A Few New Bumps In Our Journey….

 

For readers who have followed along our path, what I’m about to report will come as no surprise … Kaka happens. 

Merde. 

Poop…..you know...sh!t!

Full-time Rving is really about a constant process of solving challenges; where to stay, how long to stay, how to get important mail, tank maintenance, battery maintenance, repairing all the high-quality, American-made stuff falling off the trailer. Along with planning routes, calling campgrounds to ensure their policies and prices are as advertised on the internet (and let us tell ya…they rarely are), every day is met with some challenge. 

Some difficult, some perplexing.

Full-timing is an exercise in what est seminar training (of which I am a 1980 graduate) called, “Be Here Now.” If ever you choose to follow this lifestyle, even over the course of a couple of weeks, you will discover precisely how much, how fast, and how well you can think on your feet.

It must be working: we’ve lost a combined 220 pounds! 😂

We arrived at our wintering grounds, near Yuma, Arizona, on October 22nd. As is our norm, we got into our set-up routine: I readied the trailer to get unhooked from The Beast, set out the orange ‘feet,’ under the jacks, got the trailer level, which set in motion Renee's tasks.

The trailer, situated so we can get optimal solar, at Imperial Dam.

She checks the insides, to ensure nothing is in the way of the slides, then gets them deployed. That allows me to commence either hooking up to shore power, or deploying and setting up the portable generator.

Given we are at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) LTVA (Long-term Visitor's Area), it’s essentially an enhanced boondocking site: there is access to a central dump station, and potable water, but out here, you park wherever you want (within reason: one does not try to park in close proximity to others), and you are on your own for electricity. to that end, we unloaded our new, MUCH quieter generator.

The generator—or genset—we used all the rest of the time on the road was a large, open-cage style generator. I purposely oversized it, relative to our wattage needs, plus, it happened to be the least-expensive one at the time.

But...it is LOUD! 

As is the way of these things, the quieter the genset, the more expensive it is. One of the quietest is a Honda, but at the size we need, they are pushing $3000!

During these past six months I discovered we could use a smaller wattage genset (the old one is 9500w), and that made it a bit easier to find an affordable smaller, quieter one (6000w). We found one that fit the bill for $700, and also has the benefit that Renee and I can load it onto the back of The Beast by ourselves: the old one needed a hoist to get it on and off.

I get the genset up and going, not only to charge the batteries (they did not seem to be charging adequately via solar: more merde to report, later), but also to get the AC running…in Yuma, in October, it still reaches the 90s (for my overseas readers, that’s in the 30s).

Next, so that we have decent cellular service, I got the Starlink set up. Here is where the merde begins…

It’s usually a fast, easy set-up: put out the dish, hook the cable in to the  router, plug in the router, and in a few minutes, no matter where we are, we get stable, lightning-fast internet.

Not this time…? 

It worked less than 2 hours!

I go through the troubleshooting, ensure there’s juice to the router, triple-check the cabling, and...bupkis. So, I put in a trouble ticket to Starlink...oops…remember needing decent cell service?

Unfortunately, we don’t have great service here. At best, you can get one bar of LTE, and that’s if you find the sweet spot. 

I finally get a message to Starlink.

Then I wait.

And I wait.

And I wait…for three days!

We are both getting a bit…shall we say, peeved?… given the fact of this being  near-new equipment (the old Starlink router gave up the ghost about a month ago, and no new bits are sold to support it), plus the fact the monthly charge is...not cheap.

After three days, of bad cell service, no Roku TV (I know, I know..1st-world problems!), and not being able to upload anything to the blog, I receive a call from a friendly Starlink representative. She quickly diagnoses the problem being  likely a bad cable, and tells me they’ll send one right way!

Right away = it arrives on the 30th of October.

Long story made short, we’re back in the Internet business.

Remember the issue with the solar? Well, I had already envisaged a greater charging capacity for the system, and that took the form of four 250w, flexible solar panels. I had them set up at Quartzsite, back in February/March, but wasn’t impressed with how much extra oomph the array provided. This, that, and the other thing kept me from building a support rack and setting the panels up for a more propitious angle, to capture the sun’s energy. It’s a fairly involved process, one I didn't want to tackle for the relatively short stays we had, before getting to Imperial Dam.

