First Trip !

Well, after 3 days of packing the RV with supplies, clothes, food, etc, we finally headed out at 9am Monday the 4th to Lake Solano Park for a few days. This trip is meant to be a "shake down" cruise where we find out how to use all the systems and see what's it's like to live in an RV (versus all those years in a tent).

First we had to back into our spot. I did real good backing in...got it just where the water and electricity hookups were. Wooo wooooo. BUT, when I went to put out my slides....oooops....too close to the hookups...they will not go out. Rats. Sooooo, pull forward and put it 6 feet away.

Wrong way !

That's much beter

NOOOOO....too close. Can't extend my slides.

Finally I got it right and here's our spot for the next 4 and a half days.

All backed in nicely now.

Our awning

With the slides out. One for the bedroom and one for the living room. Adds so much space inside

We took walks every morning and took photos. Kim took most of these....gorgeous river and lake views.

I also took flora and fauna for all the nature lovers !

...and this shows Mr. Retirement Man at rest.

We have a tradition of taking self portraits by holding the camera at arms length in front of someplace we want to remember. We have dozens in our collection..

awwww...how cute.

I trust you all are enjoying our blog....thanks for following. 

Loading up "the coach"

We've spent the last 4 days trying to get our RV filled up with the necessities for our upcoming shake-down cruise and man, there is a LOT of stuff that needs to go in there...and we can't just take it out of the house and leave it in the RV. Like tools, for instance. I'm looking into getting a nice, neat tool kit at the local hardware store just for the RV. Otherwise, every time I need my hammer, it's, "is it in the coach? or in the garage"?

I've included three photos. One of our living room, our bedroom and the hallway looking from the bedroom towards the rear of the coach into the living room. We have two slides, one large one in the living room that really expands that living space and one small one for the bed to slide out a foot or so. 

Living Room. (Notice the beer bottle to the right.)

Hallway. Sink to the left. Bathroom/Shower to the right. (That's Nattie, one of our cats, scoping it out.)

Bedroom. We have "pillow windows". Allows for a nice breeze in the evening.

Today is Sunday and we're really hustling to get it all packed up because tomorrow we're heading up to Lake Solano for 3-4 days to try out all the systems before taking it out for an extended trip up towards the Redwoods on Highway 101.

Nice to hear all the comments from you that have responded. Thank you. Keep 'em coming!

Brand New Truck and RV !

What a week !

We started on last Saturday at a local RV show about 70 miles away to "look only" at some Arctic Fox 5th Wheels. After looking at EVERY ONE, we decided to buy the Silver Fox Edition you see in the photos. It's a 2006 29-footer that has hardly been used.

But....we don't have a truck to pull it with! Quick...look online to find a truck...oh wait, it can't be just any truck, it has to be an F250 extended cab, long bed and, white (Kim's favorite car color - it's safe). They cost around $56,000 new and that's waaaaay too much money for us to spend.

I found one in Brentwood, about 60 miles away. I called and arranged to go see it. Monday off we headed out the door early and drove down to see if this one could be The One. Turns out the salesman and I went to Alameda High School together, about 4 years apart so we spent a bunch of time talking about mutual friends.

The truck was a 2008 with only 12,000 miles on it and a great price so we went into his office and, an hour or so later, walked out the the paperwork for our new addition. I drove it home and Kim followed behind me....wow...it's huge...and looooong.

We drove down 70 miles yesterday to have the tow package put in the truck and to get a "walk around" indoctrination of our new RV. We were at the dealership from 9am until 3pm. Driving home in all that traffic was pretty interesting. We got 19.8 mpg going down (empty) and 10.8 coming home (towing)...not bad.

A number of our neighbors came over that evening to see what is this beast in front of our house so we gave them the outside and inside tour. I think we'll have an RV Party this weekend so we can celebrate. We've been looking at an RV for over 6 years at least. We've gone from a 14' tent trailer for $8,000 all the way up to a 40' motor home for $350,000 and back down again. This is the one we've decided was right for us.

So...loan papers, new registrations, more paperwork, RV clubs to join, towing package to be put in....pant, pant, pant...time for a cold one!

New Backyard Furniture

One of the first things we did was to make some end tables to match our outside furniture. They're quite simple but match our BBQ prep table that we did a month ago. We stained the arms of the chairs a darker color to match as well. Now....on to a patio table that so we can eat all that delicious grilled food !

Stocked Refrigerator !

Of course, one of the first things we did was to stock our refrigerator. Gotta keep hydrated during the Indian Summer. It was 95 here in Dixon yesterday and 98 today and 101 for Monday....gasp.

September 24th Update

Well, the other day was the first day since retirement that I did not know what day it was. A milestone!
Kim and I have been catching up on projects that we've put off for months....rearranging rooms, making backyard furniture, going through memory boxes....stuff like that.

We used to have a TV room set up in our back bedroom but decided to bring our new 46" HD into the living room and hook it up to our stereo....WOW...great idea.

Stay tuned for updates....we have a couple of real good ones tomorrow.