Our Maiden Voyage Continues

The date is April 7, 2015

Waking up to this view on just our second day was totally awesome.

Gouldings RV Park was very interesting and the variety of RVs in attendance was incredible.  And it was nearly full ... on a Tuesday morning, the first part of April !!!  Definitely glad we booked in advance on this one .... we mite have found ourselves on the side of the road overnight.  Though interestingly, they did have an overflow lot (sorta speak) where several units were parked, but with no hook ups.
After a walk through the park ... and shooting some of the surrounding area, we packed up and pulled the slides, so looking forward to our day's adventures.

Leaving the park, just like getting in last night ... was rather challenging.  Thankfully Jackie is very helpful watching & guiding from the back, equipped with the headsets she had purchased months before we even had the coach.  At that time, she said "these are what we're going to need out on the road" ... of course she was very correct .... they've been a God sent for certain. 

And of course as we were leaving, we had to stop and grab a couple more pix .... such a beautiful area.

Feeling good about our drive today ... and planning to make Glenwood Springs in just a few hours we started down the highway.  The fuel tank is indicating about half, so we know our next stop will be at the first real Truck Stop we get to once we hit I70, for fuel and tire check.  It was good to see the country side as we began our trip, as we had gotten in way after dark the nite before and had no idea the sites we had missed.  But very beautiful as we roll toward Moah UT.

Our equipment is doing a great job, rolling down the sometimes rough, narrow roads, with some occasional winds, but none seemed to challenge our coach, or the trailer with the hot rod safely tucked away.  A very enjoyable ride up to I70, which we were both very glad to see.  The only disappointment was there was really nothing along the way that caught our eye that would give us a reason to pull off the road.
As we headed east on I70, it wasn't long before we saw the always changing surrounding go from desert to foot hills to mountain scenery.  We did make a quick stop for fuel and tire check as well as a quick breakfast.  We were both anxious to get to Glenwood for a time of relaxation and a good home cooked meal.

And of course our first tunnel on I70 ....

This of course begins our climb up through the Rockies and we're so glad we made the choices we made of our 500 HP Cummins engine and this awesome coach.  Yeah, we're not breaking any speed records, but letting the equipment do what is does best and taking care to make certain we keep the heat down, it just takes you up the fairly steep grades with ease ...  but we'll know for sure tomorrow as we go up Vail Pass & the Eisenhower Tunnel.

We enjoyed this part of our trip very much and was very excited to see our destination come into view. 

Here, unlike last night, it was apparent that making a reservation in advance was not really necessary, as it's early in the season for this parts of Colorado, due to the altitude and the cooler temperatures here.  The problem here could have been the fact this park didn't have pull throughs, nor were there sites advertised to be large enough for our Bus & trailer without disconnecting.  However, on arrival, the manager there advised we mite be able to find a site that we could make work without unhooking the trailer, to just go in and choose whatever site we thought mite work.  As we drove to our parking area it became quite apparent why they had allowed us to choose our site, as there were only a couple of RVs on site .... and as we drove through we spotted what we thought would work, though it would require us to back in.
I truly believe Jackie actually gets excited when we have to pull out the head sets and she gets to help get us positioned.  Turns out we got tucked into a spot without much effort, course we both patted each other on the back for a most awesome job.  We did however, hang out onto the driveway a foot or two ... but we called it good and began our set up for the evening .....

Of course a new park wouldn't be complete without taking a walk just to check things out.  This is indeed a beautiful place to settle down for a minute or two.  The sites are really good sized and well maintained ......

The area we were assigned was on the upper level of the park that over looks some additional parking sites for smaller RVs and of course the mighty Colorado River.  As we made our way down there, we both commented how cool it would be to be parked down there.  Though I doubt we could have gotten our Bus down there, or on the other hand, back out.

Is was quite beautiful down here and those lucky enough to be there had the sound of the birds and the river to lull them to sleep at nite, not to mention just sitting on the 'patio' enjoying a glass of wine and all that's going on around you.

Even the tent area was very cool.

