The Spring, She Be a’Springin!

June 3rd, May Family Farm..

So, in our waning days at Imperial Dam, we began reconfiguring our 2026 travel plans….in which things…. um…decidedly changed. We touched upon that in the last post, and nothing much has altered, in that regard: Fuel costs are still high and are likely not to go back down this year.

As a result, we canceled all our West Coast plans: we were going to lazily meander up through California, seeing sights, taking six weeks or so, then on into Oregon, Washington, continue up into the lower Provinces, to see Victoria, Bouchard Gardens, and a little of all there is to see in the PNW. We wanted to travel down from there and end up back at the farm in Oklahoma, right around Labor Day, but….all that had to be scrapped.

Remember? “We’ll figure it out!"

The travels up through the West Coast states, into/around Canada, and onto Oklahoma ,would have added a minimum of $4000-$6000 to our fuel costs, alone, and that was simply untenable.

We made our way up to Las Vegas, on our journey back to the Mile High state, to do much needed maintenance and repairs, on the rig and The Beast.  The trip to Vegas was primarily to be near an affordable airport, which allowed me to travel to Denver, where I sang with the band, then humped it back to Vegas, where, after a 9-day stay, we headed for Colorado, in late April.

Renee had never been to Hoover Dam, and I had never toured the insides, so we took that in…this year, the dam is 91 years old, and the engineering scope and sheer awesomeness of it never ceases to amaze!

Looking down the face, all 726 feet of it! A few folks at the top refused to join me….

Looking down river, and at the botton of the highway overpass, built in 2011, to ease traffic congestion over the very narrow dam road.

Renee, for scale….

This is the overflow channel, which is one of two: Lake Mead has only ever needed them once, in 1983, and it’s unlikely they will ever be needed again.

Talk about having a bathtub ring…..this was taken on the Arizona side, looking back to the Nevada side.

Looking up-lake: Mead is at historic lows, due to overuse and the effects of climate change. On the left is the Nevada-side penstock, which is the intake for the water that powers to turbines.

Bureau of Reclamation benchmark set 91 years ago.

Cool Art Deco bronze sculptures, at the visitor center.

More Art Deco touches, which you will see all over the place. This is based upon some Native American symbology.

The eight enormous turbines that generate the power that light Las Vegas: due to low water levels, only one turbine was in operation.

The trip also allowed us to stop over in Vegas, so I could—AGAIN—pull off the belly pans, to replace rat-gnawed hydraulic lines, which caused us no end of grief since we left Yuma. Being in Las Vegas was also needed, to find an outlet, where I could purchase replacement hydraulic hoses that would be less-tasty to the vermin that visit us.

In a trailer like ours, with hydraulically-actuated slides and landing gear, there are literally hundreds of feet of these hoses, and, in keeping with the tradition of virtually all RVs, are made of the cheapest, lowest-quality stuff that will just barely suffice. It also happens to have an outer covering, made of soy-based plastics which—you guessed it—rodents find extremely tasty!

The replacement hoses are of a much-higher quality, with a steel-brained protective outer layer, that rodentia cannot chew their way through. It runs about $5/lineal foot.

I’ll let you do the maths….

We hit the road to Colorado and arrived at our place May 3rd. 

Just in time for snow….!!!

View out the camper window, reminding us why we spend winter in Arizona….

And I thought my wrenching days were in my rear view mirrors…!!!

How a shopless mechanic works on their truck…

We haven't seen snow since early December 2024! We were reminded why we didn't miss the snow and cold. But I digress...

As I touched upon in my last blogpost, and this one, the situation, with respect to fuel costs, has drastically altered our plan of action, going forward. We’re still planning to motor on up to Clayton, Idaho, to be camp hosts at the May Family Ranch, and we’re looking forward to the adventure…just like our spiritual icons, Carl and Ellie…

Adventure awaits!

In Colorado, I got a whole bunch of ankle-biters done: refinished the dining room table, maintenance of The Beast, and most importantly, caught up with friends and family. Renee and I had some doctors’ appointments to attend to, and we visited with our tenant. We parked behind the old John Denver Festival stage, where we could hook up to electricity.

