Updates and admitting that we are hard-core RV-ers.

Whenever I read over some of my old posts, I berate myself for neglecting The Blog.  Even if nobody else ever reads it, it's a priceless record to us.  And so I am pulling it out of the attic, dusting it off, and will (hopefully!) get back in the groove.  Because we're not dead yet.  

Update:

My last post (of over a 1.5 years ago) started off with us selling our 40 foot ("Beast") motorhome, which I was very ready to see go.  I SAID we were going back to good old-fashioned tent camping.  Or so we thought.

That lasted until the following spring ..... when we hatched the *brilliant* plan of rejoining our motorcycling and camping lifestyles, with a toy-hauler.  (This is an RV wherein the rear wall opens and lays down as a ramp.  Toy-haulers can carry all types of man-sized "toys" on wheels.)  As you may recall, our motorhome carried our motorcycle on the back.  THIS would carry it inside.  Brilliance.  Or so we thought.

Fondly remembering the assets of our first little all-aluminum trailer, we searched for one from the same company, which Husband located in San Diego.  (At least it wasn't Arkansas this time.)  So off we went in our Jeep, towing our motorcycle in a U-Haul trailer.

There we loaded the motorcycle into our *new* (four years old) rig, hitched it to the Jeep and headed back north.  It was during that trip we decided the Jeep just didn't have the oomph to do the job, since this trailer was wider than our original trailer.  So after we returned home, our beloved Jeep was sold and replaced with a lovely red F150 pickup, which squarely entrenched us as true Central Oregonians.  (Eeeeeverybody drives a pickup here.)

It was very spartan inside, with hideous "Polaris" decor, and the exterior had been thoroughly faded by the southern Cali sun.

This is as it looked on our way home.  The furniture was folded up against the walls.  The bed raises and lowers to allow the bike to come and go.

Then followed about six weeks of pure fun (memory always erases the not-fun parts) as we fixed it up.  The exterior got new paint and decals.

The interior went from this:

to this:

We loved it ......

                or so we thought.

Last fall we headed for New Mexico, since that was our last unexplored western state.  We stopped briefly to see our delightful Utah family and then did our annual obligatory visit to Moab.

OH!  I forgot!  We bought a kayak!  (How COOL are we?!)  It's inflatable and holds both of us, plus the dog, and we love it!  So we brought it along on this trip and did about 8 miles on the scenic (brown) Colorado river just outside of Moab.
Note: for those of you who have never launched any type of small non-powered boat on a river, it involves a lot of ferrying of vehicles from the put-in point to the take-out point, which we were able to do with me and dog in the truck, and Husband on the motorcycle.  This is to avoid having to hitchhike a ride back up-river to the truck.

Then we spent two nights at the Great Sand Dune National Park in southern Colorado.  (Sllliiiightly overrated.  Definitely a do-only-once destination, although the pic below is gorgeous.)   I had to laugh at all the people we saw heading out to climb the dunes in hiking boots.  Obviously they were sand novices and strangers to the Oregon coast where we all know to go barefoot.

(Took this off the internet.) 

https://www.colorado.com/articles/national-park-profile-great-sand-dunes-national-park-preserve

It was here when the benefits of carrying one's motorcycle inside one's RV began to fade.  If one is relegated to the only available spot in the park and is backed up into that tiny campsite where one cannot lower the ramp to disembark said motorcycle, then one must sleep with a large vehicle situated between one's bed and one's bathroom.  Why didn't we unload the bike before parking the trailer?  Frankly, I don't remember.

Then we headed into the artsy, touristy town of Taos, New Mexico, and some much anticipated internet.  (I'd been dealing with a few withdrawal symptoms after being off-grid for several days.)  About an hour after we arrived there, somehow-somewhere a very important cable was accidentally severed, plunging the entire area into an internet-less abyss that lasted for the next 12-13 hours.  In fact even the land-line phones were all down.  I was aghast .... what if there was an emergency??  But the locals just seemed to shrug it off.

Taos is entertaining for about 2.5 hours, after which those of us with short attention spans become bored.  I have learned in my RV-ing experience that making reservations and finding places to camp are fairly easy Monday - Thursday.  But by Friday, you'd better be hunkered down for the weekend.  So we endured Taos till Monday.  The friendly folks with whom we attended church in their very small congregation, ALL encouraged us to move there full-time (so as to permanently teach a Sunday class or something).  It was that weekend we discovered the ramp of our trailer, upon which the motorcycle enters and exists, was becoming spongy.  It was rated to hold much heavier vehicles than we subjected it do .... AND did I mention it was only four years old??