This park also has a very nice Event Center.  Jackie & I both agreed this could be an awesome place for a family reunion .......  (( that's a hint gang ))

Photo from the Resort Web Site

After a really fun exploratory walk, we were back at the Bus to enjoy a wonderful dinner and some together time.  Any night can be a date night ya know.

 

Tomorrow we look forward to crossing the Continental Divide and dropping down into Denver ....
Stay tuned ...... 

On The Road --- Finally !!!

April 6, 2015

Remember we talked about a loose schedule .... well part of that has to do with the weather.  We are not excited about putting this rig on the road during bad weather.  So here we are the first week of April, getting hooked up and preparing for travel.

Getting the trailer hooked up for the first time was fairly uneventful, until.....we checked the lights on the trailer.  Not only did nothing work, but we blew several fuses on the 'Bus'.  UGH !!
It was quickly discovered, that during the work setting up the brake/lite connection, I assembled it incorrectly, thereby grounding out the system.  After a short repair we were then ready to put the car in the trailer.

I mentioned, we'd never loaded the car in the trailer since we bought the trailer.
One of the things we liked about our trailer was that is was a low profile unit. That means... better gas mileage.  It wasn't apparent at that time, but this also means that the loading door/ramp would be shorter as well.  So getting the car loaded became very challenging because it sits so low.  But after some assistance from our neighbors and several pieces of wood under the door, we were able to get it in and tied down.

Buttoned everything up and one more walk around and we're finally ready.  This should be interesting.

Now please understand, we had not pulled the trailer with the 'Bus' prior to this .... it sure is a looonnnggg way back there.  We're just about 70 feet long!  Getting out of the parking lot on to the street gave us a bit of a feel regarding length and brakes.  I tested the brakes and handling as we headed for the freeway!  Though you could feel the additional weight of the now loaded bus and the trailer, it handled quite well and the power of our engine was very impressive!

Oh, did I mention we missed our departure mark of 10:00am?  We actually left at 2:00pm after making a quick stop at Vintage Iron & Restoration in Scottsdale.  We wanted to check everything out, especially the tie downs on the car before hitting the major highways. And, it  gave us another opportunity to say goodbye to our friends/work compadres.  Jackie had made some special cupcakes for the guys, we delivered those as well. 

Ahhhhhh, We did it!!  No issues, problems, etc. We're on the way, at last!  We are officially, unofficially, on the way to Monument Valley, UT.  Thank God we had a reservation at Gouldings RV Park which included a big pull through site.  With our late departure we knew we would be arriving in the dark.

About an hour into our travel, the view begins to change and the view through the front of the bus is unbelievable!  It's like a theater right before your eyes.  You don't miss a thing and it's bold and in your face!  Travel has another whole meaning when viewing from the 'Bus'!

 
As we climbed out of the valley toward Flagstaff, we quickly got the feel of the weight we were carrying .... gearing down to climb 6% and grades slowed our speed quite a bit. Thankfully here in Arizona these grades were short, so our time lines were not too delayed.  As I glanced over at Jackie, I could see she mentally had the "white knuckle grip" as we made our climb. She assured me she was fine but was concerned about "what goes up, must come down"....  Jackie asks, could our brakes and 2 stage jake brake hold all this weight, really? We're just over 65,000lbs.

It was at this early point in our trip that Jackie began an urgent question/answer period in how a jake brake really works and why it was necessary to have runaway truck ramps if these brakes work so well. It was bad timing to explain a full fledged explanation at this exact moment, but I did my best to ease her concerns to some extent.   I told her to sit back, relax, and enjoy the view.... uh huh, right!  She had more questions..actually, if the truth be known, I did too!  But we found on this first experience, the braking system did quite excellent.  Some trial & error with the jake's function certainly helped us for it to become more efficient. 

What was most interesting to both Jackie & I was as we traveled, how terrain changed .... even in just a few miles ..... And it was nice to be able to enjoy the views as we maintained a very casual pace. At this point, Jackie seemed to be doing much better and started to relax and enjoy.

