Escapade

es·ca·pade

/ˈeskəˌpād/

noun

  1. an act or incident involving excitement, daring, or adventure.

We think it’s the perfect name for the boat as it really sums up our big adventure that we will be doing on the great loop.

Escapade on the dock in Hobe Sound. It’s been a great place to spend the winter and we are uber grateful to our friend Barb who offered us this space on the canal behind her house.

So what is the great loop??? The Great Loop is a 6,000 nautical mile circumnavigation of the eastern U.S., and part of Canada.  The route includes the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the New York State Canals, the Canadian Canals, the Great Lakes, the inland rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico. “Loopers” take on this adventure of a lifetime aboard their own boat, no cruise ships do this as it takes at least a year to complete. We are “slow” looping, breaking the loop up in segments based on the weather and best seasons to explore that area. We think we will be looping for 2-3 years. This year we will leave Florida in April and cruise as far as Chesapeake Bay. Ultimately, we will put Escapade away for the winter, under covered storage in Chesapeake VA.

So why not just do the loop in one year you may be wondering. We certainly could but want to have more time to really explore. If one does the loop in one year, you have to cruise thru certain areas with the season and you do this over the course of a year to stay ahead of the seasons, so you are constantly on the move. As an example, unless you want to be the Edmond Fitzgerald, you need to be off the Great Lakes by late fall. Cold, wet and windy with potentially life threatening storms make Lake Superior nowhere to be past fall.

This will be our cruise route for 2023.

SOOO, about Escapade… she is a 1998 Carver Voyager 530. Measuring 53 feet long, 16 feet wide and just over 19 ft tall, she’s a big girl. Our biggest boat and quite possibility our last boat. She has three staterooms, two full bathrooms and a spacious salon and galley, she is a pilothouse/flybridge model, meaning there is a fully equipped driving area inside the boat which also has a big semi-circular dining table. There is also an enclosed flybridge with a huge lounging/dining area and another driving station. I love the views from the flybridge and we spend a lot of time up there. It is the place of choice for happy hour.

I will post a video walk thru when we are done tearing things apart (and putting them back together!).

The other cool thing about Escapade is that she has a crane to lift our 11 ft Boston Whaler up and onto the stern flybridge of the boat. The whaler gives us the option of exploring nooks and cranny’s on the water where Escapade can’t go. It is also a way for us to get Bentley to shore if we are anchored out somewhere. We bought the whaler sight unseen from a couple in Sarasota Florida last summer. This size, year and model of whaler is the perfect fit weight wise for Escapade. When I found it online, we jumped on it. Basically, we did a video chat and inspection with the owners, who were great. They even towed it to their storage facility for us, where it sat thru Hurricane IAN – GULP!!! It all worked out and when we got back to Florida in October, we drove over to Sarasota and picked it up. Other than two flat tires on the trailer and the boat being dirty, it was in great shape. Thankfully Hurricane Ian dodged both boats which were on land in differnt parts of Florida. It’s a bit nerve wracking the first few times, lifting the whaler up and on to the boat but hopefully it will get more routine as we get used to doing it. Wally did maintenance the lift, replace the steel lift cable with synthetic and purchase all new rigging before our first attempt.

The whaler’s name is Hijinx and we are looking forward to some fun in it! Hijinx also got a through cleaning, new electronics and a bilge pump. Wally serviced the 25 hp motor and it runs like a top.

Okay, maybe she’s bigger than we needed but we plan to be living on this boat at least 6 months out of the year and will have friends and family join us as we cruise the great loop. She was also a bit older than we originally wanted but the trade off financially for new/smaller vs older/bigger will hopefully be worth it. I say hopefully, because she has needed a lot of upgrades. I mean thousands of dollars in upgrades…credit card limit increasing upgrades! We did have full marine hull and engine surveys (basically like a pre-purchase house inspection) so we did know what we were getting into. That said, boats are mysterious machines with complicated systems and it never fails that you start by fixing or upgrading one thing and BAM… you are into now elbow deep in two or three other fixes or upgrades that you didn’t budget for or even think needed to be done. BOAT = Break Our Another Thousand!!!

Manuals… lots of manuals! Luckily, the boat came with loads of manuals and documentation, which I sorted, updated and reorganized.

So bam it has been.. it was all the upgrades we wanted to do that have been keeping us busy since November. We have mostly done all this ourselves (well, mostly Captain Handy who I am fortunate to be married to). The galley “needed” all new appliances.. come on now, the old Sub Zero refrigerator was non-operational! The new smart oven replaced the old funky but functioning microwave, the induction cook top replaced the crappy but functioning electric cooktop and the GROSS and non-functioning trash compactor had to go. In its place went a pull out storage area. Woo-hoo, more storage is always appreciated on a boat! We also yarded out all of the stone age TV’s ..three of them, a VCR and a disk music player. The salon (living room in non-boater speak), is getting a new solid maple cabinet that will house the 43 inch smart TV on a remote lift and have more storage. We also replaced the mattresses in the master and guest staterooms (bedrooms) and converted the bunk bed stateroom to storage. The list goes on and on and these upgrades are creature comforts that will make life aboard Escapade even better.

Another huge upgrade was the new flybridge enclosure… the existing one was put on just before we bought the boat by the prior owner. It turned out to be the worst quality material and was the most janky looking piece of garbage. It was conveniently installed just days before we took ownership so there was no negotiating on any of that. The goal of a flybridge enclosure is to provide shade… it did that. It should also make it more comfortable to drive from the flybridge and it should keep the elements out. Big fail on that part, the first time it rained despite having a canvas top that technically did provide shade, it leaked like a sieve and we had to put on rain coats. Did I also mentioning its was a janky piece of junk that started falling apart after 6 month in the sun. UGH, so we had to get a new enclosure and despite the budget shattering price, we love the new enclosure and it doesn’t fail on any of the criteria now. We opted to go with white vinyl “staminode for the top and sides, which is more heat reflective than the black canvas top that was on it.

Happy Hour on the flybridge is a very happy time now!

Janky, Janky, Janky …so damn janky! I was not exaggerating how bad the enclosure was. The rain is supposed to be on the outside …arrgh!
Now that’s what a flybridge enclosure should look like… bye bye janky, hello happiness!!

Notice the rain is on the outside… novel idea huh!!!

Creature comforts are one thing but making sure all the systems are in good shape and operating properly is not only essential to using the boat but are also huge safety factors. With two 450 hp diesel engines, a 13 KW generator, a bow thruster, nine batteries with 3 separate chargers, a windlass system for anchoring and 4 air conditioners there have been plenty of things to maintenance and repair. A boat this size has miles of hoses that get old, brittle and and crack or break. Dozens of hose clamps that can rust out or break – it’s amazing how something as simple as a hose or hose clamp could potentially cause catastrophic damage on a boat. Shortly after we bought the boat we had a certified Cummins Engine Mechanic go through both engines and the generator. There are some thing’s that require writing a check and this one was worth every penny we paid. The four AC units also had a check up and got a clean bill of health from the AC Technician (that was a huge sigh of relief).

We’ve also been replacing old sink faucets, shower heads and checking all the places where water can and SHOULD drain out of the boat. There have been some interesting discoveries of places where water was COMING into the boat – OOPS. Plastic fittings get old and brittle, drains gets plugged – basically shit happens as a boat ages, hmm, kinda like me!

This is a grille on the exterior of the boat where rain water should have been draining out instead it was blocked with gross green plant debris and was backing up into the exterior pilothouse door well. So, we cleaned out all three drains and replace the old cracked grill. Great!!! Until the first time it rained hard… now the water from one of those drains was coming into the boat behind the electrical panel and onto the floor in the salon like a river – not good on so many levels. Turned out a fitting in the wall had broken and when we unplugged the drain it now had a place to go! ARRGH!!!

People always ask me how the pets like the boat… so far they have adjusted quite well to life on Escapade. There are lots of places for Sucia and Bentley to stretch out and nap or watch the world go by outside. The both also love the cockpit and having some sun time out there. Bentley’s other favorite place is the flybridge. There are interior steps from the pilot house to the flybridge so he can easily join us up there. Another great feature that sold us on this boat.

Granted we’ve only left the dock here in Hobe Sound once, LOL. It will be different for them when we start cruising again but it’s not their first rodeo on a boat. I guess I should tell them that we will be on the move again soon.

It’s hasn’t been all work and no play for the crew. We did take a one week trip around Christmas to see my cousins June and Matt in Kentucky. A couple of short trips to the west side of Florida to see friends and a fun weekend on a friends yacht in West Palm Beach. We also had our first guests onboard …yay for girlfriends!!! Locally there is so much to do in this area, farmers markets, art festivals, great water front restaurants, polo and beaches to walk on!

4 months have flown by as we’ve tackled all of these projects and we now have one month until we cast off the lines and cruise off into the sunset! We have a loose schedule and a long list of places we want to see and explore between Florida and the Chesapeake Bay.

2022… Where Do I Begin?

