go for the fun. Yes, they really do throw dinner rolls to you across the dining room! The servers were working hard, and they had other staff come around with additional standards like fried okra (a favorite or mine), apple butter, and fried potatoes and onions (another favorite).

On New Year’s Eve we just relaxed. I did cut a bunch of quilt components with the Accuquilt though. We got to try out the new Starlink system, and it is fabulous. A good 5G signal gives about the same throughout, but it is hard to find 5G where we go. We actually made it to midnight Atlantic time (aka 10:00 pm Central time). We wanted to get up early and drive, but New Year’s Day started out quite foggy so we took our time. We did get to Red Bay at a decent time, and we are settled at Red Bay RV Park. “RV Park” is a strong name for a very nice gravel lot with FHUs, but it is level and roomier than some of the alternative places.

Since we are going to be here a while, I pulled out the sewing machine and got lots of little blocks completed. It is nice to sew while listening to audiobooks, and I did that while Kevin messed around with the water softener and a few visits to hardware stores. We had our first repair appointment today with the paint folks at Pro-Finishes. After 60,000 tough miles, it was time to get some chips filled in plus we had a couple of big scratches on a slide. They got all that done while we went to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Fabulous! Be prepared for incoming pictures.

We started in the main indoor section of general space “stuff” including training facilities for their Space Camp. Interestingly the exhibit started with a collection of space themed toys ranging from the 1930s to present.

After the toys were a combination of models are true artifacts.

Of course there were real artifacts too including these space suits

Please some concept suits for the future.

We then went to the Planetarium where we saw a presentation about the James Webb Space Telescope. Quite interesting! After that we visited the next museum building that was centered on rockets and manned space flights. Again, a combination of models and actual artifacts.

The inside of the second museum building emphasized manned flight. There was a docent who was giving a very interesting guided tour that we lucked out with. There was an actual Saturn 5 rocket inside this building, laid on its side (all 300+’ of it!), and I took lots of pictures. I will spare you those! This specific rocket was built for vibration testing, and obviously the designed passed. I will emphasize more on the manned capsules now.

The silvered thing in back was an actual training module for the Mercury

Damaged heat shield from the capsule – ouch!

There was even the sole remaining component from Sky Lab, the first space station. This was the only piece that didn’t end up burned up or lost in the ocean. You can see the insulating pieces of fiberglass that didn’t burn up.

We came back to check out the coach painting, and found a couple of spots they had to re-do. Looks pretty nice though! Tomorrow is a visit with Precision RV for slide check and maybe hydraulic pump repair, slide topper tightening, and replacing an igniter on one the propane furnaces. Of course they may find other stuff! Saturday is a full exterior detailing, then Sunday we head for Arizona. I can’t wait. It is so humid here that my towels don’t dry overnight, and we have to wash them every 3 days or so. Ugh. I want my nice dry desert again.

And we are off!

We left this morning for more southern climates. The weather has been truly awful for the last two weeks with even the highs below 0 and nasty winds. Kevin and I kept looking at each other saying “This is just too cold!” We always stay until after Christmas though, so we bided our time until we had two decent days. One we needed for packing and the other we needed for driving, and we finally got them. We even scored a FHU winterized site at the local KOA that let us get full de-winterized before taking off. I am towing the cargo trailer with the UTV on it, and Kevin is driving the Jeep separately. So far, so good, though he has to stop for fuel 3 times as often!

We were planning on staying at a campground in Bowling Green, MO, but they have their water turned off. We decided to save $60 and just spend the night in the local Walmart parking lot. With our batteries, solar, and generator, it is an easy thing to do even in cooler weather like we are having. At least it is dry.

We did have a fabulous Christmas though. All four kids, spouses, partners, and grandkids were able to get together for dinner and presents on the 23rd. We needed to work around my daughter’s work schedule as a nurse. And of course I forgot (again!) to take pictures!

I have been frantically trying to keep up with my Mystery Quilt Zoom class. i got the vast majority of it done, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Even though I posted the first two weeks, I am going to show all of them again to keep the pieces together.

Week 4 blocks – 10” I fixed the error on the last block on the left

I actually did week 5 which was a single block plus adding connector blocks, but I forgot to take a picture! I have decided to make this a king sized quilt so I need lots of borders. I saw some people made borders of the connector blocks on the sides of the basic quilt, so that is one of my winter projects. I need to make a few hundred little 4” blocks like those below plus some other ones I didn’t show. I will take all the pieces I have left of the original fabric plus I bought four more fat quarters in coordinating color#, so I should have enough fabric. Then I will add some standard borders too to make it the right size.

