Vacation

Throwback Thursday Wanderlust

Four Corners Area These pictures must have been taken somewhere between 1998 and 2004. Verna and I were touring the southwest states back in the days when we were both working and living in California.

We took the top two photos at the Four Corners Monument where the state lines of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico intersect. I took the bottom photo the same day at Monument Valley, which is about a hundred miles west of the corners along the Utah-Arizona border. Verna is posing in front of the famous “Mittens” escarpments made famous by their repeated appearance in Hollywood western movies, mostly by director John Ford featuring John Wayne.

Later this month, we will begin an excursion that takes us to California for a couple of days, then on to Nevada, Utah and finally Arizona again. The Four Corners are not on the itinerary, but we plan on spending a night at Monument Valley.

We always take pictures of our trips and plan on posting some of them here and on other social media. Stay tuned!

Maximizing the RV Parking Spot

Patio Clearance 3D

I figured a good way to demonstrate how close the new RV fits into the parking spot was to take a 3D image pair showing the overlap between the RV, the patio and the RV bedroom slide out. Click on the image to enlarge.

Here are a couple of images showing the RV parked in the barely big enough parking space with slide-outs and awning deployed: image 1, image 2.

From the other blog:

Now, we have upgraded to a Class A diesel pusher which is just about the shortest in the diesel category at 35 feet nine inches. We have three slide outs and an 18 foot awning, all of which can be deployed in the space available behind the garage. But just barely.

Of course, if you don’t yet have your free pair of 3D glasses to view the image above, you can see the 2D version here.

Desert Wildflowers

Desert Wildflowers

One of the best things about spring is the desert wildflowers. We had just barely passed out of town limits on our way to California today when I saw this patch of poppies and other wildflowers along the roadside.

There were wildflowers all along the route to Palm Desert today and a brief point when passing between Chiriaco and Cactus City where we saw lots of beavertail cactus bright pink flowers. We didn’t get any sharp images of those, but we will eventually, since there are plenty of beavertails with flower buds at home.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Beautiful Arizona

Beautiful Arizona

I snapped this image today just after crossing the Colorado River on our way home from the latest visit to California visiting the kids and grandson. We had a great visit out there, but, as usual, we are always glad to be back in Arizona.

The puffy clouds over the rugged Arizona mountains made for a very nice background for the Arizona Welcome sign along Interstate 10 in Ehrenberg, just after crossing over from California. As I said before, we are always glad to be back in Arizona.

We may be going to see the kids and grandson again in a few weeks. Driving the new RV, the trip to California has been more of a pleasure than a chore. We are planning a longer tip in April and again in August for some major fun events.

Bottoms Up

Bottoms Up

The steep driveway and the added length of our new RV combined to raise the back end up quite high over the concrete as I drove it down to the road. Verna took this photo and remarked that we looked like the Titanic sinking from her point of view.

Well, it wasn’t quite that bad of course. The new RV made the transition to the road without incident as we took it to get the diesel fuel tank topped of in anticipation of our California excursion next weekend.

We spent a good portion of this week putting “stuff” in the motorhome. Verna got new dinnerware and I got a new portable grill for the RV and we began transferring over the goods and accessories that were removed from the old Georgetown. We should be good to go for the trip a week from today.

Our New RV Palace

Thor Palazzo RV

Palace in Italian is “Palazzo” which is the model of the new RV we expect to take delivery on next week. We’re towing our old trailer and will also transport out current RV to the dealer to trade in on the new palace.

The new motorhome is four feet longer than the one we’re trading in, and has a wheelbase of eighteen and a third feet which is only 2.3 feet longer than current. I estimate we can get the new rig in our RV drive OK, but will be exercising extreme caution when we park it here the first time.

After we bring it home and move all the household items into it, our maiden voyage should be just after Valentine’s day on an excursion to see little Jerry, the grandson. After that, possibly in April, we will take the palace to northern California to welcome our second great grandchild, baby Maci, into the world.