Connie, sister Carol, and friends Kerry and Robin ventured 3+ miles Tuesday (Feb 17) hiking the Lost Goldmine trail at Superstition Mountain in Tonto National Forest (forest=trees?). Beautiful day with lots of fun and exercise!
Connie, Kerry and Robin take a short break.
Silly girls.
Silhouettes having fun. What? No shadow puppets?
They found a lot of historical petroglyphs.
Yes, there was some climbing too.
Our time in Arizona has been fantastic. Weather is awesome and we have really enjoyed it. While our trailer is a little tight as a sewing studio, Connie can do a lot outside. Here she is pinning a quilt.
Ed traveled up highway 60 to the Globe area with friend Cliff last month to view the open pit copper mine area; this one located nearby above Miami. Quite a history here. By the way, Cliff and Cyndy returned to Colorado and Cliff is recuperating from his successful heart surgery. He thanks everyone for their prayers and is again looking forward to hosting at Trask fish hatchery in Oregon (a different one than the one we’ll be at) and hosting with us in Alaska this summer. God is good.
Fantastic indeed! We were able to continue our Valentine day tradition of having a lobster dinner at home. But this year we were able to dine outside! We also enjoyed one of two gift bottles of Bordeaux wine that daughter Shannon brought back from France. Life is good!
SCHEDULE CHANGE ALERT
We keep updating our schedule; we had originally planned to stay in Arizona longer, but now leaving March 7 and heading north. No more snow in Colorado please.
Will travel to Colorado and Wyoming to visit family/friends before heading to Alsea Fish Hatchery for our one-month volunteer job and on to another volunteer job at Moose Creak Dam near Fairbanks Alaska for the summer. Check “Traveling Around” tab at the top of our blog for more detail info on our itinerary.
Right out our back yard (from our 15 space RV park) is the Consolidated Canal, one of nine canals that make up the Salt River Project Canal System. Can you make out our brownish entrance gate on the tan fence? Riding our bikes on a canal path make it an easy commute to many places in the area…and beyond. Destinations like Ace Hardware, Fry’s Market, Home Depot, and Connie’s sisters place to name a few. Easy commute because most paths are concrete, quite wide, and lots to see along the way; including ducks, stables, and an occasional lost shopping cart :-). Where we do have to venture off the path, the valley is very bike friendly with most major streets offering bike lanes. And no HILLS!
Perhaps you can see the vast canal system from the map above. Folks can bike, hike, run/jog from Glendale, to Scottsdale and down to Mesa…where we are.
Venturing out beyond the bike paths, we took a drive up Apache Trail (Arizona 88) to Tortilla Flat, a former stage coach stop, and now a tourist stop. Apache Trail road continues another 20+ miles to Roosevelt Lake, but is mostly gravel.
The drive takes us into Tonto National Forest. Didn’t see a forest of pines as one might expect, but a forest of Saguaro Cactus, with a smattering of Golden Hedgehog Cactus. We had to look up how to pronounce saguaro. The Hedgehog cactus is quite unique and one we for sure didn’t want to get close to.
We drove to the area of the Salt River where the canals first start, but it was restricted, so didn’t get to see it first hand. But we did see lots of other water in the desert…Saguaro Lake and Canyon Lake included.
After a long day in the desert, so tiring you know, we were blessed to find the Handlebar Pub in Apache Junction on our way home…where they have lots of craft beer on tap. Amazing that many brews are from Colorado! Featured tap one day was Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro. Oskar Blues, New Belgian Brewery, and Odell Brewery are also quite popular. Go Colorado!
Our good friends, and fellow full-timers, Cliff and Cyndy Mills reside just down the street from us…4 miles…and we’ve enjoyed joining them for different events; generally eating or sewing. Cyndy and Connie especially love their sewing time.
They must head back to Colorado February 1 as Cliff has an appointment with a heart surgeon to set a surgery date and procedure. Our prayer is for their save travel, a positive/successful heart surgery, and well being for Cyndy during this stressful time.
