~Monday, November 2, 2020~
Day 141
Sorry we skipped a day in our post duties, but there was nothing very interesting to report as yesterday we had a complete chill day at our campsite. Today was not much different but we did manage to accomplish a few things. What…...isn’t everyday a vacation?
When your RV is your home, there are still things that break, need maintenance or require attention, though it’s not the scale of owning a home (at least the home we had). One thing that this trip has taught us, is that to take care of so much less, gives us LESS of the stress that comes with home ownership, and MORE freedom, MORE happiness, MORE time to focus on the “now” . It sounds cliche, but LESS really is MORE. The idea of letting go of what’s routine or normal is scary in itself. Fear really does play with our minds. For us, it was letting go of our home, selling cars, ending our jobs, moving away from friends/family and the daily routine of getting my daily Grande 1 pump mocha Starbucks beverage. Oh, and we did sell alot of homegoods, but obviously not enough. After this experience, I’m sure we’ll go back to our 20’ x 30’ foot storage unit with a whole new perspective and the question of why we kept so much.
Anyway, sorry….where was I? Oh, yes, we accomplished a few things today. We’ve been lugging around the second solar panel which takes up a chunk in the back of the truck, and have been waiting for an opportunity to install it.
Many state parks, RV parks, etc. will not let you do any maintenance at your site, so this site was perfect to allow us to do it. But a glitch…..can anything be easy?? When Jeff got on the roof to look at how he’d install the panel, he realized the wiring (MC-4) that came with the kit was not long enough. It was the right gauge, just not long enough. So off to Home Depot he went where they had the right thickness and length of wire, but it wasn’t insulated or had the UV protection that is necessary when exposed to so much sunlight. Just what we don’t need are things to short out. So on to Amazon we go, and we can get it by tomorrow. Getting our mail on the trip so far hasn’t been too difficult between my mom, sister and our niece receiving it for us. This time though, since we are leaving Colorado soon and moving on to New Mexico, we want to have this item shipped to our next destination.
Since Jeff’s solar panel dilemma took much of the afternoon, we had to postpone the task of laundry until tomorrow.
Next...planning our future accommodations. We have our immediate route planned but not our campsite. Our steps…….stay one extra night in Fort Collins since we really haven’t seen a whole lot yet, then head southwest to Santa Fe, New Mexico (one of our favorite places), then head over to Sedona, Arizona and finally Tucson, Arizona where we’ve never been. Tucson's desert looks really interesting, and we’ll be in warmer weather. We figured in Santa Fe, we’d need at least electric hookups being at around 7,000 feet. With Sedona, we can get away with boondocking at 4,000 feet for 4 days, then Tucson at around 2,300 feet we could do either boondocking or RV park it. Obviously, the boondocking is hinged on weather, so having RV parks on the plan B list is essential. We found a great RV park in Santa Fe called The Trailer Ranch RV Resort (you can ignore the 55+ community sign). Ouch….$62/night but you get a 7th night free if you book 6 nights. Deal. And it’s Santa Fe, so we knew the prices would be higher. Our budget has always been on the average of $35/night, and since we’ve done so much boondocking, we’re still under budget for the trip so far. So splurging once in a while is doable. For Since we didn’t want to drive straight to Santa Fe, we’ll be overnighting it again in a casino parking lot, Tesuque Casino, with a short drive the next morning to Santa Fe. We didn’t want to arrive too late in the day in Santa Fe if we’re spending $62/night. After some time there, we’ll head over to Sedona and stay at Loy Butte Road Dispersed Camping before heading down to Tuscon at Diamond J RV Park or Desert Trails RV Park. Then likely after that, we’ll head back to California for some needed repairs on the trailer. Are we really going back to California? Better now while we’re still in the west coast area before heading east.