I also have a tradition of making something hand made for each family, something g practical. This year it was oven mitts. I made a total of 8, so each household could take their pick of two. Surprisingly people chose different ones, not coordinating.

I was able to get my binding technique down to a fine science which will be handy on other projects too.

Expect more frequent posts since we are finally on the road again. We are heading to Red Bay, AL for some paint touch ups and some small miscellaneous fixes. Then we head off to Quartzsite, AZ.

Been a long time …

I never seem to post much when we are just hanging around the house. We haven’t taken any fun trips, and we have mostly been consumed with medical “stuff.” Kevin had a knee replacement four weeks ago, and before that we had the series of miscellaneous appointments that go with having surgery. It didn’t help that the surgeon and facility was 1 1/2 hours away! But the results have been fabulous. He used a walker for just one week, and he tossed the cane four days ago. He still gets sore of course, and the strengthening exercises have a painful aftermath, but he is powering through it. His motivation is to get in good enough shape to drive south after Christmas. Good motivation as a snowstorm heads our way tonight and tomorrow!

We have made a change in the storage facility for the motorhome. The price for our indoor storage has increased from $220 a month to $379 over four years. We moved to outdoor storage for $45 a month. Of course there was a lot to clean out of the enclosed storage first, and the garage at the house had to be re-arranged to hold it all! Kevin managed to fit everything in plus the trailer with the RZR and two cars in the 3 stall garage. I was impressed. Keeping the batteries in good shape while stored without electricity has been a learning experience. We have a lot of solar, but there are parasitic draws even with the 12v and 110v systems turned off. The LiFePO4 batteries need to be kept about 50-70% in storage, so we had to play with some of the charger setting. I think we have it now.

We also hired our son in law to do install some landscape blocks to even out the slope in our lawn some. We had gravel that went down a hill, and every big rain would wash some of it in the grass. Now I will have a nice flower/shrub bed next spring. Oh, and it really is level even though I can’t seem to take a decent picture!

I have done some sewing, but not enough! I finally finished piecing the king sized quilt for our motorhome. I don’t have a picture though since it still needs a good pressing. It is a lovely Jewel Box design with rich colors on a charcoal background. I haven’t really quilted anything because I sent my Handi Quilter Sweet 16 display and c-pod to get updated. I am considering upgrading my S16 to use a stitch regulator table, and this was needed. The update is relatively inexpensive, but the table is not! Still thinking about that, but the update has some advantages just by itself.

I also am working on a “Mystery Quilt” Zoom class that uses my AccuQuilt cutting system. We get new “clues” every week, and we make the blocks called for. We don’t know what the final design will be until the last session on 26 December. The class is well run and the technology actually works! Here are my first two big blocks. There are also lots of little blocks that go with them that will be used in the final assembly. I only showed a few of those. The little blocks are of all types – tiny four patch (shown), bigger four patch, hour glass, kite, and others. The instructor is telling us to only finger press our blocks as we go, and that is so hard for me! But I am giving it the old college try, and I hope it works well. Pressing is a very power hungry task, and it would be nice to not do much of it while we boondock.

First block of the second week – 18” square

I still have the second block of the second week to do, plus a bunch more of the little blocks. I really messed up on the color contrast with this one, but oh well. Lesson learned.

I am also starting Christmas presents, though I am way behind. This year everyone is getting oven mitts, cut (of course) with the AccuQuilt. Here is the sample I am keeping for myself. I am pretty happy with the construction and the final appearance. I used my binding attachment, and it went together pretty well.

I also bought myself a bit of a present (shush, don’t tell!). I ordered a Handi Quilter “Mystery Ruler Box.” It had six long arm quilting rulers in it, and it only cost $50. Pretty good deal! I am not sure what I will do with the hexi, but I feel I will use the others.

I will probably think of something else I have forgotten in the last two months, but I can catch that later.

Kevin’s updates on the new RZR plus our first trip with it

As of last Friday, Kevin had installed a rear view mirror, side mirrors, turn signals and running lights, and a front windshield. He has a rear windshield, lower and upper doors , and a new roof on order. They arrive sometime this week. He also bought a Fire tablet to run the off-road mapping software on, a case for it, and is figuring out the best place to mount it. He’s been busy!