After leaving cold Colorado and the ikky winter highways, we finally arrived in Arizona New Years Day 2015. Mainly Gilbert and Mesa. Sister Carol and bro-in-law Roger live in Gilbert, and our new RV site is in Mesa; neighboring cities. [only 4 miles distance between us] The first thing on the agenda was washing the truck.
We recall that we were here last year during this time, stopping for a visit as we headed to Boulder City, NV to experience a taste of spending full time in our RV. Check our Life in Boulder City link.
Discovered the Arizona Wilderness! Brewery that is. Happened on to it while waiting for the truck to be washed. Conveniently located across the street! We also discovered the Beer Research Institute brewery, just a short walk from Carol and Rogers. Both are excellent. We’ll be back.
While discovering breweries is Ed’s primary goal, discovering anything to do with quilting is Connie’s passion. She loves having the Quilter’s Ranch verily close by, not to mention Mulqueens Sewing Center, just down Main Street from our RV site.
Arrangements had been made for us to pick up the trailer from the RV repair (repairs to air conditioner and heat pump) on January 2nd, then move into our new parking spot at Twin Palms RV Park on the 3rd…parking overnight on the curb next to Carol and Roger’s Gilbert home. Twin Palms is a very small (15 spaces) park and Steve (the owner) keeps it full, especially during the winter. Yesterday we saw one RV pull out and another pulling in within an hour.
The couple occupying our #5 site had a tragedy New Years Eve. The man had a heart attack and died! Leaving his new widow to vacate. Consequently we were asked if we could wait a few days before pulling in. Certainly the least we could do in the sad situation. So we were able to finally park on January 7th, only a few days late.
Cliff and Cyndy, our full time friends from Colorado are parked down Main about 4 miles at Tower Point Resort Park. They are in a prayerful situation right now and must return to Colorado next month.
We’re loving Arizona and the wonderful weather. Cool nights (around 50°) and warm days ( in the 70° range). Many folks wearing shorts and tee shirts. We put our light streamers up to add to our evening ambiance. Note that the string across the middle of the awning are little camp trailers! Thanks Shannon, Tim, & Faith!
Having a white Christmas with family in Loveland, CO. Received 7 plus inches of snow Christmas day and into the night. Had to move some snow today (December 26) so Connie could take the truck to meet Presser Foot friend (Debi) for lunch. Weatherbug forecast says it will get down to 4° tonight. All this is a reminder why we’re living south now!
We wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and blessed 2015. We rest assured that His birth brought forth the promise of everlasting life and fulfills God’s promise through His Son.
This is a picture of our immediate family taken by our friend, Dan Termeer (and a little help from his wife Val) last Mother’s day. While many of them are miles away in Wyoming from where we’re spending Christmas, they are certainly in our thoughts and prayers as we share the joy of Christmas with our Colorado and Arizona family.
From top left:
Son-in-law Edward Wales, daughter Kari Wales, grandson Hagen Brinkerhoff, daughter Shannon Hartnett, son-in-law Tim Hartnett, son Shelby Allen.
Grand son-in-law Garth Phelps, Grand daughter Brittani Phelps holding GREAT Grand Daughter Blakelee Phelps, Grand daughter Faith Zehnder, Connie, Ed.
We spent Christmas 2014 in Loveland, CO; hosted by Connie’s sister Cheri. Neighbor Kandi came by Christmas eve and snapped some pictures:
From bottom left: Son-in-law Tim Hartnett, granddaughter Faith Zehnder, daughter Shannon Hartnett, sister Cheri Tilton, grand niece Mackenzie Keelan, niece-in-law Amanda Ervin, Ed, Connie, Mother Vera Tilton, sister Carol Sauter, brother-in law Roger Sauter, nephew Marshall Keelan.
Left Colorado Bend Monday, December 15, at 6:30am and drove as far as Las Cruces, NM. Yes, another night at Walmart, but it turned out to be a great parking area. Short walk to Applebees where we enjoyed a brew and a meal. We hadn’t eaten out much since being at Colorado Bend.