It was an interesting year… 2022. So much has happened since I last posted over a year ago but for some reason, I have had a serious case of writers block and emotional fatigue. I started posts but could never seem to get the words right or finish anything.

There has definitely been some high and lows so perhaps I’ll just try to encapsulate the year somehow.

We spent most of 2022 traveling in our coach, Road House, leaving the Pacific Northwest in the fall of 2021 bound for Florida. Our journey took us through Arizona to see my mother, who sadly ended her Alzheimer’s journey in October 2022. She was always on my mind and our weekly FaceTime calls facilitated by her caregivers kept us connected. I won’t lie to you and say I didn’t struggle with balancing our mobile lifestyle with with the desire to physically be closer to her. In the end, my fiercely independent mother passed suddenly, but peacefully and on her own terms.


After leaving Arizona, we spent a month on Mustang Island near Port Aransas Texas. What a beautiful area and it was great to be able to walk out our door and be just steps from the beach. Fellow RV friends met us there and we made our way to SW Florida together. After a relaxing but busy winter, we fired up the coach and started on the much awaited East Coast and Maritimes trip. In addition to traveling in 22 US states, we visited the Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia regions in Canada while traveling in the Road House. We also traveled to Spain and Portugal for our 30th anniversary in April 2022. It was a fantastic travel year indeed.


Below are three slideshows with some of my favorite 2022 travel pictures.

So, did I really have writers block or just no time to write?

I think it was the latter, maybe?.. Did I forget to mention we also bought another boat??? Yep, we seem to have completely lost our minds in 2022. Blame it on the pandemic, that’s my story and I am sticking to it.


es·ca·pade
/ˈeskəˌpād/
noun
an act or incident involving excitement, daring, or adventure.

We have long dreamed of cruising the America’s Great Loop and our new boat which we named “Escapade” is going to be our home afloat while we travel the great loop in 2023 and 2024. Seemed like the perfect name for this chapter of our life. It was either Escapade or Reckless Financial Endeavor – LOL!!!

Currently Escapade is in SE Florida, on a friends dock in Hobe Sound. Luckily she road out hurricane IAN without a blemish, safely on land at a hurricane facility which we took her to after we purchased her in spring 2022. IAN was absolutely devastating to so many people in the Florida… it was gut wrenching to watch it all unfold on the news and see how the aftermath destroyed so many peoples homes, business, lives and dreams.

Once we arrived back in SW Florida, we had the opportunity to volunteer for World Central Kitchen. It was just three weeks post hurricane and it was shocking to see the devastation. We spent a day on Pine Island, driving through devastated communities, delivering warm meals to people who were just trying to survive the day. If you’re not familiar with the amazing work WCK does… check out the link above. I’ve been a long time supporter of WCK and love the organization even more after volunteering.


We also had the joy of actually experiencing Hurricane Nicole shortly after arriving in Hobe Sound. It was very nerve wracking, especially after seeing the trail of destruction left by Ian. Luckily Nicole dodged us and was only a fierce tropical storm in our area and again we came out unscathed. So grateful.


We brought Escapade over to East Florida through Lake Okeechobee the end of October and have been consumed with doing much needed upgrades. Also, getting routine maintenance done on Road House, getting her ready for long term storage while getting used to living on a boat again. We will be staying in Hobe Sound Florida until April and I admit, it feels good not to be on the move for a while. That said, we are working our butts off getting Escapade ready to start the Great Loop, perhaps cruising as far as the Chesapeake Bay this year. More on that in the next post.

So there you go…2022…definitely interesting, a bit devastating and somewhat exhausting. I do feel the urge stirring to write again and hope you will stayed tuned for more adventures in 2023.

ONE DOOR CLOSES AND ANOTHER OPENS…

It’s a wrap on another summer on the boat and with the borders closed we couldn’t venture out of the San Juan Islands again this summer. That said we had a most excellent summer with loads of friends visiting. The parade of visitors started in June and didn’t end until September.

We did a lot of day cruises this summer and it was fun to show off the beautiful San Juans. Vendovi Island with its peaceful nature preserve was a hit with everyone we took there. The Beach House also hosted several friends for longer multi-day cruises. It was a blast having friends onboard and spending time together in some of our favorite gunk holes in the San Juans.

It was also fun to show off our charming small town Anacortes. Even as a land based destination, there is a ton to do in the area. Whale watching, hiking, biking, pickleball… we also took several trips up Chuckanut Drive, toured and lunched in Bellingham. I hope I sent everyone exhausted or at least tired of us!!

One highlight was taking a flight around the San Juan Islands with our friends John and Kristen. They flew their Piper Warrior – Valentina to Anacortes from Newport, Oregon to meet up with a gang of us from our winter playground in Palm Springs. John is a great pilot and we have flown with him and Kristen several times. Wally especially loves it as he has a tiny bit of experience flying so it is alot of fun when John lets him take over the controls.

We also had our first boat tow ever… our early season shake down cruise to Stuart Island turned into a break down cruise – Ugh, definitely not a highlight!!! We have two engines on the Beach House and could have motored back on one engine but the broken shaft was a huge liability and had it become disengaged from the boat, bad things could have happened. I gotta say being towed is uber boring as you can’t go very fast and a bit embarrassing but the Tow US folks from Friday Harbor did a great job getting us safely back to Anacortes. There were a few tense moments with our insurance company as they were not excited about a 35 mile water tow. Of course we broke down at the furthest most outer island. Luckily, it all worked out and they realized after some explaining that there was no where closer to tow us that could accommodate our size boat for repairs. We ended up moving back onto the Road House for two weeks while the boat was out of the water for repairs. Alls well that ends well and a few boat units were spent to get us back in the water!

The other big excitement that happened this summer was the fire in an abandon building next to our marina. This mysterious fire broke out at 1 am and engulfed the old, decrepit, rat infested building quickly. Bentley was our smoke alarm, he woke Wally up when he smelled the smoke and was insistent that Wally get up, even after being told to go back to bed. Some how I slept through the whole damn thing, but woke up to the over powering smell of smoke and charred wood. After jumping out of bed and looking around, Wally sleepily told me the building burned down. HUH…by the time I got up, the building was a smoldering pile. The fire department was there for over 10 hours making sure there were no hot spots remaining. Despite our close proximity, our marina wasn’t damaged. Had there been wind, our old wood structures would have been at great risk. Guess we can thank the arsonist for at least choosing a calm, windless night.

We also did a whole LOT of crabbing not far from our marina … our 13 ft Boston Whaler is a perfect crabbing machine. I think we tagged more than 160 crabs… NO, we didn’t eat all of them…YES, we shared them with friends and YES, I have frozen crab in the freezer. Many a crab feed ensued this summer… and there will be crab cakes this winter!!!

20 plus years of boating in the San Juans and beyond… we have enjoyed every minute of it too. Retirement has been interesting and nothing like we initially envisioned. Our ideas of what we want to do during these healthy years before we need walkers is becoming a keen reality. Nothing like turning 60 to make one introspective… But seriously, its a big world and with that in mind we have come to the reality that now is the time to close a few doors and open a few others…

Our travels in Road House the next 18 months mean a long hiatus from the Beach House. The Great Loop has long been a dream of ours as well. This year long, 6000 mile adventure called the The Great Loop is a system of waterways that encompasses the eastern portion of the United States and part of Canada. It is made up of both natural and man-made waterways, including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Rideau Canal, and the Mississippi and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. I have been a member of the America’s Great Loop Cruiser Association for years and we have been gleaning information from the website and forums. The big winter rendezvous is being held in Fort Meyer where we will be wintering so we re enrolled in the 3 day event and educational seminars. SO EXCITED…

We considered shipping the Beach House to the east coast to do the loop but she really is a PNW boat.

Then, there’s the possibility that a house might be built eventually in Anacortes on the lot we bought last summer. Right now, it’s just a bare 1/3 acre lot with an amazing view of the San Juans.

So, the Beach House is under contract . Yep, we took all our personal items off the boat before we left Anacortes, put it all in storage and signed a purchase/sales agreement with a great couple we know from our marina.

It was an emotionally difficult decision as we love the Beach House and have had 6 great years cruising on her. We have kept a boat at Anchor Cove Marina for almost 20 years. It’s been our “Cheers”, it’s been our go to place to relax, it’s been the gateway to fabulous adventures and most of all its been the place we have made wonderful friendships. Closing up the Beach House and taking that last walk up the dock was sad. Sad as it was, change has been really, really good for us and as hard as this was we are both excited to open the door in the next chapter – no walkers for us yet!!!

The Grand Tetons… Western States Tour Part 3

Teton National Park is home to some of the most stunning alpine scenery in the United States plus its teeming with wildlife and offers hiking galore. This trifecta of goodness made it a standout on the Western States Tour for the crew on the Road House. That and how it gots it’s name makes me giggling like a third grader.

