Cochiti Lake Recreation Area, New Mexico

Current Location: Pena Blanca, New Mexico

We pulled into the Cochiti Lake Recreation Area late yesterday afternoon. It's about 30 miles north of Albuquerque and about 12 miles off the highway. It's very remote once you leave the highway, but the roads getting here are pretty good. It's always a bit nerve-wracking heading into these remote areas for the first time, not knowing what to expect. But the description of the campground stated that it was big-rig friendly so we figured it would be ok.

A lot of campgrounds bill themselves as "big-rig friendly" but we're finding that that is very subjective. Sometimes, they only have one or two sites that we could fit in. Other times, the roads are too narrow or there are too many trees or other obstacles which make it extremely difficult. We are learning that it's good to have one or two backup options just in case our first choice doesn't work. We never had these problems when we were in our 24' motorhome!

But back to this campground. It is managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers so we were pretty confident that the description was fairly accurate. We had never been to a COE campground but had heard good things about them. This campground is pretty nice. There's an older section and a brand new section (just opened this year). We were first assigned a spot in the older section, but after a couple of attempts at getting into the spot we determined that wasn't going to work (too small). The new section had much larger sites, but most are reserved for the weekend. We went back to the office to ask if we could have one of the newer sites as long as we were gone before the reservation date. We weren't sure if we were going to stay 2 or 3 nights here, but I guess that made our decision. We'll only stay 2 nights and pull out on Friday morning.

All of the sites have a nice view of the lake. That's us on the left.

Because there are no trees here, the sites aren't terribly private, but they are reasonably spaced. It sounds like this place gets pretty busy in the summer. There is boating (no wake only) and swimming in the lake.

I think 2 nights will turn out to be just long enough. There aren't many hiking opportunities, as I thought. And as Hunter quickly discovered last night, the ground is full of loose stickers which have blown off nearby bushes. He's pretty much forced to stay on the road. The weather today isn't cooperating for outdoor adventures anyway. It is very windy. The forecast for Albuquerque was for gusts up to 50 mph. With the lack of trees, I suspect it is always somewhat windy around here, but it's downright miserable out there now. So today has ended up being a pretty lazy day, which is ok too. I'm just glad we're not trying to drive in this. I think we learned our lesson on that one already!

That's it for now. Tomorrow we'll continue westward, with our next stop nearby the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert in Arizona. More on those later...

We PASSED!, on our way to California, and Happy Anniversary to us!

Current location: Lubbock, TX

I wanted to post the good news yesterday, but we were in an area without internet or cell phone service.

So first an update on our driving tests that we took on Monday...we both passed! Hooray, we're legal!! As with so many things that you fret needlessly over, both the written and driving tests ended up being rather easy. Of course I can say that now that they're behind us. For the written test, they hand you a book and tell you to read Chapter 15. The back of the book contains about 30 sample questions from that chapter. The actual test contained 20 questions, most of which were exact replicas of the sample questions. The driving test took about 10-15 minutes. It followed much the same route that we took to get to the office, so there were no surprises. There were a few right turns and a few left turns. We then went down a side street and had to back straight up for a few feet. No markers or anything to drive between, just straight back. And that's it. Really nothing we hadn't done before. But boy, was it a huge relief to get it over with. I think we were more anxious than we realized because we were both exhausted that night. That was the last of our many "chores" to do before settling down for the summer and we now feel free! After all, that's what this lifestyle is all about. Although we do have a deadline to reach California, we have given ourselves more than enough time to get there, so we can just take the slow and easy route. We can finally follow the advice that so many have shared with us...slow down, relax and enjoy the journey.

So we are now on our way out of Texas, slowly. This is one big state! Of course we are practically going from the southeastern corner to the northwestern corner so no wonder it's taking forever. We planned Monday to be a pretty short day, knowing that we would have a late start due to our driving tests. We spent the night in Meridian, TX, just a bit oustide of Waco. It was about a 4 hour day, covering about 200 miles. We overnighted in the Bosque Bottoms RV Park and were the only ones there, other than the camphost. It was very park-like,serene and peaceful...
...until the trains started rumbling through in the middle of the night and the gunshots (not too close) around 6 am. OK, time to get up! We were back on the road by 8.

