Getting Adjusted

We all know there is no perfect fifth wheel.  There is give and take with each option.  Our new Cameo is so different from our Arctic Fox.  The biggest difference for me is the kitchen.  We have always had rear kitchen models, which meant lots of cabinets and pantries and lots of storage in general.  But with a rear kitchen model, the living area is somewhat small.  We never had the big windows or room for additional seating for guests. 

Well, for the first time, we now have a mid-kitchen model.  For the most part that means less storage in the kitchen, but it does offer more of a living room with the big windows in the back.  Of course these big windows can be good or bad.  Right now, they are good.  Our RV lot backs up to the open desert with the Whetstone Mountains in the distance, so we have a lovely view, especially at sunset.  However, when we find ourselves in an RV park where we have rigs parked behind us, the view won't be so good.  Again, there's that give and take.

One of the things we have to learn is the most efficient way to keep the rig warm.  We had been in our Fox so long, we knew where to set the furnace so it ran enough to keep the basement warm, but not so much to drive us crazy with the noise.  We knew where to set the thermostat on our oil heater so that a comfortable temperature was maintained.  Now we have to learn all that again.  Bill keeps tweaking with the settings, and I know we'll get it eventually, but it is a learning process. 

Another thing I've been getting adjusted to is the wide screen TV.  We are not big TV watchers.  However, we do subscribe to Netflix, and I must admit the movies look a lot better on our new flat screen than they ever did on our five-year-old $100 Walmart TV.  We soon realized that most TV programs are not made for wide screens and this causes the people on the screen to look a little short and dumpy. To remedy this, all we have to do is change the mode from wide screen to TV mode, and everyone looks normal once again.  I must admit, these new TVs are something.

We also have a new DVD player, which I have actually learned how to operate.  The other morning, for example, I put in one of my work-out DVDs.  On this particular DVD there are three young ladies leading the work-out.  Of course, these three young ladies are beautiful with perfect figures.  As soon as the DVD began, I noticed these three young ladies looked a little short and dumpy.  Huh, I guess this DVD was not made for wide screen...what a shame!  I must admit, it made me chuckle just a bit.  And I enjoyed the work out more, being led by three short and dumpy young ladies.  You ladies out there know what I'm talking about!  : )

As I write this, we are getting ready for Old Man Winter to pay us a visit.  After a low of 36 tonight, tomorrow's high is predicted to be 39 and then down to 21 tomorrow night.  Well, I guess we'll get good practice on keeping the rig warm.

Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas.  We did!  We took a break from getting the new rig set up and attended the Christmas Eve service at church and then had a nice steak and lobster dinner in our new house.

After opening gifts and making the family phone calls on Christmas morning, we enjoyed the afternoon with our friends, Art and Connie.  Thanks again for inviting us!

After the festivities, our little Christmas tree came down, and we got back to work.  We are getting settled in pretty well, and I'm actually remembering where I've put everything.  We're almost ready for guests!

Our New Home

We worked all day putting things away and made a pretty good dent.  In fact, I'm actually cooking dinner tonight in my new kitchen.  Here are a few pictures of the rig:

Thank you all for your kind comments and emails.  Bill and I are excited about this new chapter.  We LOVED our Arctic Fox, and there are things I will miss, i.e. all the kitchen storage space.  But, we are now in a rig built for fulltime living.  I only hope and pray we get as much enjoyment out of this rig and it takes as good care of us like our Fox did for the past 5 1/2 years.

We did it!

When I go quiet on the blog, you can assume one of two things:  one, we're not doing anything worth writing about, or two, we are really up to something.  Well, the past week or so we have really been up to something.

We are now the proud owners of a new fifth wheel...a 2011 Cameo F35SB3!  We brought her home yesterday and are in the process of moving in.  Before we carried the Arctic Fox in to trade, we emptied everything out, and I mean everything (thank goodness we have a storage shed), except the food in the fridge and freezer.  And our mattress.  We put the new mattress on the Fox and put our Tempur-Pedic on our new bed.  And the food we put into the cooled down fridge and freezer in the new rig.

I will post some pictures, as soon as we come across the memory card reader.  And I will post more on why we made the decision we did.  Right now, I am enjoying my first cup of coffee before we start bringing more stuff in to put away.

30,000 +

Wow!  I have now had over 30,000 hits on the blog!  How exciting is that??  Thank you for reading!  

Hopefully you have learned a little something about the fulltiming lifestyle and maybe have been entertained a little as well.