While the Shoshone people who are believed to have lived in and around the range for as long as 10,000 years called the range “Teewinot,” which translates to “many pinnacles”, it’s also believed by some that the voyagers native to France who stumbled upon this eye popping scenery saw something else when they discovered the range. “Les trois tétons” became the name for the mountains, and, it stuck. Some people argue that the Grand Tetons were named for the Teton Sioux Native Americans who lived in the area, and that’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for how they got their name, however, that’s not what makes me giggle.

What I discovered is that “les trois tétons” translates from French to “the three teats” which led me to this story for how the Tetons got their name and got me giggling. The story goes like this: A group of French explorers came across the mountain range one day while trudging across the frozen tundra of western Wyoming. Naturally, they were experiencing quite the opposite of what life in France would have been like for them at the time and found themselves suffering a great deal in their efforts to explore the new world for previously untapped resources, possibilities, and opportunities. As they lurched across the wilderness day after day, covered in heavy furs and carrying heavy sacks full of provisions, with no place to lay their heads at night except the cold hard ground and no shelter except for their tents, they no doubt were thinking about the various comforts that they used to enjoy back home.

Comforts such as warm homes, filling and enjoyable meals, and the company of a woman had eluded them for a long time, and no doubt they were thinking quite a lot about those comforts and how much they missed them. So, when the mountain peaks that are now called the Tetons came into view, it’s only natural that their first thought was breasts. Thus the Tetons were christened by grizzled, worn out explorers from France whose first thought upon seeing the majesty of that beautiful mountain range was “Boobs!” The Grand Teton is the tallest of the three peaks and its name is literally translated from French to “the big tit.” Given this translation, one would conclude that the Grand Teton is the D cup of the formation, while the Middle Teton and the South Teton are the C cups – LOL!!! The French explorers who found the Teton mountain range have done a huge favor to all of us who enjoy third grade humor – Thanks Guys!!!

So for almost almost a week, we enjoyed the majestic boobs of Wyoming, saw loads of wildlife, hiked and of course had some great meals in Jackson. I scored a great camp site at the Gros Ventre Campground which is perfectly situated 12 miles from the town of Jackson and 11 miles from the south entrance to the park and the visitors center. Our site was spacious, had electricity and water and MOOSE. Well, not our own personal moose but every morning we had moose wandering through and behind our coach. Moose were not advertised as an amenity but they seem to be regulars at the campground. The sites at the Gros Ventre are huge, have a fire pit, picnic table and a ton of wood that the park staff thoughtfully piled up around the sites. We did our part to help clear the area with our ginormous fires at night. There was not a sewer hookup but there was a dump station right at the entrance/exit that we used before hitting the road again.

By the way, Gros Ventre translates from french to “big belly” – seriously! Yep, I am giggling as I get an image of what grizzled french explorers find attractive.

I love how easy and compact this NP is … it’s just 39 miles from the Moose Junction entrance to the top of the park. Hwy 191 actually runs through The Grand Teton National Park and is the connector to the south entrance of Yellowstone NP. Hypothetically, one can drive through the park on 191 and not pay an entrance fee. So if your short on time or just a cheapskate, that’s an option. Not one I’d recommend as there is so much more to see and do in the park along the scenic Teton Park Road.

We spent our first half day in the park getting the lay of the land by driving the loop. We packed a picnic lunch almost everyday as the lodges weren’t open yet making the food options inside the park limited. We did find an amazing wine shop inside the park on Teton Park Road. Dornan’s had a incredible selection of wines from all over the world.

Luckily for us Jackson Lake Lodge opened the day before we left so we were able to see the inside of this beautiful lodge and have lunch in the dining room. Breathtaking” does not begin to describe the view at Jackson Lake Lodge. The 60-foot floor to ceiling windows frame pristine Jackson Lake and the majestic Teton Range. For some, this view alone is the main reason to visit. I literally felt like I was looking out onto a vast savannah much like the ones I experienced in Botswana Africa. My pictures are not doing it justice.

If you are visiting the park but not traveling in an not RV, I would totally suggest you make the Jackson Lake Lodge your base camp in the park.  It is actually quite large, with 385 rooms some of which are stunning suites, main lodge hotel rooms, and quaint cottages. The lodge also includes a variety of dining options, outdoor excursions, meeting space, retail shops, a swimming pool, and an exhibit featuring Native American artifacts and Western art. A complimentary guest shuttle is also available to Colter Bay, Jenny Lake, and the town of Jackson. Dang, I just sold myself, definitely have to come back again and stay in the Lodge!

So about all that wildlife…The highlight of our time in Grand Teton NP was seeing so many animals. Specifically, bear mama 399 and her four cubs. 399 is a legend in the park and is probably the most photographed bear ever! Our wonderful friends the Ellers, who we visited while we were staying in Sun Valley Idaho gave us so many tips about what to see and do as they lived near the Tetons for years. I would have likely not known about Bear 399 if they hadn’t told me a bit of her story. Generally passive in nature, 399 has raised her broods by roadsides in view of groups of curious humans, including some who have exercised poor judgment by moving closer to take photographs of her and her cubs. The theory is that she does this to protect her offspring from aggressive male grizzlies who have been know to kill clubs to bring the female back in estrus. 399 is so beloved and has a huge international fan club including the renown Biologist and chimp expert Jane Goodall AND 399 has her own Wikipedia page (click on the 399 link above to read all about her)! This 25 year old gal emerged out of hibernation this year with FOUR cubs and we we luckily enough to see her, fairly up close as well. Yep, that made me uneasy and we eventually retreated back to our car when she and the kiddos tried to cross the road. They caused quite a bear jam the day we saw her and the park rangers somehow magically appear out of nowhere to stop traffic and keep all the camera carrying idiots who insist on getting too close from getting mauled. We have never experienced a bear jam and I have to say that people can be such asshats. Early on when we saw her and the kiddos, there weren’t many people there yet but holy shite within 10 minutes literally hundreds of cars appeared and people swarmed the road. We were so disgusted by how stupid some people were and how they swarmed so close to the bears. When the cubs got frantic trying to follow Mom across the road we went back to our car and tried to leave. Those same idiots had parked in the middle of the road to get closer and blocked everyone else from leaving. ARGHHH, the poor rangers were literally yelling at people to stand back and give the bears some room … uh, I may have yelled at a stupid, fat guy chasing behind the bears with his giant camera in hand. I though 399 showed considerable restraint, that dude would have fed the whole family! Spoiler alert, the photo of her standing with all four cubs around her is not mine… I borrowed it from an article written about 399 by the Guardian which BTW, is worth reading!

While seeing 399 and her cubs was definitely one of the the wildlife viewing highlights, we also saw so many other critters…moose, elk, deer, bison, coyotes, fox, badger, marmot, mountain goats, eagles, ospreys, ducks, geese and loads of other birds. Another great tip from our friends was to check out the road behind the elk refuge for mountain goats. Bam, saw them up close as well as a coyote being followed by a badger. Now that was odd!

The elks had all migrated from their winter home at the refuge but we did see them at Elk Flats – go figure! We also met a really neat couple while we were hanging out photographing the goats, Phil and Hope and hope to meet up with them again when we are in Mesa AZ in October.

The park is also home to big herds of bison and again we got to see them up close just off Hwy 191 near the Triangle X Ranch. They were on both sides of the road and at one point a big group of them ran from one area to another, crossing the road right in front of where we had pulled over. Like many of the animals we saw, the bison were shedding their heavy winter coast and looked a bit scrappy. We sat for quite a while just observing them, rolling in the dust and grazing. There were also so many birds around the herd…some of the birds were on the bisons backs catching a free lunch of insects that they attract. The bison created their own small ”bison jam“ but people seemed more respectful and less crazy than at the ”bear jam”. I didn’t even have to yell at anyone nor did we get to see anyone get gored…that was a bit disappointing.

For some reason, we are both taken with moose. They are such unusually looking creatures and seem like gentle giants. Did you know that they can keep their head completely underwater, often for more than a minute at a time? So why do they need to stick their heads underwater?? Well, apparently the aquatic veggies give them minerals they need, which they store in the summer for the hard winter ahead. Of course we were thrilled to see a moose right off the Gros Ventre Road the first day we were driving to our campground. Double thrilled to see moose just behind our coach the next morning but the funniest moose sighting we call “moose in a hot tub”! We spotted this dude, soaking in the Kelly Warms Spring Creek just off the Gros Ventre Road past Kelly. We were headed out to check out the Upper and Lower Slide Lakes area and there he was. I loved how happy he looked, poor dude looks so scrappy but his smile looked so happy, that warm water must have felt great. Another unplanned sighting!

Moose are solitary creatures so the ones we did see were often alone with the exception of the two young ones we saw near our campground everyday. I felt so lucky to have seen so many of them. We watched a female in a creek off the Snake River by Jackson Lake Dam. She was munching on willow and seemed to care very little about the people staring at her. It was so cool to see her sticking her head under water and pulling up big mouthfuls of creek grass.

