Author: Nicole

2/10/17 -2/13/17
Yuma Arizona

 

-We are trying to take at least one trip a month while we are both still working full time. February, we decided to venture East. This takes us from sea level up to 4200 feet in elevation then back down in less than two hours. We wanted to see how our truck towing the trailer would manage going up the mountain. Performance was better than expected but boy did it use a ton of gas.

We had originally thought Yuma would be a great opportunity to try “Boondocking” This is where you go onto federal land and just park somewhere. No power, no water, no hookups. The concept here is that you are surrounded by nature and it’s usually free. The down side to this is that the nature your surrounded by in the Yuma area is mostly desert. We still want to give this a try, however for this trip we decided against it. We knew we would be arriving after dark and did not want to our first ever experience boondocking in an unfamiliar area to be at night.

Reservations were made at Hidden Cove RV Park in Yuma Arizona. Making online reservations in Yuma proved to be a challenge. Many parks list “age restrictions”. This means that they are for age 55+. It’s a very popular destination for “snow Birds” looking to spend their winter in a warmer climate. Hidden Cove has an age restriction…mostly…. But once she heard it was just the three of us out for a family weekend not a group of loud partiers she guaranteed us a spot to park our trailer.

We arrived after dark as expected. Everyone at the park was so nice helping us get situated into our spot in less than optimal lighting conditions. The park was gravel with small concreate pads as the porch area. Spaces were close together and many guests appeared to be long term or permanent residents. Their friendliness was consistent all weekend making us feel welcomed and comfortable.

The Yuma Territorial Prison was on our agenda as the must visit for this trip. Below is a link to our video from this adventure. It is about 30 minutes long. I’m new to video editing and could use some pointers on how to make the sound smoother between live time and the slow time I added for reading. Please add to the comments if you can give me some guidance.

On Saturday morning Rebecka and I went out adventuring. I’ve become very interested in visiting second hand stores for hidden treasures that I might be able to resell to people on things like ebay or craigslist. (more on that later). While Rebecka and I were driving around Yuma we started running into many detours. It turns out there was a parade. Once we finally arrived at the second-hand store I asked the local women if she knew what the parade was for. Turned out the Rodeo came to Yuma for the weekend. Cool! Rebecka has never been to a rodeo.

We let Rebecka take control of the video recording at the rodeo. Let’s just say, that editing is going to take a bit longer. When the video is ready I’ll link it here. (unless she chooses to write her own post separately.)

The weekend was relaxed. No pressure to be somewhere at a certain time. We listed a few things we may want to see and do to each other. We didn’t get to everything, and that was ok. We didn’t take a minute for granted, just enjoyed each others company.

On Monday morning I took Rebecka to a nearby playground. It was awesome. Video to Rebecka’s playground review will be edited next. If your ever in Yuma you must see this playground. Then we went back to camp, packed up and headed home.

Our future adventures are always on our mind. We can’t wait to see the country and take you with us.

 

-Nicole

Rebecka’s school has a two week fall break every October. This year the stars aligned in our schedules and we managed to plan a small mini vacation. 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure. We haven’t been to Disney in a few years. I knew we most likely would not go again before we leave San Diego. I wanted to go all out. I have been setting aside a little money every month for a year so I could make this trip special.
I got 3 day park hoppers, got tickets to Disney’s Halloween Party, a special event that happens a few times a week in the month of October. I booked Rebecka for Bippity Boppity Boutique. Marc always talked about wanting to eat at the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so I made a reservation. I even looked into staying at a Disney hotel.
The price for the hotel was a bit over budget, so I was shopping around for a hotel within walking distance. Came up with a great idea, why not bring our new trailer and stay in it. We’d be more comfortable in our little home on wheels than in a small overpriced hotel room. I found two RV parks within a mile of the park. Only one of them had a space available for the time frame we needed, so I booked it.
We parked the trailer in front of the house the day before we left for Disney. It is otherwise parked at a storage lot since our property now does not have space for it. We spent part of the day finding plastic storage containers that were just the right size for the storage areas in the RV. The other part of the day we spent packing those containers and loading the trailer. Excited, packed and ready to go!
We arrived at Harbor RV Resort right at check in time. The back section of the park was for long term residents, but the front was for people like us. Our spot was a nice size. A space for the truck, one for the RV, and one with some fake grass and a picnic table. I took a tour video for you.