We did go on our first big ride on Saturday. It was a charity ride for some local volunteer organizations in Northeast Iowa, and we started at the Volga River campground in the town of Volga, Iowa. The ride was restricted to 200 rigs, and it closed early last week, amazing to me. The event was advertised on Facebook through some UTV groups, and there were still people who wanted to get in. I have never even heard of something like this, and it was an experience. Cost was $50/rig.

We loaded the rig up with everything we needed on Friday, and we headed to Volga by 8:30 in the morning. We got parked and unloaded the RZR, then headed to the checkin, arriving there about 10:15. We had reserved a sack lunch from a local church (“free-will offering”, and not much!). Next time we will definitely bring our own. Lots of good organization. The parking area was huge and easily handled the crowds of mostly pickups with trailers.

The check in was orderly too, and we were given a numbered tag and got in rows.

We knew we were going to be the little guy, but some of these rigs are as big as cars! Four and six seaters were common, some with full fiberglass doors and roofs with roll down windows. Then there were the true utility rigs that doubled around the farm, a few mud racers, lots of donut maker/racers, and a few like us. I was rather astonished to see people drinking beer and hard liquor at 10:00 am on a Saturday before they were going to drive, but it seemed very acceptable to the crowd. Lots of vaping and cigarettes too. It had been so long since I had seen groups of people smoking that it took me aback.

We got started a few minutes after 11:00, and we had so much fun! It was 30-40 miles with a wide assortment of terrain. A little bit of road (the local fire department and police blocked traffic for us), some cornfields, lots of fallow pastureland with rolling hills, some heavy forest, and a number of stream crossings.

There were three stops along the way. Lots more drinking. Portable toilets were on a trailer that two trucks pulled to each stop. As we went through some farm fields, we actually had the farmers there to open gates and keep their cattle away. It was definitely a community endeavor. That makes sense since the proceeds were going to the local volunteer EMS folks! Each place we stopped for a break had plenty of room for people to spread out.

The ride finished at our starting spot about 4:30. We both had big grins on our faces. The ride had been bumpy and rough, but we weren’t all beat up like we would have been in the Jeep. The soft balloon tires and suspension of the RZR were much gentler on our bodies, though we were feeling a bit worse for wear this morning! It wasn’t anything some Tylenol wouldn’t solve though. I am really very happy with the entire purchase, and I am looking forward to using it a lot this winter in Arizona.

What’s going on at home after the trip

I am finally getting caught up. The first week we were home (mid September), I just collapsed. I was still sick from the sinus cold from hell, and it kept me exhausted. It took 5 days before we got the motorhome half-way cleaned up and winterized. While I napped and relaxed at home, Kevin went through every bay and cleaned and sorted them. Lots and lots of stuff came home. Some ended up on the garage shelves and some just ended up in the trash. I bet we are hundreds of pounds lighter! That is good because he is now packing up our “normal” stuff we didn’t take with us this summer like the 3D printer and the telescope.

Some things are great being back. For example, I am back in church choir! it is so lovely to sing with others again. It had been almost 3 years since we left for Arizona in January 2020. Choir stopped during the pandemic, and it just started again in September. We no longer sing every week since we only have one service split between praise band music and traditional choir music, but it is better than nothing. A lot of the regulars at church haven’t been coming. Some are still worshipping online, and sadly a number of the older folks died. That included people in the choir too. I have hopes a few more will start showing up for choir, but it is easy to lose habits when they are paused for 2 years.

We have finally bought a UTV, a skinny 50” wide 2020 Polaris RZR Trail model. Love it! It will fit in the back of a pickup eventually, but we bought a trailer for it now. Of course it needs all kinds of fun and practical stuff that Kevin is buying including a new roof/door combination, full front windshield, rear view and side mirrors, and turn signals. We intend on using it a lot in Arizona this winter, and they allow UTVs to drive on the street if equipped properly. It will be a pain getting it there this year because we have to tow the UTV and trailer with the MH while Kevin drives the Jeep, but then we will leave it in AZ until some time in June when we will pick it up and spend time in Utah.

Kevin worked really hard to get the garage ready for 3 vehicles again, but there is now room for the Jeep, the RAV4, and the RZR on its trailer. We hope to go for our first real ride in it on Saturday when there is a charity group ride in NE Iowa. We are hoping for decent weather and beautiful fall colors.