Today we made it to Lubbock, which was just over 300 miles. We could have probably gone further but are trying to stick to our 300-mile rule. Besides once we pass Lubbock, there wasn't too many other options for another 100 miles or so and that would be too long. So we pulled into an RV park along the highway around 2 and have had a relaxing afternoon. It's nothing special (not even worthy of a picture), but the rate is good and it's reasonably clean. And hopefully there will be no gunshots tonight!

Tomorrow will be a slightly longer day as we have targeted a Corps of Engineer campground north of Albuquerque. It is more our type of place - on a lake in the woods. We plan to spend 3 nights there, hopefully getting in some good hiking. I think we'll all (Hunter included) be ready for some good exercise by then. We're not sure of our exact route beyond that, but have a general idea. We'll find some other interesting places to spend a day or two along the way.

Lastly, I would like to wish my soul mate a happy anniversary. 8 years ago today we exchanged rings in a very private ceremony (just the 2 of us) on the shores of Shadow Mountain Reservior in Grand Lake, Colorado. If someone had told me back then where we'd be and what we'd be doing in eight years, I never would have believed them. It is still surreal. But one thing I can say without a doubt is that there's no way I would be here without Tracy. No, it's not because she coerced me and is dragging me down the road kicking and screaming. (None of you would believe that anyway, would you?) I'm not even sure I can "blame" her (er, I mean give her credit) for coming up with this idea initially. But one of the most important things that I think we provide to each other is the courage to believe in our dreams. I've never been able to be so open and honest with anyone else and I think we both believe that we can achieve anything, as long as we're together. I can't wait to see what the next 8 years bring!

Setbacks, delays, and a day with friends

Current location: Livingston, TX

Well, apparently I spoke too soon about the ease of becoming Texans. And unfortunately, we have only ourselves to blame for not doing our homework thoroughly. One thing we thought strange was that they require you to register ALL of your vehicles before you can get a drivers license. Now we understand why. Registering the vehicles went pretty smoothly. The application requested the gross weight of each vehicle. We had read that they will require either a certified weight (meaning you have to take your rig to get it weighed) or the manufacturer's brochure to confirm the weight. So we were honest and filled in the weights accordingly. Once at the registration office they didn't ask for any proof. Why is this important, you ask?

We found out at our next stop, to get our drivers license. Our combined gross weight is over the 26,000 lb limit which means that in the state of Texas we need a class A (non-commercial truck driver's license). In order to get one of those, we needed to take a written and driving test - that is, a driving test with the trailer attached. Uuugh. We left pretty despondent. Mostly because we were just barely over the 26000 lb limit and could have easily fudged the numbers. I can't imagine they have the manpower to follow up on those numbers. But it was too late for that. We thought about going to another office and telling them that we only had the truck so we could get the regular license but were concerned that they might figure that one out after we left the state. Texas initially provides a temporary license and sends you the real one 4 weeks later. I presume this is mostly to check for outstanding warrants and suspensions, but thought that their systems might also check registrations. We didn't want to take the chance since we'd be in California by the time we found out. So we decided we had no other choice but to follow the rules.

We studied Wednesday morning and took the written test that afternoon. We both passed. Phew! They only schedule driving tests for Friday, Monday and Tuesday so we scheduled our driving test for this morning. We woke up to a rainy morning and well, they don't do the tests in the rain. Shoot! So we called right at 8am and rescheduled for Monday. A bit of relief, although it's only temporary. I'm not looking forward to the test. I can't imagine we won't pass. After all, we made it all the way down here, didn't we? But I am a little worried about whether they'll require us to back up. We can both do it, but sometimes it takes several tries to get in just right. I have no idea how strict they'll be or how tight the spots will be. Just something else to worry about!

Our plans were to pull out on Sunday, but now we will have to delay one day (assuming we pass!). We have a lot of flexibility in our travel schedule to California so the delay won't have much effect, but we are ready to get out of Texas! Today it's in the mid-eighties with 100% humidity. Coming from Colorado, I forgot what humidity is like.

