Looking For A Lull

Karen and I thought we would find a hike that wouldn't be as much up and down hill as our hike at the Chiricahua national monument so we stopped at the visitor center and surveyed our options.  Then like gluttons for punishment we chose to hike to the top of the peak and see the view.  It was only .5 miles or so, so it wasn't that bad and the view's were definitely worth it! This picture looks back toward the visitor center.  That is the tiny road we drove Bodie up.  Glad there wasn't much traffic! Zooming in you can see the Mexico/US border. Karen smiles before we start the hike to the top. At the top there are 360 degree views and a little shelter to sit and reflect.  Be sure to write in the book while you are there.

South of Tucson and not far from San Xavier is the Titan II Missile Museum.  What a cool place!  We visited directly after coming from the mission and had plenty of time to spend and take the tour.  The tour is 1 hour long and does require that you can go up and down stairs.  It is the only remaining Titan II missile site as the remainder were destroyed as part of the treaty with the former soviet union. We had a great time and our guide Tony did an awesome job answering our questions and giving us a good overview of what the daily operations were like.  Karen even got to turn the key to simulate the missile launch. The front of the Museum Check out how thick the first blast door is!  There are 2 more behind this one. This is the missile control room.  It is separated from the missile by a long walkway.  It's said that those in the control room likely could not hear the missile launch because of the distance and internal noise of ...

We had a three day weekend last weekend due to the Presidents Day holiday.  I'm still getting used to having some different days off during the year.  We took this opportunity to visit a few places on our list and it was GREAT! The first place we visited was Mission San Xavier del Bac .  If you get the chance it is a beautiful mission located just south of Tucson and is the oldest European structure in Arizona.  It's free, doesn't take long to see, and well worth your time. Karen goes to church Inside the chapel.  I have a full video tour of the inside I may add later.

I found that I have a long weekend this weekend due to changes in our Holidays from my old company to our new company.  We're looking for something to do this weekend instead of sitting around.  Here are a few ideas we are mulling over: Visiting the Chiricahua National Monument Explore the Cochise Stronghold Spend a day sightseeing in Bisbee Look at all of the planes at the Pima Air and Space Museum Take a trip to Old Tucson We're not sure if we'll do more than 1 of these this weekend, but it would be nice!

Wow, the AZ trip is coming up quick!  I've placed an order for a few things we need for Chappy and already started to cross items off my "to-do before you go" list.  I'm already looking past getting there and thinking about weekend activities.  It will be great to get away and even better to not have to deal with the snow.

Wow!  With everything that's been going on with work and prepping for AZ and now being on Jury duty to top it off, I feel like I'm going non-stop from the time I wake up until I go to bed. Prepping for AZ: Well I was informed that Arizona law, (precisely A.R.S Section 28-958.01) requires that all trucks that are bigger than 3/4 ton have mud flaps.  I don't see an exemption for out of state or 'just passing through' either when I read the law or talk to anyone so guess what I did?  I got mud flaps installed on Bodie so she'll be AZ compliant. Investigating a new piece of equipment that I may look into getting for Chappy.  It's called the TOGO Roadlink C2  and it's pretty cool.  It creates you're own wifi by expanding the range of available wifi networks and using its built in 4G AT&T connection.  Best part, AT&T offers an unlimited data plan for this guy at $360 a year.  That is pretty decent.   Minor repairs.   ...

Last week I took Bodie on the first long road trip (sans Chappie) down to Atlanta.  Here are my observations. The seats were extremely comfortable and I love the lumbar support for long trips.  With record high temps in ATL the week I was there, the cooling feature kept me from getting stuck to them as well. For some reason, I really love the button that folds in my mirrors.  Not sure why. The large backseat easily held all of our stuff with plenty of room. The Android Auto integration is sweet!  Audible and Waze both accessible without touching my phone.  Very nice! My buddy discovered his phone has wireless charging and totally took over the charging area in the center console. :) Very nice road trip.  Now I can take her in for her first oil change.

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 ...

