Looking For A Lull

We have had no issues with boredom since we came into AZ.  There has been plenty to keep us occupied.  We've looked at trailers, visited nearby cities, tasted the local cuisine, and found all of the shopping nearby.  Here is a taste of some of what we've done! Here is the campsite.  You can see I have the cell tower up. Mi Casa.  Local place for Mexican food.  It tasted even better than it looks if you can imagine that! Tombstone, AZ  This is the court house "Down town" Tombstone The weather is nice enough to sit outside in the sun! The Donk is wore out from walking.

After waiting, and waiting, and waiting, reconstruction on our house has finally started!  We have had guys in this week making all sorts of noise so I've taken the preemptive measure of moving my office out the the trailer so I can make sure that it is going to work for me, and avoid 90% of the noise.  It's been working out pretty good!  I've also been making some small improvements that we wanted.  I added some small spice canisters. Bought a cool little tray to hold drinks and remotes. Reconstruction activities in DA HOUSE! The office setup.  The chair is on trial but the layout seems to work.

Ok so no new news on the house front;  The kitchen is still tore up and we are still waiting on the insurance and contractors to reach an agreement so they can start putting us back together.  This does not stop us from planning though, because life moves on even if everyone else isn't ready. I've been looking around and doing some research lately into what we may need to consider while we are in AZ and of course that means making another list so here it goes.   It's warmer there but still gets cold.  Packing clothes to match those dips in weather isn't the issue rather keeping Chappy warm and free of frozen pipes etc, is where I'm looking.  Much to consider here and I get the feeling I should maybe have started looking into this earlier however I'm formulating a plan that involves some heat tape, a small space heater and using our fresh water tank as primary water source most of the cold times.  I'll have to remember to come back report on our final ...

So I've spent the last few days working from the trailer and I have to say it's been pretty smooth.  First the cell signal has gotten better here over the last year and I have not had to use the WeBoost at all. I've been using my Sprint phone for hotspot and with a 50GB monthly limit on hotspot data, I've worked out that gives me around 20-25 days of work time.  Being that the phone has unlimited data to itself, we've been using it to stream Prime Video and Netflix, sharing the screen with the TV.  I still have the Google Fi hotspot to use too if I need it and in case of dire emergencies, I could relocate to the truck and use it's wifi. I want to experiment working at different locations in the trailer to see what will be the most comfortable and convenient.  I think next week I'll try putting a chair in the bunk room and setting the laptops up on the top bunk to see how that goes. My current work setup. Thinking about putting a chair on that ...

I like toys, and oh boy, I'm pretty excited to play around with this one on the upcoming SD trip.  I just picked up a GoPro Hero 7 Black. Got to Love my Tapestry in my office as a background.  HeHe One thing I love to do is to take pictures and video.  I'm not quite as addicted to it as I used to be and I've kinda swung the pendulum in the opposite direction from my huge Canon 7D with this purchase but it is exciting nonetheless. In the past few years I've been taking most of my photos with my Phone camera in lieu of busting out the 7D because, lets face it, my phone is always there, it's light, it's easy to get the video off of and it's more resistant to the elements (Think pouring rain at Blarney Castle Ireland). There are some downsides to using the phone though: Storage is an issue as the entire phone has 256GB of storage, internal storage.  This is shared between apps and pictures/video everything.  The photos and video have to be removed b...

FYI for anyone who read this post: That mattress is comfortable.  It is so comfortable we bought one for home. Disclaimer:  I have no involvement with the company that makes it or any company or person that sells it (Other than buying other stuff from them) so I have nothing to gain from recommending this mattress other than letting you know that I think it's awesome and the price is better than you will find for anything comparable.  YMMV Now that is out of the way, really that thing is the best mattress I've slept on in years.  We bought our previous mattress after reading a ton of reviews and paid more than double what we paid for this one and  it was not bad at all, but after 9 years it's developing sleeping troughs that you sink into when you lay down and that is becoming uncomfortable.  We decided to try this out for the camper and I liked it so much we decided to buy another to replace our old mattress. Packaging: Ours arrived in a box via ...

I just have to say that one of the most handy things in the slew of things we have gotten for the camper is this hose. It is so much easier to handle than the standard hoses!  I can quickly roll it out or pack it up like a rope and it fits neatly in a small plastic bin.  The standard "garden style" hoses are so rigid and they don't stow neatly without a decent amount of effort.  These things are definitely worth the extra money.  if you  get one  you will not be disappointed.  I know it sounds like I'm selling the stupid thing, that is definitely not the case.  I just get really excited about things that make life easier.