We needed some relief from the anxiety of the last couple of days, so on Thursday, we loaded Hunter and headed to Galveston to visit our friends, Rod and Connie Shaut ("RodNReal") whom we met at the RV-Dreams Rally last year. They were gracious enough to invite us to their current stix n brix home - they're not fulltiming yet. They were hit by Hurricane Ike last year and sustained some damage but have fixed up their house beautifully. I can imagine it will be hard for them to part with it when they're ready to hit the road.

We had a great afternoon of catching up, laughing and just generally relaxing in their courtyard. Hunter and Sam (their chocolate lab) got along great. I think Hunter enjoyed having a pal to hang with and I know he enjoyed being able to roam around the yard freely. I'm not so sure he wanted to come "home". When we were saying our good-byes, I asked Hunter if he was ready to go home and he just looked at me and headed toward the stairs to the house!

When Connie asked if we wanted to stay for dinner, we knew we couldn't say no. We had a taste of their cooking at the Rally - Connie made wonderful grilled mango chicken for the potluck and Rod won the chili cookoff - so we knew we were in for a treat. And we were not disappointed. Connie made delicious fish tacos. We both ate until we were stuffed. Connie, we'll come for dinner anytime! :)

It was a nice departure from Livingston and it was great to see our friends again. The drive was a bit long, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. I brought my camera and set it on the table upon arriving. I didn't touch it again until we were ready to leave. I'm really bad about that, but something I will have to work on. Connie didn't want her picture taken so I have none to show this time. I need to get back in the photography mode. I was pretty serious about it in college, but over the years had lost interest. Now I rarely remember to take my camera, but something I vow to get better about.

Our plans for the weekend are pretty laid back. We will meet Edith, Krystal's mom, tomorrow and are planning a hike on Sunday if the weather cooperates. More on that later...

Becoming a Texan

Current location: Livingston, TX

Coming from Colorado, being a Texan is not something to boast about. Texans are not particularly liked in Colorado. Being liberal democrats, relocating to Texas certainly isn't something to aspire to. After all, it is the home to the Bushes. But for many reasons which I have discussed before, we made a trip to TX specifically to become residents. Call us crazy.

So here we are, in Livingston. Livingston is a small town about an hour north of Houston. We arrived on Sunday afternoon. Contrary to what I wrote in my last post, we did not split up the drive into 2 days. We woke up Saturday and it was raining pretty hard. The forecast was not good for Oklahoma or Texas so we decided to stay put. Unfortunately, the forecast for Sunday was not much better, but we decided that we'd get an early start and give it a shot anyway. If the driving conditions were bad then we'd make it short day. We pulled out of the campground at 8:00 am, very early by most RV standards. We would have been out by 7:30 but had some difficulty getting hitched up. We encountered rain on and off most of the way, but it was not a hard rain and there was very little splashback, with the exception of a couple of places. We were making pretty good time and decided to keep going. We pulled into the campground around 3:30, after 388 miles. OK, so that's a little over our maximum daily recommendation. But we should get some credit for not driving on Saturday, right? :) Adhere to one rule, break another. That's break-even.

Although we had plenty of time to get set up and settled in the daylight, we determined that this was still too long of a day. We were tired, maybe in part due to the fact that neither of us slept particularly well the night before. I think we were both anxious about moving again (does that feeling ever go away?). I think we'll try to be a little stricter on our daily mileage on the next leg.

We are staying at the home base of the Escapees, the Rainbows End campground. The Escapees club has several campgrounds across the country and as members, the rates are pretty cheap. Many members spend the winter, or longer, in these parks. The lady parked across from us has been here 3 years! We weren't expecting this to be a park that would appeal to our tastes. We tend to like the more natural settings, with privacy in between sites. Well, good or bad, we weren't surprised. The sites are very close together with just a few trees scattered throughout. There is another section of the campground which is a little more campground-like, but it does not have sewer hookups. We could have easily stayed over there and dumped on our way out, but this is where they put us and we didn't know any better to ask. Oh well, we won't be here too long. I don't think this will be a place that we visit often.

What was a surprise is the beauty of the area. It borders Sam Houston National Forest and although we aren't in the forest, it is pretty lush. When we think Texas, we think of western Texas, dry and flat. This area isn't anything like that. Although I recognize that we've come at a good time of year. I'm sure in mid-Summer it gets very hot and humid.

