Still Travelin' (Bridgeport, TX)

A lot has happened since our last post as you can see from the picture below.  Yes, we sold our Bluebird.  A shock, we know! 

Sutherlin, OR

While staying in Silver Creek, WA, Dan started talking to Foretravel owners on their on line discussion board/forum about their motorhomes (he had studied Foretravels on and off for several years).  We had also been looking at a few new motorhomes at dealerships trying to get an idea of what we would like to have in our next home.

We were planning to wait another two years to trade coaches....

Mt. St. Helens

when one of the Foretravel owners started talking about selling their 2003 with many upgrades and updates because they wanted to get a younger model.  However they were in traveling in the coach and would not return to their home base in Texas until mid November.

 That was the beginning of deciding how we were going to swing this as Full Time RVers without becoming homeless or worse having two motorhomes at the same time.  We decided to try and pre-sell our Bluebird for a November pickup in Texas.

A wee bit closer view of Mt. St. Helens

Dan generated For Sale blog with all the Bluebird's upgrades and pictures which were posted in the Bluebird Forum with hope that someone would become interested in pre buying our home early enough.  We had plenty of interested people.  One couple showed up only a day after the postings while we were still in Silver Creek.  Two more interested people lived in Colorado and California.  They wanted to know if we would be driving through their area on our way south.

old church outside of Eugene OR

The one from Colorado decided not to wait for us to be closer to his home and traveled to Sutherlin, OR.  After spending over four hours with Dan and then a long test drive, he said he wanted our motorhome when we acquired the Foretravel in Texas several months later.

Confusing?  Yea, it hasn't been an easy couple of months for Dan trying to juggle three different schedules.  He also spent a lot of time working on preparing the  Bluebird before the sale and pickup.

Low clouds in the morning - Eugene, OR

It was agreed by all three parties that we would make the trades in Texas.  This was made even smoother by our long time Bluebird friends Ernie and Brenda.  They agreed to let us use their side yard for as long as we needed to move our stuff...so much stuff to the Foretravel.  This would also give us time to clean the Bluebird and for the new owner to fly down from Colorado to spend time with his new motorhome.  Did we mention this was his first RV?  Yes, he has a little learning to do, but he seems to be a quick learner.

Williams, AZ

With all four parties in agreement for meeting in Texas, we needed to start moving south!  So we were on the road again.

This time as we headed south, we decided to drive through northern Arizona.  We spent a couple of nights in Williams, AZ at the Grand Canyon RV Park.  We had planned to ride the train to the Grand Canyon, but time got away from us.  That means we will have to go back, right?

Desert Moon

Of course, we had to stop in Albuquerque, NM.  It has been quite a few years since our last visit.  We had a great time visiting with a couple of our friends and eating green chile breakfast burritos.  No one makes them as good as Golden Pride!

New Mexico!

 You were probably beginning to wonder if you were going to get to see our new home...well, here it is!  Our new 2003 Foretravel!

Photo from previous owner

After spending the day learning all we could from the sellers, we drove our new Foretravel straight over to Ernie and Brenda's place.  A little closer to the Bluebird and we could have tossed things through the windows. 😉

Door-to-door moving day

It took us three days to move all our stuff over.  This became interesting because the Foretravel had more storage spaces, but it was more cut up.  We finally found a place for everything and we got rid of a few more things that we realized we did not need. 

 Here's a few photos of the inside.  Our slideout includes the dining booth and sofa.  Sandy is quite happy with the color scheme.  It is almost a perfect match to all our pillows, bed cover, and blankets.

We are both in love with our new 2-door residential refrigerator.  So much more room!  It is so nice to have the extra room for more food and to be able to find it once it is stored in the fridge. 

Kitchen

The bathroom is larger with three clothes closets and one laundry closet. 

The second slideout includes the desk.  The bed is a little taller and we have a ceiling fan for those hot humid nights when we are dry camping in Florida.  We thought our older cat Squirrel would need help getting on and off this bed.  As usual, he has found his own way to get on the bed without our help and yet he begs for help to get on chairs.  Maybe he wants us to feel useful.

We are still getting used to our new home.  We are quite happy with our purchase.  So far, the Texas winter has not been too cold.  We have stayed quite comfortable with the aqua hot heating from the floor registers and the ceiling heating pumps.  

That's it for now until our next post.  Yea, not sure when that will be.  Until that time....

Happy Trails and Happy Holidays!

Head in the Clouds (Cottonwood, AZ)

Well, I don't know about our heads being in the clouds, but being at a higher altitude certainly has our ears popping!  I know, you are going "huh??".  So, I'll start at the beginning...

Before we moved to Cottonwood, a Sedona couple also Bluebird owners asked us if we would like to meet them in Jerome for lunch and we said yes.

Once we got settled into our new site, we were surprised to  find out we were having lunch with three couples.  All Bluebird owners and they were surprised as well.  

Very unusual to have quite a few of us in one spot with no pre-planning.  We had lunch at a wonderful and very busy restaurant called Quince Grill & Cantina.

