Back to the Green

As we mentioned in the prior posting, we used 2 days to get to Amarillo TX, so we are now back in the Central time zone.  The lack of freezing temperatures didn’t quite work out as expected, however.  There was one more freezing night in the forecast – Monday.

 

At least we now have a working thermostat, and we have our choice of gas or electric heat at night.  Our issue with heating continues however, since we learned over these two days that the engine heat doesn’t get to the front seats when we are driving.  The vents and air conditioning work fine, but we haven’t needed that since we got to New Mexico.  We still have plenty of time to get to eastern Oklahoma by the end of the week, so we had the Freightliner service group in Amarillo look at it Tuesday morning.

 

They had us in and out in less than 2 hours, since they couldn’t do anything about it.  They said we had to take it up with Winnebago.  Now that the temperatures are supposed to go up, and since we are nearly done traveling for awhile, we will hold off and have a few remaining repairs made at the Winnebago plant in late April.

 

We got out of Amarillo early enough and the weather was good enough (although cool) that we kept going to Oklahoma City.  We will be watching the weather forecast closely before deciding if we travel closer to Tahlequah where our project is or sit out the wind on Wednesday.

By the way, today's title refers to the fields alongside the Interstate.  We haven't seen green fields since we don't know when.  They sure are good see once again (trees too).

 

 

On the Move Once Again

This past week has given us a couple of starts and stops. 

 

On Monday we took our time finishing last minute errands and packing up for a mid-day departure from Tom and Paula’s place in Glendale.  We said our goodbyes to Paula, Tom, Tomie, Phil, and Elsie. 

 

We’ll miss them!!  We had a short driving day to Casa Grande where we wanted to check out an Escapees RV park.  Who should we meet there but Dave and Nancy Hilmo once again.  We had them over for dinner Tuesday evening.

 

While there, we learned that our heating/cooling thermostat had “locked up” and stopped working.  The service department at the RV dealer was no help, but by calling the manufacturer we learned of an independent service shop in Tucson who had warranty authorization.  They couldn’t fit us in until Friday, so we took an extra day in Casa Grande to relax, then moved to a small park in northwestern Tucson for Thursday night.  This gave us the chance to get together with Dan and Pam and see their new-to-them park model in eastern Tucson.  

 

 

Friday morning’s stop for service was very quick and easy.  They showed us how to reset our electronic thermostat (no mention in the manuals) and we were back on the road in less than ½ hour.  We had a time zone change at the Arizona/New Mexico border; from MST to MDT and stopped at another Escapees park in Deming, right on Interstate 10.  We are now at higher elevations, which means cooler nighttime temperatures.  Now that the thermostat works we can actually run the furnaces or heat pumps or air conditioning (something we haven’t had to do all year).

 

This note is being written and posted on Saturday morning, while we are taking another day off. The park held a pancake/waffle breakfast this morning where we had a chance to meet with some new neighbors.

 

The northern route across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (Interstate 40) is still subject to overnight freezing temperatures, so we are taking our time heading east and then north.  Tomorrow we will catch US70, taking 2 days to get to Amarillo, Texas.  By the time we get up there, there should be no more freezing (we hope).

Getting Ready to Roll Once Again

As mentioned in our last posting, we are slowly winding things up here in the Phoenix area.  The past week was a busy one, starting with 2 days of RV driving school for both of us.  The new rig isn’t that much different, mechanically, than the prior one but the extra 4 feet in length is all between the wheels.  The longer wheelbase will make our first attempt at getting into the cabin an adventure.  We learned some techniques for backing to the right (blind) side that should help.

 

On Thursday we met with some former neighbors who are also now former Minnesotans.  The Mortensons have also retired to their lake place (in Wisconsin) and sold their home in Minnesota.  They have become “snowbirds” and spend their winters here in the Phoenix area.  Although we hadn’t seen them in 2 years, we got together at their place in Mesa while our new motorhome was getting a final servicing at the dealer and had a great visit.

 

As expected, the dealer finished their work just as rush hour was starting.  Instead of playing in traffic, we called another couple of former Minnesotans, the Hasserts, who are now year-round Arizona residents.  On our way to dinner we also chanced to meet Tom and Sheri, fellow Nomads we last worked with about a year ago in Louisiana.  We said it before: “what a small world!”

 

Saturday we took a sightseeing drive in the morning to the northeastern part of the area: around McDowell Mountain park, to Fountain Hills and Saguaro Lake before entering Mesa once again.  We spent a good part of the afternoon with Bob’s cousin Dean and his wife Pauline who are spending March in the Arizona sun.

 

Sunday will be our last full day in the metro Phoenix area.  We will have dinner with Paula, Tom and Tomie this evening and leave mid-day tomorrow for a short trip to Casa Grande.

Minnesota Escapees

It’s been 2 weeks again since we last updated the blog.  Dang, how time flies! 