Today, we went and got our paperwork for registering the vehicles. Tomorrow we have to go get a safety inspection and then take all that paperwork back to get plates. It won't be a cheap day because we'll also have to pay sales tax on the RV. The dealer didn't charge us sales tax in Colorado since we were registering out of state. The tax rates are cheaper down here so it does save us a little bit of money. And the registration is significantly cheaper than Colorado.

We hope to get our drivers licenses and register to vote on Wednesday and then hopefully we'll be all done with our chores. All in all, it's a pretty easy process, we think, although we haven't completed everything yet!

On Thursday, we will be taking a road trip to Galveston to visit our friends Rod and Connie Shaut, whom we met at last years RV-Dreams Rally. They were our neighbors and we've kept in touch since. It will be nice to see them and will be nice to have a break from our chores. On Saturday morning, we're scheduled to meet up with Edith Muckenfuss, Krystal's mom. She spent several years as a contractor in Iraq so we've never had the opportunity to meet her when visiting Texas previously. I guess it's about time since Ryan and Krystal have been married for several years. And then we are scheduled to pull out on Sunday morning. So our time is pretty well booked, but we've made sure that we still have a lot of down time. After all, we're trying to learn to slow down! :)

We haven't figured our route to California yet, but are giving ourselves 2-3 weeks to get there, so that should allow time for some extended stops along the way. Our tentative plan is to drive 2 days straight and then stop for 2-3 days, but I guess that will really depend on what we find to do along the way. The one thing that we do know is that we don't want to unhitch and unpack every night. We think we'd much rather get some miles behind us while we're packed and then be able to stay unpacked for a couple of days. Not that it takes us that long to pack and unpack; we're getting that part figured out, but it's still a bit of a hassle.

Well, another day of our new life is drawing to a close. Are we still happy with our decision? You betcha! Are there any second thoughts? Nope. Is it always easy? No, but I think it will all pay off once we get this phase behind us and we can just focus on the life we've dreamed of. We recognize that we're still in the transition phase and that we won't always be driven by such a time schedule.

Oklahoma City

Location: Purcell, OK

Our original plan was to stay in Oklahoma 2 nights, but after talking it over, we decided to stay an extra night. We agreed that we could use a down day to organize a few things (yes, we've organized and re-organized several times already and I'm sure this won't be the last), plan the next leg of our trip, and simply relax. Our campground is in a city park, overlooking a lake and is very quiet. It seemed like the perfect place to just wittle away the day. And if that wasn't enough incentive, when we paid our site fees (at the golf course across the street), the gentleman told us that if we wanted to stay an extra night that would be ok and even future-dated our receipt. So we get 3 nights for the price of 2! We're learning quickly (I hope)...we've slowed down and are taking time to relax!

Now to backtrack slightly. Yesterday, we drove into downtown Oklahoma City to visit the national memorial. This is the site where on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building, killing 168 people. There is an outdoor memorial and an indoor museum. We had Hunter with us, so we only did the outside part.

The center of the memorial contains a reflecting pool and is framed on either end by walls signifying the minute before (9:01) and the minute after (9:03) the explosion.

Next to the reflecting pool is a field of empty chairs. Each chair symbolizes one of the victims, with the smaller chairs representing the 19 children killed. The base of each chair is engraved with the name of a victim. The chairs are arranged in 9 rows to represent the 9 floors of the building. On the other side of the reflecting pool is the survivor tree. This is a 90+ year old elm which withstood the blast and now symbolizes resiliency.On the outside of the memorial, the fence which was installed immediately after the bombing still stands. Almost immediately, people left momentos and 15 years later, they continue to do so.

It is certainly a somber place to visit, but I'm glad we did. So many innocent lives lost for no reason.

Upon leaving the memorial, we drove around the city a bit and then headed back 'home'. We were expecting visitors. Terry and Jo Miller live just west of the city and offered to come down our way to meet us. Terry is a frequent poster on the RV-Dreams forum ("Terry and Jo") and he's always one of the first to respond to my truck and trailer questions. He has done a lot of research on many aspects of this transition and is more than happy to share his knowledge. He and Jo are not yet fulltiming, but have just purchased their rig and will be living in it until they retire in a few years. It was great to meet another member of the RV-Dreams family and we hope to run into them again down the road.