So we called the local church leader, who kindly offered to let us use a few of his power tools and Husband fashioned a plank to lay over the ramp, so as to continue being able to load and unload the bike.  (Needless to say, our opinion of the manufacturer of our trailer (and the ramp) dropped significantly.)

Skipping ahead, since this is getting long-winded .... we visited San Juan (lovely!) ... (oops!, I meant Santa Fe),  Los Alamos where the atomic bomb was built, and saw more ancient ruins in Chaco Canyon which IS the Mother-of-the-Middle-of-Nowhere where visitors must suffer miles of very rough road for which, in my opinion, there is no excuse.  (Kinda done with ruins after that.)

The best of that trip was Lake Powell in our kayak.  A few pics:  (Antelope Canyon)

It gradually narrows down to a channel barely wide enough to U-turn the kayak, where you hit land and can hike further into the slot canyon on foot.  Husband is clamoring to return .... or perhaps move there (insert eye-roll emoji here).

Alas, however, it was not our favorite trip, and added to some necessary cold winter usage, I'm afraid our current trailer has fallen out of favor.

HENCE, onto Plan ... um ... a, b, c .... D!

We are getting a Sprinter van!  More on that coming up ..... because I WILL return.  

Catching up and goodbye Beast

FOUR months since my last post which is a new record.  Sometimes a person is just not feeling it and distractions are many.  As time goes by and more and more things go unrecorded, it becomes a bit daunting to catch up.

But since I rule this blog, I can be brief and leap over the past four months, as little or as much as I want.

First of all, you may have noticed that the title no longer says "on Wheels"....... this is because the wheels .... AKA "The Beast" is  <<SOLD>>  As of six days ago.  Husband and I are still celebrating.

Backing it out of the driveway for the last time.

Wait, you may say.  Didn't I love The Beast?

Yes.  I did.

Then I didn't.

The Beast served its purpose for over two years, keeping us adequately sheltered.  I thoroughly enjoyed the escape from yard work and from multiple rooms that were seldom occupied except by dust mites who had to be evicted regularly.  And as I have previously said, I hated moving the thing.

Motorhomes are large investments .... even 12 year old ones like ours.  In fact I shouldn't call it an "investment" because the longer you own it, like with any vehicle and unlike a house, the more the value goes down.  And repairs can be costly and frequent.  We had to deal with a few of them.  So when you add a worrier (like me) into the mix, the result is not optimum.  I was always afraid it would break down on the side of the road.  Or present us with another leak on a rainy day.  Or that it would age beyond its appeal to any prospective buyer.  Or that it would suddenly demand new tires, shocks, radiator, batteries, a new fridge, AC unit, or what-have-you.

So after a few repairs and much cleaning ....  it sold within a week.  (Happy Dance!)

And we have decided that, for now, our version of camping will be in a tent.  In fact, just last month, we were in our little backpacking tent in a campground in southern Colorado .... the only tent-dwellers amongst many RVs, and we no longer envied the comfort of those big rigs with their kitchens, bathrooms, and flat screen TVs.  We were traveling minimalist-style on our motorcycle with no concerns of maneuvering in and out of our site, if our slides would retract in the morning, or if we'd be able to find a gas station we can fit into the next day.  

(Note:  Husband is not a worrier (like me) which is good, because if he was, we'd probably never venture out, take a risk, or do much of anything.  He provides the big ideas and optimism, and I provide the angst to keep us somewhat grounded.  It's called balance.)

Therefore, with that, another chapter in our life is now closed.


So ....... over the last four months, we have done TWO motorcycle trips.  The first was a sequel of last year with our great motor-biking friends.  We traveled into Idaho -- the Boise area where the guys could fish, up near Sun Valley where the guys could fish, then over to Rexburg where the guys could fish.  I got to see my delightful sis and some cousins.  Total score.  (Sadly we don't have many pictures.  We were all too busy having fun.)

All the bikes in our garage the night before the trip.  They all spent the first night with us, three days after we moved into the house.  (Thanks, Julie.  I took this from your Facebook pics.)

Husband on the Big Wood River, Idaho.

Awesome sister and cousins.

In August, we introduced our new home to our progeny (kids and grands) at our annual reunion and plan on hosting many more.

AND, to check another biggie off our list, we finished moving ALL OUR STUFF.

AND THEN Husband backpacked 85 miles (one week) on the Pacific Crest Trail with friend, Steve, who was hiking the entire Oregon portion.

Alas, I did not think to take an "after" shot when I picked him up a week later.

Then our second motorcycle trip we went alone, first by hauling our motorcycle in our little utility trailer to Utah where we visited some awesome relatives,

then we left the car and trailer

and rode our motorcycle into Colorado for nine days, camping and motel-ing along the way.  We saw Mesa Verde again ....