Our first afternoon/evening we decided to walk to downtown Disney. Took us about 20 minutes, we needed to cross some major intersections and walk over the freeway. Plus we took our time. Downtown Disney is lined with many stores and restaurants. I’ve never eaten at Rain forest Café, but had heard great things. We decided to check it out.

We then walked thru Downtown Disney a little more and got a Halloween dessert. Yum!

We walked back to the trailer, put on a dvd and relaxed. Around 9 we heard fireworks, pulled the curtains back and was able to see the fireworks while sitting on the couch in the trailer. Pretty awesome.
Sunday, bright and early, off to Disneyland for a special day. We caught the bus, and got to the park as they opened. Bippity Boppity Boutique was great and Rebecka loved it. Tip* it is not necessary to buy the big package; your girl will still feel like a princess all day. We had a great day 1. The post would be too long if I gave you a play by play, so I won’t.

Day 2, started rainy. We moved a bit slower in the morning. Marc woke up with a bloody nose, so we took our time getting ready. My sister and her kids met us at the RV park. They got the grand tour and then we headed to California Adventure. The only thing on Rebecka’s must do list was to see the Frozen show. It turned out the Frozen show was cancelled for that day. She was sad, but felt better when I told her we could try to see it the next day. We had 3 day park hoppers after all. It was a nice day in the parks with my sister and her kids.
That evening was the special Halloween event. We went over to the Disneyland in the afternoon. The kids were excited to wear the costumes we stashed in a locker earlier. I was excited to finally participate in an event I heard so much about from my friends who are Disney fanatics and visit the park every chance they get.
I was not disappointed. The feel of the park changed. The majority of guests were in costumes. It felt like Halloween even though the true holiday was still a few weeks away. There were designated “Trails” where you stood in line to walk through a path that had candy booths and cast members throughout. We did a few of those. After all, you pay extra for the Halloween event you might as well get some candy out of it. The best part though was while all the other guest were waiting in lines for candy, there was hardly anyone waiting in line for rides. How wonderful to just walk onto the rides that attract the longest wait times during the day. We walked onto the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, and Space Mountain. Really! How often can you do that!! Amazing.
When we had our fair share of candy and rides we settled in to find a spot to watch the special Halloween Parade. Can’t miss this special event, people were sitting in spots more than an hour before the start. For a video of the parade go to Marc’s post here.