The last miles to Gouldings was a bit challenging, very dark and very narrow roads.  But we rolled in, got checked in and it was an easy pull in and set up.  And the size of the pull through site was such, we didn't have to unhook the trailer.
We really had no idea of what the area looked like at this point.  All we knew is that we made a pretty good incline to get to it. No idea of our immediate surroundings because it was too dark and we were both pretty whipped.   It turned into a much longer day then we had planned.
The good news ... set up and prep to roll will be much easier the next time.

Our maiden voyage continues ..... stay tuned

Preparing For Our First Annual Tour

Our time at the San Tan Mobile Village has been wonderful!  Getting to know our coach,  repairing minor issues and getting to know our new neighbors.  It was so much fun making new friends here, and like us, most were preparing to head back to cold country.  And such a diverse group!  Some from the Dakotas, some from Michigan and one couple we got to know pretty well from New York.  The good news is, we're all looking forward to being back together again at the end of the year ... We gathered often, sharing stories and just visiting ...

 

 

We will miss our Arizona friends and family, both at the park and throughout Phoenix.

(Jackie)  For living in a place for such a short time, it was sad to say goodbye to our neighbors.  My heart was so touched when several of the ladies stopped by the coach to give me a hug before we left. We chatted, laughed and promised each other that when we all returned, we would share our gifts with each other.  Sewing dolls, cookie making, quilt making, and of course mine was cake decorating.  I'm excited to gather with these ladies in the fall to pick up where we left off.

On another note, my heart was breaking to leave our kids, Corey and Danielle, and my little guy, Cash.  Have I mentioned how much I love him??  He's 3 years old and has stolen my heart completely!  I've been a part of his life since he's been born and to hit the road like this really has my heart torn. Thank God I have traveling privileges so I can fly back whenever that little man summons me!  Facetime will be playing a major part in my life, I'm sure! I'm also leaving behind my Mother, my sister, my brother, my niece, my nephew and all of their families!  Also The Kim Komando Show .. Kim, Barry, we consider them a part of our family and a major part of our life for over 10 plus years! (www.komando.com) I'm sure we will be pulling on the resources of Kim Komando for technology issues along the way. Thank you all for the well wishes and support!  We love you all, miss you and will see you again in the fall.

(Hal)  Now, on to prepare for our first annual tour to visit friends and family.  Of course during the time we were working on getting our home sold and find our "Bus", we had pretty much decided where we would be going, and a very loose time table.  We're in no hurry to get any where, but then again, we are.  Our plan included leaving Arizona at the end of March and go to Loveland, Colorado.  We have lots of family in the Denver area, mainly north end of the city.  Later in June we will head up to Wisconsin, in September on to the San Francisco Bay area, and finally back to Arizona after Thanksgiving.  The rule is, after all, if we can't have the top down on the car, we're movin on. LOL! This plan was also essential due to fuel cost calculation that were necessary to include in the budget. .... 

After some work on the coach that included the brake system for the car hauler, going through the systems checks, fluid levels, etc., it would appear we're about ready to go.  Jackie has spent time getting the pantry & freezers packed, making certain we have everything we need for the trip, and probably a whole lot more, knowing her. 

Coming up ..... Hitting the road ...... stay tuned ...

Let's Buy a Bus

Now back to the house and all that was inside. I must tell you, Jackie did a fantastic job of sorting out what we would need in our new home and what had to be disposed of.  And I'm thankful she started early, even though we lived in the house over a month with nothing but a bed .... hahaha .... During this time, we sold a couple of cars, purchased the 20'ft car hauler.  My brother, quite surprised by all of this asked .... nice trailer ... but what are you going to pull it with ????   Good question Tom 

(Jackie) ... Phew!  Thinking about this part makes me as tired as I was when we worked on that part! Can you say "Garage Sale"? times 6!! One of the garage sales was a complete mad house to the tenth degree!  Thanks to family, Don & Linda, and Danielle & Corey for the assistance that day.  Words cannot express how you saved us from insanity. Did you know that people are ruthless at an all open house garage sale? 