Everyday was an opportunity for a new adventure and to see more critters. As much as we enjoy hiking, we spent more time exploring and less time on the trails in the Tetons. Honestly, it probably why we did see so much wildlife. There is also a picture in the next slide show of a old, rare, black boxer too.

Our days were really full and there was at least one planned and sometimes an unplanned adventure everyday…We really enjoyed hiking the Jenny Lake trail from the boat ramp area to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. This is one of the most popular trails in the park as you get spectacular views of Jenny Lake and Jackson Hole from Inspiration Point, as well as a 100ft cascading waterfall. The hike was about 3.3 miles total, mostly flat. Once on the west side of the lake, the trail gently sloped up 200ft in elevation towards Hidden Falls which was all snow packed. This gorgeous 100ft cascade fed by snowmelt was in its glory. We then went further up the trail another 0.5 mile to Inspiration Point. What a view and luckily the trail up which is steep, narrow and has a drop off one side was clear of snow and ice. I get a bit wiggy on these kinds of trails, maybe the fear of dying, so I hugged the rock wall and probably swore a little bit which belive it or not is very calming! Another great reason to go early in the season is there weren’t too many people and the snow melt makes for some spectacular waterfalls and raging rivers. This is a great picnic lunch spot. We also saw Mr. Marmot sunning himself on a rock on this hike. He looks quite please to be basking in the warm sun! The trail is actually a 7 mile loop around the lake but we opted to take the scenic boat ride back across the lake after the hike and lunch which was the perfect way to end that adventure.

Another fun adventure we had with Bentie was the drive to Lower Slide Lake. This area is outside of the park in the Bridger Teton National Forest. Its was a gorgeous drive, much of which was on a well graded gravel road and the bonus was seeing the moose in the hot tub. From the Gros Ventre Campground, its about 10 miles one way to Lower Slide Lake which is as far as we went. This area has some fascinating geological history as the Upper and Lower Slide Lakes were created when the massive the Gros Ventre landslide occured in 1925 and dammed the Gros Ventre River River. This massive slide on Sheep Mountain, hurling down the slope at 50 mph, a mile-wide carried, 50,000,000 cubic yards of debris down the mountain and then another 300 feet up the opposite slope. From the view point and info center high above Lower Slide Lake, you can still see when the slide ravaged the mountain and all the debris it left behind. There is also a rustic campground at Lower Slide Lake if you are up for the long drive in on a gravel forest service road!

The lake was once much larger, however part of the rock dam failed less than two years later, on May 18, 1927, causing deadly flooding downstream. The lake waters have natural and stocked fish including lake and Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout, and mountain whitefish.

Since we’ve been to Jackson and Jackson Hole Ski Mountain before we choose to spend most of our time on this trip in the park exploring. That said, we did have a great lunch and a follow up dinner a few days later at Hatch Taqueria and Tequila’s in Jackson. The food and Hatcharita’s were sooo good… I was particularly drawn back for the Spicy Hatch made with Tanteo Jalapeño Tequila and may have had several. We also found a pickle ball court in Jackson – WHAT!!!

Being early in the season meant less tourist and no lines to get into the park. I am not sure the Grand Teton National Park is as popular was its sister park Yellowstone but I suspect it gets a fair amount of over flow from Yellowstone during the crazy summer months.

Speaking of tourists, the western vibe town of Jackson and the area around Jackson Hole can be crowded and crazy with people in the summer. Apparently, this is not a new phenomenon. Tourists started coming to Jackson Hole not long after the first cattle ranches were settled. Some of the ranchers supplemented their income by catering to “dudes,” eastern tenderfoots yearning to experience a little slice of the Old West in the shadow of the stunning Tetons. The tourists began to raise the first concerns about preserving the natural beauty of the region. The vast acres of Yellowstone Park, America’s first national park founded in 1872, were just north of Jackson Hole. Surely, they asked, the spectacular Grand Tetons deserved similar protection.

In 1916, Horace M. Albright, the director of the National Park Service, was the first to seriously suggest that the region be incorporated into Yellowstone. The ranchers and businesses catering to tourists, however, strongly resisted the suggestion that they be pushed off their lands to make a “museum” of the Old West for eastern tourists.

Finally, after more than a decade of political maneuvering, Grand Teton National Park was created in 1929. As a concession to the ranchers and tourist operators, the park only encompassed the mountains and a narrow strip at their base. Jackson Hole itself was excluded from the park and designated merely as a scenic preserve. Albright, though, had persuaded the wealthy John D. Rockefeller to begin buying up land in the Jackson Hole area for possible future incorporation into the park. This semisecret, private means of enlarging the park inspired further resentment among the residents, and some complained that it was a typical example of how “eastern money interests” were dictating the future of the West.

By the late 1940s, however, local opposition to the inclusion of the Rockefeller lands in the park had diminished, in part because of the growing economic importance of tourism. In 1949, Rockefeller donated his land holdings in Jackson Hole to the federal government that then incorporated them into the national park. Today, Grand Teton National Park encompasses 309,993 acres. Working ranches still exist in Jackson Hole, but the local economy is increasingly dependent on services provided to tourists and the wealthy owners of vacation homes.

A big thanks to the vision of Albright and help of Rockefeller, the hours they spend scheming to preserve and create The Grand Teton National Park for us to all enjoy now. There is a short little walking path near the grand Jackson Lake Lodge that leads to Lunch Tree Hill that is only a great place to have a picnic and enjoy the amazing views but very historically significant in Albright’s efforts to see this area preserved.

Honestly, we could have stayed a couple of weeks and not run out of things to see and do. Spring was arriving during our stay but the mountains still had loads of snow on them. This made the scenery absolutely stunning but this also made many of the back country hiking trails inaccessible. Coming in the spring also gave us an opportunity to see loads of wildlife and some youngins. I loved being in the Tetons in the Spring and would definitely come back again in the fall to see a different perspective and hike some of the back country trails. This has turned into a very long post but I have are a few more pictures of places we visited to share below. Next stop on the Western States tour is Cody Wyoming so stay tuned for part four!!!

Spring in Sun Valley Idaho – Western States Tour Part 2

We have so many fond memories of ski trips we took to Sun Valley Idaho and all the silly debauchery that ensued while off the slopes… too many margaritas in the outdoor hot pool at the Sun Valley Inn, getting locked out of of our second floor condo while sitting on the deck, a freezing bus ride into town for dinner on New Years Eve, a romantic horse drawn sleigh ride… the list goes on and on. 

It only seemed fitting that we spend some time back in the area on our recent Western States T. our. When we arrived in early May, the ski mountain was closed for the season, all the snow was gone at the lower elevations leaving a lush green valley with a sprinkling of wildflowers. Rivers were flush with water and the Sawtooth Mountains looked majestic with their snow capped peaks.

We spent a week at the Meadows RV Park… which is the one and only RV park with full hook ups in the area. This is a basic FHU park with no amenities. The sites are tight and you are close to Hwy 75. That said, the area is beautiful, you can walk to the Wood Run paved walking/biking/running trail and the proximity to Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley is perfect.

The manager Perry was great and the staff were very friendly. They were working overtime to get the sites rehabbed from a long winter of snow. Since it was early spring, which is shoulder season, we had the whole end of the park to ourselves. Our big rig fit in the tight spot and we were happy there was no one nearby! We probably would have been less happy if they had been busier since sites share a small patch of grass and picnic table with another rig, but the end sites like 24 and 25 don’t share the common grass area. We did not use shower/bathrooms or laundry so no comments on those amenities. Overall, this park is pleasant and has some mountain views. We did hear some road noise during the day but it was very quiet at night. Bonus points for the Elk that were frequently in the mountains across the highway!

Spring is a great time to visit the Sun Valley area. It is shoulder season so some things might not be open and there is so little tourism that many merchants are able to take a break before the summer crowds roll in. This area is home to fish-rich rivers and lakes which draws avid fly fisher peeps from all over the world. Hiking and biking during the warm months are also very popular past times. Naturalists are drawn to volcanic fields, rolling hills and unusual geologic formations that cement Idaho’s reputation as a truly spectacular vacation destination.

Sun Valley itself is an affluent mountain ski town with expensive homes, lear jets parked at the airport and celebrities sightings aren’t unusual.  The sleepy, small towns just down the valley aren’t so sleepy anymore. Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue are now so expensive that most folks who actually work in Sun Valley are priced out of the area. I met a neat gal at the RV park who works at the post office in Sun Valley. She was just starting a full time RV life as her rental home in Hailey had been sold and even with her good income, she could not afford to buy or rent another house in the area for her and her fur-babies.

We found plenty to keep us busy during our visit including catching up with some friends in nearby Picabo. It was great fun to drive around the area and chuckle about all of our fun filled ski trips with friends and see the area in its spring glory.

Hiking trails in and around Sun Valley are limitless but can be hell on us sea level dwellers. We had been hiking for a week by then at altitude in Utah but one of the hikes in SV we did was killer. I didn’t pay much attention to the elevation gain over distance when I was looking at All Trails. The views and distance were perfect in the end but I thought my heart was going to burst on a couple of occasions. Holy Crapola, who planned that hike???

