A Blogger I Follow Stopped by to Say Hi

This is what I get for not posting more often…lots and lots to talk about and pictures to post. 

First…guess who stopped by to say hi?   Loree and her dog Luci, from RV blog Life With Luci & Loree... 

It felt like we’d known each other forever and we didn’t have to spend a lot of time getting acquainted.  What a great visit it was!!  They’re on their way to Iowa to visit a friend.  I suggested that she might be a bit crazy to voluntarily go to an area that is hot and humid.  She’s driving her Honda Element and plans on sleeping in it at KOAs along the way.  She left her Bounder at home.  I think what we have in common are RV issues that need to be dealt with.  We’re both aware of them and dealing with them in our own way.  It’s good to know that I’m not the only one out there with issues. 

Second…some more pictures showing the beauty of Twin Falls…

Twin statue

Shoshone Falls

More Shoshone Falls

Missed the show but not the Prevost

Fourth of July

Third…I need to get out of here, or rather, quit going to a particular nursery in Bellevue, ID.  I go for one thing and one thing only and always end up finding something else.  This is going to be a somewhat long story because there’s no way I can shorten it.  It’s crazy enough that you might want to keep reading. 

I’m back to decorating bowling balls for yard art to fill some of the many hours I have to fill.  I know, I know, bowling balls are heavy, but I stopped at four and two of them are fairly light. 

I’m almost embarrassed to say this but it’s the truth so I will.  Back when I first started decorating bowling balls I used a styrofoam base to hold the ball…

Because my styrofoam base is in storage in Tucson I needed to come up with something else but all I could think of was how well the styrofoam base worked.  Lowe’s was having a sale on gazing balls and they’re packed with styrofoam, so I bought one.  

Not just for the sytrofoam but for the gazing ball too, since I really like them.  But I like my bowling balls more. 

Back to the nursery in Bellevue, ID.  I needed to kill time one day so I drove there (over 100 miles round trip).  I love nurseries and they had a wrought iron stand for gazing balls…

I liked the gazing ball stand because my bowling balls would also fit in them…

so I went back another day and bought another wrought iron stand.  But that wasn’t all.  I also bought this plant stand because it was for sale at a price I couldn’t pass up…

I kept decorating bowling balls and needed another wrought iron stand, so guess what.  Yep, I went back to the nursery in Bellevue, ID.  I was hoping for two wrought iron stands but there was only one left.  But, this was on sale for almost $150 off (a steal) so I bought it…

 

What sold me on it is that it folds up like this and takes up a lot less room..

For some reason, when I get to that nursery I forget my mantra…”I live in a motorhome.  I don’t have any room to buy anything.”  That hasn’t worked too well here in Twin Falls. 

I think there’s a lesson here for me…don’t stay in one place too long!!!  I guess I’m a nester and if I stay in one spot too long I start to nest.  It’s a good thing I have an SUV to put these purchases in because the basement in my RV has managed to get filled this trip!!!

Question:  Is the use of nesting and RVing in the same sentence or  paragraph or RV post an oxymoron?  

I made an RV purchase today…a trailer hitch.  Since I need to tow my car it was a must have purchase since I don’t have one.  There’s a U-Haul facility within walking distance so I’m going to go check on tow dollies and trailers.

One more thing.  I found this gadget at Office Max and its quite handy...

When I put my computer, printer and speakers away I just put the cords in this gadget so that I don't have to climb under my table to find them.  It saves my knees and prevents me from having to contort myself under the table to find them.  

The weather here in Idaho has gotten hot!!!  I think it's time to get out of here.  Hmmm...where am I going next???  Stay tuned.

Ready to go,

Jeana

Word Verification is OFF

I read your comments and figured out how to turn off word verification, so I did.  


That's all for this post!!


Jeana

Are There RVer Types?

It appears to me that there are four types of RVers:

1.  The snowbirds who spend the winter somewhere else for “the season”    

     and then go back to their home base;

2.  The RVers who winter for “the season” and then go travel from RV park

     to RV park,

3.  The RVers who go from RV park to RV park because they live year round

     in their RV,

     and then there’s me...