We departed Denver and did a series of one-night stays, along the route, at Harvest Host sites. HH is a service where owners of vineyards, restaurants, and other similar businesses allow you to stay in their parking lots, almost always dry-camping, one or two nights, usually free.

It’s customary to drop a few coin at these places; a few where we stayed…

Elk Mountain Lodge

No caption needed!!

We arrived in Clayton, Idaho on May 27th, and began familiarizing  ourselves with the ranch, and its owners. While we had some time, we visited Craters of the Moon, a simply astonishing volcanic feature a few hours away. It’s as a result of the same hot spot that formed Yellowstone NP.

Inferno spatter cone, a big pile of small volcanic cinders, up which we hiked!

The top three photos are of tree molds, formed as a result of hot lava flows surrounding stands of trees. The 2nd photo shows what the bark looked like. Some got knocked down (3rd photo), and some were standing and left a round hole in the lava (1st photo).

On our way back down Inferno Cone.

“STOP!! I see a rock!”

So, that brings you, dear readers, a bit up-to-date. More adventures to come!

“We’ll Figure It Out!"

 In the world of full-time RVing, there are a multitude of things you need to know, and learn, not the least of which is flexibility. 

Fair warning: I try to keep these posts free of politics, and will continue to do so: that said, the topic at hand will require us to delve a wee bit into the political.

I promise to not make this a habit.

Onwards to being flexible….

There's the day-to-day maintenance of an RV’s systems, from the solar/electrical system, which is quite complex, to the mechanical systems. By their very nature, RVs are...shall we say, built to a price. 

These things are not inexpensive, and to make them at all profitable for us peons to buy, they are, frankly, not built well. They are built using minimal materials, assembled in haphazard ways, all of which are widely-documented, on the web.  

A good source of associated info, about RV issues, if you're interested…

For instance, the RV we’re in, a 5th wheel trailer, sold new in 2016 for around $100,000: were it built the ‘proper” way, one where low cost, cheap materials (few of which are really designed for the type of abuse an RV gets) wasn't a requirement to keep it at $100K, the same trailer would *easily* top out, or even exceed $350,000, or more. They would be lighter, more reliable, much more durable…and much more expensive.

During my working career, I acquired a lot of practical knowledge, from electrical work and troubleshooting, to mechanical systems maintenance and repair, and all RVs are a blend of these two areas. To keep this adventure even close to affordable, one really needs a pretty comprehensive understanding of how to maintain and repair these beasts. Mobile RV repair folks often charge $200/hour to do this stuff, and, trust me, none of it can be done in an hour!

For instance, the electrical system: All RVs operate on a blend of 12 volt and 110 volt systems, and the two work together in a difficult-to-orchestrate manner. With solar, the dance gets even more interesting! It’s not ‘one and done’, like sticks’n bricks homes; it’s much more ad hoc, in nature, due to the above mentioned minimal quality construction.

Example: this trailer was advertised, and even placarded, as being “Solar Ready.” When I installed the solar system, before we hit the road, I found that the wires for the solar, in the central control panel, were simply two unmarked wires, dangling in a haphazard way, and ultimately, were of insufficient gauge to effectively carry the loads an advanced solar system needs. I ended up having to run my own wires, and if you haven't priced copper wiring lately….😒

There are chargers for batteries, inverters and  converters to keep them charged, different interfaces that come into play, whether you’re out ‘boondocking (I’ll explain this in a bit), or attached to ‘shore power’ (which can be from a plug-in pedestal in a campground, or from a generator), which costs money, whether it be propane to keep your generator running, or park fees…and that brings us back to…flexibility.

“Boondocking” has a very specific meaning, in RVland, and also can encompass a range of circumstances. For example, where we wintered, at a BLM LTVA (secret decoder: Bureau of Land Management Long-Term Visitor Area) there is a place to dump our tanks, and a source of water, to refill our fresh water tank. Sometimes, boondocking requires days of no access to either, so as we travel along…we have to be flexible.

We had plans, this season (April through September) to travel northwards, up through California, Oregon, and Washington, then pop up in British Columbia, then back down through Idaho, back through Wyoming and Colorado, then on down to the farm in Oklahoma, then back here for the winter. At a nominal $US4/gallon, we had budgeted for that.

