What's With All the Rain??

Have you all noticed how blog after blog makes comments about the rain?  I guess I'm not the only one with the problem.  I'm not sure that anyone can top me though for being so done with the rain since it's rained here day...after day...after day...after day...after day.  I have friends who never complain about the rain, complaining, that's how bad its been.  Today we've had a break.  No rain, the streets are dry, but the rivers are flowing over their banks.  The closest body of water to me is across the street and it's Lake Washington.  I've never heard of the lake overflowing and I'm up high enough that I don't have to worry should it ever happen.

Tomorrow being April means I'll be leaving for California soon!!!  April 13th to be exact.  Shuttle Express will be picking me up at 4 AM at my house and I'll arrive at Palm Springs shortly after 9 AM.  I could have taken a later flight, but I need the time with the homeowners of the house where I'm going to be house sitting.  

This is one of the first trees in my backyard to bloom.  I love spring!!

I must have taken this one awhile ago since we haven't seen blue sky in what seems like forever.  This is also in my backyard.  

Sunshine....pleeeeeeeeease,

Jeana

Weight on an RV Blog??

Before I get into the subject of my title, I want to acknowledge those of you who commented on how appropriate the name of my blog is for the RV I ended up buying.  I didn't even make the connection at first.   

This is the RV that enabled me to come up with title of my blog.  This is the RV that was causing me all the angst about whether I could drive it and had many posts written addressing that angst. Fortunately, as some of you pointed out, the RV I finally purchased is named View and it has four windows.  How lucky is that?  As far as my blog goes, I think I'm pretty lucky since I don't need to come up with a new name.

OK, now to the discussion about this post's title.  As I've mentioned before, I started on a nutritional cleanse weight loss program in August, 2009 and lost 80 pounds.  A year ago I started working with a personal trainer twice a week.  The weight loss program I was on consisted of two shakes a day and one regular meal.  I absolutely loved it.  No cooking!!  My one meal was usually lunch and I went out and let someone else cook it for me.  Recently, my trainer and naturopath informed me that I needed to get back on whole foods.  My trainer told me that if I started eating whole foods that I'd get rid of the excess fat around my waist that's been plaguing me in spite of all the working out I've been doing.  Coincidentally, my massage therapist had mentioned another naturopath in town that did a "28 Day Program" helping people to introduce whole foods into their lives.  I signed up for it and that's what  I've been doing for the past 28 days...eating whole foods.  

The first week was a nightmare because I had to cook!!!  Not only that, I had to shop for the food that I was cooking.  The shopping and cooking took place only after I found a recipe that I wanted to cook. It was really awful, at first, but I've adjusted and I'm starting to enjoy myself in the kitchen...a little bit.  I went in for the final analysis today and I lost 3% body fat in 28 days and I'm thrilled. The agony has paid off.  I guess that means I'm going to have to keep cooking. I guess I can handle that considering the results I've experienced from the 28 days.  

I'm going to move my RV (Olivia) to Public Storage tomorrow or the day after.  It appears that as long as she's parked in my driveway she's not going anywhere.  Why is that you ask?  Remember what I said about the street I live on in yesterday's post?  Yep, that's why.  I don't want to have to deal with the traffic when I'm trying to back up my driveway.  And since I'm leaving for California on April 13th, I just think it will work out for the best.  Between now and then I'm sure I'll drive it more because it'll be so much easier to get it out of and back into Public Storage than at my house.  I'll miss looking at her, but that's only temporary since we'll take off in May.

Sunshine please,

Jeana 

Here She Is...Olivia...My New (to me) RV!!!

Before I start with all the details about Olivia I want to welcome Jo Jo to my blog.  We have a Tucson connection and while she'll be up north while I'm down south (seeing if I can stand the heat again in Tucson), maybe we'll meet some day.  Something I hope to do with all of you that follow me now and the ones to come.

OK...here's the skinny.  She's a 2010.  She has a Mercedes 6 cylinder turbo-diesel engine, 5- speed automatic transmission, and 4-wheel ABS w/skid control.  I'm amazed at how quiet her diesel engine actually is.  She's been driven a little over 5,000 miles and her generator has been used 3 hours.  

This picture shows her with the slide out...out.  The whole left side of the RV, from behind the driver's seat, is the slide out.  The couch converts into a queen bed with an inflatable mattress.  