I went through there too.  It was the only way out.

And up this.

Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde

..... the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the "million dollar highway" and the majestic Rockies with their splashes of golden aspens among the evergreens.  (I cannot EXPRESS how gorgeous those mountains are!!  Oh, poor Oregon .... you've been bested by Maine and now by Colorado too.)  We rode in elevations well above our own 11,000+ ft. high Mt. Hood.  

Colorado National Monument

We reconnected with more awesome family and then to our beloved southern Utah .... Arches National Park (for the umpteenth time), our fave Moab campground, and more.  Over 1800 fantastic miles on the bike

On the Home Front, we finished laying gazillions of pavers for our driveway.  Plus we watched someone put up the outside portion of Husband's new shop.  (Husband will finish the interior, as you may have guessed.)

There's a cement floor in it now.

The sand pile has shrunk considerably.

Landscaping is still on The List.  It WILL be minimal.

In spite of a warm fall, we're starting to use our wood stove, which I love.

And ..... we got a new puppy.  (I know, I know.)

Winnie The Poop

That's all.

For now.

Moving-In Week!

I've purposely avoided updates on our house.  This is because, no matter how hard we worked, we could not seem to pull it out of that unfinished-looking stage.  There always seemed to be ladders, sheetrock dust (still is), paint cans, wires, holes that needed something in them .....  and all accessorized with an abundance of tools strewn about.  I was tired of posting pics of the process and was beyond ready to show the results.  

So to bring 'er up to date, I'll mention a few "highlights" from along the way ......

Painting the exterior of the house was a lot of work, but the rewards were immediate.  We opted for three colors (all shades of taupe) which meant a LOT of taping.  But we're happy with the results.

The garage doors arrived in the perfect color.  We did not have to paint them.  Hooray!

The interior walls and ceilings were a big job and weeks later we're still finding spots to touch up, but again ..... happy.  Then (insert creepy theme music) came the job of painting our interior trim, meaning all the base boards, window trim, door frames, etc., that Husband had dutifully constructed and installed himself.  Plus the doors had to be painted.  [Need I mention that every inch of trim had to be caulked (by yours truly), which is absolute death to a manicure.]

Our builder (Don), builder-friend-Alan, and Favorite-First-Son-Who-Is-A-Builder ..... ALL said they paint their trim last.  This means after the walls and ceiling are painted, and after the flooring is installed.  (But, thankfully, before the carpet arrives.)  Okay, so we did.  That was when I discovered that the entire world of Youtube how-to videos is shaking its head and saying, Don't do it, you fool".  Thus I learned by sad experience that when painting one's trim LAST and with a powered paint sprayer that blasts wet paint willy-nilly in the general direction one points it, means one is about to plunge into the outer darkness of painting-PREP.  One day we literally spent 14 hours taping and then spent approximately 14 minutes spraying everything we had taped.  And that was only a few rooms.  We bought rolls and rolls AND ROLLS of masking tape, and returned to the store several times to buy more.  This was worse than laying 1200 square feet of wood flooring and three rooms of tile.

This was worse than the wiring.  (Husband may disagree.)

This was Masking-Tape-Hell. 

Everything that couldn't be removed, had to be covered and taped, including the floor.  At one point, I had a small meltdown and had to walk away, indulge in a good cry, then go back to work.  It took us four and a half LONG days.  THAT is one job I will NEVER do again. (Standing with clenched fist.)

Thus our DIY-resolve weakened and we broke down and paid gobs of money to a couple of angels who paved our entire patio.  Ahhhhh.  Who says money does not buy happiness??  (The driveway and front sidewalk are yet to come and still remain on our DIY list, as is our tiled shower in the master bathroom.)

The large rock on the right came from where our front door is now.  We had the excavator move it to this spot.  Grandkid seating.

Long story short, the carpet in the bedrooms will be installed tomorrow and then we're moving in.  (We're actually just sleeping in the RV at this point, as our beds are still in storage.)  Over the past several weeks, each time we've headed o'er the mountains, we've brought back a load in our utility trailer.  So we have a portion of our stuff here.  We'll bring the remainder in a mega U-Haul and then our life as motorhome dwellers will officially come to an end.

A few pics:

The counter backsplash is yet to come.

The wood stove and I are already becoming great friends.  Best heat ever.

I chose this light fixture very early on, and nicknamed it "the fun light".

I included this shot to show Husband's skills.  He built that drop-ceiling-thing from which the lights are hanging.  (T'was NOT fun getting it up there.)  That last piece of trim at the top of the range hood is on eternal back-order.

And the above is because we live on Quail Rd.