Then, someone thought it was a good idea to attack Iran, and blow up the world’s oil supply. I am quite sure any who are reading this are feeling the effects of this…misadventure.

Diesel, on the ‘cheap' side of the Nevada/California border is now just shy of $6/gallon, and in California, it’s nearing or exceeding $8/gallon. A dear friend of mine, who’s leading a similar life in Tasmania, is seeing $13/gallon!

https://www.youtube.com/@BackroadsandBowstrings

We didn't budget for that, nor CAN we budget for it: at a nominal 7 mpg, that necessitates a new plan. We spent a week or two, turning over many scenarios, a few of which meant ceasing the adventure, and returning to either Colorado, or the farm in Oklahoma. Neither of those are optimal places to winter over, with Oklahoma being slightly better.

So, the long and short of it is…we’re going back to work. 

Work camping.

That’s when you accept jobs, at various parks, some federal, most state-owned, and a few privately held, where ‘volunteers’ work for a small stipend, and/or free hookups. It’s not a lot of money—one we're looking at is a private family retreat center in Idaho, where we would get a FHU (full hookup) plus a $1000/month salary. It usually entails 10-20 hours of work, per week, doing things like checking in guests, stocking restrooms, and doing general maintenance.

A free FHU can save upwards of $600-$900 per month, which is a substantial savings!

We are also applying to be camp hosts here, at the LTVA, which will save us the $180 fee, and if we get it, we’ll have a FHU, which will be a saving on propane and heating, both of which are needed to run the generator, to charge the batteries, and also to run the AC units, and the fuel in The Beast needed to go get it. That can be upwards of $300/month.

We are also greatly shortening our travels, and the report of that will be the next installment.

This isn't the end of our adventure: it’s a different direction. There are many millions whose very livelihoods are in the balance, because of the actions of a madman. We will be OK, because we have the luxury of having these choices and opportunities, which many do not.

We’ll figure it out!

Sense and Sensibility...

 First, let me state for the record, that the title of this post will be the last reference to Jane Austen I make.

...or not.

In our travels, we have seen many expressions of how people choose to pursue the nomad life. Some, like us, have reasonable budgets, enough to afford to travel in relative luxury. A few, have much greater monetary means, and as such, travel in large, luxuriant Class As (‘motorcoaches”), or much larger 5th wheels, like ours.

Class A..

Some of these motorcoaches can exceed $1,000,000!

5th wheel…

This is a near-twin to ours.

Some utilize what are euphemistically called, “Toy haulers,” some examples of which are seen in the link below.

https://blog.campingworld.com/find-your-rv/best-toy-haulers/

We gave some thought to this kind of 5th wheel, but one large enough to haul the Maverick would have topped out at 50 feet in length, which would be extremely difficult to get into many parks: some don't allow anything longer than 40 feet. Even then, when you discount the space needed for said toys (or back porch), you end up with less Lebensraum than our 35 foot trailer, not to mention the decreased maneuverability and decreased fuel mileage.

Quite a  few folks use what’s known as a Class B: This is a standard van, like a Ford Transit, or Mercedes Sprinter, that has been kitted out inside for camping.

 Bs usually have no slideouts, but have the advantage of being very maneuverable, and (relatively) fuel-efficient. They are also not much longer, overall, than 20 feet, so can get into smaller spaces, or, if 4WD, have a bit of off-road utility.

A representative Class B…

Then, there are Class Cs, which are usually van-based, but with the ‘box’ part removed, and an RV body attached. They are almost as maneuverable and as fuel-efficient (which ain't saying much!) as Class Bs, but definitely offer more room.

A Class C….

There is a subclass of Class Cs, called, “Super Cs,” which are based on larger pickup truck chassis, like Ford F550)s, or even larger, based upon OTR (over the road) semi-trucks, sometimes called ‘prime movers.’

A Super C…

The other common platform is a bumper-pull trailer, which are more difficult to maneuver than a 5th wheel, but offer the advantage of all the living room being on one level.  

One of the odd things in the RV world is the terminology ("The secret handshake!”): Bumper pulls are often referred to as ‘tow-behinds,’ but 5th wheels also get ‘towed behind.’ 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We went round and round about which of these to choose, and ultimately chose the 5th wheel, for many reasons.