(Hal) .... And all the while, we were narrowing our choices for the coach.  Well actually, we fell in love with one particular coach.  It was priced a bit above our target purchase price, but the thought was, we could negotiate it down.  This slowed our search considerably, believing this was the 'one'.  Located in Wisconsin, it was going to be difficult to really check it out, but thanks to our son JJ who lives 30 minutes or so away from the coach, we were able to get some assurances that the coach was as advertised.  We got to know the owners pretty well, by phone and email and discovered we had also found new friends.  Discussion continued for nearly 3 months and finally they agreed to at least get the cost a little closer to where it needed to be.  Jackie & I flew to Wisconsin.

Seeing what would be our new home for the first time was amazing to say the least.  This thing was enormous in our eyes, even though we had looked at many similar buses, this one just seemed pretty amazing.

The test drive was very exciting .... it is certainly a whole lot of 'bus' going down the road .... It rode and drove like a dream.  The owners took us through all the systems and were very cordial .... so enjoyed spending time with them.  Jackie & I were both crazy excited as we flew back to Phoenix ... it's all we could talk about.

 After getting back to Arizona, discussions with the owner didn't go well, our offer didn't get us a deal.  And even tho we had begun thanking God daily for our "WI Bus", it seemed at times it wasn't going to happen.  We did have a couple more coaches to look at, and while in Texas ready to make an offer on one of them, I shot off a text message to the owner of the "WI Bus" to let him know we were moving on. Within minutes I had a phone call.  We were able to finalize the deal, what Jackie & I  both consider to be only God's hand.  Thank God for our "WI Bus"! 

A few weeks later we were on our way to pick up our new home.  What a wonderful time.  The first day in Wisconsin was with the owners, again going over systems and how things worked.  We spent that evening in the coach outside the owner's shop/garage.  Woke up to cold snowy weather and headed for our son JJ's house, where we spent the nite, in the bus, in the driveway, with no hook ups at all.  Still can't believe how much there is to learn.

The next day, we were on the 4 day trip back to Arizona .... and what an adventure.  Lots of winds the first couple of days turned into quite a workout ... especially driving for more hours then we should have.  Big lesson learned here.  We will now limit our time for driving to about 6 hours a day ...  The coach did amazingly well.  Cruise set between 70 & 75 most of the way, and cruised nicely.

Once back in Arizona, we actually moved in and so begins our Adventure!

Can We Really Do This ??

Then the question occurred to me, what space do we actually use on a daily basis?  Thus began the daily exercise of looking around to see exactly what space we were using while watching TV, for example, cooking meals, after going to bed, etc.  Over the next month or so it became quite clear that the majority of space we had in our house was not being used, so what space was really needed?  It also became clear that we could function quite nicely with a lot less space. but what about everything we had in the house .... well, we'll get to that later.
I knew we needed enough space to not be indicted for bodily harm to one another .... lol.... Hmmmm, let me repeat...moving from a 2000 sq ft house to a diesel bus.  A man's just got to have some private space!

Before you know it, we were both online, every day, every night, like clockwork, looking at different possibilities and yet not knowing anything about any of them.  It had become an obsession for both of us!  It was exciting, it was dreaming, it was planning, it was our unique future coming to fruition in our hearts.  It was our future that we hoped would make our family happy as well as ourselves.   (We apologize to all our friends & family that were around during this process...we must have made you nuts with all the RV talk.  So sorry!  I'm sure you all thought we'd missed the boat, we'd become aliens already!) 

After seeing many different floor plans it became clear that what  we needed was at least a 40 - 45 foot bus, with 4 slide outs, no other option would be considered.  And because we were planning on pulling a trailer with the car inside, we would want a coach with a tag axle.  We also were firm on three particular brands that we'd consider. That's the criteria, right there in a nut shell.

In all reality, shopping for a diesel bus took over a year!  That's right folks, one year!  We prayed and studied and prayed and researched till the cows came home!  Then we shopped, shopped, shopped! For those who know us, every Friday night is date night.. our date nights became bus shopping excursions.  We visited several RV stores in the area, read the RV blogs like a newspaper, had several online sales spots bookmarked, asked a lot of questions and shopped some more!  We got to a point where we felt confident about what our needs really were, what the costs would be and what would work for us as full time RVers.