Coming back in the fall is always a busy time for us because we schedule all our yearly doctor visits now. Kevin has a big one – his knee replacement is scheduled for 9 November. Since I am a poll worker on 8 November until late, we will have a long day. The plan is to be healthy enough to head to Arizona soon after Christmas. Of course there will be a number of appointments for imaging and checkups in addition, but we will manage those. I finally got the colonoscopy I tried to have in April of 2020 (yeah, we know what happened then!) then in April this year (cancelled because I came down with COVID). Still have to schedule a mammogram, but my routine physical is scheduled for December.

Hopefully the next post will be full of lovely foliage pictures from the UTV ride.

My totally personal view of RV caravans

I wanted to summarize my personal thoughts on RV caravans. Let me emphasize that again – my personal views. These comments are based on the one and only caravan I have ever been on, the 63 day trip to western Canada and Alaska. So take it for what it is worth, perhaps very little!

We signed up for this caravan after our planned trips (sans caravan) in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to COVID. We were really worried that with three years of demand we wouldn’t be able to find places to stay or get into attractions we were interested in. It turns out the increase in diesel prices kept a lot of people closer to home this year. Few campgrounds were completely full, and there were nearby options for the ones who were. Oh well, live and learn.

Good things:

Everything is set up for you, and you need to plan very little. This is particularly good if you are new at RVing or new at long trips. I would say well over half of the folks were in the “newer” category, though some had been full-timing for years. We had travel booklets with routes identified in detail.

Lots and lots of full hookup campsites and even more electric/water sites. We have never in our life stayed at so many serviced campsites in the period!

Lots of built in social activities if you choose to participate. Things like drinks around the fire or dinner at a local restaurant.

A good wagon master is well organized, keeps people informed, provides alternatives if an activity isn’t appropriate for an individual. We had travel briefings every 2-3 days to discuss the details of the next few days travel and planned activities. The wagon master also confirmed our campgrounds and directed us to our sites when we arrived. Our wagon master was amazingly organized. He was retired military man, and it showed.

The tail gunner can be extremely helpful if you have trouble on the road. Every morning he went by all the rigs thumping tires to give a brief check. At the start of the trip, he crawled under everyone’s rigs checking out undercarriages, springs, shackles, etc. We had a few people come down with serious rig issues on the road, and the tail gunner stayed with them until they got to the campsite or had service arranged.

The activities that a group can get are more varied than an individual can get. For example, we had guides when individuals did not, for example on an old riverboat. We were allowed into special areas that weren’t open to the public, like a puffin exhibit at an aquarium. We got a special viewing of sled dogs and a presentation that others did not, and there were other things. The bus trips were nice since we got an entire bus to ourselves and the trips were customized to our group.

Now for the not so good things.

With all that planning there were times I really wanted to stay longer or stay less long at certain places. There is significant rigidity in the schedule. And I found the schedule,rushed. I would have taken at least half again as long for the trip, maybe twice as long. It was more of a sample rather than in-depth, even at 63 days.

Some of the activities were of zero value to us. For example, we spent lots of time at coastal towns where the main activity was fishing. The thing is, we aren’t anglers! These are very small places that can be well explored in a day or two, but we stayed longer.

While the social butterflies were extremely happy, I found all the emphasis on group socialization a bit uncomfortable. We are more introverted, and we are used to solitary camping in a wide variety of places. There were a few days where I just hid in the camper because I was overwhelmed and “peopled” out!

I got tired of the complaints people had about the campsites. We were in fairly remote areas much of the time, and campground amenities weren’t 4* except in a very few places. If we had electrical service, it was almost always 30 amp. They didn’t tell us this when we signed up, but they did tell us in the preparatory emails we got a month or so ahead of time. Those with full electric rigs that need 50 amp struggled some, and a few of them (ok, one in particular) whined on a regular basis. I think this fits in with the item above – no control over who we were around.

Summary: We won’t do a caravan again. I am just too solitary a creature to enjoy the forced company of others quite so much. I will happily trade the special group activities for the flexibility of staying as long as we want where we want. While I recognize the value a caravan trip might have for many, it just wasn’t our cup of tea. Oh, and I don’t think Adventure Caravans, the company we went through, is significantly different than Fantasy. It wasn’t Adventure Caravan’s fault that we just aren’t caravan people. They did exactly what they said they were going to do, so I won’t fault them.