Today we did exactly what we planned to do. We took Hunter for a 3-mile walk around the lake and then hung around home to prepare for our departure tomorrow. I think Tracy even managed to grab a short nap. Now this is the life we expected! :)

Tomorrow we will head south to Texas. We will break up our travel days into 2 roughly 200-mile days, ultimately arriving in Livingston on Sunday. We will be staying in Livingston for about a week, while we establish residency. We are also hoping for time to visit Krystal's (Tracy's daughter-in-law) mom who doesn't live too far away as well as meet up with another RV-Dreams couple whom we met at the Rally last year.

That's it for now. Have a good one!

Rules were made to be broken

Location: Purcell, OK

Maybe they're not rules, per se, but more like guidelines. Based on what we've read from other fulltimers, there were a few principles that we wanted to adopt when we ventured out on the road. The first was to not travel during bad weather. The second was to limit the number of miles we drive each day. The third was not to travel at night. After all, we are no longer in a hurry. For the most part, we don't have to be anywhere by any specific date. So we should be able to relax and take our time, right?

Well, on our first 2 days on the road, we broke two of the rules and came close to breaking the third. We left Golden on Tuesday. It was quite windy in Denver and we were headed east through Kansas. We should have known better and should have waited until Wednesday to leave. But for some unknown reason, we felt like we had set a schedule and had to stick to it. I guess old habits die hard.

As soon as we got east of Denver, the wind picked up and it got progressively worse the further we drove. We stopped a couple of times to contemplate, but decided to continue on. Finally, about 7 miles over the Kansas state line, we pulled into a rest stop and decided to wait it out. This was further than we probably should have driven. The high wind advisory was scheduled to end around 7pm. Hmm, what to do? This was only about half as far as we had planned to get, but neither of us wanted to continue. We thought about trying to make it to the next town, about 15 miles away to find an RV park, but decided it wouldn't be worth the money to pay for a site. It was too windy to put the slides out and we wouldn't be spending any time outside anyway. Kansas allows overnight stays in their rest stops so we decided just to stay the night.

We were a little nervous, even though there were a lot of truckers and a couple of other RVs hunkered down for the night. Neither of us slept well and were anxious for morning to arrive. To make things even worse, once the wind let up a thunderstorm rolled in. Hunter hates thunder and lightning so he was stressed out too. I think the only one who slept well was Jasper, and that's only because he meowed the entire time we were on the road and was exhausted.

We were up and on the road by 6:30 Wednesday morning. About 20 miles down the road, we crossed into the Central time zone; we just started and already lost an hour! The weather improved greatly and we were making pretty good time. 5-6 hours, or 300-350 miles was supposed to be our daily limit. But by 3:00 we were still feeling good and didn't really want to stop. Our planned destination for Wednesday night was Oklahoma City, which was still about 200 miles away. For whatever crazy reason, we decided to push on. We hit the outskirts of OKC around 6:00. The campground we had planned to stay at is in Purcell, about 15 miles south of the city. So we just kept going. We finally rolled into the campground at about 7:00 and dusk was rapidly approaching. All 4 of us were happy to get out of the car. It was much too long of a day. We drove about 550 miles. We were able to get electric and water hooked up before dark. We then ate a quick dinner, took Hunter for a short walk, took showers and collapsed into bed.

It would have been nice if we could have learned our lessons from others; after all, isn't that probably why they follow these rules? But sometimes I guess we just have to learn the hard way. From now on, we will check the road conditions before taking off and wait if they're not favorable. And we will never drive for 12 hours unless we absolutely have to.

But the important thing is that we arrived safe and sound. We are staying at the Chandler City Park. It's nothing fancy, but is quiet, relaxed, convenient, and reasonably cheap. Here's a view of our campsite, with Chandler Lake in the background:

Today (Thursday) we will head into Oklahoma City to visit the bombing memorial and then will be meeting up with some fellow RV-Dreamers who live nearby. More on our adventures tomorrow...

Hitting the Road...for real!

We head out tomorrow for our first real road trip. We are headed to Livingston TX to do all of the logistical chores of setting up residency (registering vehicles, drivers license, etc). We are planning to split it into about 4 days, possibly staying an extra day in OK City, which is about half way. We are excited to get going, but also a bit anxious. I think it will feel good to get a couple of days on the road behind us so that we know it's no big deal. Wish us luck! I'll check back in in a few days!!

