Moved Into New Space

We spent yesterday - Josie's day off - moving into our new space at Pioneer RV Resort. We were fortunate that the rain held off all day and we were able to get settled before the rain started. It took awhile to get things put away enough that they wouldn't be all over the trailer during the short drive from space #446 to space #90. Our new space is directly across from the clubhouse where all the amenities are located, including the post office, laundry, swimming pool, social hall, activity rooms and all of the offices. The move began at around 9:30 and we were all done by about 3 PM. Here are a couple shots of our new location:

The second shot is taken from the clubhouse to show how convenient it is.

There was a brief moment of concern when the manager of the park insisted that we were too far back in the space and we needed to move forward about 8 feet. After he had a discussion with the owner, and after I told him that if we moved closer to the road, our truck would be in the street all night on occasions when we would hitch up the night before for early departures the following day, we were granted the existing location on the space. I didn't think that it would be acceptable to have our truck in the street all night long. Now, we are able to hitch the fifth wheel the night before and still be completely off the street. Also, we have a 90 foot space and the rear half would be wasted if we moved closer to the street.

We are ready now for the final leg of our stay for this season. In just over one month we will be on the road again toward Washington and Wyoming...

Timing is Everything

Our gravel to be spread on our new, permanent space here at the park arrived yesterday. It will be spread today and we will be able to move onto our new space tomorrow, Thursday, which coincides with Josie's day off. Good timing.

We have not had any measurable rain since January 15 in Phoenix. There is a storm forecast to come through which will dump measurable rain in the area on, you guessed it, Thursday. Bad timing. What are the odds for that happening? I wish I could have put some money on a lottery somewhere to benefit from that misfortune. There is a second storm in the forecast following the one on Thursday which will make the next four days wet ones. Maybe we are not suppose to move into a new space.

My second day at the LA Fitness center went well yesterday. I don't know when the results will begin to be seen, but so far, after two days of one hour workouts, no results have been seen on the scale. Of course, there is a chance that the scale is "stuck", but not too likely. I guess I will need to make some modifications to my diet which has been all over the place with our messed up schedule the last couple of months.

Josie works again today and I will pay another visit to the fitness center. I am beginning to get the hang of this schedule and so far it is working out with me taking Josie to work and stopping there for an hour's workout after dropping her off. If I can only get some results on the scale...

LA Fitness Start

We allowed one hour for the first day trip back for Josie at the flower shop. It took us 1/2 hour. We stopped at the Fry's market down the street from her shop to pick up a dozen donuts for her to take to work and she still had ten minutes left before starting. The trip is almost entirely on I-17, so as long as there aren't any accidents along the way, it shouldn't take more than about 30-35 minutes on any day. Her first day back was very good, and she is set to go for the next 5 weeks.

I went to the LA Fitness Center after dropping off Josie at the shop. It is the first visit to this location and it went very well. It is located just off the freeway at the exit we take (Northern Ave) to go to Josie's shop, so it is very convenient. I spent about an hour on various equipment and enjoyed the time. I will probably do that every day that I drop Josie off at work. I am getting a bit frustrated about not losing my extra weight and hope that this is the ingredient that is missing.

I made a stop at the Ford dealership on the way home to take care of a nagging message I have been getting about the Diesel Exhaust Fluid level being low. It turns out that the new engine that my truck has requires this fluid about every 5,000 miles, depending on how the truck is driven, and I knew nothing about this aspect of the engine. It also turns out that this fluid is not included in my service contract that I got with the truck, so I decided to get a couple gallons on my own at either Auto Zone , Walmart or some other location to carry along in the truck for occasions when I might get low on the fluid again. I got an oil change - included in the service contract - while there at the dealership, so we are set to go to Jackson as far as the truck is concerned.

The day was concluded with the ordering of our gravel for our new RV site at the Resort and then taking another trip to pick up Josie following her work day at 6 PM. It was a rather full day, but I felt like we accomplished quite a bit...

Final Phase Starts Today

We made what is probably our next to last trip to storage yesterday. There were several boxes of items that we decided we could do without over the summer that we will be in Jackson, WY. There will probably be one more trip to storage before we hitch it up and head out of town in May. The new tenants for our house will be moving in on May 15, so that part of the plan is underway.

Josie begins her final phase today of working at the flower shop. She is nor excited about returning for the final five weeks, but it helps generate the extra money that we will use for our trip north. If we can only get the management here at Pioneer to get off the dime and finish up the preparation for our new space, we will be ready to move there and try it out for the remaining time before heading out. As far as we know, the only step remaining is to spread some new gravel on the space. It should have happened before now, but we know they are also working on several other spaces to prepare them for long term use.

As Josie begins her final work schedule, I will combine driving her to work with visits to LA Fitness for workouts. We joined LA Fitness - free of charge - as a benefit of our insurance program. While Josie gets exercise at work, I will (hopefully) be getting exercise at the fitness center. We need to be ready for all the expected hiking and biking we anticipate this summer...

More for Storage

We did get some items identified and packed for storage yesterday. We will be making another trip there today after packing even more boxes for storage. It is important for us to identify all the items that we will not need on our summer trip so that we travel with the lightest possible load. That assures the best gas mileage and also improves our ride. By the way, I calculated our gas mileage on the new truck so far and we are getting 14.2 mpg. That is mostly local driving and represents about 2 mpg better than the old truck. I'm anxious to get some figures for towing, as I believe they will also be better than the last truck/RV combination.

Today is Josie's final day of rest before going back to work at the flower shop. She will work through Mother's Day on May 8, and we plan to hit the road by May 10. The time seems to be racing by now so we will buckle-down and get everything in order over the next several weeks...

Clearing Bills

As it was the first of the month and we are getting closer to leaving the area, we wanted to clear as many bills as possible. We started with some low balance accounts that were a no brainer to pay off, and we combined that task with a couple others.

We started by taking our uniforms back to the stadium. Our managers, Danny and Chris, were both there and we said goodbye to them while handing over the uniforms. Both of them were insistent that we return again next year so we told them we would, even though, at this point in time, we would not return. A lot can happen in one year, so we wanted to keep that option open in case we change our minds.

The next stop was Mario's where Josie got a haircut. It was close to TNT Car Wash, so we stopped and had the truck washed for the first time. What a difference from the last truck. Because we don't have a Dually anymore, we were able to go through the normal car wash lane and paid less than half the cost for our truck this time. Here, we watched them perform the detail work after the wash:

We stopped at Home Depot and Macy's to clear our accounts there and we now are back to zero on those. Slowly, all of the other accounts will be cleared from all the house expenses that we incurred. It will take some time, but the extra income from Jackson will go a long way toward clearing the rest of them. I'm sure everybody fights the same battle of keeping expenses down in today's economy.

It is only two more weeks before our tenants move into our house. That will also go a long way in keeping expenses down so we are anxious for that phase to begin. We will pick up the action today in getting things together inside the RV. It is almost "under control", so we are anxious to get that work done before we move to our new site here at Pioneer which is currently having some work done to it to make it nicer. That move should be any day now...

Do Nothing Day

We have been so tired and ready for a restful day that we took the opportunity yesterday to do nothing. Well, except for Josie doing a little laundry, the day was spent catching up on some recorded TV shows and watching other movies  - mostly westerns. It felt good to not have to scramble to get ready for any activity or appointment. The inside work will continue today.

It is also April 1 today, so don't get fooled by anybody...