I bought some PVC pipe, a bag full of fittings, and fashioned a rack to hold the panels…

Then, I got the panels out of the traveling spot, inside the trailer, and attached them to the rack…

After hooking them into the wiring harness, up on the roof, and knowing there was some issue with the rooftop panels, I hooked the ground array to the system, without the rooftop panels in circuit, and VOILA! We were getting charged! That confirmed there was some issue with the rooftop unit.

A day or two later—when the winds stopped—I got up and began troubleshooting the rooftop array, and found a major problem: one panel had shorted out, and fried its feed cabling! That interrupted the circuit for the remaining 5 panels, rendering them useless. I took the bad panel out of circuit, and for the time being, we're back to having reasonably-powered charging. One problem, sorta solved.

But wait! There’s more!

Thanks to the inability of our current leaders to, ya know, actually lead, we found out that Renee’s ACA-subsidized insurance is nearly doubling. This chucks a bit of a hammer into our travel plans: she will be eligible for Medicare, which will be considerably less-expensive, but…doesn't become eligible till next July.

Recall that part, about solving challenges on the fly?

We will: the plan is, we’ll stay here at Imperial Dam right up to end of LTVA season, which is April 15th, then hustle our way back to the tree row in Oklahoma, where it doesn't cost us a cent to ‘rent’ our spot, until late June/early July, then we can more easily afford to get back on the road.

Would we go back to a sticks-n-bricks? Would we trade our adventures, the new sights, the people, the sunrises and sunsets for all this?

Yours truly, at Kitt Peak!

Guard tower, Yuma Territorial Prison

Cloud Museum, home of more old Fords than I’d ever seen!

Renee, by this precious little church, right in the middle of farm fields near Yuma

Merde, NO! 😋

This song kinda sums it up...

https://youtu.be/soKl1OLsk6s

We’ll seeya along the road!

The Great Maple Syrup Incident….!

 RVing is a sport of many challenges; finding short-term accommodations, not necessarily easy with a rig 63 feet in length; keeping tanks up to snuff, and empty of contents; making sure important housekeeping tasks are done within range of appropriate places to do so (laundry, aforementioned tank service, any mechanical issues that might need periodic attention, groceries, to name but a few), and…making sure stuff stays where it’s supposed to!

Imagine, if you will, towing your home down bumpy roads: All your glassware, all your dishes, all your tschotkes, every dish, every glass, your pills, your razor, your shampoo—you get the drift!—will find the worst place to fall. We thought we’d foresaw most of these future pitfalls..and we did.

Most.

Clothes, normally quite stable on hangers, will leap off their bar, and end up piled on the closet floor. Your neatly arranged medicine cabinet will seem to have been put in a blender, and not-so-gently stirred into a Tetris pile of stuff, ALL of which will fall out when you open the cabinets. Dishes will be disarranged; forks, knives, spoons, all will be blended into a maelstrom of metallic objects, one of which will undoubted keep you from opening the drawer, till you pushitinpullitoutpushitinpullitout, till the offending utensil finally stops laughing at you, and gravity allows it to fall!

Luckily, socks, shorts, and other clothing items, once stowed in a drawer, ride out the rolling, bouncing storm, seemingly unaffected by the road. 

Probably learned to do that in the dryer….

You quickly learn that everything, and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, has to be put in small baskets, or bundled together, or stashed in sacks. 

Books much be tightly stacked up, such that there is no wiggle room between the tomes. Ever wonder why pill bottles are often stuffed with cotton? Wonder no more: travel a few thousand miles, with bottles uncottoned, and you will end up with pill powder. Likewise, tools, games, books, DVDs, and food items…more on this, in a bit.

RV refrifgerators have door locks, and you’d think that’d be all you need…you’d be wrong! You have to use what I call, ’squeezy bars” across the shelves.

The two white horizontal bars, holding the milk in: Squeezy bars.

This leads us to…the maple syrup.

Now, we thought we were being pretty clever, minimizing the use of glass containers—for obvious reasons—and so we bought our maple syrup in this nifty little plastic jug, with a snap-on top. Worked fine, for about 17,000 of the 20,000 miles we’ve traveled, this year.

