TAKING A BREAK FROM RENOVATIONS: USERY MOUNTAIN REGIONAL PARK, MESA, AZ

Life seems to be speeding up – I guess we are cramming in much more than usual.  Thankfully, we are able to take a short break (until next week) in our renovation planning, so we moved 10 miles to Usery Mountain Regional Park on Thursday.  How we managed to snag a reasonably level campsite at this popular park is a story in itself (I’ll save it for slower news day!), but snag it we did and have settled in until Sunday.

Our first stay at Usery was a bit over a year ago, in December of 2009.  I reviewed the campground back then (click here to read that review and see more photographs) and nothing has changed – though we had forgotten that just about every site has some leveling issues.  Though the extremely well maintained sites (cleaned and raked between campers) are very spacious, the sloped parking pads are better suited to shorter rigs than to longer, and to 5th wheels than to motorhomes.  Big motorhomes settle into many of the spaces anyway (sometimes with a tire or two off the ground) - the beauty, proximity to the Phoenix metro area, the birds, the hiking and the ambiance are irresistible.

This visit had an added attraction for us: blogger JB (John and Brenda Brown, of John and Brenda’s Incredible Journey) let us know that they were already in the park – and it turned out that our site is a very short walk from theirs.  Not unlike ours (and many RVer’s), JB’s blog is food-centric – and we immediately accepted their gracious dinner invitation.

Two more guests – also known to me through the blogosphere – took a seat around the happy hour campfire, Rod and Loyce Ivers (Retired Rod).  Rod and Loyce are spending the winter in Mesa, and so it was by happy circumstance that we three couples, known to each other through the internet, were able to meet in person.

And even better that the meeting was in the Brown’s big, beautiful motorhome over Brenda’s wonderful meal!  Grilled steaks, garlic prawns (recently purchased in Louisiana), Caesar salad, garlic bread… and even a dessert of angel food cake, fresh berries and cream.  Incredible!  Thank you, thank you, thank you – it was such a pleasure to relax in the company of friendly fellow RV’ers over a delicious meal that required nothing from us but to show up and enjoy!  An excellent antidote to the rush of the past few days – and I picked up an idea for an improvement to our motorhome that I will be adding to the list for RV Renovators (a narrow shelf behind the sofa with a few cup wells and a magazine holder).

Rod and Loyce brought along their new puppy, Biscuit.  As John said, it is not possible to get a photo of Biscuit sitting still (let alone posing).  I would have loved to see her tear around in a frantic display of excited puppy energy, but the lush Sonoran desert simply isn’t puppy-friendly.

Time now for a quick breakfast, then we are off to Gold Canyon for a visit with our friend Gloria Burke.  I know several readers of this blog know Gloria and follow her blog, now an insightful journal of her life as she moves forward following the loss of her beloved husband and travel partner, Tom, a year ago.  We’ve caught up with Gloria in Kerrville and Detroit, now in Arizona.  I always look forward to our meetings with this remarkable woman. 

DIARY OF AN RV INTERIOR RENOVATION: DAYS 1 AND 2

Have you ever watched “What Not To Wear”? After deciding to put herself in the hands of “professional stylists”, a woman spends two days shopping in New York City for new clothes on a budget provided by the TV show. Needless to say, the budget for our interior renovations are not provided by a TV show… but in many ways, our experience has been similar these past two days.

On day one, we sallied forth to begin our “shopping process” – and ended up exhausted, overloaded, and wondering what the heck we were doing! On day two we awoke optimistic, rallied, and ended up feeling positive about the experience. Time will tell whether or not this is reality!

We arrived at RV Renovators in Mesa, AZ, around 3:30 pm on Monday. This is a highly recommended, moderately sized RV repair and renovation facility with a tightly jammed parking/work area. Before long, we were settled in amongst the other RV’s with a 50 amp electric cord snaking across the parking lot. Workers bustled around, moving RV’s, large pieces of equipment, and rolling toolboxes from place to place. Lots of movement, generators, noise.

Once settled, we finalized our Master List of “Things to Be Done” (14 items ranging from “replace windshield” to “new knob on the bathroom door”), wandered through the office and customer lounge, met the service manager, and walked a couple blocks to the carpet/fabric/window covering shop he recommended. After scheduling an appointment with the service manager for 8:30 on Tuesday morning, we spent a happy, innocent night in the motorhome.

7:00 to 8:30 Tuesday morning: up and showered, a bit of computer time, breakfast… ready for our 8:30 appointment.

8:30: waiting for the service manager.

8:45: still waiting for the service manager.

9:00: waiting, waiting, waiting… raising our eyebrows, rolling our eyes…

9:15 to 12:45: talk, talk, talk with the service manager. Get an idea of what we have let ourselves in for – YIKES! Talk expenses. Talk budget. Tour a few RV’s looking at recently installed laminate floors and TV cabinet remodels. Get really, really hungry and overloaded with ideas and conversation. Start to crash. Become withdrawn and crabby.