Aside from work things have been slow around here for a change, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been filling my time with projects.  It seems like we've been in GO mode for three straight months and its nice to have a little break in the action to recharge.  That said, I've gotten some things done around the house and still have more on my list. I've replaced the kitchen faucet, we've put in the air conditioners, and done some weeding but it doesn't feel like I've yet scratched the surface of my to do list yet.  My to do list is long and contains some pretty ambitious items along with some smaller ones as well; Things like Fix/replace the roof over the deck Repair the water damage in the ceiling from my mouse friends that ate through a water line. Replace the tub faucet and hardware upstairs. Trim the trees that I can reach Finish cleaning the gutters. Repair some of the cracked/settling on the ceilings Build a planter box for the front ...

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...

One thing that I find myself doing when we travel over the road is eating a ton of garbage.  It's so easy to just grab a quick bite from McD's at the Flying J while your filling up or stuffing 5 Slim Jims down your gullet because they were right next to the register when you bought fuel.  I've vowed to not let this happen as much on the next trip and we'll see how it goes.  Here is my initial plan:  Make food ahead of time.  Assemble a few sandwiches, pre-cook some taco fixings, pack a small cooler for the truck with pre-made, easy to eat stuff. Buy some fresh fruit before leaving.  Banana's make a great breakfast snack, and grapes or cherry's are awesome when you just want some finger food to munch on.  Must have garbage bag for the skins and pit's, but we can throw them out at the truck stop. Bring more healthy drinks.  This one I do ok at as I don't drink a ton of soda, but I have gotten back into having a little caffeine now and then and...

We stopped by the campground this past weekend even though Chappy is still at the Dealership.  It's probably a good thing he's still there as the ground was very soggy and they had not yet fixed the electrical at our site.  Regardless, I'll probably call the dealership today and see if they can give me an update since we are fast approaching our next big trip! There is a lot going on around here.  TW found an apartment and we started helping him move his stuff over the weekend, all of this rain lately has really made the grass grow so I need to mow again, with Chappy still gone we are falling a little behind on our packing/planning/cleaning that we had planned, and to top it off I'm on call for work this week which means that I'll probably end up rushing around next week to get most of my stuff done before we take off. I hate being rushed.  When rushed I find it easy to try to blow through the checklist and then something inevitably only gets half done or skippe...

Luckily the weather yesterday was a little warmer albeit wet and I've been able to do a few things around the house, but I'm anxiously waiting for that phone call from the dealership.  Chappy is still there, the campground is now open and I'm missing it! Hopefully we'll have him out there by the weekend and in the meantime I've been able to work on some projects around the house besides Lego.  I put a new battery in the mower and cut the grass, worked on a new bedside table I'm building, got further refinishing an old radio, and put together most of what I need to fix the under mount for the kitchen sink. I find it is hard to sustain work on any one particular project because, despite my planning, I always seem to run into a situation where I don't have everything I require and need to pick up something from the store.  Take the bedside table for example; I had all of the pieces cut, planed, initially sanded and I was ready to glue up the top when I foun...

Karen and I have decided that we are going to try to find a spot for Chappy to stay where we can visit on the weekends we don't have anything planned.  We like the idea of having our driveway back and we did enjoy going out to our old campground and spending Friday and Saturday nights.  Our old campground is still there, and it is inexpensive, but we really want to try something new, something closer maybe, and something a little easier to get in an out. Our main list of things we are looking for in a convenience campground: Not too far away.  Who wants to drive for an hour after work on Friday nights? Easy in and out.  We really enjoy our mobility.  If we want to pick up and go to Michigan for a week at the spur of the moment, I want to be able to get the camper our without any hassle and park it back easily when I return. Dog friendly.  Sara, Rocky, and the Donk are important to us and they deserve to be comfortable too. Decent internet.  If...

"People who want to appear clever rely on memory, People who want to get things done make lists." - Peter McWilliams I live by lists.  I have apps for lists, spreadsheets for lists, shopping lists, to-do lists, reading lists, project list and many more.  Trips and camping are one thing where lists definitely save time, headache and money. Karen and I use a shared google spreadsheet with tabs for different lists of stuff we need to make sure we have before we leave with the RV.  We have a list for clothes, a list for food, a list for thing to bring/buy for the camper and truck, a list for the dog(s) and a to-do list of things leading up to our departure. We add things and cross them off as we go and inevitably we still usually manage to forget at least one thing.  But if we didn't make the lists and follow them, it could be much, much worse. I also have an app for my RV checklists.  It contains 4 lists: Departure checklist Arrival and setup Preparati...

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...