Great dining options abound in and around Sun Valley too. Since we happened to be in town during the shoulder season the restaurant scene was a bit sleepy. Many restauranteurs were taking a much deserved sabbatical in May. The neighboring town of Hailey, which used to be the ugly step sister of Sun Valley surprisingly had some of the best restaurants that we visited during our stay. CK’s Real Food was amazing, despite the odd name, as was Zou 75 where we feasted on some beautiful Asian-fusion sushi. 

So according to my internet search, “real food” is food that is as close to its natural state as possible. It is primarily: unprocessed, free of chemical additives, rich in nutrients. Okay, that makes sense, bonus points for CK’s as it was real delicious food and “The Thing 1” cocktail was killer.

We also dined at a long time favorite in Sun Valley, The Ketchum Grill. It was a bit of a weird experience as we had reservations for 7:00 pm but weren’t seated until almost 8 pm. Yes, it was busy and yes there weren’t many other restaurants open and yes, those that were open the were also completely booked as well but what was uber annoying was that we sat and watched some “locals” come in with no reservation or at the wrong time and they were seated almost immediately. Hmm, we felt a bit invisible and slightly pissed to be treated like tourist pond scum but the hostess did bring us a glass of complementary wine while we waited… and waited. Dinner was good, not great and this was certainly not the best experience we had in town but oh well, we got fed!

Besides eating our way around the valley and hiking, there is so much to see and do just outside the Sun Valley area. Just 66 miles from Sun Valley, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a great day trip. The “weird and scenic” landscape of lava and sagebrush really does just appear out of nowhere. Most visitors explore the trails, caves, and scenic overlooks along the park’s 7-mile loop road, but more opportunities abound in the park’s vast wilderness which we didn’t explore due to the “weird” weather. The 7 mile driving loop kept us busy and the added bonus of light snow really was a beautiful addition to this normally stark landscape. Our visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve was surreal… it snowed on us and was really damn cold. Phooey, we didn’t do much hiking and ate our picnic in the car but still totally worth the drive. 

Another great day trip is the 60 mile scenic drive to Stanley and Red Fish Lake which is in the Sawtooth Wilderness. The drive north of Sun Valley on HWY 75 was spectacular and we saw some great wildlife along the way as well as beautiful vistas.

Thanks to it being shoulder season, there was hardly a soul at Red Fish Lake. It was a picture perfect spring day and we had a ball hiking, exploring around the lake and bird watching. The Lodge was not open yet but some of areas of the campground were so we checked that out as well. I would highly recommend staying in this area, specifically the campground or cabins as it is just so beautiful. 

Beautiful Red Fish Lodge was built in 1929 by Idaho hero Robert Limbert and other than a couple of thoughtful renovations, the Lodge remains much the same as it was back in 1929. The staff was gearing up to open for the season, so we got to take a quick peek inside. Rustic and charming for sure…the main Lodge is all log construction and inside there is Limbert’s restaurant and a rustic lounge. The second level has 8 rooms for guests. Out on the property, there are 21 historic and modern cabins and 11 motel/suite style units. The General Store is next to the lodge and offers souvenirs, gifts and basic grocery and camping and fishing supplies. The Redfish Marina which sits directly in front of the Lodge provides boat rentals and a hiking shuttle into the  beautiful Sawtooth Wilderness Area.

Winters can be harsh in this part of Idaho… Stanley receives 5+ feet of snow and it can get to 30 below. Nope, too cold for this girl, sorry Robert! Watch the weather reports: Stanley is often mentioned as the coldest spot in the nation. The infrastructure at the resort is not able to withstand the harsh winters in Stanley so the lodge is only open seasonally. The windows and doors were just being un-boarded (is that a REAL word??). I sure wonder how Robert Limbert was able to live here in the winter or if he did??? These days in the winter there is a caretaker to check in on the lodge and some bears to patrol the grounds! Luckily for us, it was a gorgeous spring day, picture perfect for photography and bird watching. The bears must have been on sabbatical too as they were no where to be seen.

Speaking of bird watching, we spent the better part of another day at the the Silver Creek Preserve in Bellevue. The Silver Creek runs through the preserve and the creek is the holy grail of fly fishing. Renown for perfectly timed hatches and world class dry fly fishing, anglers from around the globe come here to test their skill. We were too early in the season to fish the creek but were more than happy to explore the preserve on foot.  I am impressed with the conservation vision of the community, the wonder of Silver Creek’s story comes from the people who came together to make the preserve a reality. It started in 1976 when the local community urged The Nature Conservancy to purchase 479-acres then called the Sun Valley Ranch and create its flagship preserve, Silver Creek. This launched a landowner conservation effort along the stream to protect an additional 12,000-acres through conservation easements, making this one of the most successful stream conservation efforts ever undertaken for public benefit and a model for community-based conservation.

Hey, where did you snag that trout?? Dogs aren’t allowed at the preserve!

Painters, photographers, bird watchers and hikers will find the Silver Creek Preserve to be a place that will leave you in awe of its natural beauty.  During our visit, the sky was a canvas of dark brooding colors that later gave way to bright blue skies with fluffy meandering clouds. The soft light and beauty of “The Creek” in the mornings makes this a photographers heaven. The preserved has been expanded to  881-acres now and a new visitors center is being built. The restored high-desert spring creek is home to a thriving ecosystem of abundance of wildlife including eagles, coyotes, bobcats, and moose. As many as 150 species of birds have been identified along the nature trail and its unique aquatic ecosystem features one of the highest densities of stream insects in North America.

Besides a plethora of birds, we were lucky to spot a female moose and her calf during our hike along the north side of the preserve. The mama high tailed it as soon as she saw us but her curious calf stopped to look as us strange two legged humans. 

All that exploring left us hungry, so we stopped at Lucy’s Breakfast Place in Bellevue for a delicious breakfast/lunch. Great recommendation by our friends Chris and Richard in Picabo. Yep, we continue to eat our way through the western states… notice I am in spandex ALOT!!!

Our week in the Sun Valley area was awesome and the next stop on the Western States Tour was Teton National Park. I am trying to get caught up, so stay tuned …

A Great Week in Torrey Utah

Utah is one of my favorite states from the scenic point of view. Five amazing National Parks, lush green valleys, vast plains and beautiful mountains. We finally made it to Capitol Reef National Park for more than a day and this was our last Utah NP to explore. CRNP did not fail to deliver and for hikers this national park provides some outstanding and strenuous hikes with amazing vistas. 

Chimney Rock in Capitol Reef National Park

We love traveling during the shoulder seasons despite the sometimes unpredictable weather. The last time we planned to visit CRNP in spring 2017 it snowed… heavily, so a quick change of plans were in order and we headed to sunny Lake Powell instead.  Despite Wallys emergency dental surgery in Arizona, this year the stars aligned and we made it there with no detours. 

Our hiking buddies Laurie and Tom Miller joined us for the week. They recently bought a Winnebago View RV so they too have now joined the ranks of us land-yacht owners! We have boating history as we met these two awesome humans at our marina in Anacortes many moons ago. We share a love of travel and exploring the world so many great adventures have ensued since!

The Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey Utah was our base camp for CRNP exploration. The red rock views from our site were amazing and the RV park itself was great. They have all the amenities you would expect plus a very quaint restaurant that served some mean BBQ and steaks. I recommend this RV Park over the other one in Torrey as many of the sites there back right up onto the road at a major intersection.. okay, its major for Torrey! The sites were all gravel and are decent sized plus they are set back off the road further so road noise in minimal.

Spoiler alert… there are no lakes in Torrey or near the RV park…With a name like thousand lakes, ones gotta assume right?  Well, after some pondering and and lots of joking about the lack of lakes, I figured it out. The nearby mountain range to the north of Torrey is the Thousand Lake Mountains… yep, there are lakes in them there mountains!

Torrey itself is a small town in a remote part of Utah but with the CRNP entrance just 5 miles away, the town definitely caters to visitors. All the essential services plus a few nice restaurants and eateries. We spent the week not only exploring the park but some eatery exploration as well. The Wild Rabbit Café is a great lunch or breakfast stop. With a great menu and coffee roasted on site, it became a quick habit to stop in the afternoon for a cold brew coffee after hiking in the park. We had a wonderful anniversary dinner at Hunt and Gather. Game and local mountain trout are featured on the menu so we definitely partook. They also had a very nice vintage of champagne on the wine list so of course that was ordered too! 

Another fun spot to eat is Paizlee’s Grass Fed Beef. It’s a bit odd, not really a meat market or a true restaurant but you can get both there. They have a very limited menu and two tables inside… its like they want you to come in but not really stay! While we were there having breakfast, our host (a fine looking young man in tight jeans and a cowboy hat) delivered a lot of take out to the curb. I am only guessing its take out, heck for all I know it it a front for nefarious drug activity! LOL… seriously, the small one butt kitchen cranked out a delicious Huervos Ranchero Tacos with coffee for a mere $9.99!