Continued on Tuesday, arriving early afternoon at Carol and Rogers (Carol is Connie’s sister) in Gilbert, Arizona. Gilbert is part of the greater Phoenix area. Unloaded the truck and started getting the trailer ready for the RV Supercenter. Got it washed up nice and delivered it to the supercenter Tuesday afternoon. They will work on the air conditioner over the Christmas holidays.
We left Gilbert at 5am Friday for Colorado, driving all day and arriving at Cheri’s in Loveland, Colorado around 9pm. Cheri is Connie’s other sister. A LONG day…909 miles. With our aux tank, we only stopped once for fuel. Took advantage of $2.579/gal diesel in Albuquerque! Unleaded was only $1.899. Had to wait in line a brief time because of everyone taking advantage of the reduced prices.
Expecting more family to arrive today and we’re on track for a blessed Christmas together this year. We plan on returning to Arizona on New Years day, but our return is not locked in. We’ll move in to our new digs at Twin Palms RV Park the 3rd.
We visited Twin Palms on Thursday and found it to be quite a gem. Check the pictures on the link. Very quint and close to everything, including a concrete bike trail along the canal right out our door. Looking forward to getting a lot of little projects done and relaxing as we get prepared for a long stretch of driving hosting beginning in late March. Connie will do a lot of sewing as her quilting buddy Cyndy hopes to be there much of the time. Carol quilts too! Lots of buzzing on the ol’ bobbins!
This large live oak tree outside the Colorado Bend Headquarters is reportedly over 800 years old. Some say it may be older than 1500. None of the staff was here when it was a seedling, so only core tests can estimate. At any rate, we leave Colorado Bend and all the wonderful folks we’ve met here. Bitter/sweet as Connie says. But they won’t miss us if we don’t go away. So away we must go.
Here is a great Youtube video that offers a glimpse of what we experienced at Colorado Bend, and some of the staff that we now call friends.
One of the many wonderful times we spent at Colorado Bend was with other park hosts. One Monday (our day off) we traveled south of Austin to the Salt Lick BBQ restaurant/resort. A very well known and popular place near Driftwood, Texas. Quite a place. Check the link.
Connie and Ann chat away as usual. Lyman and Terre (end of table) study the menu. Bob and Ann discuss their order, but have been here before and initiated our trip this time.
Colorado Bend State Park has a lot of whitetail deer, not to mention many feral hogs, and a few exotic species. There are 4 weeks of deer hunting, but only 24 hunters per week. The 4th week of the hunt is for youth. Youth must have an adult with them…whew!
Hunters have to submit their applications earlier in the year to enter a drawing. They can, and are encouraged to kill any feral hogs or exotic animals they see, and can do so without a license. The hogs and exotics are not native to the area and the hogs do a lot of damage. While the exotic species are not seen often, there are some Aoudad around. The picture above is of an Aoudad shot this past week.
Hunters get Wednesday through 2pm Friday to hunt, but only in their designated assigned area that they share with 2-4 other hunters. There are 5 areas for the 24 hunters. They can kill 2 deer per license, but only one buck. The whitetails are quite small, with most of the deer being 60-65 pounds after they are field dressed. Dressed, not as with clothing, but being without their vital organs. They must bring their kill to the maintenance center to be weighed and tagged. Hogs and exotics are not counted.
It was quite an event to witness. So much different than the wide open spaces of Wyoming and Montana where I had hunted for elk and mule deer in years past. But only about 5% of Texas is public land, so hunters don’t have many choices.
Twenty deer, and one Aoudad were harvested the first week. We’ll see what happens this week. We’ll miss the rest of the hunting season as we pull out for Mesa, AZ next Monday.
We’re supposed to have Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday as off duty days, but generally we still wind up doing some of the chores around the park. However, the Monday before Thanksgiving (November 24) we made a 180 mile circle around some small towns (i.e 3000 to 6000 population). The first stop was San Saba. We had been here before, but took a little time to enjoy their park and Oliver’s Coffee House, newly opened in a restored bank building downtown. Oliver’s is primarily a large pecan production company in San Saba.
Couldn’t resist snapping a picture of Connie standing in front of the park’s waterfall.
