on the road again in 2022

Well, we never anticipated the repairs would take so long – but despite all the first-world problems of slow shipping, inclement weather delays and labor scarcity, after 2.5 months our beast has finally been released from the mechanic! We’ll be starting off this next stage of our journey with an almost brand-new coach: in addition to our previously-installed new water pump, fuel filters, transmission speed sensors, leveling system, and refrigerator, we now have a completely rebuilt engine, and a new alternator, turbo, house and engine batteries, and A/C compressor.

Inside, we’ve made some updates as well: Deron switched all the lighting to LEDs which saves tons of battery power, replaced the ugly hallway lighting fixtures, installed a new kitchen faucet, removed an old couch and replaced it with a comfy chair and our dogs’ crate, and added new step covers and bathroom curtains.

In addition, we took advantage of being in San Diego to have Pure Light Cleaning clean our carpet and tile grout, and we exchanged some things from the RV to our storage facility and vice-versa.

God, knowing that these repairs would be ultra-lengthy, gave us the blessing of being stuck in San Diego (rather than someplace like Alamogordo) where we have so many generous friends and family – who gave us places to stay, took care of our dogs, bought us many meals, and kept track of our mail. And we had tons of time to enjoy hanging out with them – including attending the wedding of some sweet friends. Unfortunately, we were terrible at photo-journaling our engagements, but suffice to say we had a super great time meeting up with everyone.

When we weren’t hanging with friends, we took advantage of good weather days to be tourists in our hometown – visiting Little Italy, the beach, Balboa Park, etc. During rainy-day downtime we played tons of Rummikub – we’re hoping someday we find a tournament where our new skills can help us win fabulous prizes.

Finally, after a few minutes of sweet goodbye hugs from our niece and nephews, we started out last Tuesday morning heading for our first stop in Wellton, AZ, just outside Yuma. Though we’ve never been on this specific route, there wasn’t much difference from previous trips through Arizona, other than the coach is running GREAT and everything went smoothly. Wednesday was spent mapping out and reserving stops for the next two weeks.

Thursday we headed through Tucson to Benson, AZ. We spent Friday exploring the nearby gun-slinging town of Tombstone (although nearly every place we passed had “no weapons allowed” clearly posted – I guess they’re worried about a modern-day shootout at the OK Corral?). After a little shopping I was happy to find the perfect Tombstone magnet to add to my collection (if you’ve been following the blog, you’ve seen a pic of my magnet wall – it’s my way of documenting the fun things we’ve seen), and then we enjoyed lunch in the Crystal Palace.

Now that we’ve dipped our toes in the pool, so to speak, and feel like we mostly know what we’re doing, we are so ready and so excited for this next stage of our journey! If all goes as planned, this leg of our trip will take us slowly to the East Coast via the Gulf Coast, including a ride on the Galveston Ferry (can you imagine our 40’ beast plus our CR-V riding across the water on a ferry?).

So – with great gratitude and love for our San Diego community, it’s goodbye for now, and hello to new adventure!

travel teasers – what’s next??

Las Cruces (tour provided by Rick Sousa)

Galveston

Lafeyette & New Orleans

Tennessee Safari Park, Nashville & Gatlinburg

Myrtle Beach

The Lost Kitchen (if we get lucky)

& much more!