Recent photos: click to jump to the most recent photo additions (at the bottom)
The drive was long and at times scary, or tedious, or treacherous. Snowy, cold for the first 1-1/2 days of driving, and continuing cold until we reached Wickenberg AZ. I think everyone agreed that it was unseasonal for the time of year!
We spent Thursday, Oct 31 afternoon and Friday, Nov 1st looking at used trailers. One was a private sale, a large Montana, however it had suffered some of the blight caused by Arizona sun on trailer decals...not pretty. So we passed. About 4:00 pm on Friday, we were feeling a bit despondent after looking at a number of units, none of them fully checked off our must-haves list, when we passed by an RV new and consignment lot...I made Pete turn around and go back, as much as he did not want to. That's where we toured this unit:
Decals were in great shape, and everything looked good on the inside, pretty nice for a 2013 unit. Not sure how much it was used, but there isn't any obvious wear signs. Two A/C units, king bed, lots of cupboards and storage space, not much in space for crafting, but doable. Not so crazy on the living room furniture, its the fake leather, and not really my colour, but it's in great condition, and the loveseat makes into a bed. Not a big bed, only 54 inches wide, but a bed none the less. After doing a little work to make it a little more like home, here is what we have:
We have a fairly large lot area, made up of 9 concrete sections, 3 rows of 3...the far right side, the first section houses an orange tree (everyone gets a citrus tree of some kind on their lot) so the third pad extends beyond the second and third rows. This accommodates for longer units, ours is 38.5 feet long.
Inside is dark cherry wood cabinets and trim...you might think that would make it dark, but there are so many darn lights in this unit, hard to complain about dark. There are 3 slides, one for the dining table and loveseat - that faces onto the pad, the door side. The back side has one very large slide for entertainment centre, and kitchen. A third smaller slide accommodates the bed. It's king bed-sized wide, and about 2-1/3 feet deep, small windows on either side of the bed. As of today's writing, we are just getting new neighbours behind us, up til now, we have had no one behind or beside us on the back side.
Here we are with our Ackermans sign up on the nose of the RV.
You can see we don't have many neighbours to the right...that's changing right now! ha ha
Every lot has their own citrus tree, our is an orange tree. They are almost ready! Oh and they really go all out with Christmas decorations, so we decorated our orange tree with some Christmas lights from Wally-mart.
Not a big fan of the fake leather sofa, so have added a cover and pillows to warm it up and make it more homey like.
My craft corner...so that is what down-sizing is all about. Go from dedicated craft ROOM to craft CORNER, LOL! Oh well, didn't come here to craft my life away, just some of the time, LOL! Met a group of like-minded ladies, they get together in the rec centre once a week and spend the day crafting. Looking forward to meeting more of them in January.
The entertainment centre has a hidden desk...just under the TV and above the electric fireplace. Pull it out and you have a huge desk with a lift up top, kind of like the old school desks where the tops lift up. When I am crafting I pull out the desk top and use it for my cutting machine. Some of the cupboards are used for craft storage, but also for Pete's CD collection, there is a built in stereo and sound system.
Kitchen has lots of cupboard space and drawers...under the gas stove, under the fridge, which is French doored top (freezer) and bottom. Nice space beside the stairs, more storage. The hot water tank and furnace is housed in behind that area.
The dining table can be expanded, we moved the 2 other chairs into the storage trailer...it also has a hidden drawer, and all the chairs have storage under the seats. Cool!
Bathroom has shower only, so Pete uses the hot tub at the pool to replace his Epsom salts baths. I am not a fan of the glass bowl nor the sliding glass doors on the shower. The water here is horrible, and after every shower or sink use, if you don't squeegee the water away, it leaves water stains. My obsession for clean just can't handle it, LOL! So on the list for things I will change are those glass doors and the glass sink.