4.  The RVer who spends the winter in one RV park for “the season” and goes

     searching for a home base because their house is rented.

Have I missed anything? 

I bring this up because I’m still trying to figure out what type of RVer I want to be.  I know when “the season” ended and all the folks I met at the Voyager in Tucson left to go home, I felt a twinge because I didn’t have a house to go home to because I’ve rented it to Kate and Mike (Hi guys…Kate reads my blog.)  That’s ok because due to the weather I don’t want to return to the Seattle area, although I feel a twinge when I say that.  However, I have a motorhome so I can visit whenever I want.

When I went to Tucson for my first “season” last October, my plan when it ended was to check out Twin Falls, ID to see if it could become my new home base.  I have a friend I worked with at Boeing who lives here, so I didn’t just pull this location out of a hat.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, that’s where I am now. (I prepared this yesterday, the 2nd, and was unable to publish it because of wifi problems.)

I’ve been here since May 24^th.  I’m staying at the Flying J Ranch, a mobile home community that recently started allowing RVs to stay and I happen to be the first RVer to move in.  The spaces are large, some larger than others.  It depends on what size mobile home used to be in the space.  I started out in a double wide space then moved to a single wide space and I still have way more room than I would in an RV park… 

There’s a catch though…the rentals are for a month ($450) at a time but it includes wifi.  I think Twin Falls is a great place to visit and if you want to check it out for a month or so then Lanning is the man to call...

I knew within the first month that this won’t be my new home base after spending  “the season” in Tucson.  It’s missing a lot of what I’m used to and  don’t want to do without.  My biggest problem is finding organic food in a grocery store and a vegetarian restaurant or two.  I’m in beef and dairy country and I don’t partake of either since I consider myself a vegetarian almost vegan.  Talk about a mismatch.

What Twin Falls does have is a canyon rim trail above the Snake River.  I can walk to the path from where I’m staying and that’s probably its biggest draw for me.  I was stunned the first time I went around a curve and saw this…

On the way back I saw this...

Another draw to Twin Falls that appeals to a bunch of people, but me as just an observer, is the Perrine Bridge...

that people base jump off.  The bridge is 486’ above the Snake River and it took my breath away the first time I saw someone jump off of it…

The "jumper"on the far right is climbing over the railing 

The jumper has jumped.  Where's the parachute????

Phew...it opened

Another negative for me is the wind.  There seems to be a theme here concerning me and wind.  I’m finding way too much of it on and off the road. A number of people have informed me that Idaho is just windy.  

I guess I’ll have to keep looking for my new home base.  Maybe instead of Seattle being my home base and going to Tucson for the winter, Tucson should be my home base and I go somewhere for the summer…like Seattle!!!

I keep having thoughts flash through my head and a bizarre one just went through…with pictures.  I saw me driving my motorhome with an anchor dragging behind it.  My interpretation is that I want to do both…RV and have a permanent home base. 

I love living in my Alfa.  When it isn’t windy I think I like driving it.  Even though I’ve driven it more than 1,000 miles, I don’t think I’ve reached a place where I’m totally comfortable driving it…yet.   

I haven’t been able to sell my Winnebago View and because of gas prices I’m thinking of driving to Tucson and switching RVs.  How crazy is that?  In a way, at least for me, it makes sense.  Live in the Alfa and take short trips in the View.  Hmmmm, that might work.

I’m paid up here in Twin Falls until July 24^th.   I don’t think I’m going to make it.  I’m feeling antsy and I think I’m ready to leave.  I need to rent a trailer for my Volvo and then I’m off. 

I guess…bottom line…I’m just an RVer...in training.

Lovin’ the Sunshine,

Jeana

Alive and Well in Idaho

I’ve had a few emails from friends telling me that they miss my blog posts.  I miss my blog posts, too.  I write in my head every day but it hasn’t gotten any further than that, except for a couple posts that I wrote and didn’t publish. 