Until it didn’t.

About two weeks ago, we were engaging in what we call “Mission Slideout,” which is exactly as you might think. . Get to the spot we’re staying at, check the level of the trailer (VERY important: slides will not operate unless/until the trailer is balanced side-to-side).

In this instance, we weren't setting up for the night, but just stopping to put some stuff in the fridgeThat requires we open the door, drop down the stairs, and inspect the inside for any—WHAT THE @#$%&! is that???

When I get to the top of the stairs, I see a thick, viscous brown liquid, dripping out the bottom of the fridge, running down, and making a river along the base of the cabinets, and around the cabinet to the stairs to the bedroom. It’s late, we’re tired, and I disgustingly announce we’ll deal with it when we get to the campground.

By the time we got there, most of the liquid had disappeared to places God only knows, under the sills of the cabinets. When we open up the fridge, what had happened was the “RV-approved” fridge had shaken the shelves OFF their ridiculously-tiny ledges, and dumped their contents to the bottom of the fridge. All landed well, nothing broken…except the  nearly-full QUART of maple syrup had turned upside down, and the nifty little snap lid…had become unsnapped.

Maybe about a pint remained in the bottom of the fridge under the rotter drawers (often called, ‘crispers,’ but we know THAT’S a lie), and it was quite thick, being refrigerated. 

Great fun ensued, cleaning it up. a couple of tubs of hot water, an entire roll of paper towels, a few cuss words, and most had been cleaned up.

Except for the n to the unknownth  amount that had drained into the basement…..

That led to me devising a better method to make damn good and sure the shelves don't come off their ridiculously-small ledges. You’d think a refrigerator, used in an RV, would be designed to already have that handy feature.  

You'd be wrong.

And you know what? We STILL love this journey! 

We’ve seen so much, conquered so many challenges, met so many wonderful people, that the occasional spilled syrup, the sometimes-jangled up clothes closet, the shaking of soda as you drive, are small potatoes. 

1st-world problems. 

We have discovered the depths of our love for one another, and grown so accustomed to being in close proximity, almost 24/7, that it’d be hard to imagine the larger confines of a stick-and-bricks.

(PRO TIP: Do NOT open a fizzy drink until your rig has been sitting still for about an hour. You're welcome.)

As we near our wintering grounds of Imperial Dam, nearly a year into this amazing, astounding, challenging, and joyful nomadism…we wouldn't change a thing. Except, put tape over the top of the maple syrup!

Here’s a smattering of places and things we’ve seen!

An emu. In Arizona. On the loose.

The Beast and Harvey

One of thousands of saguaro cacti, around Lake Pleasant

A gorgeous Carefree sunset!

Yrs trly by cacti and elephantii, in Carefree

We hope you enjoy reading this blog, and we will continue to keep all of our fans—all TEN!—up-to-date, for 2026.

A Few Housekeeping bits!

 Just a late note, and apology: I only now got around to moderating comments, but will do so, MUCH more contemportaneously, in the future!

Please leave respectful comments, and I promise to add them!

We are now in our downhill run to our wintering spot, outside Yuma, AZ. I’ll have an updated essay soon. In the meantime, a few happy snaps of some of the gorgeous venues we’ve seen.

Montezuma’s Castle

Jerome, through which I accidentally drove the rig!

Gorgeous Sedona, AZ

Not something you see often, in Arizona...

The rig near Peoria, AZ

Sonoran Sunset and a harvest moon!

Enjoy this beautiful fall!

The Road To Jerome….

September 28, 2025

We arrived at Dead Horse Campground, and will ‘make a stand' here, till we move onto shores further south. We weren't necessarily planning on spending much time in paid parks, but the events leading up to today’s arrival were…momentous.

We knew when we began this adventure, we would have to be a bit frugal, wrt staying paid parks. We do a fair amount of  dry camping, sometimes called ‘boondocking,’ to save money, plus it gets us away from crowds of tourons. 

Boondocking is defined as where you camp, without benefit of a ‘full hookup,’ or some variation of that. Full is comprised of water, sewer, an d electricity, and of the three, electricity can be the determining factor.