- Cost: used Super Cs can easily price out at $200,000+, so that wasn't an option; standard Cs are pretty popular, but I’ll circle back to why we didn't choose one.

- Utility: 5th wheels are quite plentiful, and consequently, well-priced.

- Backup ability: with a 5th wheel, the towed vehicle can actually pivot more than 90 degrees, whereas a bumper pull is limited to quite a bit less pivoting ability, making them much harder to back into spots, which is a fairly common occurrence in many RV parks.

- Ease of maintenance: any trailer can be serviced and fixed, relatively easily. They aren't terribly complex, so that becomes a point of interest, for me. However, As/Bs/Cs, being a combination of the living quarters and the motive source, if something goes wrong with the mechanicals (engine, transmission, drivetrain), and you need to take it to a service center for that repair, you're now homeless….!

Why not a standard C? Most Class Cs are based on chassis that utilize gasoline engines, and the weights they run at, make the engine work very hard, decreasing the life of the engine, with a concomitant decrease in fuel mileage. If they had diesel engines, I’d have considered one: the only ones that do come with diesel engines are Mercedes, and they are crazy expensive, and their reliability isn't all that great. plus, there are a boatload more Ford, Chevy, and Dodge dealers in the hinterlands than there are Mercedes dealers!

Diesels, by design, are much better suited to carrying heavy loads, and get better fuel mileage than a gasoline engine, in the same chassis.

There is also the facf that..I’m 69! I can still change a tire on The Beast, or the trailer, but on a A/C/Super C? Fuggeddibouddit!

 As it is, to get the spare up and down, off the bed of The Beast, I had to rig up a stowable crane: I discovered when getting ready for the adventure, I can:

- lift a tire, or,

- I can lift a wheel, but;

- I cannot lift a tire AND wheel, as a unit! 

These tire/wheels weigh around 190 pounds (86 kg): an A/Super C wheel/tire, can easily scale in at over 300 pounds (136 kg). If I blow a tire, on the highway, with our rig, I can change it: if that happened on a bigger rig, it’s a $peciality $ervice call, which can range up to $1000-$2000. Not only can a blown tire blow a hole in your budget, but it can blow a serious hole in your travel plans.

Plus, the tires on an A/Super C can cost upwards of $800-$1000, per tire. I got all four rear tires of The Beast replaced for $1500.

Ah..more secret handshake stuff—duallies!

Why even have a dually? Good question, Grasshopper!

Tires have load limits, and when towing, especially large, heavy loads, you must take into account how much load each tire can support. That is, not only is the weight of the vehicle, but the weight the truck is carrying. 

Here are the numbers...

The Beast weighs a total of 11,200 pounds (5090kg), with a 50/50 weight distribution: that’s 5600 pounds (2545 kg) per axle (axle is defined as a set of wheels, left to right, regardless of the number of tires) With the trailer on, the rear axle weight increases to 11,460 pounds (5209 kg).

Each tire has a maximum load rating of 3750 pounds (1704 kg) for a total carrying capacity of 15,000 pounds (6818 kg). That leaves a safety margin of 3540 pounds (1568 kg). Thats a good safety factor. Were we to use a non-dually truck, you can see the issue! 

It would carry it, but the tires would be signifcantly overloaded: not an issue for a few miles, but going down highways, especially in the hot times of the year?

POP!!

Tires, as they do their work, generate heat, and excess heat is the main killer of tires. For that reason, even though I’m safely under the carrying capacity of the tires, if—I pray it never happens, by ALWAYS using proper pressures—stuff happens, the duallies give us ‘backup,’ It’s not at all common for both tires to go pop, simultaneously, but if a single tires does, one can limp along on the remaining tire, to somewhere to get it replaced. On a non-dually, truck? You're stopping RIGHT there...and changing a tire. Doing so while the trailer is on is exceedingly difficult. Duallies give you a safety and comfort factor.

Back to why we chose a 5th wheel: along with the utility, and (relative) ease of backing, we knew this was going to be our home. It wasn't just a weekend jaunt, or even a short two-week journey: we were going to live in it, full-time. A 5th wheel gives you that room, it is fairly maneuverable, competitively-priced, and at the size point we chose, almost all RV parks are able to accommodate it.