Our biggest dining adventure was out of town, in nearby Bickenell. Curry Pizza, yep you read that right! Come on people, with a name like that you have to try it. We had to convince Tom but once he heard from our waitress at Hunt Gather that it was good and Guy Fieri from the Food Network had been there, well that changed everything! The pizza was good but what I really wished we was that we had time to try was the Indian Food. It smelled incredible and the family who run the place are Indian of course – good combo!

Now, about Capitol Reef NP… Honestly it didn’t fail to deliver on incredible hiking and beautiful vistas. In between all that eating, we hiked or did scenic drives. Driving into the park, you immediately get a sense of how special this area is. The geology is fascinating and Mother Nature worked hard to create this marvelous canvas of color. The Navajo called it the land of the Sleeping Rainbow but some of these amazing, colorful formations are over 270 million years in the making. Click on the link above for a more in-depth geology lesson on CRNP. 

Or favorite hike hands down was Cohab Canyon –  From the Fruita trailhead, we climbed the steep Cohab Canyon trail switchbacks for about 25-30 minutes to where it tops out and drops into Cohab Canyon. The saddle here offers amazing views of Boulder Mountain, Fruita, and other areas west of the park.

Now that you have that grunt behind you, the trail now begins descending the very colorful and featured Cohab Canyon. The Wives, a series of short technical slot canyons come in on the right-hand side. Wandering up some of the side, slot canyons was a fun diversion.

15 or so minutes from the saddle, as Cohab Canyon becomes wide and open, is a trail junction. Left (north) makes a nice side trip to an overlook of Highway 24 and the Fruita area (20 minutes round trip) while right becomes the Frying Pan Trail and eventually reaches Cassidy Arch. We opted to climb some more, because the first grunt wasn’t enough – LOL.  It was worth the extra climb as the views up on the plateau were incredible. This hike is an out and back so from there we did the route in reverse back to the Fruita trailhead.

Other notable hikes were  Chimney Rock – amazing views and fun wandering along the ridge top. The Grand Wash is a great hike which features the pioneer registry on the canyon walls. We also met up with some beautiful Big Horn Sheep there. Hickman Arch is a beautiful hike to a natural stone arch and has pretty valley views as well.

There are also some great scenic drives from Torrey – Hwy 12 is simply spectacular and is a great car drive. It’s a bit hairy for large RV but doable if you have a low pucker factor! We choose to do it as a day drive in Tom’s Jeep and stopped at the Escalante River to check out the 100 Hands Petroglyphs. We may have gotten a bit lost and hiked a few miles the wrong direction but we finally found the trailhead just a few hundred feet from where we parked – LOL. It was worth the grunt up the hill, long past lunch time, in the hot sun. The petroglyphs were quite beautiful but sadly there has been some vandalism. I honestly can’t understand what makes people do this kind of crap… it’s a piece of history we can all enjoy from a distance….ARGHH!

Good news… we found the only open restaurant in Escalante and had a kick ass burger so the day ended well for everyone! Well, except our little pal the snow man!

Our week in Torrey exploring the CFNP just flew by… I can’t recommend this area enough and I am so glad we had such nice weather for exploring. The US is truly an amazing place to explore. Onward we roll, next stop Sun Valley Idaho.

Another Great Winter in Palm Springs

Despite going into Covid lockdown again just weeks after arriving, we had another great winter at the Outdoor Resort Palm Springs. No major lot improvements this year, instead we just enjoyed catching up with friends, relaxing on our outdoor patio and all the amenities of the resort. For most of the season, we stayed pretty tight with our small bubble of friends. With the warm weather and nice outdoor patio’s it wasn’t really hard to social distance and stay well.

Our god daughters parents and family were in the valley for the month of December which was a real treat. We had several fun nights with the whole gang. Christmas Day was a ball.. it was so much fun to spend the day together, cooking a huge meal, replete with Prime Rib Roast and plenty of red wine!!! We were responsible and spent the night in their guest casita.

California has had access to loads of vaccine and we were lucky to get our shots in Feb/March as were most of our friends. Even though we did not meet the age criteria at the time, we were able to get on a waiting list a for un-used vaccine at our local Rite-Aid. What they were doing was filling their no-show appointments with willing victims! It was a huge relief to be able to see people outside our small bubble socially again. Even with both shots onboard, we are still being careful and wearing our masks out in public.

The Outdoor Resort hosted many outdoor events this year… masked required of course. Pickleball, golf and tennis were all open as well. We had a ball with friends at SINGO, real live concerts, All Star and Comedy Night – our Activities Staff did an amazing job pulling all these outside events together.

One of my favorite events was our Pickleball Club End of the Season Pool Party. It was hotter than heck in April so floating in the pool, chatting with friends was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. The more hardy people actually played pickleball, or corn hole or ping pong. The club supplied tubs of cold water, beer, wine and boxes of hot pizza. Casual and fun!!!We also had some pretty epic card nights, birthday parties and a Sunny Cycle outing with our bubble. Of course, there were loads of patio happy hours and dinners alfresco.

I fooled around with sour dough bread making in my spare time and even made some Limoncello with our fresh Meyer Lemons. I haven’t mastered baking in our convection microwave oven and found our Traegar to be way better for baking bread. I do miss having a “real” oven sometimes but I honestly don’t need the calories from breads and desserts anyway! Boo-Hoo!!!

I also fooled around with a tiny garden… red leaf and romaine lettuce, tomatoes and a plethora of herbs. I was actually able to get basil going too. We had a bumper crop of lettuces, the cooler winter weather here is perfect for colder weather plants. The tomato’s of course really went into overdrive just days before we are rolling. No way those were traveling with us … wahhh. Good news for the tomato plants …our friends in Palm Springs adopted them.

We did get out and hike with friends in the area. The valley has endless opportunities for hiking and one of our favorite hikes was in Mecca – yeah, not that Mecca!!! The Ladders hike at Painted Canyon was spectacular… combine climbing ladders, slot canyons, boulder scrambling, ridge hiking and crazy geology for an amazing day exploring.

Another big highlight of the season was having other fellow RV friends come stay at our resort. I also got to met a fellow blogger pal, Laura Greene in person. We have enjoyed each others blogs and have been pen-pals of sorts. Our paths have never quite crossed but this year the stars aligned and we drove to Riverside to have lunch with them at the busiest brewpub in all of California. We were having so much fun chatting we didn’t even take any pictures – blogging failure! Despite the uber loud busy outdoor patio we were sitting on Wally and I had a great time with Laura and Kevin and yes, several pints were consumed.

One upside of living on a small par three golf course is all the birds and wildlife. I really enjoyed having my morning coffee and watching all the critters around the small lake behind us. We have a resident Costa’s hummingbird – Henry the III who keeps watch over the feeder in the lemon tree and sits with us on the patio. This is the third year he has been back to our feeder.. next year we won’t get to see Henry the IV as we are planning to spend the winter in the SE and Florida.

Turtles, Mallards with ducklings, Coots, Pelicans, Egrets, Roadrunners and a host of other birds visit or live around the lake. I also hung a bird feeder behind the coach by the bedroom window – for the cat to watch of course!

In February, we took a five day trip over to Mesa AZ to spend some time with my Mom and some AZ friends. We left the coach in Palm Springs and stayed with friends in at their “Placa in Mesa”. For Valentines Day we all co-opted a great meal. My friend Laurie and I pre-cooked loads of crepes for the main course. That was a blast and we had a great time in the kitchen together. I started the evening off with a cheese and wine pairing with products from Penny Royal Farms in Boonsville California. The farm and winery is in the beautiful Andersen Valley where they make all their cheeses from their sheep and goats.

While we were in Mesa, we took a day trip to Superior and hiked around the Boyce Arboretum. Masks were required at all times inside the property but on a Monday, there was hardly anyone there. This is a great place to bring a picnic lunch, explore the massive gardens and hike the property. Since it was winter, there wasn’t much blooming but it was still beautiful.

I was also able to visit my Mom… this was before the vaccines but with a negative Covid test I was allowed to actually be inside her small community. It was a bittersweet visit and while she has settled into her new memory care community, it is so difficult to see her mental decline. I am lucky that she knows who I am and we did have some silly fun, looking at picture of our pets and laughing about their antics. She is very child-like at times, which is not uncommon with dementia and I have come to accept that this is who she is now. I feel great relief and appreciation that she is safe, living in a lovely community and has companionship. She had isolated herself in her apartment at her other senior community, didn’t go out much and I think she also had forgotten how to manage the remote TV control. Dementia is such a sad journey….

That said, this journey with my Mom has reinforced to me how important it is to live more in the moment and it is all the more reason to get out and enjoy life RIGHT NOW.