The cab can be blocked off at night, or whenever.  I'm not a fan of brown so I'm going to be looking for a colorful piece of fabric to make a replacement for this curtain and probably all the rest in the RV.  There's also a smaller curtain that goes in front of the bed over the cab.  Because of where she's parked at my house, I'm not able to open the slide.  I tried to put the upper mattress down and couldn't reach it because of the slide being in.  Please note that the sun was shining a bit when I took this picture.  Finally, a slight break from the rain and gray skies.  

Facing towards the back is the kitchen.

Microwave/convection oven

.

Nice pantry

Bathroom

Shower stall 

It was a long day Friday when I picked her up.  My friend and I arrived at 9:30 AM and I drove away about 2:45 PM...and I drove away happy. The getting to know her tour took about two hours and I know I don't remember everything.  As I was getting ready to leave a man was looking Olivia over and I started talking to him.  He's from Canada and he and his wife are looking to ship one similar to mine to New Zealand, where their daughters live.  They have to convert it so the steering wheel is on the right side...to the tune of $10,000 and that doesn't include shipping!!  

The previous owner of Olivia is a commercial fisherman and he wanted a different floor plan, so now I'm the lucky owner of her.  Winnebago doesn't make this floor plan anymore so I feel extremely blessed to have found her at the RV show, since this is my favorite floor plan.  

What do you experienced RVrs think of resorts, i.e., KM Resorts of America?  Do you think they're necessary?  Apparently, for the price of an "annual maintenance/publication fee", I can belong to KM since it came with buying my RV.  I don't know what that fee is yet.  Because I bought an RV the $1,995 enrollment fee is waived.  It looks like quite a few camps are included, so I'm just wondering what you think.  

I joined RVing Women awhile ago and today I signed up for Harvest Hosts.  HH is the one that excites me.  I learned about it from Donna at 2 Taking a 5th.  Thank you, Donna.  Harvest Hosts includes wineries and farms that allow RVrs to park for 24 hours at their facility...for free.  I love wine but never go to wineries because I don't feel comfortable driving after a wine tasting.  Now I won't have to drive...I can walk or crawl to Olivia and drive away the next day. 

I'm ready to talk about the downside of the day I picked Olivia up. Specifically, when I got to my house.  The day before I went to get her we had fairly decent weather, i.e, no rain.  I begged the powers that be for the same type of weather on Friday and I got it until I reached my house...then the heavens opened and it poured.  The street I live on (don't blame me, my parents picked this house and 40 years ago it was quiet) has 7,000+ cars drive on it daily.  Needless to say, there aren't too many breaks between cars.  The noise drives me crazy but that's not part of this story.  I'm good at backing up, I do it all the time.  I think it's easier to pull out of any parking spot face forward which is why I do it. Piece of cake in my SUV.  

In the first picture shown on this post, showing my RV, on the right side of the rhododendron bush is a gravel parking area that I had put in a few months ago.  I did it so that I can back out of my garage, back onto the gravel so that I can pull out face forward to, hopefully, avoid being hit by the cars speeding down the street.  That's where I want to park Olivia. But I have a problem...wires, specifically cable and phone.  They're too low.  They sort of show in the picture right in front of the air conditioner. Somebody was on my tail when I got to my house so I pulled partially onto the sidewalk to let him go by...big mistake.  It felt like a disaster from that point on.  I was aware of traffic being stopped both directions and that didn't help my discomfort.  My neighbor who was helping me was being drenched, as was I, because my windows were open to be able to hear him.   I think if I hadn't pulled up on the sidewalk it would have been a lot easier.  I've backed U-Haul trucks up here without a problem so now I think I know what to do next.  Did you notice that my driveway has an incline?  Yep, just to add to the fun!!  If I can get my SUV out of the garage without moving her, she might just stay there until I come back from housesitting in California in May. 

OK, enough already.  I have my RV, I'm thrilled and I can't wait to hit the road and meet up with you fellow RVrs.  

Sunshine please,

Jeana 

To Carry or Not to Carry...a Gun...That Is

I was talking to a gentleman acquaintance at 24 Hour Fitness this morning and told him that I bought an RV.  He immediately wanted to know if I was going to carry a gun.  He informed me how unsafe it is out there and that he doesn't trust anyone.   My answer to him was no way, no how.  I don't like guns, don't own one and I don't want one around.  I have more faith in the people out there, apparently, than he does.  So...what do you fellow RVrs think? 