12:45: step back into our own quiet, familiar, lovely, comfortable, almost-paid-for motorhome and realize how much we LOVE carpet – warm, soft, pretty, comfortable, cozy carpet. Eat ham sandwiches; alternately zone out and talk non-stop. Make two or three additional lists. Add more items to Master List.

1:30: walk back to the flooring shop to pick up samples of carpet and rolled vinyl flooring. Ask questions about grades of carpet. Ask questions about vinyl flooring. Ask questions about different kinds of window coverings. Ask how to decide between 879 carpet possibilities. Walk home, remembering things we forget to put on our lists.

3:30: revisit past discussions. Revise our Master List. Refocus on our priorities. Make notes on our individual “to do” lists. Wonder what is on each other’s lists. Wonder what we are forgetting.

4:00: move the motorhome to a vacant piece of blacktop that is near a sewer hookup – it is obvious we will be here for another couple of nights.

4:30: walk back to the flooring shop, exchange carpet samples, ask more questions, forget the answers, look at fabric for new curtains. Discuss possibilities for cockpit curtains.

5:30: eat leftovers found in our refrigerator. Slurp cocktails. Sit quietly. Eat chocolate. Look at our lists. Eat more chocolate. Ponder.

7:30: I fell on the bed, turned on PBS, and drifted off to the soothing monotone of a documentary about… something! Robert E. Lee? John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin? Felt great gratitude for my comfortable bed.

End of Day One.

Day Two:

6:00 am: start whispering to each other about our thoughts during the night. Jump out of bed, all fired up. Make tea. Computer time. Ah, good, a lead on a place to stay (out of the motorhome) during the renovation. Consult our lists. Fire off a couple of emails to keep things moving. Wonder aloud where we will put everything we have to move out of the motorhome.

7:00 am: Showers. Breakfast. Constant chit-chat and reminders.

8:00 am: Consult and combine lists. Highlight those items that are our responsibility – window coverings, carpet selection, TV purchase. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!

9:00 am: try to talk to the service manager, who is on the phone and busy. Walk back to the carpet store, exchange small carpet samples for large ones, smile and say hello to those employees who now recognize us, get samples of possible curtain fabrics.

10:30 am: service manager arrives and we resume discussions. Lots of details. Longer lists. Service manager walks through motorhome, estimating the time needed for each job. Total number of hours: approximately 90. Estimated cost for labor: $9000. Within budget – yay!

11:30 am: leftovers for lunch.

12:00: off to The Blind Company, Inc. to pick up samples for day/night shades and get cost estimate. More education.

12:30: Run through our lists again. Have we done everything critical while still on the lot? YES! Can we put off the remaining decisions until later? YES! Is it warm enough for a hike? YES!

So, we headed off to Usery Mountain Park to see whether they had a site suitable for us to move into tomorrow when we leave RV Renovators parking lot. Maybe, we’ll see. Did a nice hike in the warmest weather we’ve experienced in a several weeks. After a short rest back at home, off to a delicious dinner with Margaret and Ian at the Blue Adobe. Excellent food, excellent company, excellent margarita. Good lead for a one-month rental in their loft building in downtown Phoenix. Everything is looking up.

9:00: Odel hit the sack, and now here I go, too. All this research and decision making is TOUGH stuff!

End of Day Two.

MOVING ON IN 2011: LESS TRAVEL, MORE PROJECTS

Odel and I are in complete agreement that 2010 was our best travel year yet.  We visited so many places we had never been, we visited with friends and family at the right intervals, and we had few mechanical problems.  Just one event marred the year: the death of Luna.  We still miss her.  :( 

The calendar change to the new year is a time many traveling bloggers review their travels of the past year.  I might have done the same, except we are so busy with our winter plans that I don’t have time!  Not much travel and sightseeing for us this winter, as we have some big projects on the horizon.

Tomorrow we leave Yuma for RV Renovators in Phoenix to get an estimate for the renovations we plan to make in February.  Scoopy is a 2002 model, and has been a fulltiming rig for all her life – she looks a little tired.  We renovated her exterior 2 years ago; now it is time for the interior.  We’ve got a long list of changes we’d like to make: new window coverings; replace the bedroom carpet; remove the kitchen and bathroom tile and the living room carpet and replace it all with vinyl flooring; replace/reset the windshield; possibly replace the compact washer and dryer with a new set; replace the big, old, heavy living room TV with a lightweight, flat screen TV and remodel the cabinetry. 

In a discussion with RV Renovators on the phone, they estimated a 3-week timeframe to do the work.  Though we would be able to live in Scoopy most of that time (except while they carpet the bedroom), we would need to be out of the motorhome each day from 8 to 5.  Very unappealing – so we also need to find a place (home, apartment, condo, park model) to rent in the Phoenix area while the work is being done. 

Planning, planning, planning.  We have mile long lists, and seemingly endless discussions – it will be a relief to finally get started!

Beyond Scoopy’s renovation, Odel has decided on an upgrade, too.  Those of you who have had joint replacements will be able to relate: time for a new knee.  Once we finish our motorhome renovations, we’ll return to Sacramento to have that done, hoping he will be through with surgery and rehab by mid-May.

So, no time to reminisce about 2010 – we’ve got work to do!