The trials and tribulations of living in a small space (Golden, CO)

When we were considering this lifestyle, the one aspect we were not concerned with was sharing a small space. We've taken many road trips in both cars and RVs, we've done our share of camping, we never fight, and we've never needed space from each other. Until now. The other day we had a bit of a disagreement, which quickly got out of hand. I won't bore you with the details, but will tell you I won, as is obvious by Tracy's face...

OK, just kidding. There was no fight and no punches were thrown. As much as Tracy likes to blame me for this, she did it all herself! She'd been having a pretty bad morning, having bumped her head multiple times on various parts of the RV. The last "bump" was into the side of the king pin, which resulted in blood dribbling down her face. But wait, that's not what caused the black eye. Later that day, when she was up at her mom's, she hit her cheek on the car door. Notice the small scab on her cheek - that's where the door hit. The black eye showed up the next morning and is still present.

I guess we had to christen the RV at some point, but personally I prefer champagne to blood!

Adjusting to our new life (Golden, CO)

Let me first start with a word of thanks to all of those who provided encouragement, support and reassurances through comments and private messages from my last blog entry. Everything that everyone said was absolutely true. All change is hard and this transition is no different, nor did I expect it to be. Every life style holds its share of problems that need to be dealt with; this lifestyle is no different. Sometimes I simply need a reminder. It seemed like it was all hitting at once and I felt very overwhelmed. We have a limited time here in Colorado and there's still a lot to do, but it all will get done somehow.

We got our power problem fixed on Wednesday. The tech made another housecall, much to my relief, and had it up and running within 30 minutes. The next task of the day was to get the rig moved. We pretty much had the inside ready to go, but I was a little anxious about hitching up. Would we remember everything that needed to be done? Well eventually, we figured it all out. It took awhile, but we just took our time and methodically thought through each step. We had a bit of difficulty getting the hitch locked in place, until we remembered that we needed to lower the front jacks first before locking the hitch. OK, we won't be forgetting that next time. Before we settled in our new spot, we went over to the dump station and emptied our tanks. No problems there.

So now the fun of parellel parking was upon us. We had the camp host and one of the fairgrounds staff members helping us, but to be honest I think we could have figured it out better ourselves. Don't get me wrong, they were helpful but didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. It was a lot of trial and error, but we finally got it in after several attempts. All in all, it was very good practice.

I think we may practice again next week after the high school rodeo is gone. We want to move back to our original site. I don't like our current site because it's right along the driveway and it seems significantly more noisy than our other space was. Another reason for wanting to move is that we plan on having an open house next weekend for our family, friends, former coworkers, former neighbors and anyone else who is curious about our new home. The original site had a picnic pavilion and parking directly across from it so I think it will work better.

The last couple of days have been quieter and we've been able to relax a bit. Tracy has been able to spend the last couple of nights at home (she was previously staying with her mom helping her heal from her recent health issues) so that has helped calm me also. I feel lost when she's not by my side. We've been able to get some of our lingering errands done and we even had a few free hours this afternoon to watch the rodeo and then grab a quick nap.

We also have one more family member home with us. Both Jasper, our cat, and Hunter, our greyhound, went to stay with my mom when we moved out of our stix n brix. We brought Jasper home on Thursday night. He adjusted quickly and spends most of his time in front of the fireplace. Hunter is still with my mom, but we plan to bring him down in a couple of days. It'll probably take him a little longer to relax, but hopefully he'll be excited to be with us. He's been very confused with us showing up at mom's house and then leaving again without him. I don't think he'll like the steps into the RV, but he'll get used to them eventually. He was the same way with our old RV. We all adjust sooner or later, right?

My mom has been a huge help with the animals. I can't imagine how much more hectic it would have been with them here amongst all of the chaos. They would have been stressed and that would have increased my stress. I already had enough of my own! So thank you mom and Virg!!

It will be nice to have our whole family together once again. And then we can all work on adjusting to our new life and figuring out what the new normal is. And while we're figuring that all out, I will work hard to focus on one day at a time and not worry so much about the tomorrows. It will all work out...it always does.