TOMORROW'S THE DAY...I pick up my View tomorrow so expect pictures either tomorrow or the next day!!! 


I was outside earlier measuring the distance from the ground up to some wires coming into my house and I might have a problem with wire height where I want to park it.  I called my electric company and they don't think it's their wire so I'll have to check with the cable and phone people.  The electric people will check tomorrow and let me know.  I'm hoping that when I tried to measure up 11' from the ground that I was way off and it won't be a problem.  Just in case, I'm going to ask my friend who's driving me to the dealership tomorrow to watch while I back it in.  


I know this is a short post, but after I pick up my RV tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have more to talk about.  


More sunshine please,


Jeana

Glad to be Back

I want  say thank you to some new followers...or at least people I haven't acknowledged yet.  Hopefully, I haven't missed anyone.  Welcome to Pepper, Donna K at Travels in Therapy, Erik at Erik's RV Blog and Mary Ann and William at In the Wind...


I hadn't been to Hawaii for over 20 years and I was shocked by how many new hotels there were.  We were right next to Fort DeRussy Park and it was a lovely location.  We could see the Fort DeRussy chapel from our lanai and I'd watch six or seven people every morning do Tai Chi right next to the chapel.  This was the best view from our lanai.

 

The lanai second from the bottom was ours.  To the right was a huge patio so we really had some great space.  


I'm not into tattoos, but henna works for me.  There was a place in the International Marketplace that did henna tattoos, so I decided to go to the wild side and get one.  It lasted close to three weeks and I enjoyed it while I had it.   Unfortunately, this is the only picture taken of me in Hawaii.  I have to go back and do something about that.   

I was so disappointed to come back home.  While it rained when we were in Hawaii, it was at least warm enough to wear shorts and sandals.  Back home I was immediately back into layers, gloves, etc., etc.  Our weather has been horrible and I've been so depressed.  We had something like 10 storms in 12 days and there was no let up from the rain.  I was also missing my blog and reading about all your adventures, but I wasn't reading any blogs.  I felt like a hypocrite in a way because of my indecision about whether to get an RV or not and, honestly, I was tired of listening to myself. I feel energized again and I love the comments I've already gotten from my earlier post today.  I missed you guys.  


I took a photography class and we had an assignment to go out and take pictures and bring 36 back to class.  While I was out photographing we were going through some very cold weather (teens and 20's) and it was awful.  I think I'll wait until spring or summer for the next class.  The cold just took the fun out of the picture taking.  


Like I said above, I'm glad to be back, and I look forward to getting caught up on all your adventures.  I've decided the first place I'm going in May, when I get back from house sitting, is Clarkston, WA.  I'm heading for the RV park right next to the Snake River and I'll eventually make it to Tucson.  




More sunshine please,


Jeana

I'm Baaaaaaaaack...with an RV!!!

I went to an RV show yesterday in Tacoma, WA specifically to look at Class B's.  There weren't any, in fact, I thought it was a pretty bleak RV show. However, the View from Winnebago was there. In an earlier post I mentioned that I looked at one and really liked it.  Turns out that I liked it so much that I bought one!!!

I know, I know, it's not the one my blog is named after or the one I've been trying to convince myself not to be afraid of driving (Class A).  But, it is the one I've ended up with and I'm pretty excited.  


I'll pick it up Thursday provided I can find someone to drive me up to Marysville, which is where the dealership is.  


Are you wondering where I've been?  Well, Hawaii for one thing and then just trying to decide what I really want to do.  In other words, I've been driving myself crazy.  I don't have to do that any more because I have an RV now.  I'm pretty excited about it and I can't wait to hit the road with my dog.  

I have to wait until May though because I'm going to house/pet sit for friends of a friend in Palm Springs, CA from April 13 - May 10.  Then I can hit the road.  I'm excited about the house sitting because it's in a different 55+ community, this one is a Del Web community, and I'm sure it's quite different from the one I've been looking at in Tucson.  It will be great to have a comparison.  Course, now that I have an RV I can check out places wherever I want, for when I decide to stay put.  


I need to get ready to go to a friend's house so I have to close for now.  I'll write about my Hawaii trip later, most likely later today.  


It feels good to be back.  


We have sunshine,


Jeana