It Is Finally a Vacation!

When I chose Dead Horse Ranch State Park for my vacation, it was for two reasons.  One, there are plenty of outside dog-friendly activities. Two, I can have a camp fire with s'mores and honest-to-goodness logs (no propane imitation here).  That was all I really wanted to feel like I had achieved vacation nirvana. 

I gave it a good try our first night here but between Drake vomiting marshmallows and the stubbornness of my logs-which refused to give me that flamey glow-it was a failure.  Then Drake ended up in the animal hospital and nothing sounded fun without him.

Tonight I got my camp fire.  Drake sat on the "love seat" lawn chair with me while we enjoyed toasted marshmallows and a care-free moment under the stars.  Now, with my co-pilot next to me by the fire, I finally have my perfect vacation.

Luck Be A Lady

I decided to live the high life over my third solo weekend.  Cliff Castle Casino allows overnight parking lot stays but they also have a really nice RV "Resort" called Distant Drums.  When I checked in, we realized that either they or I had booked the next weekend but they got it all worked out and gave me two $10 vouchers for the casino.  The very nice man who escorted me to my site went the wrong way so it was an adventure to get into the site despite the fact that it was a pull-in and not a back-in site.  The pad was huge and concrete-lots of room for my chair.  The view was toward Jerome and was so spectacular that I never closed the curtains in the front.

This weekend was my first experience with 50A service and also the first time that I left the water hooked up.  At Thousand Trails, I was worried about freezing when I shouldn't have been and just used my water connection to fill the on-board tank.  At Distant Drums, I left it connected and thoroughly enjoyed the water pressure and blessed quiet of not running the water pump.  I didn't connect the hose very well the first day, though, and woke up to one of the maintenance personnel thawing the hose bib with a heat gun.

Drake and I had plenty of walks on the nearby trails.  They managed to feel very private and isolated despite being on the fringes of Camp Verde.

Pops stopped by on his birthday and we spent the vouchers at the casino.  Pops won enough to give Sandy and I won enough to stay an extra night.  That turned out to be a blessing because the next day I woke up with a 103 degree fever and called in sick to work.  Because I was sick, I worried that I missed out on the pool and hot tub.  It turns out that they were closed for maintenance so nothing was lost on that trip.

I might stay there again because of the cleanliness, helpfulness of the staff and the view.  I might not stay there again because of the cleanliness and helpfulness of the staff.  The staff stopped by to pick up trash at individual sites.  That encouraged a bit of entitled behavior from the more well-heeled patrons in the shiny big rigs that really turned me off.  Also, that kind of solicitousness borders on intrusiveness.

I Can Be Bought

My second weekend out was auspicious:  I was driving without a co-pilot for the first time and I got a night free at a local campground.  Thousand Trails offered me a stay-1-get-1-free trial in order to persuade me to buy a membership  I had no intention of falling for a sales pitch but a free night camping with full hook-ups is always awesome.

I promised myself that I wouldn't call Pops once that weekend.  I owe myself an apology:  I had to call when I couldn't empty the black tank.  Pops came out with tools and decided the valve was frozen.  It is really great to have a dad that will wade through sewage for his grown daughter.

After a good hand-washing, we had lunch at the little restaurant on the preserve.  They make a pretty good grilled cheese!

It was a really peaceful weekend and it turned out that the preserve was lovely and right on the river.  Maybe I should rethink that membership?

First Adventure Beyond The Back Yard

My first official day as a full-timer was also the first day I ever drove a motorhome-12/13/2013.  I was secretly hoping Mitt had updated his will for Sandy because I was not sure how it would go.  It turns out that I should have been worried about Drake who tried to spend the trip where he always does:  by my feet.  In this case, my feet were busy trying to work the gas pedal and brake.  Mitt got him out from under my feet just in time for me to avoid a tree and fence.

No road trip is complete without a stop at Starbucks!  We got our fix and then went to get new batteries for the rig.  We spotted just the right number of batteries in the RV section and thought we were so lucky.  We were so not lucky.

My very first stay as an RV'er was Dead Horse Ranch State Park (in keeping with my goal to go to every state park with space for RVs in Arizona).  It had great views, lots of room to adventure and I got there all by myself.

Pops swapped out the batteries, wished me luck and went home with Sandy.  A few hours later, he was back.  It was weird but all my lights blew out.  Then the furnace stopped working and the thermostat went dead even though I was on shore power.  Weird.  This is where the part about not being lucky comes in...  We had replaced the old 6V batteries with shiny new 12V batteries.  Sigh.  Lesson learned:  check before you buy.  Got it.  At least we are keeping the nice people at A1 in business.