Bentley The Lemon Tree Dog

Every dog, like humans have their own quirky personalities. Bentley is the fourth boxer dog who has lived with us and is certainly no exception. Barbara Boxer, Lacy Boxer and Bob Boxer all made us laugh with glee and sometimes run out of the room holding our nose. Yes, they toot!!! Bob was the biggest tooter ever but Bentley can certainly let’em rip too.

The personality of boxers are unique.  If you have ever lived with a boxer you already know this first hand. They are silly, funny, loveable, naughty, loyal, energetic dogs. Not sure how I fell in love with this silly breed of dog. We mostly had cats and horses growing up so its not like I grew up with them.

Just being silly…

Bentley is a Boxer in a Labrador suit… he has always loved to run and play ball. Play, play, play ball…. almost OCD play ball. He also loves to play fetch pine cones… I spent many an hours in my friend Jane’s backyard tossing pine cones for his amusement.

Hey mom…I found all the balls….let’s get off this boat and play…hey….

Boxers can definitely be high energy…. okay, excitable, animated and playful too. They party until they crash or you make them stop (kind of like a toddler).  Boxers make toys out of everyday things (ropes, couches, hoses, each other, you).  They zip around and around and around with inexhaustible energy especially when they are young. We got Barbara and Bentley as puppies so we have experienced the puppy energy too. Bentley came into the Oregon Humane Society where I was the Director of Operations, I know, who surrenders a purebred boxer puppy to a shelter?? I conned Wally into coming to see the black boxer puppy (the color is not typical for this breed). Then I guilted him into agreeing we needed another dog by whining about how this puppy was my last chance for a baby at 50. Can you believe he fell for that??

Baby Bentley with his bestie, Gus who also came from the shelter. Yes, I have a problem but don’t judge me!!!

Boxers jump, bounce, chase, slide, wrestle, wiggle, dance, and entertain.  They pretty much do anything to get the attention of others.  Boxers are very comical and thrive when their people watch, play, and laugh at them.  Bob Boxer came to live with us at 1.5 years old and he was a wild man. Poor buddy had lived in 5 homes, had been kept in a crate and had crate sores when our friends rescued him. He also hadn’t been well socialized with other dogs and didn’t thrive with our friends other unneutered male dog, so off to our house he came! He was a perfect gentleman with our Mini Schnauzer Chauncy and boy did those two party like rock stars!!! He also had a best friend named Sam and those two could play until they couldn’t stand up anymore. Bentley is a multi-sport guy…he can run like the wind, leap in the air to catch a ball, swim like a drunk sailor and party with a good bottle of Heineken or a snowball or a stick or a rope or a football.

Boxers love being with their family and seem to love a good adventure. Bob Boxer loved boating… we introduced him to our first boat right after we bought it when he was around 2.5 years old. He was so excited that he did a HUGE poop on the dock, luckily before we got on the boat. I was almost that excited too!!! We acted mortified and scolded him… he never had an accident again on the dock or on the boat. Big seas no problem … we think Bob Boxer was a merchant marine in another life. Bentley however, doesn’t love the boat as much and tolerates it because his people are on the boat. He does love riding on the bow of our dingy that we tow behind the big boat. Dinghies go to shore and Bentley likes going to shore!

Bentley cruising with his man, hoping to go to shore.

Boxers can also be very good with children. I suspect most of our boxers have been disappointed that there weren’t any little people living at our house. Bob Boxer once saved our friends little boy Jackson (who had a life jacket on) from falling off a dock. Bentley however would have pushed the kid right off… he is scared silly of little people, especially little girls in pink!

Boxers are smart and have great problem solving skills.  Bob Boxer loved to figure out how to get pineapple upside down cakes and bread off the counter. He also once figured out how to open three cans of dog food by puncturing holes in the sides of the can with his teeth and then squished all the food out by crushing the cans down with his jaws. Of course, all this happened on our white carpet, when we weren’t home. Barbara Boxer was also a good problem solver and could handily open the refrigerator and freezer to treat the other dogs to all the goodies inside. She could also open doors and was especially good at fixing those pesky childproof locks on the cabinets in the kitchen. One day I came home from work and found all of our kitchen knifes laying out by the dining room table. Yep, that totally freaked me out and of course all the dogs had gone through the doggie door and were innocently lounging outside on the deck. Thankfully, Bentley isn’t quite as good at problem solving. I honestly can’t think of one time when he did anything really naughty in the house. He once told a friend who is an animal communicator, when I asked her why he never played in my office at work, that he was afraid he would get in trouble… So how smart is that!!!

Nope, don’t want to get in trouble with Mom.

Bentley is our sensitive boxer… but like other boxers he can be a bit stubborn when he takes a notion to something. The first year we were on the road and staying in Arizona we bought him hiking booties. The cactus thorns and briars were hell on his paws when we went hiking. He took to them very quickly but also decided later that year that hiking wasn’t his cup of tea… well unless he was off leash. That isn’t always possible so now he refuses to go for walks and hikes now. What he does love is running and stick hunting in the desert, off leash with his man, with his hiking booties on. Wally found a large undeveloped tract of land near by us in Palm Springs so that is where they go for man time everyday. We call him our desert dog!

Besides the desert, Bentley loves the beach, laying in the sun and lemons. Yep, lemons… it is a recently acquired obsession that he discover when we bought our RV lot with a lemon tree in Palm Springs three years ago. The first time he grabbed a lemon that had fallen off tree and pranced around with it in his mouth I though he just thinks it a ball. UNTIL he started zesting the lemons… YES, zesting. He cracks us up… he plays with the lemons, growls at them, pounces on them, woofs at them and fetches them if I will toss them. Eventually, he will lay down on his bed, under the shade of the lemon tree and start zesting. We love his lemon fresh breath!!!

I am constantly tossing Bentley’s “used” lemons in the trash. If there aren’t any lemons outside, he will stare at the tree and make this noise that sounds like “Uahhh”. So of course I get him a lemon. Guess he has me trained, so Maybe he is a good problem solver!!

Sometimes lemons even make their way into the coach. Not necessarily to play with or to zest but just to have around or maybe to sleep with.

Bentley is definitely unique and quirky. Last night he entertained us as we sat sipping wine on the patio by chasing bugs, watching birds and zesting an orange. WHAT…yes, an orange. There is never a dull moment when you live with a boxer dog!!!

The New and Improved Road House

Despite having all the time in the world to write during this weird pandemic I seem to be writing less. Call it writers block or perhaps feeling like I’ve got nothing interesting to write about, either or both maybe? While I was puzzling about what to write about the other day, it dawned on me that I promised to fill you in on the new Road House… yep, over a year ago… August 5th, 2019 to be exact…. okay, well over a year ago.

So the upside to this very tardy post is we have had plenty of time to travel in the new Road House and collect our thoughts on what we love about this coach and what we actually miss about the other coach.

Tada…here she is!!!

The new Road House is a 2013 43 ft Entegra DEQ, Class A Diesel Pusher with a 450HP Cummins engine and 4 slide outs. Similar to the original Road House but 5 ft longer, 10 years newer and a bigger engine – 120 hp more. She is definitely a plus size gal!

Woo-Hoo a king size bed!!!!

Like the Monaco, the Entegra coach is also a class A diesel pusher. What’s a Class A you might wonder or a diesel pusher… well, constructed on either a commercial truck chassis, a specially designed motor vehicle chassis, or a commercial bus chassis, a Class A motorhome resembles a bus in design and has a flat or vertical front end and large windows.

The Entegra is built on a Spartan Chassis which is considered to be the top of the line in big-ass RV’s. According to the Spartan website “Everything Rides on the Ride Chassis”. Guess that is considered catchy marketing in the truck world! They also claim that “At the bottom of it all is the Spartan chassis, American-made from the finest materials and engineered to give your luxury RV a safe, smooth, and reliable ride. Spartan makes steering, traversing changing terrain, and parking as easy and welcoming as a friendly campground”. So, I can tell you for sure, that’s not a false claim. The first time we test drove an Entegra, with this fancy pants chassis, Wally was grinning ear to ear. Quiet, smooth and it handled no differently than our car. Well, maybe you do need to plan on braking a bit sooner when your ride is 46K lbs! Plus, this coach has a passive tag axle which the Monaco did not. The tag axle is basically a third axle having single wheels at each side that resides behind the dual wheeled drive axle. It gives more stability in the ride and helps the big-ass coach to turn easier in tight conditions. Again, this made Wally grin from ear to ear.

A diesel pusher motorhome is typically a Class A that is powered by a diesel engine mounted in the rear of the RV. Why is all that important?? Because this style of coach is made to last with a high end truck chassis and motor. The Entegra weighs in at 46,600 lbs which is 16,600 lbs heavier than the Monaco and the diesel pusher Cummins engine has high torque for climbing hills and pulling our tow vehicle. This also means a quiet ride as the engine is in the back. All a matter of preference but we opted for this model in both coach’s and went for a older model Entegra with low mileage to get all the amenities we wanted but not have huge depreciation the minute we left the lot.

