Remodeling

What kind of fools remodel a brand new trailer? The kind of fools that: a) don’t like things

the way they are; b) have lots of time on their hands; and c) aren’t afraid of getting their

hands dirty. In other words… Rick and Cathy.

It started simply enough. Take a look at the picture below, which is of the alcove where

the head of our bed is. The dark brown panel on the wall is the “headboard” of our bed;

it is padded and covered with dark brown vinyl, which goes nicely with the wood trim

in the trailer. We like it just fine, with one major problem. Take a look at it again: it’s

probably 6” off center to the right. Why? Beats me; let’s just chalk it up to more

shenanigans at the Heartland factory.

Cathy noticed it first. She asked me if we could recenter it over the bed. Sure, I replied, no problem

- it’s just nailed to the wall. The only issue will be patching the holes in the wall.

It’s kind of hard to explain to someone that doesn’t own an RV, but the typical RV wall is covered

with really thin plywood-type paneling that usually has some kind of wallpaper-like pattern “glued” to

the wall. It’s not unattractive, but it is, in our opinion, bland and generic. Think about it something like

the wallpaper in a halfway decent hotel.

Of course, there’s no way to easily and cleanly patch holes in this kind of covering. Next question

from Cathy: “Can we paint these walls?” The covering is firmly a part of the panel itself; I scratched

my head and solemnly opined that we could give the walls a quick sanding, prime them and then

paint. I believe that the walls, prepared in this manner, will hold paint just fine.

So, that’s what we did. We sanded, primed and painted all of the walls AND the ceiling in our

bedroom. The ceiling is flat white ceiling paint. The alcove walls and the wall opposite are the bright

teal that you see. The remaining (small) walls are light gray.

Cathy also bought some fabric and redid the covering on the valences and also bought new pillows

and covers for the bed.

We’re done for now. I hope.

Photos below…

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park exists in two sections, one east and one west of Tucson. The eastern section, Rincon Mountain District, is less than ten miles from the RV park we are staying in. Yesterday, we took a quick, spur-of-the-moment drive to the park. We had no idea if it would even be open. Not only was it open, but there was an NPS ranger on duty! He and his counterpart in the western section were deemed essential personnel and are still being paid.

We took an eight-mile scenic drive through the park. Cathy described it best, in only one word: spectacular.

I’ve said this before, - we both grew up in the Mojave desert. The Mojave is characterized by Joshua trees - fabulous in their own right - and sagebrush. The Mojave looks nothing like the Sonoran desert around Tucson. There are cacti and other strange-looking plants everywhere.

We’ll be back for sure. I’ve got the lifetime senior pass, so it costs us nothing to enter a National Park. Oldest daughter Sherry is visiting in a few weeks, and we’ll be doing some hiking here - guarantee it!

Here’s a few pics:

 

Winter Home

Last Friday (1/11) we left San Clemente and headed to our winter home in Tucson. We enjoyed our brief stay in San Clemente. We were staying at San Clemente State Beach, and got a chance to enjoy some warm sunny weather and beautiful scenery. Of course, we were also just a few miles from Jill, Joe and the grandkids.

Tucson is just about 400 miles from San Clemente. Since we’re in no hurry, we decided to do it in two days’ drive, spending the overnight in Yuma, AZ.

We were driving on Interstate 8 from San Diego to Tucson, a road we’ve never been on. This route took us through some beautiful desert country. It dips right down to maybe a quarter-mile from the US-Mexico border near El Centro. The fence along the border is readily visible from the freeway.

We’re staying in a large (400+ sites) RV park in Tucson. This whole area is festooned with RV parks. From El Centro on, every town shows, right along the freeway, a number of RV parks. For example, the park we stayed at in Yuma probably had 200 spaces. It was surrounded on two sides by two even larger parks.

Why? It’s got to be a combination of cost and climate. We had rain yesterday in Tucson - maybe a quarter-inch - and the temperature was still 61 degrees. The forecast for the week shows highs in the mid-60’s every day with lows around 45-50. There’s no shortage of flat land here, either. With all the competition, space rentals are fairly reasonable, especially if one pulls into a place for a month.

This place is a 55+ park. It offers a ton of amenities - pool, tennis court, pickle ball, bocci ball, weight room, etc. Additionally, their multi-page newsletter is chock full of activities; everything from trips to shopping malls to exercise classes to quilting are available. For me, I am intrigued by both a wood carving group and a woodworking group; the latter even has its own wood shop1

Neither Cathy nor I are big joiners. We’ll have to see how much we buy in to all of these activities.

I’ve always thought the Sonoran desert around Tucson was beautiful. Tucson is surrounded by mountains and is crawling with cacti. Here’s a shot I snapped while walking the dogs yesterday…

Endless Summer

Here’s a couple of photos showing how tough winters are in San Clemente. This may not be all that impressive to our California friends, but I am sure the Ohioans reading this will be a little jealous.

It was 72 degrees here today - warm enough to throw on a pair of shorts and take a long walk down the beach. This shot is from the south end of San Clemente, at the well-known surf beach known as Trestles.

We had dinner with Cathy’s former boss Tom and his wife Linda, at a restaurant in Dana Point Harbor. (Dana Point is the last visible point of land in the photo above.) I snapped this photo at dinner…

San Clemente

A happy and joyous New Year to you all!

After our family Christmas in Paso Robles, Cathy and I spent an additional week there. On Christmas Day, we drove seven miles from the hilltop cabin where we enjoyed Christmas to the Wine Country RV park in Paso Robles. This is a beautiful and well-equipped park, one of the nicest we have ever stayed in.

We spent some time in Paso looking around at housing. We are seriously thinking about settling there when we stop full-time RVing. We (mostly Cathy) had researched pricing on housing that might be of interest to us. We saw a few places that intrigued us greatly… but, of course, we are not ready to settle down yet. What we did do was more fully define what we think we’d like to buy when we do get ready to settle.

Yesterday (Jan. 2) we packed up and drove some 265 miles south to San Clemente State Beach. San Clemente has a number of full hook-up camp sites. We have camped here many times over the years.

We’ll be here until the 11th. We’ve both got doctor’s appointments (we’re changing doctors to ones based in California), the dogs need their annual shots, etc. Of course, we’re now in the same town as the grandkids (and their parents) so we expect to see them a lot.

Here’s the view out the back window of the trailer. You can see the ocean through the trees…

I snapped this one at sunset today. That’s Santa Catalina island pictured; it’s got to be 30 miles or more from here.

Today we went with Jill, Sherry and the grandkids to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, in nearby Escondido. All of us, particularly Madeline, had a great time; she got to pet a kangaroo!. We also saw a number of baby animals, including this newborn African elephant:

Here’s Madeline showing us she can hula-hoop!