I spent the day working from the trailer.  Not a glitch with the internet all day and it was a pretty busy day.  It's nice to be able to walk along the river during lunch or have the option to take the laptop outside and enjoy the warm weather! We met up with Jackie for dinner at a Polish restaurant called Krachovia over in Spring Hill, about 10 minutes from the campground.  The food was good, a little pricey for what it was, and the deserts were not something I'd order again if I went back.  My cheese cake was more like cake than cheese.  Jackie at Krachovia Business suit After dinner we came back and I started a fire and spent a couple hours relaxing and soaking up the heat. Cutout Fire pit Other side

Sunday was a relaxation day.  We went to the store and then hung out with Grandma for a while, sitting on the porch while letting the Donk play in the yard. I picked up a couple of tall skinny reflectors, drilled some holes in the stumps and put the reflectors in them so they can be seen easier at night.  Don't want anyone else driving over them.  I'd love to do more than that, but I don't have any tools with me for breaking up stumps. Later we came back to the campground and tested out the new Weboost cell signal booster to make sure it was going to work for me when I worked on Tuesday.  That thing is pretty solid!  I went from no signal to 4 bars and streaming netflix after it was set up.  I was a little worried it would blow down because it was pretty windy, but those mounts stick really well. Inside Antenna Inside powered booster Outside antenna on the pole On Monday Karen and I went shopping.  There are two western stores that we...

We picked up the trailer today from the dealership over my lunch break today.  All of our fixes were done and we have a shiny new backup camera that I think will help tremendously on the road as well as backing into places. I had them look at the DVD player to see why the video quality was crap and it turns out it was me.  As techie as I am, I overlooked that the DVD player was actually hooked up to the TV with component connections, and even though we could see the picture etc on the AV setting, it is MUCH clearer when you use the correct setting.  DUH! She's parked in the driveway right now, just waiting to be filled with our stuff and hit the road.  I can't wait.  I'll work on getting the TPMS installed tonight and take some pre-flight pictures.  Of course we still have to put in the new mattress, stow all the goodies and then go through our checklist right before we leave, but I'm feeling good about this trip. It's good to have her back!

A wise man once told me, "Never skimp on anything that sits between you and the ground!".  Paying for quality items that meet that criteria will make life much nicer.  Tires, shoes, chairs, and a mattress are some items that you should never go 'cheap'. That said, there is a difference between inexpensive and cheap.  Inexpensive lasts long, is good quality, and comfortable cheap misses out on at least one of those qualities.  I've opted for cheap before and still do from time to time when I need something quick, but if I'm going to use it more than once, I prefer to spend the extra money and buy good quality items. Of all of the things I listed, a mattress is one of those items that pays to buy quality.  We spend so much time sleeping or laying in our beds that to 'go cheap' on a mattress is insane. (Unless you are a masochist, then its an anti-luxury?) When we first bought the trailer last year, the bed came equipped with a standard 5th wheel co...

Got a call yesterday, the trailer is almost ready from her checkup at the dealership.  I've got my packing lists completed and bought a few new additional items that I've had on the list for the winter and wanted to get before our trip. First, we got a new dash cam for the truck.  My old one was ok, but it was starting to act a little flaky and it didn't have some of the features that I wanted like Wifi connectivity and easily removable.   This new little guy mounts to the windshield, like the old one, but is held in place by a magnet so I can pull it out when I'm parking somewhere I don't feel like leaving it.  It also has a little button separate from the camera that you can push if you want it to save a still picture. (Not sure that I will use that but there it is.) Secondly, we have a separate instant pot for the trailer now.  I like to cook in the slow cooker when we are out travelling sometimes because you can put stuff, leave, come back and you h...

I may not like the cold, but I like my drinks cold and my food fresh.  One of the odd things about us is our love for refrigeration.  In our house alone we have 3 refrigerators (down from 5!) and a large chest freezer.  One fridge in the garage for company and extra drinks, one regular fridge in the kitchen, another small one by the bar, and a chest freezer to store all of our meats and other frozen foods. Camping is not much different, it is our smaller home away from home.  The trailer has two refrigerators one indoors and one outdoors.  We even supplement that with a large ice chest that we carry in the back of the truck to keep our food and drinks cold while we are traveling down the road.  We could leave the indoor fridge running on propane, but I don't like to have that on when we are moving. Years ago we bought a large cooler, I'm guessing that it is 150 Qt but it could be larger, and we took that with us camping.  Back then we tented it qui...