Halloween


A Year on the Road…

That’s right we hit our 1 yr mark…I can’t believe we’ve been living on the road for a year already…but we have and are still LOVING it!  There was lots of changes and challenges this past year.  Surprisingly enough there are lots to learn when you’re full-timing it, manyIt new experiences for all of us adjusting to a home on wheels and a new way of life but we couldn’t be happier.

We had a change in plans and decided not to settle down in Brookings/Gold Beach area.  Instead we went back up the Oregon Coast for the rest of the summer and then settled inland for the last couple months.  They have been all about checkups and repairs…routine dental and medical and truck and rig.  Though we claim Brookings as our home base…we thought it better to just keep our providers from Grants Pass vs finding new ones.  And Due to the fact we’ve had to take the truck in for repairs…remember our deer incident in Washington..and Luna Bella as well; we decided to spend time in the Grants Pass area bouncing between the Valley of the Rogue State Park and River Park RV.  I have to admit that the best RV park in this area is where we are now…Valley of the Rogue State park…it’s was beautiful here amongst all the fall colors during Halloween and still is, as it’s surrounded by conifers and has the river near by not to mention all the walking/biking paths.  Kaia’s sure been loving it!

She turned 4 years old this past week…she’s come a long way, still crazy Kaia but we are seeing her finally settling down some.

Both the truck and rig were in the shop in October. Rockette’s front bumper is as good as new again and Bella Luna…well, she had quite a list of minor repairs and one big one that to this date has yet to be addressed.  So for the most part she’s as good as new again too. You may be wondering what kind of repairs she’d need, since she was only 6 months old…well as you know we brought her new off the lot in April and we hit the road shortly after.  So, we weren’t near our dealer to have him address an issue that showed up within days of owning her…the seal on the toilet did not work thus not holding water.  Those of you with rigs know that water in an RV toilet helps with oder 🙂  So short of having to drive back to replace it we found a temporary solution that held us over til we were able to bring her in.  The trick is to use Vaseline, yep, just rub some along the seal, it’s a temporary hold that needs to be repeated every month or so but it did the trick til we could get her in.  The second issue occurred during our trip back from Washington, the toilet foot petal fell off and it was impossible to repair it…both of these were resolved by replacing it with a new toilet.  Another issue that showed up within a week or so, was a rip in the recliner…one’s on order and will be replaced completely in March when we get back.

Then about 4 months ago…one night I was reading in bed and saw this wisp of smoke from the corner of my eye, my UBS wall charger started smoking!  Doug took it apart to make sure there wasn’t an electrical fire within the wall.  We left it unused and it too needed to be completely replaced.   But the biggest problem was the bubble on the Kitchen slideout.  Which we are still waiting to hear when the part (the whole wall needs to be replaced) will arrive and when they can get us in to have it replaced.

So, as you can see these last few months have been all about maintenance and repairs…both for us and our home, LOL.  But we still managed to have some fun, while here in the city, Keagan took more swimming lessons, he almost has it down…now it’s just all in the coordination.

On Halloween, we went Trick or Treating downtown, where Keagan met up with his best friend, who by the way he’s been in contact with ever since we hit the road.  The boys carved a big pumpkin and I chose to paint some this year.

Thanksgiving was great…every year we do something around gratitude.  This year we preserved some leaves and then doodled and wrote on them things we were grateful for.  Then I braided them in some rafia and we hung it over the living room slideout.  On Thanksgiving day, I actually cooked a young turkey in our RV oven…yep…I tried Splachcocking the turkey.  Taking out the back bone and flatting it out.  It cooked up quicker and most importantly fit in the oven.  Of course we had our usual sides and honestly…it was like a dinner I would have made at our Homestead…despite the small oven, it all went well.  Well for the most part…we were suppose to head out last weekend…but my health wasn’t well, more nerve issues and so we stayed an extra week so I can go in and be seen again.  The rainy weather has been hard on me…drier warmer climates are less painful.  I had an awful flair up about a month ago, I could hardly walk, then on Thanksgiving day I had another.  It’s hard living with chronic pain but for the most part I am able to manage the discomfort with my oils but the harsh flair ups really knock me on my butt.

Keep an eye on our Nomad Map to see where we will be during the next few months!