Could we have lived in a C or a B? Yea…my wife and I like each other’s company..BUT….we knew that living, cheek-by-jowl, would put a strain on things. A 5th wheel (or any like-sized RV) gives you the ability to ‘escape’ to opposite ends, to do things that would be more difficult to do in a smaller RV.

So there ya have it: Sense, and Sensibility.

Sense, to grasp fully our choices, and do the correct thing that fits  lifestyle choices, and sensibility (“the capacity to respond intelligently, to refined emotions”) to choose wisely.

In our 14th month of living the vida mobile, it seems to have been the correct one!

Stay tuned for more! Feel free to leave any questions and comments on the blog, and we’ll respond as quickly as possible.

The Attiude of Latitude!

 January 20, 2026

Wow.

We made it almost a month past our first year on the road, and what a year it has been. Exhilarating, frightening, challenging, and never boring. We went as far north as Manistique, MI, and as far south as our current winter spot, Yuma, AZ.

The desert does odd things...

45° N. to 32° N. 

We went as far east as Lapeer, MI, and as far west as Yuma, AZ.

                

                  Not Lapeer, but in Michigan!

-114° W. to -83° W.

Why in the world would I do something so geeky, as to tell you the latitude and longitude of some of our travel spots?

I’ll circle back.

We’ve done what we set out to do, which in the RV world, is called, ‘Chasing the 70.” The idea is, you travel north in the summer, where the temps aren't as brutal (but mosquitos and humidity might be), then back down south as the fall and winter approaches. You try to stay in the window of 70(ish) degrees.

We found the patterns of this traveling, the rhythms dictated by the seasons, constantly a thrill. You do the same ‘dance of the seasons,’ when in a sticks’n bricks—as we did for all our lives in Colorado—but the sameness, the ritual, is different on the road.

It’s different than the stationary, non-RV life; it’s discovery, every day. It’s knowing we’ll see new and unknown places, most we’ve never seen before, sometimes on a daily basis.

             

              The vistas are long and beautiful

For Nick!

We ALL know where this is thanks to Forrest…

          Creosote bush: it’s everywhere down here!

A babu saguaro…..

…about 100 years later!

The stark beauty of the desert with its creosote bushes and cactus, the wooded wonders of the Upper Midwest, with forests so different than the ones in our native Colorado, where you can see many feet into the woods: not so much in Michigan’s forests! The crisp, cool mornings in Yuma, where ‘cool’ constitutes 49F°, to the sultry, humid, and foggy mornings outside Chicago.

For M., our EXCELLENT Chicago guide!

The Bean!

Back around….living at 40°N, -105°W, the patterns never change. Oh, there’ll be differences in the timing of seasons, surprises regarding storms, and the like: out here, on the road, we experience sooo many different things, sooo many new places, sooo many interesting folks.

It’s the attitude of latitude, it's the rhythm of longitude. It’s change, it's a rebirthing of sorts, and we STILL relish every day

Seeya on the road!

And Now, The End Is Near….

Strap in: it’s gonna be a long one. We’ve had issues…..

ChatGPT’s take on a new problem...

Now that I have your attention….nothing serious!

As I write this, we’re within one month of having been on The Big Adventure one year; December 28th was when we hit the road, and I thought it would be a good time to look back, and talk with you about just na few of the amazing things that have happened, some amazing places we've seen, activities we’ve done, and places visited, and share some thoughts about the next steps along this path.

Our bottom line?

We have loved it! The sights, the oddities, the great people, have made all the effort, all the hassle, well worth the effort. Just a few scenes along the way…

April 2025, checking in at Yuma

                  The Beast and The Burrow!

Montezuma’s Castle

Odd little tin truck in Yuma

Enjoying a November day!

Have there been some rough spots?

Sure, but whether we lived in our sticks’n bricks (which just set us back almost $5000 to replace the well pump), or in the trailer (where we've had a few rodents-eating-expensive-hydraulic-hose issues), things happen. That’s just life. 

Best to check the time, and relax….:)

When we began this plan eleven months ago, we labored under no delusions that it was going to be a cakewalk. We had done a huge amount of studying, through books, articles, Youtube videos, and talking to our friends who’d done a bit of full-timing. We felt reasonably well-prepared to jump into the lifestyle, and by and large, that assumption has been accurate.