Because of our advanced electrical system, meanin g lot of solar panels, and large lithium ion phosphate  (LFP). we can go, with good sunlight, nearly indefinitely, without shore power.

Though our battery ‘tank’ is pretty endless, it still has a limitation: if AC is needed, it’s only able to run one of the two AC units, and then, only for a few hours. Ergo, the reason we ‘chase the 70:’ north through the summer, south during the winter. If it gets a bit warm during the days, we open the windows, and turn on the roof fans, then in the late afternoon into the evenings, keep them open till it cools off, then close them all up. occasionally, we’ve even needed the furnace. If we know we’re going to need the AC, we plan accordingly, and stay at where we can plug in (or run the generator, where allowed).

Now, with our water tanks—fresh, gray, and black—that’s a different kettle of smelly fish! Even on us following a strict water restriction plan, we’re limited to a max of about 10 days. Then, we need to refill the fresh water tank, and dump the gray/black.Thats what we have to plan around, and that’s why we planted at Mormon Lake.

Across the road, from the porch of the pizzeria!

We planned to be at Mormon Lake, Utah, for three days. We spent the time mostly enjoying the amazing volcanic features, Mormon Lake being one. It’s the result of lava flows into a large basin, then because of faulting, a large portion subsided, making Mormon Lake (technically, a ‘graben’).

https://azdailysun.com/news/local/ask-a-ranger-mormon-lake-is-a-rarity-in-arizona/article_75f10ec8-e200-11ec-9aa9-e71d783341f7.html

What happened, and an event which had yet to happen to us was…weather. It’s fall, and this area of Arizona is mid-high alpine, in nature. Flagstaff and surrounding areas actually experience a real winter, and on towards that, a pleasant and long fall. We planned on going to somewhere around the Prescott Valley, find some boondocking, and tour around.

So, about that weather: our three days, turned into 5 days, because these beautiful clouds…

…soon coalesced into massive rain clouds, and it poured. for TWO days!

No worries! We’re not on any real schedule, so we await a dry day, pay for the extra full hookup (good, since the cloudiness wasn't optimal to charge the batteries, anyway), hook up the trailer, and head on down the road.

I’d been told that there was a state campground, called—and I am NOT making this up!—Potato Patch. electric/water, and not terribly dear. So off to Potato Patch we go.

Which, unbeknownst to us, guided us through the town of Jerome, Arizona. Charming little town, much like Central City , in Colorado. With equally small roads.

Maybe I shoulda paid a bit more attention to the signs, saying “NO TRUCKS OVER 50 FEET.”

Surely, that didn't mean campers, right? Doesn't look too bad..at first.

https://youtu.be/_iCHQ-HrUlI?si=qDCsJ90p7Y3zFw5T

Neither of thought to take video, but suffice it to say, may of tourons were giving us strange/puzzled/bemused looks!

Well, after that harrowing trip, we made it to Potato Patch…which the Interwebz had told me was a first come-first serve campground.

A) the Interwebz lied.

B) the term, ‘patch’ may have been a clue….see ‘sixty five feet long.'

So we continue our way down the other side of the pass, towards Prescott Valley, and began looking for some spot to spend the night, till we could find a less-expensive spot. We saw Yavapai County fairgrounds, and fairgrounds hae been a pretty reasonable place for us to stay.

$70, per night. 

Now, it’s beginning to get a bit later in the day, and have we told you, setting up AT NIGHT blows? So, we set off to find a boondocking site.

There is a website, Freecampsites.com, which has been quite useful in finding places to boondock. It returned exactly ONE place we could try…and try we did!

Good plan…had there BEEN any appropriate boondocking available, for RVs sixty three feet long...

Many times—and this was one!—these places are reviewed by people who stayed there, and sometimes ofttimes are written by folks who...leave out details. Details like “this site is suitable ONLY for tents and small cars.”

Allow me to remind you: our rig, truck included, is SIXTY THREE feet long.  Not a tent. NOT a small car.

Now, it’s nigh on sunset, so we wander around Mayer, AZ, looking for our ol’ reliable fallback: Truck stops.

Except, EVERY truck stop there is:

- Small

- Full.