  After lunch, we wandered around Jerome peering into window shops and enjoying the views from Main street.  While the women went inside the shops, the men stayed outside to do some more talking.

 The scenic views were amazing.  Clouds suspended in the sky.

The different earth tones of reds and browns made for a great day.  And as you can see, we are up high...almost feels like we are in the clouds.  I can't imagine what it must feel like to live in Jerome.  I would never get my work done, because I would spend all my time watching the sky and enjoying the views.

We had a wonderful time!  Great food and great company.  Thank you for inviting us!  

Starting Our Trek North (Apache Junction, AZ)

We moved to Apache Junction east of Phoenix.  We can see Superstition Mountain along with many tall and very healthy looking Saguaro cactus from our new site.We have been visiting with Dan's sister and her husband.  They have been our tour guides since we have never been to this area and had no idea what to see.

On the first day, they took us to the Orange Patch.  Sandy was thrilled to buy a large bag of oranges while Dan found a couple of tasty snacks to bring home.

The next day, Dan's sister took us to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Scottsdale, AZ.  So many plants and exhibits to see!  We walked around for a few hours.  Sandy took a lot of photos of birds, butterflies, exhibits, and plants.  Below are a few of her photos:

We spent some time in the Spring Butterfly Exhibit.  Watching the children react to the butterflies was as much fun as watching the butterflies.  They were everywhere...the butterflies, that is.

a very plump and juicy looking Yucca

Cactus skeleton

After lunch in Old Town Scottsdale, we walked around the corner to see renovated The Old Adobe Mission.  They did a beautiful job of reviving this old place.

Inside the old mission

a courtyard with an old world feel

On The Road Again (Benson, AZ)

Well, sort of....we are going to spend the next two months in Arizona.  We moved to Benson the day before the big blizzard that hit the southwest.  

We were so happy that we did not have to go to work that day.  We watched the snow fly vertically by the motorhome.  The snow stuck then it turned to rain melting the snow.

That night, it turned back to snow again.  We woke to a different world of snow and cactus.

 Quite a few people were out wondering around taking photos.  Of course, Sandy had to join them.

We were suppose to have a lot more snow - around 3 to 7 inches of predicted snow.

The snow was gone by noon, but people were enjoying it while it was here.

Today, we are back to sunny blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s.  T-shirt weather!  Time to take the cats outside.

Welcome Back Neighbor! (Patagonia, AZ)

Dan was walking with one of our preserve visitors today when they saw this Mountain Lion sitting right on one of our trails.  He estimates they were 20-30 yards from the cat.  The  cat ignored them at first, then looked directly at them for a bit before it slowly sauntered down the small hill off the path.

In other news,  we spent our first week setting up for our long term winter stay.  Dan spent more time cleaning up around the office, our site, and along the trails while Sandy spent time cleaning up the office.

Bird feeders and Hummingbird feeders....check!

We believe the cats are quite happy to be back.  As soon as the motorhome stopped, we swear the cats knew our new location.  They tend to beg to go outside as soon as we stop, but this time it was different.  They were constantly in the stairwell trying to run out the door.

All four kept saying:  "We know this spot!  Freedom!  No loud trucks, no people, and no leashes!"  But, we only let them out when we can supervise them and Hitch still needs to be on a leash.   We don't want our cats hunting small birds, nor big birds of prey hunting our cats.  Plus a 3 foot  black tailed rattlesnake was within about 30-40 yards of the motorhome one time this week, and then there are also skunks, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions in the general area.  A preserve wildlife camera also captured a photo of a black bear in early October on the 312 acre preserve.

Dusty telling Dan he is one happy cat

But, they had to wait while we setup our site and spent some time with the preserve manager to reacquaint ourselves with the office procedures.

Max

Finally!  We opened the door and all four cats were out the door.  We did not have to ask them twice if they wanted to come outside.  Even Max immediately left the safety of the door to go explore.  All summer, it took a lot of coaxing to get him to take a step outside.

Hitch and Max

Squirrel spent the most time exploring.  We had to keep herding him back.  At least, he did not hiss at us for making him stay near the rig.  He was probably happy to be outside without the leash.  Yep, enjoy it while you can, because this will only last for 4 months.

Squirrel

We have been seeing this one Coues Doe and her little one almost every evening.

 A lovely evening for a walk, right boys?  Meow!

We have been walking the trails almost every day since we got here.  Mr. Owl is still in his favorite tree.

Western Screeched Owl

We're not sure about the look he was giving us.  Sort of looks like a "well, there goes the neighborhood" look.

Well, there's a fine "Howdy-Do!"

Since we came back earlier than last year, it is rather nice to see the area looking green with a few flowers blooming. 

Wetland flower

The hummingbirds greeted us on our first day back by buzzing our heads.  We soon found out there was a nest in one of the trees near our door although it does not look like they are using it at the moment.  There are three of them - daddy? mommy? and baby?  Anyway, they are happy to have the feeders close to their home.