As mentioned before, the bed is a king size. They replaced the mattress with a lovely new one, however it's a residential king, not an RV king so it just fits into the slide, with no room to spare. Good thing I am small, I sleep on the left and there is like 6 inches between the mattress and the wall, LOL! I could not put both legs into that space...trust me I have ended up that way, it does not work. I plan to replace the mattress with an RV king one, but we'll buy that in Alberta, they charge sales tax here, and on a lot of items, I have actually found that I like the Alberta prices better than here, LOL! Some things are just not cheaper here. Other things are ridiculous, like $1.98 for 18 eggs at Walmart, go figure. Milk is cheap too, but yogurt is more expensive. What's up with that, LOL? Guess I'll have to make my own!
There is a lot of cupboard space here...inside the sliding mirror doors, on the right, two levels of clothes hanging. I have one of my crafting drawer sets in the bottom, with room on top of it for shoes. The left side is actually a walk in area, it has a shoe rack built-in to the front wall, and a set of drawers with a mirrored make up cabinet on the top at the left side. Love it!! All the cupboards have their own lighting as well. Pete has commandeered the cupboard with the lovered openings, it has two layers of clothes hanging as well. There is also a hook up for washer and dryer. From what some of the ladies tell me, having laundry in the RV is not really a bonus. Too much humidity which can be hard to manage, and of course the water use. We pay for water/power consumption on top of pad rental, so it makes sense to use the beautiful laundry facility they have like 2 minutes away from us in the North Point rec centre. Pete uses this chest of drawers and the other cupboard on its right.
One of the three pool areas on site. And yes, we are good at taking photos that make it look like we have things growing out of the top of our heads.
Week of December 8th, 2019
We have great neighbours from Ontario across from us, Dave and Cathy. They hosted a bean bag toss competition the other day...lots of fun. Pete and Cathy were runners up to Dave and his partner as the winners. I guess if you host it, you get to win it too! Pete bottom right corner, our RV in the top background.
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Found the Baskin Robbins!
Took a short trip up to Saguaro Lake. So beautiful!
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Week of December 15th, 2019
Getting a lot quiter around here! Lots of people gone home for the holidays. It's actually quite nice!
Pete golfed twice this week with Kevin and the gang from Gold Canyon at two different courses this week. This one was spectacular. Almost nobody else there.
Looking a lot like Christmas here...we checked out this lane the other day. Guess what their theme is?
Went to the Mesa Market...they are looking like Christmas too!
Can you believe that these are all for babies or small children? Incredibly detailed and beautiful! I totally love those pots...
Week of December 22nd, 2019
Christmas Week...we did something we have never done before. We went to a movie on Christmas Day! I can't believe how busy it was, so it felt kind of normal. I was expecting it to be much less busy! Ha! Great movie - Knives Out! And great popcorn, lots of extra butter! 10/10 for movie, 10/10 for popcorn!
We did have a chicken, it was pre-cooked, but I used the convection part of the microwave to re-heat it. Even second time around, it was still juicy and crispy skinned. I made home-made dressing in the Instapot - that is what makes it a Christmas dinner, along with bought cranberry sauce. There are just some things you don't change when it comes to Christmas traditions. We had apple pie for desert.
I know, no mashed potatoes or gravy...we had popcorn instead. Oh and a lot of dressing. We always eat that with the cranberry sauce, LOL!!
We had our first official company...long time AZ winterbirds Carl and Lorna, and now full-timer AZ Bonnie. We had a visit in the RV and then toured them around the resort. Dinner after at a close-by Italian restaurant. Carl and Lorna have been going so long, the owner bring them things without even having to ask, LOL! Now that's service! No pictures of company, but here is a link to the restaurant. We actually first went there with Alex a very long time ago! It is located just outside where they used to have their AZ house.
http://places.singleplatform.com/roma-cafe-ristorante/menu?ref=google
Week of December 29nd, 2019
End of the year. New beginnings for 2020. We were invited to two parties, New Years Eve and New Years Day. Lots of food, lots of laughs. New Years Day was awesome, our neighbours Dave and Cathy hosted a Polar/Solar Plunge and Ping Pong tournament. More food, more fun 😃. Pictures soon.
Happy New Year!
We hiked a mountain (big hill) that we can see from our lot. So of course some very grand views of the whole valley. Here is one shot with close up of where we are:
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Let's just say Queen of the Mountain...