At the 3rd truck stop, we found one space we could cram ourselves into, BUT…not big enough to out the slides. Fair enough: our trailer is built such that you can still crawl into bed, and sleep, and sleep we did, since we crawled in around 8 pm, making the day about 9 hours long, WAAAY longer than our usual 3-5 hour days.  

The Adventure continues!

https://youtu.be/6AIXFoinSnU?si=tIGEGXLI_XxLIX6g

Traveling Through Carpets of Corn, and Miles of Forests….

 Dateline: 30 July 2025

As we have stated in past posts, one of the main reasons we ventured forth on this, our Great Chain of Discovery, was to see and experience adventures, sights, and places, and to lessen the things we possess in life.

It has been an amazing success!

                                      

Along the road, we've seen some really nice parks, friendly people, and many live up tom the midwest ethos of friendliness and ease of conversation.

As we traveled through Iowa, it occurred to us that yes, it DOES look just like the postcards! Green lush, cornfields for literally hundreds of miles through the gently rolling countryside. Picture book farms, all neat as a pin, then we went to…Indianola.

Oh!

Em!

GEE!!

Of all the towns we’ve driven through, Indianola was truly the MOST beautiful of them all: gorgeously integrated into the rolling landscape, yards perfectly mowed, not a speck of rubbish anywhere. All the homes were in top notch condition, and we saw nary a sign of blight, anywhere.

I had to tell someone, and spotted a volunteer firefighter, standing outside her station: she was much t"ken aback, at first, this total stranger walking up to her, to say, “I LOVE your town!’

She warmed to the conversation, and said it was an up and coming area, as people moved out of the bigger cities. sorry to0 say, I took no photos of it, so you’ll just have toilet paper google some!

Dateline: 30 August 2025

We are now on our way back south, as the summer slips into fall, with some colors starting to show in the northern forests. We are at Renee’s family farm, in western Oklahoma, and will be writing about the missing gaps!

These are our next-door neighbors..:)

Till then, happy Labor Day to all!

What’s Next?

 Dateline: 30 June 2025

Keenesburg, Colorado

Well, our 6 weeks of time here are nearly all gone! We got to see needed doctors, even more needed friends, saw a movie (F1: 99/100 tomatoes), made repairs—see accompanying  video on the blog!—and a host of other fun stuff.

One of those much-needed modifications was this…(Pardon the misspelled word in the title!)

Making more sense of the space….

Thanks to the generosity of our next-door-neighbor, who had an RV pad set up, we didn't have to barge in on our renters. That said, they are a nice couple, with a couple of kids and dogs, who were more than happy to let us stay there. Next Summer, we likely will.

We will still visit, every June(ish) for the same routine, and during Xmas (the ONLY time I wanna see winter, on purpose!)

July 11

We arrived in Omaha—Papillion, to be exact—to stay a few days, visit Renee’s sister and BiL, and to tale in some sights..

One was the Joslyn, a truly amazing art museum, right in downtown Omaha. It was nice to be reminded of when gazillionaires felt a duty to invest in things like this museum…invest they did! Part of that commitment is, it's always free to visit The Joslyn.

A beautiful 2-year restoration and new addition made it even better.

The old…

And the new...

The grandeur…

The whimsical!

Museums are magical places: they are history books, they are time machines, they are castles, full of stories and mysteries ands wonders. I am always moved, I always exit a bit smarter, a bit less parochial for the time invested.

Tips, tricks, and mysteries!

At the nearly 7-month mark, these are just a few of the mysteries: some of these were hard-earned, but most were common sense, or at least what passes for it. 

 In no particular order..

- NEVER leave your RV with the awning deployed: in all but the lightest of winds, it becomes a large sail, not terribly-well fastened to the fragile side panels. Lack of adherence to this simple rule can result in a VERY bad experience.

- When packing up, two sets of eyeballs is always better! Ofttimes, I’ve missed one of the myriad steps  to which an RVer *must* adhere. ALWAYS walk around your rig two more times after you think you’ve gotten all the steps complete, and your partner is an invaluable resource to help.

-  as far as possible, ALWAYS poop in someone else’s toilet. The reasons are likely obvious…😄

- When at a source of water and a dump station, ALWAYS do a massive rinse of the tanks. One might think this step is only for the black tanks, but…you’d be wrong. Gray tanks, left long enough, become, if not black tanks, stinky dark gray tanks.