It’s not like I don’t have the time…I have more time on my hands than I know what to do with.  Therein lies part of the problem…I don’t want to be a whiner.  I’ve had some challenges this trip and I think if I wrote in the middle of the challenge I’d just whine and I don’t want to do that.  So you’ll probably get after the fact whining, which is different.  Then it’s just telling my story. 

Let’s back up a bit to May 10^th when I finally left Tucson in my McMansion motorhome.  That seems to be the name that’s stuck.  Back in December when I bought my Alfa and I compared it to my original motorhome, a Winnebago View, it felt like a McMansion and I haven’t come up with anything better, so I refer to it as my McMansion motorhome.

The day before I left Tucson there was a pretty horrendous windstorm that blew through town.  As anxious as I was to get on the road I didn’t want to deal with the winds so I delayed a day. 

May 10^th arrived and I was chomping at the bit to get going.  Lynn was my passenger and I was glad to have her with me for moral support.  The drive started out wonderfully and I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing.  I was a bit nervous at first driving this 40’ monster but I was determined to get comfortable with it. 

Some neighbors suggested that I take I-40 at Needles, CA, which I did, since I was heading for I-5.  The fun stopped almost as soon as I turned onto I-40 because of wind.  Strong side winds…really strong side winds. 

I guess there might be a downside to the extra height I have in my Alfa…more vehicle for the wind to hit.  AARGH.  It was awful and to make matters worse I couldn’t find an RV park!!

After thirteen hours on the road on day one I finally found one in Boron, CA.  It wasn’t much but it had everything I needed.  I was exhausted from fighting the wind for hours.  It was almost 8 PM and I needed a break.

The next day we got an early start, before the winds.  It turned out to be another long day (10 hours) because RV parks didn’t turn out to be as plentiful as I hoped, at least when it was time to start looking for one.  I finally found one in Cottonwood, CA and like the day before, it was awful, in fact, worse than awful, but it had the hookups I needed.  The man who checked me in wasn’t the brightest bulb around but he was impressed that me, a woman, was able to drive a 40’ motorhome, so maybe he wasn’t so dim after all.  I want to bristle as I write about his reaction but I kind of understand in a way and I’m impressed that I can drive a 40’ motorhome.  In fact, I still feel nervous as I’m about to take off.  Then I stop for awhile and the nervous builds up and I have to get back on the road again to DEAL WITH IT. 

Our last night on the road was at an RV park in Kalama, WA, on the Kalama River. I liked it there.  It was a challenge parking my McMansion motorhome but I managed.  I wanted to be down by the river which called for some creative backing up.  Fortunately, there weren’t any RVs on either side of me because there just wouldn’t have been enough room and I really wanted to be down by the water.  I’d just spent the past seven months in the desert and I was parched!!  I needed water and trees.

We arrived in Seattle on Mother’s Day.  I dropped my friend off and headed for Eastern WA. 

I have a friend from graduate school who has a 1400 acre vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills, not far from the Columbia River and Columbia Crest Winery.  After being cramped in an RV park for the winter I was looking forward to wide open spaces and visiting her provided that. She even had RV hookups!!!

So I went from mass humanity to out in the middle of nowhere with one other person.  No pun intended, but I was in Heaven!!!

When the winds started and I couldn’t sleep at night because my motorhome was being rocked in a way that didn’t put me to sleep I headed for Twin Falls, ID.  That’s where I am now. 

Before I finish this post…some thoughts...

    RVing is expensive…$200 a day for gas!!!!!!!!!!!

    Wind is not my friend when I’m driving my McMansion motorhome

    Not having a toad is the pits (more on this in another post)

    Maybe I’m not as adventurous as I thought I was

I have lots more to talk about but I think this is enough for this post. I'm glad to be back.  

Halfway between Seattle and Tucson,

Jeana

PS:  It’s my birthday today.  Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me.  I'm so glad to have another one.  Happy Birthday to me.