Thanks again,

Cathy

Christmas Shopping...well, sort of

The first item on the agenda was to wash the rig.  After an 8,000 mile trip, we had just a few bugs to get off the front.  : )  We got that accomplished our first full day back.

The second item on the agenda was to finish our Christmas shopping.  We don't shop like most folks we know.  For the past few years, our gifts to family have been a calendar and a movie.  Now, I'm not talking just any ol' calendar and movie, either.  

We create a personalized calendar for our families, using photos from our travels and a birthday and anniversary photos from each person.  I build the calendars on my MacBook Pro computer and send it to Mac.  They make the calendars and mail them to me so that we can send them out for Christmas.  All I can say is thank goodness for Mac computers!  The calendars turn out great!

Now, on to the movie.  Everyday this week, Bill and I have been sitting all day in front of his iMac desk top computer sorting and organizing our 2010 travel pictures.  Using the iMac, we create a 30 minute movie depicting our 2010 travels.  We add video, music and a little written commentary to turn it into a real production.  We are in the last stages of exporting our movie to a DVD.  Hopefully, we'll be pleased with the results and can then make copies and get them ready to mail.   Let me repeat, thank goodness for Mac computers!

We invest a lot of time and effort into these gifts; really, it's a labor of love.  So far, we have been very pleased with the results, and it makes a special keepsake for us as well.

If we can get our Christmas shopping completed, wrapped, and in the mail, we hope to take advantage of this beautiful weather we've been having a take a little camping trip.  Wish us luck!

Ahhhhhh.......

After 7,971 miles, we arrived safely back to our RV lot in Benson, AZ.  On this two-month trip we bought 845 gallons of diesel at an average price of $3.05 per gallon, and we averaged $12.91 per night for campground fees.  We had a great trip and enjoyed wonderful visits with many friends and both of our families.  We should be off the hook for a while now, don't you think?  : )

We'll take the next few days getting settled in for the winter.  First on our list will be to wash the truck and fifth-wheel.  Take my word for it...they both need it....badly!

The extended forecast for Benson looks fantastic, so it shouldn't be too long before we are taking a hike or packing up the tent for a camping trip.  But right now, all I can say is it is good to be home!

Half-Way to Benson

After a great visit with our Yellowstone friends, Mike and Lee, in Georgetown, TX, we headed west this morning.  We hopped on I-10 at Junction, TX and stopped for the night in Van Horn, TX at Eagle's Nest RV Park.  

I would not want to stay here for an extended period of time, but for one night, it works.  We have free cable and free wi-fi and pull-thru sites long enough so we didn't have to unhook.  However, we are right along I-10 so the road noise is pretty loud.  But we have a solution.  We simply turn on our white noise sound maker when we go to bed, and we will sleep like babies.  

We bought the sound maker in 2008 while workamping at Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX.  Our RV site was located near the I-10 side of the park, and the road noise kept waking us up at night.  We ordered the noise maker from Amazon and haven't worried about road noise since.

Tomorrow we will hop back on I-10 and head west.  Our first turn will be in 393 miles at Hwy 90 in Benson as we head to Cochise Terrace RV Park.  We can't wait to get home.

Georgetown, TX

We were on the road by 9:00 this morning and took a nice drive along two-lane highways through eastern Texas.  We like Texas.  We are now beginning to see "big sky" and feel like we are getting back out west.  Once we reached Waco, TX, we hopped on I-35 and headed south into Georgetown, TX, which is about 20 miles or so north of Austin.

We are staying at Jim Hogg Campground, a Corp of Engineer campground located on the shores of Lake Georgetown.  The park is named for Jim Hogg the 20th governor of Texas.  Among other things, Mr. Hogg is remembered for naming his daughter "Ima." Can you imagine going through life with a name like Ima Hogg.  That's just cruel.  Urban legend has it that he named a second daughter "Ura," but that is strictly urban legend. 

Like every other Corp of Engineer park we have stayed in, this one is fantastic!  We have a nice big back-in site with water and electric and a pretty view of Lake Georgetown.

As the sun started to go down, it looked like we would have a nice sunset.  Although I didn't get the colors I expected, it still made a nice sunset.

We will be here for three nights.  After two over-nighters on the road, it will be nice to sit for a few days.  Our main reason for stopping in Georgetown is to visit with friends we worked with in Yellowstone the past few years.  

Once we leave Georgetown, we will high-tail it back to Benson, unless we change our mind.  : )