So here we are, in Death Valley National Park on the last
day of a very interesting year.
Some of the other bloggers have written posts
about their year of full time RVing. We
are not there yet, but I feel we’ve made significant progress in that direction!
In the last 16 months we have bought a motor
home, Craig has retired, we have traveled to four wonderful national parks,
fulfilled my wish to see the Rose Bowl parade, and completed numerous projects
on the house.
Yes I would say it has
been a good year (plus.)
What will the next year bring? I hope that by this time next year we too
will be full timing and house free.
Don’t know where we will be parked.
I never have been one for making resolutions. I do set goals and make plans. But this year I am making a resolution.
In the next year I resolve to do at least 12 good
deeds. 12 things, big or small that I
have not done in the past. I hope to be a better person.
Now on to the RV post!
Our drive from Desert Hot Springs to Barstow was a bit more
hectic and a bit longer than expected.
Craig’s glasses are not the run of the mill “Lens Crafters” variety, and
thus he needed to find a real optometrist office rather than just an optical
department to fix them. But because it was
Saturday our choices were limited. We
decided to head to a bigger city, Riverside, since we also needed to get our
propane filled and top off the diesel fuel, and Gas Buddy told us the prices
were lower in that direction.
We first tried a Walmart Optical Department and they
directed us to an optometrist that was open and could help us. I won’t go into all of the details, but
driving a 54’ RV rig (including toad) through a strange city is not fun! Getting into the UHaul lot for propane
required several passes around residential streets to get to the entrance that
we could drive into and thru without unhooking the car! But we did it.
The stop at the optometrist went smoothly with me dropping
Craig off and driving the Alfa to a side street and waiting for his call
on the walkie-talkie before going back to pick him up. This optometrist fixed the glasses with a
spot weld because he did not have a screw that fit either. Hopefully this will be the last time we are
on this chase.
Craig even managed to get the McRib sandwich he wanted after
seeing all of the McDonald billboards. I dropped him off and waited in a
Walmart parking lot next door. (I had a salad.)
Driving out of Riverside and to Barstow we had another
first. Rain. Craig had installed new wipers on the Alfa and between them, the
new front tires and alignments and the new shocks, the rig handled nicely. We
are beginning to think there might be a “break-in period” with the new
shocks. The ride is definitely smoother
now.
We are now at the Stovepipe Wells RV park, with full hookups
for five nights.
Happy New Year everyone!
