Getting ready to leave

We have spent almost 5 months at our winter location of Destiny RV in Goodyear AZ and cannot believe how fast the time has flown by. When we started full-timing we had no idea that we would stay any one place for this long but the winters here are so nice, plus it is great to recharge after spending 7 months moving every week or two. Those 7 months provided us with a lifetime of vacations but as October rolled around we were pretty much ready to be back here.

We also realized that we have not been blogging as much as we do on the road but that is to be expected. Our big days here are eating breakfast out and going to our home away from home - Wal-Mart, or other shopping. We did some sightseeing while here but mostly spent it enjoying the weather and the good restaurants and some of the park activities.

We are making sure we leave here with a pretty good pantry and other supplies. We like the Viva paper towels so got a bunch of those today along with cat litter and some stuff for the pantry. We also made sure if we could we got our prescriptions since that is sometimes fun while on the road. We usually end up in places with a Wal-Mart so we can restock along the way. Bob will put everything up outside the day before we depart but there is more here than normal since we have been here so long.

Bob is scoping out our travels and it looks like another great year. We will spend time near Prescott AZ then Lake Powell then Bryce Canyon National Park then Salt Lake City. We will add Idaho as a state and stay in Idaho Falls. Also adding Montana we will stay in West Yellowstone and visit Yellowstone National Park and then in Billings. There is another stop in Montana and a couple in North Dakota (adding that as a state visited also) that have to be figured out then it is in to Canada for Bob's fishing trip. After Canada we will spend the summer on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. We will stop in Iowa and the KC area in the fall and then back to Goodyear AZ for the winter in early November for an appointment.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Rally Year (sorta)

After two and a half years full-timing we have never been to a big RV Rally. We had plans for the 2010 Escapade in Elkhart Indiana but recovery from surgery delayed our trip. All the other time our travels just did not put us close enough to a rally and we always had something going on that interfered with our getting close enough.

This year was going to be different. The Good Sam Rally was in Phoenix last week and we went on a day pass to check it out. Then there is the Carriage Travel Club's Texas National in April in Amarillo Texas which is directly on our path from the Phoenix area to the Kansas City area. Finally, this years Escapade is in September in Sedalia Missouri which we thought about attending as we get back to the Kansas City area in the fall after our summer along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

With the exception of the already attended Good Sam Rally we are afraid this year might be a bust again rally wise. As we posted earlier the forecast for an unusually stormy spring has caused us to change our travel plans leaving the Phoenix area. We are bypassing tornado alley which has caused us to cancel out of the Carriage Club Texas National and our plans to spend a month in the Kansas City area in the spring. With so little time in the Kansas City area this fall we are probably not going to the Escapade either except for maybe a day trip.

Oh well there is always next year,

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Full-timing with 3 cats - JJ the computer cat

Living in a small space leads to our cats finding interesting places to sit or sleep.

Here is JJ working on our blog, and we bet you thought it was Bob or Jo that did all the blogging.

Here is JJ worn out after trying to figure out the new tablet.

 We have really enjoyed having our cats with us as we full-time, just another example that it is best to make your full-timing home as alike your old sticks and bricks as you can.

Till next time,

JJ

March Madness!!

Bob is going to spend the next four days immersed in March Madness (NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament). Again this year all four games are on different networks (CBS, TNT, TBS, TruTV). A few years ago when we had DirecTV in our old sticks and bricks Bob signed up for "Mega March Madness" from DirecTV which was basically the same thing but you had to pay for the option plus you were at the mercy of CBS who sometimes switched games so the same game may have been on all four channels. This happened enough to be annoying.

With the four networks on DirecTV and all in HD Bob can control which game he watches and catch all the exciting endings which is bound to happen. Bob finds himself cheering for the underdog even though it may damage his bracket. It will also be nice this year as his alma mater, Iowa State, is in the tourney for the first time since 2005.

Another good thing about being in Arizona in March is that the idiotic daylight savings time does not go into effect here. What that means for March Madness is that the games today and tomorrow tipoff a little after 9:00 a.m. local time which means Bob won't be up after his bedtime tonight because he gets to do this all over again tomorrow.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Change of Plans

We have a change of plans, instead of coming through tornado alley (TX-OK-KS) to the Kansas City area in what is projected to be the worst tornado season in a number of years we are heading straight north from the Phoenix area into Utah, Idaho and across Montana and North Dakota and then up into Canada for Bob's fishing trip in mid-June. We know we still have a chance for tornadoes but going from tornado alley where it is almost guaranteed to a chance seemed like a good idea, plus we get to see parts of the country we have never seen. We also know that we may see cooler temperatures and maybe some snow but that is much better than tornadoes. We "plan" to be in the KC area in mid-September for about a month. We love the full-timing lifestyle and plan to do it as long as we are able but we have learned the one thing you really cannot control is the weather. This way we won't be controlling the weather but maybe, just maybe, changing our odds.

2012 Spring Training

As we learned from our previous visits to the Cactus League Major League Baseball can be fun again! We saw the Kansas City Royals play the Texas Rangers. The sky was blue and the temperature was in the low 80's so it was a little warm in the sun for us. Lucky we were able to scoot into a shady portion and enjoyed the game. This is how MLB should be, you park right across from the stadium paying no parking fees and the admission fee is reasonable. Concession prices are a little higher than they should be but hey you paid no parking and the tickets were cheap :-)

Having said all that some parks in the Cactus League do charge for parking so it will probably just be a matter of time before the Cactus League is also overpriced and no longer a fun, fan friendly event.

Till next time,

Bob & Jo