In 1989, the addition of slideouts dramatically changed the RV industry because they allow a wider living area, provided that the vehicle remains completely stationary during their extension outwards. Nope, its bad form to drive down the road with your slides out. The Monaco had 2 slides on the drivers side and the Entegra has four slides, two on each side. One could argue that it is two more motorized things to go wrong but the trade off is more interior living space. LOL, we probably got an additional 160 square in the new coach.

As an avid cook, I love the spacious kitchen and additional pantry space.

A full size, residential refrigerator is also nice!!!

Like the Monaco, the Entegra is a used, older coach with low miles. We are not typically buy new people. Sure we have splurged and bought new car’s on occasion before we retired but large luxury coaches are expensive – $500K to $950K plus expensive. Not only are they expensive but honestly, everyone we know who has bought new has ended up in the shop more than we ever have… getting things fixed under warranty. Yikes, hope I didn’t just jinx us!!! Great having a warranty but not so great having major things go wrong. If you are a weekend warrior or only use your coach occasionally maybe this isn’t such an issue. Since our coach is our home 8 months out of the year, this is not ideal and we don’t want to be frequent flyers at the repair facility. Not only do you have the warranty honeymoon period with a new coach but you also have serious depreciation the minute you drive a new coach off the lot. Sadly, most anything that is motorized never appreciates. So for us, buying an older, low mileage coach meant we were able to get most all the bells and whistles without the massive price tag of a new coach – aka, we could afford it and not drain the retirement savings account!

We are the second owners of new Road House (kept the same name) and found her sitting on a consignment lot in Poulsbo Washington. Her previously owner, who purchased her new had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and she had a big scrape down the passenger side. Could be why he wasn’t driving her anymore – very sad. The coach only had 14K miles and most of the appliances still had the original stickers on them. Honestly, the entire deal was a complete pain in the arse and took over 4 months to finalize (not fans of Poulsbo RV). The upside was that we had time, negotiated the price down and got the unsightly scape fixed. We did have a complete independent engine, chassis, interior and exterior inspections done. We also bought an extended warranty that has comprehensive coverage on all of the above so we felt very confident all was well when we finally rolled out of the dealership from hell.

We have enjoyed this mobile lifestyle so much, that we decided an upgrade was in order. The Monaco was a great coach – no regrets. I actually felt bad for selling it… I know, coaches are inanimate objects so that sound irrational but she got us where we wanted to go with very little problems. There wasn’t one thing wrong with her… so why did we want an even bigger big-ass coach??

Creature comforts… that really is the bottom line! The Entegra feels like a home inside… albeit a small studio apartment. The kitchen is bigger, there is a king sized bed, we have an L shaped couch that we can both stretch out on. We also have a dishwasher and stackable washer/dyer as opposed to the all in washer/dryer unit we installed on the Monaco. I love the residential sized refrigerator with an icemaker. The downside of that unit is that it vents into the coach. In cooler weather that’s actually nice but in a warmer climate, well not so much. I also hate the freezer layout but it does have more capacity than the Monaco. Hey, this fishing family needs freezer storage for all the crab we catch!!! The list goes on and on…

A complete list of all the bells and whistles

We love the on demand hot water system, the porcelain tile floors with a heating option, the fireplace, the outdoor TV and stereo system and all the newer technology . Honestly, we love just about everything about the coach.

Adding splashes of color around our brown abode!

There are a few things however that we liked better on the Monaco. The Entegra has frameless windows which asthechically look great but they allow much less air in as only a small portion of the window actually opens upward. The Monaco had the older style framed windows which slid open and allowed way more air flow in the coach.

The lighter exterior color on the Monaco, the ability to get more air inside and the three interior Maxx Power Fans meant we rarely had to turn on the AC when the weather heats up. Not sure why the Entegra only has one fan??? The kitchen fan over the cooktop does vent outside but it isn’t nearly as powerful as the Maxx Fan so we are going to have another one installed. The Monaco was a bit brighter inside…more windows and lighter interior colors. There is a lot of brown in the Entegra but fortunately I like brown!!! There are models with lighter colored interiors but with pets I was worried that light upholstery would show all the dog slobber and pet hair.

The other options we love are the full access pull out drawers in the basement. Like the Monaco, the storage under the Entegra coach is great. We have plenty of room for big things like our Traegar BBQ, The Uni Pizza Oven and the portable refrigerator/freezer.

When we bought the Entegra, the prior owner left a treasure trove of “stuff” in the lower storage areas. Honestly, how many chairs does a dude need? Sadly, there were so many duplicates of things I wonder if the treasure trove was a result of his Alzheimer’s. I also found a huge black garbage bag in the rear clothes closet full of spices and food from 2003 – Eww, Gross. I am here to tell you that decade old mayo isn’t a pretty sight. Not sure why the consignment lot didn’t toss that entire bag? Otherwise the coach was so clean… the convention oven and stove top had never been used. Boy, I sure put an end to that quick!

All this stuff was inside the lower storage compartments.

Wally likes driving the Entegra way more… it rides and drives like a luxury car, quiet and smooth. With the additional horse power the Entegra cruises effortlessly up and down steep mountain passes and really doesn’t burn much more fuel than the Monaco did. At 9+ MPG and an 88 gallon fuel tank, we have a decent fuel range too.

Overall we are thrilled with our upgraded home on wheels. While Covid has slowed down our travels a bit, 2021 and 2022 are going to be big travel years for us. This spring our plans are taking us through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. If the Canadian/US border opens, we plan to be in Alaska for 2 months and then on to the Beach House for 3 months. The fall will see the Road House rolling south and east with a 2 month stay in Texas on the inter-coastal water way, then on to Alabama and Louisiana. Most of the winter will be spent in Florida, then in the spring we hope to cruise to the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky before heading back to Anacortes Washington for the summer. Fingers crossed!!

Farewell 2020… You Won’t Be Missed!!!

We are close to saying farewell to the year 2020, a year in which many people will not look back on fondly. It’s been called a shit show by many and rightfully so. Many people suffer great losses, many people lost their jobs, many people’s relationships suffered, many people lost their homes, many people suffered great physical illness, many people lost a loved one… heartache abounded. I feel fortunate that all I really lost was my mind at times! I feel incredible grateful to be in this place in my journey when the pandemic hit. My heart goes out to everyone out there who have suffered big losses in 2020.

Our mobile lifestyle has actually been very conducive to saying healthy, staying sane and sheltering in place. My biggest frustration has been the unknown… well, that and so many people who haven’t taken this pandemic seriously. People who don’t have the decency to wear a mask, people who refuse to be unconvinced by simply being careful for the sake of others. For us and our lifestyle, the unknown, trip planning, knowing where and when to travel have been a constant consideration. Because we travel in our home on wheels or our home on the water we have been able to be very careful and hopefully not cause any duress to others. That said, we have had to have plan A and Plan B most of 2020. My magic 8 ball wasn’t very helpful either. Questions about COVID and travel planning were usually met with either a non-commital or negative answer – GO FIGURE!!!

● It is certain.
● It is decidedly so.
● Without a doubt.
● Yes – definitely.
● You may rely on it.
● As I see it, yes.
● Most likely.
● Outlook good.
● Yes.
● Signs point to yes.
● Reply hazy, try again.
● Ask again later.
● Better not tell you now.
● Cannot predict now.
● Concentrate and ask again.
● Don’t count on it.
● My reply is no.
● My sources say no.
● Outlook not so good.
● Very doubtful.
A standard Magic 8 Ball is capable of 10 affirmative answers (●), 5 non-committal answers (●), and 5 negative answers

We definitely didn’t travel as much in 2020 despite being in our rolling home. We spent the first four months of 2020 hunkered down in Palm Springs, three weeks in Bend Oregon, four months on the boat in the San Juan Islands, five weeks in Arizona and here we are back Palm Springs under another stay at home order. That said, I still feeling really grateful to be healthy and mostly sane.

We returned to our lot at the Outdoor Resort Palm Springs in late November after a difficult time in Arizona getting my mother moved into a memory care community. Somehow the timing actually worked out, we found a great community for her and I can breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing she is safe and actually thriving there.

Not long after our return to California, the Governor issued another stay at home order. Again, our lifestyle in Palm Springs is conducive to doing this and staying sane. We have sunshine almost everyday, warm temps and literally an adult playground that sits on 137 beautifully landscaped acres with 27 holes of executive golf, 13 Pickleball courts, 10 Tennis courts, 10 hot tubs and 8 swimming pools. It’s easy to socially distance here, sitting out in the evening by our firepit with a glass of wine with another couple feels safe.

I know it sounds dreamy but like most of you I am ready for the 2020 shit show to come to a conclusion. I asked the magic 8 ball if 2021 was going to be a better year for the world and I was told that “signs point to yes”…hmm, do you think a scientist had any input on this answer???

Fingers crossed and in the meantime, I am going to try and reflect on the struggles that are real out there in the world, be grateful for each healthy day and for all of the wonderful people in my life.

Happy New Year…Wishing you all the best and two doses of vaccine in 2021!!!