- It’s really best to not drive more than four, maybe five hours, tops. In our case, we are piloting a 63-foot long, 30,000 pound rig, and it ain't just a leisure drive: it takes full and constant attention to mirrors, gauges, and other activities of towing. 

Passing other vehicles takes special consideration, and there is, quite literally, no room for error. Not to mention, part of why we’re RVing isn't to increase the speed at which we go places: it’s to savor the joy in going slowly, taking time to stop and take photos, to visit those roadside historical markers, to stretch our legs and see this wondrous country, so full of grandeur. Driving ‘blue highways” is also part of the adventure: in a future essay, I’ll address this one in depth.

- Be open to ever-changing weather, and unexpected changes in scheduling.

If you plan ahead—and you must do so—be prepared to make last-minute additions or subtractions to your list.

For example, early on, we wanted to say an extra day at a destination, which was all well and good, BUT, we forgot we had reservations at a RV park down the road, and we couldn't get a refund on our monies. All lost! Which leads me to...

- Do keep a spreadsheet, just for this purpose. It makes it easy to scan your travels days, and spot those places, in your future, where you've made reservations, and, if you extend your stay at any given place, it gives you the room to do so, without having drama.

- HAVE FUN!

A poem by Joe Henry sums it all up, for us..

Eagle Feathers

Bound in Wax

Wont bring us to the Sun.

The dream’s the thing, our Holy Wings

Our journey

Just begun.

It's The Almost-Halfway Point!

 Almost, as in 5 months...but I digress...

We arrived back in Denver, the 2nd of June, for what may well turn out to be a semi-Annual visit. We are back to do:

- maintenance/repairs on The Beast, and on Harvey II;

- Do landlord-y things on the rental;

- Doctors' visits.

- visiting friends, and sitting in with the band.

We will continue our journey, right after the 4th of July, to head towards the upper Midwest: stops in Omaha, Milwaukee, over the top of 'da UP,' then down towards Detroit, to visit the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village (both highly recommended!).

We had great, fun two weeks in our Oklahoma tree row, south of Arnett, OK. Renee's granddad began farming there in the late '40s, and the tree row he planted is the one we're making into our mid-continent stopping ground.

We are going to name it, "Charlie's Row."

It's a special treat for Renee,  given her strong and enjoyable childhood memories of spending summers just enjoying hours of time wandering the farm house, the barns, and the animal enclosures. The farm house and outbuildings are no longer there, but there remains enough 'footprint' of them that she can clearly see them in her mind's eye!

We arrived at the farm, the middle of May, and I began building the road into the tree row.  The farm manager had graciously already completed the tasks of clearing out deadfall, moving the electric service and water to the fence just within the tree row, so all I had to do was haul good limestone rock and caliche from his storage pile, a mile down the road.

He graciously made available a truck and a large dump trailer to haul the dirt in and an even BIGGER front loading tractor to load it into the trailer.

I'd then bring it up the road, drive in just a little bit (it's been a wet spring, and the sandy soil was pretty soft, so had to proceed slowly), dump it, drive up through the tree row, turn around, then get into a skid steer to move the dirt around and mash it down,

25 loads of dirt and 4 days later, I had a pretty good road! It was loose and still soft, so needed some precipitation to 'rain the road down.' A day later, we got our wish!

It was a back-and-forth: yes, the rain tamped down the limestone and caliche, but also still puddled in runoff spots, enough to make it such that I got stuck once or twice, needing to be pulled free by one of Eddie's large 4x4 tractors. All par for the course!

After that was complete, we then went and explored: Black Kettle National Grasslands, and the amazing  Metcalfe Museum. 

https://metcalfemuseum.org/

Augusta Metcalfe was a visionary pioneer woman, who was self-taught, and fiercely 'of the land.' We cannot recommend you visit more highly.

We ate dinners at the local watering hole, The Packsaddle, a well-attended restaurant and bar, where Eddie and Susan know EVERYONE!

This will be pretty short, and bereft of photos: I'm going to go back to my preferred Mac, soon, and will be able to populate these missives with more photos.

till next time!

Paul'n Renee