Our knowledge of a diesel bus came to a whole new level.  Education is a wonderful thing! Thinking back, I'm sure all the RV salesmen got to know us by name.  We were no longer the "newbys with no clue" however, they still thought they could sell us anything.  Look out sales people, I wasn't the only one asking detailed questions.  Jackie shocked me on several occasions with her knowledge about engines, generators, framework and the like.  She has always been "in the experience" to the full.  No doubt, just a woman on a mission.  In fact, we became so knowledgeable about diesel buses that the sales people couldn't answer all our questions.   Now that I think of it, we weren't always greeted at some of the places we shopped, I don't think they really believed we were going to buy a diesel bus.  They'd see us stop in, let us check out the new buses without any assistance and we'd drive out again.

Having a pretty good idea on what the costs were going to be, it was time to put it all in perspective and create a budget that would fit our new life style ..... Thus giving us a pricing point for purchase.  All that was left was finding the right bus ......

Chapter One

How did this all begin, you ask?  Well here's the story.  Early Summer, 2013

To put it simply.....our kids are all grown and gone, empty nesters I think it's called, and the kids are now spread out all over the country.  Yes, we miss them all a bunch!  It was nice having at least some of them here in town for years which gave us so much family time, especially on weekends! We had a studio in the house so music was prevalent on many occasions.  Family dinners were popular, sometimes with more people than the house could hold!  Occasional visits from the out of town kids was special...life was good! But things suddenly changed! Within a month, those who were here moved! Some to San Francisco, some moved to Castle Rock Colorado.  That was very difficult, especially for Jackie .....

At that time, we were still both employed, or at least committed 5 days a week in some form or another. Being retired from the airlines, we are privileged to travel any where in the world at reduced or no cost, which helped considerably, but we were still living in our 2000 sq ft home of 11 years, with a huge yard, swimming pool, fruit trees, rose garden, etc., so you can imagine what we did on the weekends.

When we did travel to visit family, it was generally for only a couple of days.  Our family was always gracious with invites!  Our family is large and spread out, making it difficult to visit every one.  We felt like there was just not enough quality time with any one of them.  And because of distance, we would only see those family members once or twice a year.  You have to admit, that's pretty pathetic.  Especially when we're talkin grand kids .... impossible to be involved in their lives this way!

Well after hearing me complain one too many times about not seeing the kids, my wonderful lil wife pops up with an idea as to how to resolve it.  "Sell everything and buy a Bus", she says.
Are you kidding me ????  We've worked hard to get to this point in our lives, a home with a pool, in Arizona, 3 Corvettes, everything we need, the ideal set up for retirement.  But then there's the fact our kids are in California, Colorado, Wisconsin and on and on... and they are what's most important!  I could not, at that moment wrap my mind around the bus idea! 

Then she says "we can go to each area, stay 2 or 3 months at each place and be able to spend real time, and still be home every nite.  I still didn't get it!!!

Days later, Jackie advises me there is a guy in Tucson AZ who would like to trade his motor home for a house in the Phoenix area.  OMG!!  She's Serious!!  She then showed me pictures of the bus, but it still wasn't computing.  Could something like this be possible?  But wait, there's still this issue of selling everything, moving into a space the size of a small apartment ....
Thank God there was no way to make a deal like that work, but there was still that burning idea in Jackie's mind we could make this work  .... some how.

My problems were as follows  Not having a place to call home .... and I really didn't want to get rid of the cars ... yeah I know ... it's just stuff, but it took a minute to get over that.  Secondly, reducing the size of our living space.  Are you kidding me ???  I loved our home, but all the work it involved, the upkeep, etc., if you know what I mean.  I'm certainly not getting any younger and the work becomes more difficult over time.  Understand, this idea came up almost every day after that initial outburst.  

Resolution ?????   Stay tuned ...................