HAD MY MIND ON THE SOUTHWEST AGAIN TONIGHT…..THIS IS THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED LAST DECEMBER NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA
Despite sleeping with my fingers crossed for sunny skies Wednesday morning it was not to be as we awoke to cloudy skies & the sound of rain on our roof. Knew it was going to be a challenge coming up with something productive to do for the day but also knew sitting around the house for a 2nd day was not a preferred option. Decided to concentrate my efforts on straightening up our car port's storage area & re-organizing some Motorhome bins between rain showers. With Libby in the carport out of the rain it was also a good time to vacuum out the latest collection of muffin crumbs & doggie fur. Alas all that took only an hour or so & with increasing rains I was stuck back in the house again:(( But not to worry I'm not going to complain about it. Sunny days ahead Friday they say:))
CALIFORNIA’S MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE…..FEBRUARY 2015
Now that we have made some changes to the interior of our Motorhome I find myself just going out & sitting in it, looking around & asking myself the question, 'now why in the heck didn't we do this last year". I'm thinking it may have been due to the fact we were hesitant to make any changes to the interior of our rig this time. We did that with our Damon Challenger Motorhome back in 08 by replacing it's notoriously uncomfortable furniture with some Ikea stuff. We even painted the interior a warm southwest color we liked. All well & good for us but when it came time to trade our Damon in on a smaller RV in Quartzsite Arizona back in 2013 the RV dealer wouldn't touch our coach with a 10 foot pole. His words to us went something like this, how in the hell would I ever sell that!! He said when prospective buyers step into an RV they want to see it looking like the day it came out of the factory with all furniture & furnishing matching perfectly. Especially newbies who are unfamiliar with the uncomfortable couches & tub chairs etc. It's all about the ‘WOW’ factor when you step in the door. We did finally sell the Damon on our own though & as it turns out we sold it to a nice lady near Phoenix Arizona who was in fact a reader of my blog at the time. So no we will not be painting the Big EEE's interior & instead of selling the furniture we took out like we did with the Damon we have kept the tub chair & kitchen set to easily re-install if we should decide to sell it one day. Lesson learned.
PHOTO TAKEN OF THE SETTING MOON FROM OUR BACK YARD IN CONGRESS ARIZONA…..NOVEMBER 2014
This September will mark our 9th Snow Birding year & actually I'm a little surprised we have made it this far. We have made some good decisions & we have made some not so good decisions over our RVing years. Probably our best overall decision was to buy an RV in the first place with the intentions of spending winter months in the South-west. That is a decision we have never once regretted.
SEDONA ARIZONA…..FEBRUARY 2014
With just a few years of ‘winter’s only’ in the Southwest we soon became enamoured with the lifestyle & by 08 we came close to selling our house to become full time RV’ers. I was more for the idea than Kelly & with the big financial melt down that year we decided to stay just where we were & stick with our Snow Bird lifestyle. It's an unknown how we would have made out as full timers but I think we probably would have been just fine & readily adapted to the lifestyle. Well at least for awhile anyway. What we do know is that we are quite happy with the way things turned out the way they have for us. No complaints.
EAST SIDE OF CALIFORNIA’S SALTON SEA…..DECEMBER 2014
We still feel our decision to buy a small ranch type house on an acre of land in Congress Arizona was a good decision that came at just the right time. Our downsizing to a small Class C RV after that was not one of our better decisions & a second slightly bigger Class C after that brings an old saying to mind, 'two wrongs don't make a right'. Nothing really wrong with either of those Class C's & they were both actually very nice rigs but they did not turn out to be the type of vehicle we thought we needed. Despite some problems we've had with our current Class A 2003 Triple E Commander Motorhome we still think it's a quality coach which we really like but it's still too early to tell if it was a right decision for us to buy it a little over a year ago. Only time will give us that answer.
SUNRISE OVER ARIZONA’S KOFA MOUNTAINS…..DECEMBER 2013
So all & all even with our ups & downs I think we are still in a reasonably good place despite the fact having a house in Canada & another one in the U.S. + owning an RV has over the years stretched us a bit thin. We will continue to travel south for the winter's for as long as we can before having to move on to a few more of life’s major lifestyle decisions. And we all know we eventually reach the end of the road one day. One way or another……………..
SOMEWHERE IN THE GREAT AMERICAN SOUTHWEST
GROANER'S CORNER:(( Finally, the good-natured boss was compelled to call Smith into his office. "It has not escaped my attention," he pointed out, "that every time there's a home game at the stadium, you have to take your aunt to the doctor." "You know you're right, sir," exclaimed Smith. "I didn't realize it. You don't suppose she's faking it, do you?"
We too love the southwest and even our fulltime lifestyle about as long as you have been rving (2006). Someday the road will end and we will deal with that when it happens. We have various options, just depends on the situation at the time.
ReplyDelete" One Day at a time"
I never seem to have a problem sitting in my recliner on a rainy chilly day. Doing little comes naturally to me, i guess. Your blog post is still the highlight of my day.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I tried full-time RVing, and I really loved the volunteer jobs I had (and free site rent and utilities that came with those jobs). But I never much liked RV Parks and that life-style. I had a comfortable and spacious 5th wheel, but it was more than needed for just me, plus having to do all the maintenance was just too much for me. RVing has something for everyone, though.
ReplyDeleteWe are in that "thinking" kind of mode again too Al. Do we really need a 40 foot motorhome to go back and forth between Montana and Arizona?? Do we really need a place as large as the one we have in Montana?? You get the picture!
ReplyDeleteSo far, after living in the RV for two years, some of which was on our own land, we both agree going full time was the best thing we could have done. For years all we did was work on and for the house. Now, inspite of the recent meltdown in the stock market, the house is working for us. We get a dividend every month and we have no mortgage or other house upkeep expenses.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to look back and be happy with most of our decisions. Just as important to make sure we learned from the inevitable lessons we get handed a long the way. Nice to share those lessons as well (we kept the hideous spread and pillows from the bedroom in storage for resale some day).
ReplyDeleteWhen we bought our 2000 Holiday Rambler, we looked at more than 1 RV. It seemed that they all had this uncomfortable furniture with interiors that all looked like my grandparents designed it. We painted walls, and yes painted all that natural woodwork white. It's now contemporary in its colors and has a open airy feeling. We reupholstered couch and dinette, and pulled out that useless J-lounge that was so uncomfortable. We were able to fit 2 recliners from Costco.
ReplyDeleteI would never consider putting all that unfortable dated stuff back in. We full-time and our less than 400 sq ft home feels as comfortable as our 2000 sq ft home ever did.
In a smaller M/H used for vacations and weekends I sure the original stuff is desirable. In our 40 ft making it livable seems to me like the best way. If you are full-time with no other residence, saving all that stuff would present a problem.
2 years fulltiming on oxygen 24/7 and loving it! See you out in the Southwest!