After San Saba, we headed to Llano for lunch at the famous (around these parts anyway) Cooper’s BBQ. Wow! What an experience. You select what cut you want before going inside. The grill guy throws your selection on a tray that you then take the tray inside to pay. They weigh it and give it to you wrapped in butcher paper. But wait, we didn’t want it to go! No matter, that is the way it is served. But where are our plates? Just use a sheet of butcher paper an sit at the picnic table to enjoy…along with many all the other folks enjoying the cuisine. A bonus is all the bread and pinto beans you want. Yumm.
Finally! Connie finds a delightful quilt shop after lunch in Llano. Shopped around for a few things, making a mental note of what she needs for her next visit; keeping in mind we don’t have any storage area at “home.”
From Llano we drove to Inks Lake State Park near Burnet, TX. We were doing a little research to check if it might be a good place for us to host next November/December. A very nice park, but has over 300 campsites and perhaps a little too large for our taste.
Then over for a quick stop at the Double Horn Brewery in Marble Falls, my favorite town in the area. Not just because they have a brewery! Got home after dark. It is white knuckle time driving in this country after dark. Deer are everywhere and we don’t want to hit one, even with my new grill guard!
We took a 3 mile hike with our host neighbor Tywla Tuesday (Nov 18); starting here at the maintenance site where we hiked on the former access trail to get to the main trail. The main trail is a new one that goes around the canyon we see from our front door, then up the other side. There is a small pool at the mouth of the canyon. The pool is called a Tinaja, hence the name of the trail. It is a great trail with lots of scenic views. Tywla’s husband Bob drove over to pick us up so we didn’t have to walk back.
Look closely at the picture above…see the silver shiny thing? That’s our Airstream from across the canyon. Look closer and you can see our red Ford truck.
It’s difficult to see that there is a canyon in the picture, but we certainly knew it was there walking down and back up. The Tinaja trail, and many others here were built by a volunteer group called Friends of Colorado Bend. Click on the link to see some great trail building pictures, including one of the actual Tinaja pool.
Our host neighbors Bob and Twyla pulled out Friday (Nov 21) and headed off to man an oil field gate near Cotula, TX. Rather remote, but they are paid $160/day for checking trucks through the gate; plus full hook ups for their RV are provided. We’ll miss them but it sounds like they’ve settled in well.
![Texas_G2G_all_riversb-300x287[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Texas_G2G_all_riversb-300x2871.jpg)
![ColoradoTexas_Watershed[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ColoradoTexas_Watershed1.png)
When we first looked into serving as Park Host at Colorado Bend State Park, we didn’t understand how it could be on the “Colorado River?” It just didn’t make sense to someone familiar with the river and all that goes with it…like Lake Powell & Hoover Dam for example. We couldn’t visualize the Colorado in the Hill Country of Texas. Something just wasn’t right.
So on further review, we came to realize this is the TEXAS Colorado River and has nothing to do with THE Colorado River. But what we did find out is that this Colorado River does have some interesting points of study.
The Colorado River is the 18th longest river in the United States and the longest river with both its source and mouth within Texas; its drainage basin and some of its usually dry tributaries extend into New Mexico. The 862-mile long river flows generally southeast from Dawson County through Marble Falls, Austin, Bastrop, Smithville, La Grange, Columbus, Wharton, and Bay City before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda Bay.
I suppose Colorado Bend State Park is named because of the Bend it the river here, but also after the town of Bend, TX, which has a dramatic history of it’s own. Bend and the State Park are located in San Saba County; one of 254 counties in Texas. That’s a lot of counties, but Texas is a huge state.
So why is it called the Colorado? Well that’s a point for further review. If interested, one can check the Texas State Historical Association page. In the mean time, we continue to enjoy our time here; including the peace and quiet, the beautiful night sky, the deer, turkey, fox, other hosts, and the cedar covered country side. Oh…and then there is Bad Bobs too.
Typical morning sunrise we see out from our camp site space. Fantastic!
We have been running and going so much, so have abandoned making any new posts. It’s time to catch up.