With the benefit of hindsight, we began the trip pretty well-prepared. There were a number areas where we hadn't found much information and it wasn't really a result of us being underprepared, because we didn't do as much research: it was an effect of people reporting ‘the good’ of full-time RVing, and not reporting “the bad.” 

On many websites, folks tend to gloss over the not-so-good, or they are so over-the-top with effusive praise, it can sometimes be tough to discern if they were just ticked, or their praise/bad reportage was accurate. Those details became more apparent as we spent more time on the road.

Details like how ineffective many RV apps are, especially how much of the information reported about places (like freecampsites.net) is really out-of-date. 

Other details turned out to be a bit more opaque, and nothing but actually being there would help: things like where to find local laundromats, the cheapest places to buy propane, and where to find affordable shopping. All those details aren't contained in a guide, but only are arrived at by exploring the area, and talking to other nomads.

Some apps simply are too complex to use, and ofttimes, overlap the functionality of other easier-to-use apps, so in the early process of implementation, we eliminated a number of them.

Another issue we discovered is how sites, like Reserve America and Reservation.gov, though used by many state and Federal parks, are remarkably inconsistent in how the app works across various websites. Nowhere in our research was this ever mentioned, or we certainly never found any mentions of it. It’s one of those cases of, till you jump out of an airplane, no amount of reading about it fully prepares you for the reality of the leap.

Again, that's much of life, isn't it?

Moonrise over South Mesa

We found one of the most valuable things to do was to preplan our routes: where to fill up, where to take occasional rests, and where to overnight. We do try to limit our travel days to no more than 5 hours, and ofttimes, 3 to 4 hours. We’re in no hurry, and when towing a rig this size, the amount of extra concentration really adds up, resulting in making us tired at the end of a travel day. That, and one NEVER wants to arrive at a stop, only to have to set up in the dark!

Another useful method is looking at various campsites on Google Earth: this can be a trove of information, about the terrain, an important consideration for a rig this size. We also will use the same technique for site evaluation as we do for backing up: G.O.A.L.

Get Out And Look!

So, back to the experiences: we have had so many adventures, so many sights, so many people that have made the journey a delight, I thought I’d show a just a few photos for your pleasure.

               Auburn 852, at a car show

Old tractor at Cloud Museum

Beautiful horse sculpture, made of old parts

One of the more amazing things that happened, happened completely serendipitously. 

I participate in an online community of people who love Jaguars: I’ve been a member of that community sine the early 2000s. Though I no longer own the Jag, I hang tyhere becuiase it’s one of the most diverse and intelligent bunch of people I’ve ever coem across. I was in a discussion of planes, and because of the number of pilots and flying aficionados on the website,  relating to them how my Dad had been in WWII, and had worked on planes in the South Pacific, and showed them the photo of Dad, standing next to a capture Japanese fighter plane (see blow).

One of the smart ones indicated that the plane still existed, a fact I never knew, and, sadly, dad never knew either!

Not only that, but that it existed at Pima Air Museum, where I had visited earlier in the spring, and had not a clue of its existence there!

I had to go back…..!

The plane was a captured Japanese fighter that my Dad helped get airworthy again, in Hollandia, New Guinea, in 1944. Dad had told me of the adventure (there’s that word again!) of the plane and had a photo taken of him, standing near the plane.

More info, here…

 https://captured-wings.fandom.com/wiki/C/n_6430

Dad standing by the restored Oscar, Hollandia ,New Guinea, 1944

Me, misremembering exactly where dad stood, 80 years ago!

       My brother Doug and me at Pima Air Museum

Home on the range!

For me, an old geologist, everywhere we go is an adventure, and I love sharing the stories and history with Renee.

              Renee, for scale!

Chicago is a GREAT city! Shoutout to our new friend, Maralyn, who graciously took us on a tour of the city: we’ll be back!

                                            The Bean, in Chicago

These are but a few of the amazing, astonishing, unexpected delights we have had during this first year of—ready for it?

ADVENTURE!

Like Carl and Ellie, we will keep finding our adventures, and hope you will all follow along!