This title comes from all the visitors we have had from Minnesota recently.  Paige’s Mom, Joyce, left to return to Minnesota yesterday morning.  We spent a lot of time with her during her 3-week visit.  We went to Queen Creek for olive oil, Ceretta’s for candy, and visited many restaurants.  She also was a great observer while we painted the overhang on the patio.  Sounds like the weather in Duluth is finally warming slightly so she timed her visit south well.  Here she is with her brother, Phil:

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday night, Paige’s sister and her friend, Pam and Ron, arrived for a visit.  We went to the Botanical Gardens to see the Chihuly glass exhibit yesterday.  We had seen this exhibit 2 years ago also.  Very beautiful, distinctive works staged throughout the gardens.

 

 

We’ll be winding up our visit in Phoenix during the next 2 weeks by getting our taxes done, taking a driving class with our new motorhome, getting warranty work done on the new motorhome in Mesa, and trying to visit a few friends.  Then we will be on the road to Oklahoma for our next Nomads project.  When that is completed in mid-April we will assess the snow situation in Minnesota.  When the snow has melted at the cabin, we’ll head up there.  Given the terrible winter Minnesota has had, we don’t have high hopes that we’ll get up there before early May.

 

Big Change

 

As a prior posting has hinted, we have made a change.  Our 10-year old Itasca is gone; we traded it for a new Winnebago Journey.  "Moving day" was last Wednesday.  This photo was taken in the dealer's parking lot while we were in the process of moving.

After moving back to Paula and Tom's place, more moving took place when we re-loaded the basements which had taken over a garage.  Then came all the fun of finding stuff that is not where it used to be, and hanging hooks for decorations and towel bars, etc.  Paige found that moving from one motorhome to another was difficult.  Not something she wants to do again anytime soon!  It now feels more like home.

It is a little longer than the older one, but the biggest difference is 4 slides (up from 2) so the interior is much wider when opened up. Here is the sofa with the kitchen in the background.

The refrigerator is "residential-style" so it runs on electricity only.  This was a huge plus for us.  We can now keep ice cream frozen!

Our thoughts were that we plan to keep rambling around the country, sightseeing and doing service projects for many more years and the Meridian was beginning to show its age.

Paige's Mom is visiting from Duluth.  She came a week ago and will be here another 2 weeks.  She's enjoying the weather immensely.  Duluth has had more snow and cold weather recently.  Her brother, Phil, is down here for the winter from Alaska, also at Paula's, so it's a good time for them to reconnect. 

Bob and I are going to do a "Nomads" project at Paula's.   The trim on her business house needs some painting so we are going to take that on.  We  need to keep busy!

We spent last Saturday visiting with some Nomads friends who are working at a church about 10 miles away.  Bill and Ogie and Dave and Nancy came over to see the new motorhome after we went out for a great buffet lunch.  So good to see them!

We'll try to update the blog more frequently now that the move is over.

Time Flys – We Must be Having Fun

Our 3 week project at Epworth United Methodist Church is over and the twelve Nomads who were here have scattered to other places.  Six of us will be working together again next fall at a church camp in northern Minnesota.  We did a big variety of work at the church; painting, cleaning, repairs, etc.  There is a high school housed in the church and we even had an opportunity to eat lunch with the students.  They were very interested in us – do we get paid for this work?  How do we live in our RV’s?  It was a good opportunity to share with them.

 

Wednesday night of our last week the church held a Thank You Potluck dinner for us.  It was great food and fun and they presented each of us with a gift of wind chimes.  Another wonderful group of folks! 

 

In our previous post, we mentioned Larry and Dottie’s blog which has since crashed.  They are talking to Google about getting it back up again, but their photos of our first week at Epworth might never come back.  We still have work to do on our new laptop before we attempt to add photos here.  Windows 8.1 is a pain to learn!!

 

Yesterday we moved back to Paula and Tom’s place and washed the accumulated dust and dirt from our motorhome.  The pickup needs to be washed too, and we hope to get that done later this weekend as well.

 

Today we picked up Tomie from the airport – she is here for a short visit.  Paige’s mom is coming tomorrow for a 3 week visit and Tomie is excited to see Grandma.  It will be great to spend some time with Mom and hear all about her new home.

 

We are making a change in our fulltime life this week.  Stay tuned!

 

Back to Work, Nomads-Style – Part 2

We have completed our first week here at Epworth United Methodist Church in Glendale AZ.  Our team leaders, Larry and Dottie, have their own blog, complete with photos, that lists some of the things we’ve done this week.  Take a look at their comments by clicking on http://www.hands2serve.blogspot.com/

 

If you look at their earlier posts, they have photos of the Arizona luncheon which we attended a few weeks ago, as well as their work in December in Bastrop, Texas, an area hard hit by wildfires a couple of years ago.