We had several comments from an earlier post about the Bad Bob’s store in Bend. And…he really is bad. Come to find out, he is musical too. Saturday, October 18, we went with Park Host neighbors Bob & Twyla to the Pecan Capital or the World, San Saba (about 20 miles), for a street festival they were having. Stopped in at Bar D Brew House, a local brewery (very very rare in these parts); and lo and behold The Kindred Spirits band had a gig there. Note Bad Bob playing lead guitar in the center. The fellow on the right playing base is Dicky (we thought he looked a lot like Lurch from the Adams Family). We realized later he works the counter at Bad Bobs. We saw him there, just didn’t recognized him in the band.
Colorado Bend State Park has turned out to be a real joy for us. We have a nice quiet parking area, footsteps from a free laundry, lots of interesting hiking trails that expose so much of the area’s hidden cedar covered beauty and wildlife. The views are outstanding.
There are over 400 caves, and more being discovered with time. They are not Carlsbad Caverns, but do have a draw to those first time cave dwellers. We’ve been in Gorman Cave and Dynamite Cave. Caves are all restricted unless with a ranger. There are only about 20 caves permissible to enter.![20141028_163831[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20141028_1638311.jpg)
Speaking of critters. This little armadillo guy has been making a evening visit around where we have a trailer parked. He (or could be a she I guess…can’t tell) is very fun to watch as he roots around in the ground…looking ants or something to eat. What a life eh?
We haven’t figured out why this sign is here. It is not that dangerous, but there does seem that some people get lost, scrapped up, or dehydrated. But the short time we’ve been here, everyone has left alive.
While Connie has been helping at headquarters getting campers checked in, as well as painting and cleaning the park’s compost toilets (interesting concept…google it). Ed has been spending most of his time working out of the Maintenance Center. (above). We are parked about 50 feet away, so it is very convenient. Headquarters is another 4 miles down the road. Connie often drives the the “Gator” down. The gator is a cross between an ATV and a golf cart.
Took a moment to stop and view the area in route to the Gorman Cave here at Colorado Bend State Park. Connie and Jason standing on the rocky ledge that looks down to Dog Leg Canyon. Quite steep and very rocky.
We found out that we don’t actually count the bats, but video them as they exit. Jason will then analyze the video and attempt to get a ball park number of bats in the cave. Jason shared that he didn’t expect many tonight because they migrate to Mexico about this time of year.
The first thing to prepare was the white screen (a regular bed sheet) that serves as a back drop for the video as the bats fly out.
Next, we (Jason) had to seal off the other cave entrance to deter the bats from coming out there. The idea is to have the bats all come out the cave where we set up the count.
Then back to the “main” entrance to set up the night vision camera.
All and all it was a fantastic experience, but did not see a lot of bats.
Many other trails to walk and exciting things to see and do…as well as get in a little work around here. Walking the trails, looking for liter, counts toward our hours too.
We only need 20 hours to fulfill our obligation. It really doesn’t take much for our hours to add up and we will generally put in more hours than needed. The park folks are very flexible, and very appreciative of us being here to help.
Tuesday afternoon, a beautiful day, we ventured on a hike to get acquainted with just a couple of the many trails; Spicewood Springs and Spicewood Canyon. Very picturesque hike. Can you make out the Colorado River in the far background of the canyon picture?
Fall is peeking around the corner and leaves are just starting to turn for the winter. We are anxious for the full fall colors to show their brilliance. We wound up hiking about 6 miles. The evening beer really tasted great!
We ventured in to Lampassas Monday to do a little shopping. Noticed fuel prices were down some more. Got a couple pictures of the ranch gates mentioned in a previous post, so wanted to share. There are many. Will be interesting to research how/who owns the ranches, and perhaps a little history.
Drove from Ed’s sister’s place in Stephenville to our first host assignment in Colorado Bend State Park (CBSP) Texas on Tuesday October 7. The closest town, other than Bend, is Lampasas, a city of 7000. It does have a Super Walmart and a DQ. Fuel prices are the best we’ve seen in a long time. Saw $2.85 for regular unleaded, and 3:24 for diesel. A very nice clean town.
