RV Destinations: Catalina State Park, Tucson AZ

RV Destinations: Catalina State Park, Tucson AZ

Please check out my latest article, written about Catalina State Park in Tucson.  We had a great trip there the weekend of March 23rd.

The Santa Catalina Mountains and Pusch Ridge as seen from Catalina State Park

Another weekend at home

We had another productive and fun weekend at home.  Friday we tried a Chinese restaurant with Lisa and Patrick that we hadn't tried before.  It was really good even if they didn't serve alcohol.  Everyone enjoyed their meal. 

Saturday morning we took advantage of the great weather and cloudy skies to do yard work.  Our yard looks great now!  We had several hours of relaxation before heading over to Lisa and Patrick's for dinner. We had a great meal and got to see some of Lisa's family that we hadn't seen in a while.  We also had a fun game of Taboo. 

Today we did some shopping at Big 5 Sporting Goods and Costco and them put some pork in the slow cooker.  We found a TV show on Netflix with Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz and watched several episodes. 

Next weekend we are going to Tucson.  We took Friday off and are looking forward to spending some time in southern AZ. 

Busy weekend

Hello friends and family.  It's Sunday of a busy weekend at home.  Friday we stayed home, watched TV and relaxed.  Saturday, it was early to rise followed by several hours of housework.  When that was done, we had some time to rest before heading to pick up Chino Bandido to take dinner to Ray and Mary and the girls.  The boys got to go for a play date with Geter as well. We had a delicious dinner, some great wine, played some games and had a lot of laughs.  Today after watching a messed up movie called Hanna, we went and picked up the RV.  The next several hours involved spraying, scrubbing, shining and drying the coach.  It had been close to 6 months since it was washed and it was a mess! I'm sure we will both find it hard to move tomorrow but the rig looks great.

Tomorrow it goes to Massey's Diesel to get the coolant surge tank replaced. Friday it's off to McDowell Mountain for a quick weekend of relaxation in the RV. 

We hope everyone has a great week! 

Posted using the Blogger app on my DROID RAZR. 

Sedona Off Road

Check out my latest article on Examiner.com regarding a recent off-road trip in Sedona and a truly amazing service experience from Barlow Jeep Rentals.

Examiner Article - Sedona Off Road

Update

View from the RV at Lake Pleasant

My friends and family, I apologize that I've not been very good about using this blog to keep you updated on our lives.  I promise to make the effort to do more updates.

January seems to have flown by.  We spent New Year's weekend at McDowell Mountain Regional park with some friends.  We had great weather - in the 70's all weekend - and had a very relaxing time.  For those of you who don't know, McDowell Mountain is near Fountain Hills on the east edge of the valley.  It's about an hour away from home - just far enough away, but close enough to civilization.

Our other trip in January was to Lake Pleasant Regional Park.  It's even closer to home.  We were both off Monday of MLK weekend, and we were going by ourselves.  We waited until Saturday morning to head to the lake.  Dennis was sick all weekend, but we had the most amazing site with a beautiful view of valley pointing towards the southeast.  We had a chance to spend the afternoon and evening with our friends Ron & Marilyn who live in their RV on the other side of the lake.  The weather was a little gloomy but we still had a nice time.  Dinner was fantastic!  Unfortunately, I caught Dennis' cold and the 2 weeks since then have been pure hell for me!

I truly hope no one catches the chest cold that we had.  It was viral and BAD.  We are both still recovering.  Not only did I cough my head off for over a week, but I've been completely drained of energy.  I didn't walk the dogs for 2 whole weeks and haven't worked out since before MLK weekend.  I was able to walk the dogs a few mornings this week, but I'm still not 100%.

We have a trip planned mid-February and we are going to Page Springs near Sedona.  We haven't been there in a LONG time - perhaps since we were there with Aunt Marie & Uncle Jim - I can't remember.  We were supposed to go there for Thanksgiving, but RATS, we didn't make it!

Next week I'm traveling to Des Moines for business.  Now that Home Equity is part of Consumer Lending (along with Home Mortgage) Des Moines is the place to be for business meetings.  I'm not really looking forward to the weather, but it should be a great opportunity to network, meet lots of people from Home Mortgage, and listen to what our leaders say about our 2012 strategy. 

I hope everyone has a great February, and most importantly want to wish my Mom a VERY Happy Birthday on February 5th and my brother a VERY Happy Birthday on February 21st.  Also, Happy Birthday to Lisa Crane, George Taylor, Jose Romero, Diane Taylor, David Taylor, Uncle Larry and any of our great-nieces/nephews who are celebrating a birthday in February (sorry we have not been able to "memorize" their birth dates!).

Don’t ignore warning signs of rodents in and around your RV

Check out my latest article on Examiner.

Don’t ignore warning signs of rodents in and around your RV

Last Weekend Up North

Sadly, Summer is over and it's time to take the RV back to the valley.  We were able to leave the RV on our site when we left 2 weekends ago so it was very easy to get settled in last night.  And that's a good thing because it was only 39 degrees when we arrived!  We woke up this morning and everything outside is frosted.  Dennis took the boys out for a walk in the forest before I even got out of bed!  I guess I was tired. 

It's very cold in the RV.  We have the heat pump going and a small space heater.  Our propane tank shows 1/3 so we want to try to conserve so we make it through the night.  Propane heat is so much better and works well in cold temperatures.  The heat pump doesn't do so well in really cold temps.  The boys are snuggled up one in their bed and one with Dennis.  They are total desert dogs.

We are looking forward to winter camping and hitting the road in the RV. 

The picture above was taken out the door of our RV at 7:30 this morning.  Enjoy!