The center of Bend, TX is Bad Bob’s store. Bend has a post office, a couple churches, and Bad Bobs. The Store has a few grocery items and a grill. Very nice folks. We hear their hamburgers are to die for…perhaps taken literally.
Bend is on the Colorado River (Texas version), 25 miles west of Lampassas on Farm to Market (FM) road 580. Lots of cedar covered rolling hills along the way; and half dozen very impressive large ranches…at least judging by their grandeur entrances and large ornamental iron gates with brick/stone sidewalls. Sorry no picture yet.
From Bend, we are about 3 miles up FM 442 and FM446, through the CBSP entrance where visitors are greeted by an “Iron Ranger,” a self check-in station; then 2 more miles to the CBSP Maintenance area and Park Supervisor residence, where there are 2 host sites. There is one more site 5 miles further down the road. It’s on the river, and where the park headquarters is located.
Bob and Twila, our host neighbors, were here last year and had arrived this year a few days before us. They will leave around the 20th to be gate keepers at a drilling site were they’ll have hookups and earn $160 a day. But it is a 24/7 job checking vehicles through the gate.
This is the view from our door. Notice the cactus. It is hard to tell, but the rock canyon of the Colorado River is in the background.
We saw this armadillo out our door, but only got a picture as he was waddling away. Hasn’t returned.
CBSP Headquarters. Very small for all they have to do and store. We love Debbie, the office manager. So upbeat and pleasant to work with. We’ve spent several hours here to get through all the red tape that will allow us to check in campers, drive a park vehicle and machinery. We now have a park pickup to drive the 9.6 mile round trip between our host site and headquarters. Ed will probably spend a lot of his volunteer time helping with a multitude of things needing attention at the maintenance site. Connie may help at headquarters; but we’ll both be doing some camp site checks and clean up too.
This is the main campground by the headquarters. All campgrounds are “primitive,” meaning water & electric are not provided. Most campers have tents. There is some access to nearby water faucets however. Some campsites are “walk in,” meaning campers have to walk down to their site. Still others are backpack sites.
Above is a larger campground area near headquarters. Just down the bank is the Colorado River. Very low on water, so the fishing is poor. When the fishing is good, they catch huge catfish and bass.
Connie with our boss Ranger, Jason Hairston. Very nice man and treats us special. He took us for a park tour our first day. This is the Colorado River canyon directly above Gorman Falls.
![20141001_132315[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/20141001_1323151.jpg)
It’s not Alaska, or even Colorado, but some pretty interesting views traveling south to Stephenville along US84 toward Sweetwater where we meet I20. We saw countless acres of cotton and wind energy turbines, with a few RR tanker cars mixed in. We stayed at another Walmart in Lubbock. Actually two. The first one was questionable. A Murphy Express as part of the Walmart where we noticed regular unleaded for $2.99.9. More like $3.05 here in Stephenville.
![header-cowboy[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/header-cowboy1.gif)
We’re visiting my sister Alice and the family here. Great little college town, home of Tarleton State University, part of Texas A&M. No King Soopers. No Home Depot or Lowes. No RV supply. No Verizon store. No bike shops. BUT…they do have a Walmart and a Starbucks…and lots and lots of pickups! AND…did I mention lots of rodeo cowboys are home based here. Stephenville boasts they are “The Cowboy Capital of the World.” Welcome to Texas.
![20140928_172334[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140928_1723341.jpg)
![20140929_154313[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140929_1543131.jpg)
Said our goodbyes to Cheri and Mom after a 2 week stay in Cheri’s Loveland Driveway. Then off to Shannon/Tim’s driveway in Lakewood on Saturday September 27. Enjoyed spending time with Shannon and Faith Sunday. CSU Tim was in Boston with his Boston College father George to attend the CSU/Boston College game. CSU won!
A tearful goodbye to Shannon and Faith this morning, Monday September 29 as we finally start our journey south to Texas. Didn’t get far. We’re trying to see how long we can go without paying to park. So stopped at Walmart in Trinidad, along with some other RV’ers, around 3pm. It was windy and black. Rained hard mixed with a little hail right after I took this picture.
Closed on our Corey Street home Monday morning September 15. We’re enjoying our stay at Cheri’s in Loveland and will be off to visit family in Gillette, Wyoming Saturday (9/20) for a few days; will incorporate a day trip to Rapid City to get our SD driver’s license and submit docs for vehicle registrations. Will not be taking the trailer to WY/SD. Our short term plan after that is:
Forecast called for Snow/rain Friday (9/12), the day we were planning on vacating 2415 and pulling the trailer out of the backyard. So decided to avoid pulling the trailer out in the muck, loaded the truck with all our stuff…way too much…hooked up the trailer and pulled it to sister Cheri’s in Loveland a day early:Thursday.
We had thinned out 95% of our stuff through two garage sales, “Free day and the Flea Market” with our family, give aways, Craigslist, and throw aways. Most of what remained, we were fortunate to have a fantastic sister with a new shed that gave us a small area to store what we will leave behind.
After all the thinning, we still had a lot of stuff to take with us on the road. I’m sure we’ll thin out some more as we learn what we really don’t need. In the mean time the TRUCK IS FULL!
We stopped at the scales before making the trek to Loveland. Total weight 18,700 lbs. The truck alone is 5 ton! Trailer is GVWR rated at 10,000 lbs, but we kept it at 8700 with empty black/gray water tanks.
Closing is Monday (9/15) and we’re off to WY/SD and then TX.
Hauled another pickup load to Cheri’s. We tell her every time that we only have a few things left to bring over to her shed. She has been so gracious for allowing us to store some belongings here. The shed is 12×16. This corner with our stuff is a 12′ end, so we have been somewhat successful in making a small footprint…and should only have a “few things more” 🙂
Wow! What a trailer. Son Shelby, grandson Hagen, granddaughter Brittani, great granddaughter Blakelee, and Grandson-in-law Garth arrived Friday night 9/29/14. They had a little help from Denver friend Eric Huff and pretty much cleaned out the house of all the larger items Saturday.
![20140830_162623[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140830_1626231.jpg)
Son Shelby and friend Eric waiting for more stuff to stuff in the huge trailer August 31, 2014.
The inspector came by last week and we’ve resolved most of the items, with a few loose ends that should come together. The appraisal is the next hurdle. The appraiser came by this morning and seemed impressed, so hopefully impressed enough to justify our sales price. Then only the Closing on September 15, 2014 to get through.
Ed’s first day at school
Daughter Kari and new husband Edward came down the August 23/24 weekend to pick up a few items, among many, that we are giving to family in order to thin down for our full time adventure. Kari and Edward visited McGuckin Hardware in Boulder while they were here and found the perfect backpack 🙂 Kari put this picture of Edward wearing it on facebook with the caption “Ed’s first day of school.”
Cheri and her new shed
Connie’s other wonderful sister Cheri decided to go forward with the shed she had longed for; allowing us a section for storing the stuff we’d keep until we got tired of full-timing and found a real home.
Had another great turnout at our 2nd Garage Sale. Note how Carol set up the tables and hung pictures and what-not on the walls.
Connie‘s wonderful sister Carol (and husband Roger) came up from Gilbert, AZ, not only to visit…but Carol is a garage sale pro. Thank you very much Carol! Got rid of a lot of stuff.
![20140616_093956[1]](https://streamingaround.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140616_0939561-300x168.jpg)
After having our family from Gillette, WY and Lakewood, CO come over and put their color postit tags on all the furniture and stuff they wanted; the next step was a couple garage sales and moving miscellaneous other stuff to a storage place (see Cheri’s shed above).
In addition to our trip to Savannah and the NW in our Safari, we thought we’d try a month living in our new Classic. So we spent most of January 2014 in Boulder City, NV. Enjoyed it so much we started thinking more about going full time. THEN…our friends, Cliff and Cyndy, took off in their dually and 5th wheel for AK on Mother’s day…waving “follow us” as the left Longmont.
Connie getting ready to for the zip line decline Bootleg Canyon.