After the parade our trip took a turn for the worst. We had split up. My sister stayed to watch fireworks, I took her kids to another candy trail on the way to Thunder Mountain. Marc took Rebecka to the locker to get her jacket then meet us at Thunder Mountain. Then it happen, outside of Thunder Mountain Marc’s nose started to bleed again. This time was worse than in the morning. I found a cast member and explained we needed first aid to come to us. The fireworks had just ended and the crowds between us and First Aid were to crazy to maneuver through in his current condition (plus 3 kids).
Disney First Aid service was wonderful. They came to where we were in the park. When they realized they could not stop the nose bleed, they placed Marc in a wheel chair and escorted us to the first aid center, clearing a path the whole way. (At some point in the chaos, my sister found us and took the 3 kids, while Marc and I went with First Aid). We spent a bit more time in the First Aid building where they gathered information on medicines he was taking and other vitals. It was determined that Marc’s nose bleed had gone past the point of general first aid and he needed to see a Doctor. They called an ambulance.
Anaheim global medical center’s ER is not a place I ever want to go again. A review on the cleanliness would be a struggle for 1 star. Marc and I were there until 1 or 2am in the morning. Went back to the trailer for maybe an hour. Marc’s nose started bleeding heavily again even through the packing they put in. We went back to the ER. Left around 6 or 7am with packing in one side. We tried to get some rest. We weren’t sure what our plan was. However, I knew that Marc was in no shape to drive home anytime soon. I decided that it would be up to me to get my family and our trailer back to San Diego. No way I was driving during the time when traffic is terrible. I needed to wait until after the evening rush hour to tackle this task.
Around 10 or so, Marc said he felt comfortable enough to be left alone, and that Rebecka and I could go to Disney, try to salvage something for our third day. I didn’t really want to leave him, but knew he might have a better chance of getting rest if Rebecka and I were not right there. I explained to Marc that if he needed me for anything we would leave the park and be back as quick as we could.
So I took Rebecka to California adventure to see if the Frozen show was running that day. It was, but not until a few hours later. I went over to the Pirates of the Caribbean restaurant and cancelled our reservation. No way Rebecka and I were going to have lunch at the one place Marc wanted to ear without him. (They will charge you a fee if you just don’t show up). After 2 rides we decided to grab some food and head back over to wait in line for the Frozen show. While we were about to sit down to eat, Marc called. He started to bleed heavy again. He was tempted to call an ambulance. I told him we would head back right that second.
This was Marc’s third trip to this ER. He got a room this time. We stayed with him for a few hours. Then I decided we HAD to get back to San Diego. We HAD to get him back to doctors that were familiar with his medical record. I left Marc in the ER and Rebecka and I went back to the trailer to pack up and get ready to drive home. We were finishing up when Marc called to say they were releasing him. I put gas in the truck and picked him up from the ER. We went back to the trailer and got it ready to go. We needed out of Anaheim . I wasn’t staying a moment longer.
Driving the truck with the trailer attached has been a fear of mine. Time for my big girl panties. I had to do it, and I did. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was lucky to not have many turns in my route. I think it was around 11pm when we got home. We left the trailer and truck parked on the street in front of the house. There was no way i could park it in our RV storage spot.
I took Marc to the Navy Hospital the next day. It was so nice to be back in a real hospital. The staff took great care of him. We were there for hours, but he was being attended to appropriately, so that is what matters. They were not able to find the source of the bleeds, but they made him a little more comfortable with softer packing in both sides. Followed up with ENT a few days later. He is back to himself now. We still don’t know the cause of the nose bleeds, but glad he is OK.
Disney has went above and beyond and impressed me yet again. While we were at first aid i was given a claim card. Once we were home and settled again I called the number. After retelling our story to the claims office we were assigned a claims manager. He reviewed our case and had me send him a copy of our tickets. We 100% know that the medical event that happened was no fault of Disney. However, since our time at Disneyland was less then a magical experience, Disney has given us three, 2 day park hoppers. Isn’t that great?! Now we can go back. We aren’t sure when we will go, but it is nice to know we have tickets waiting for us.
This was a long post. Thank you for reading it and supporting us. Have a magical day !

For 10 years we had a dog. A wonderful, big, loyal, lovable dog named Duke. If you knew him, just the thought of him brings a smile to your face I bet.
Well, Duke liked to chase (and try to taste) cats. We knew this from the day we picked him up from the Humane Society. Over the course of ten years the talk of trying to get a cat came and went. Rebecka expressed her desire for a cat often. She knew we couldn’t have one with Duke, yet still yearned for one.
Sadly this past summer we said goodbye to our old man Duke. It was a hard time for our family. We mourned his loss. The house seemed emptier. We thought we wouldn’t be ready for another pet until after we moved from San Diego.
In late September Rebecka started asking for a cat again. Marc also expressed he might be ready for a cat to join our family. He had them as a child and wanted Rebecka to experience the joy of a cat. For years we said that if we got another pet we would most likely get two. Two pets could keep each other company. Duke appeared lonely at times and it broke our heart.
I wasn’t ready for the responsibility of having another pet just yet. Plus with our new “plan” a pet didn’t sound like a great idea. A little research showed I was wrong and that cats are just as common as dogs for companions on RV travels. Some people even teach their cats to walk on leashes, but you have better luck with that if you train them as kittens. I decided to “think about it”, but I told Marc I was still leaning towards us not being ready.
A week later a coworker told me about three kittens her family found. The kitten’s mother had left them. These three kittens were starving and alone. My coworker could only take one. This left her two kittens to find homes for. When I told Marc, he was all for it, but left the decision up to me. I felt horrible at the thought of these two orphaned kittens being alone. I knew for years Rebecka wanted a cat. I felt a little selfish not being 100% on board.
I decided the timing of these orphans was a direct sign from a higher power. Just a week ago we were discussing possibly being pet owners again. Then before I knew it, these kittens needed us. Blam, in your face. It was impossible for me to deny that these kittens were meant to be in our life.
My coworker brought the kittens over the next day after work. We choose to surprise Rebecka, she had no idea.

She decided on “Pearl” and “Hunter”.
Their first night with us, Pearl curled herself up and looked like a pearl in a clam shell. Hunter appeared to always be looking for something.
They are kittens and they are cute! (in my humble opinion) We have weaned them off milk. I look forward to when they make less of a mess when they eat though. We have litter box trained them. I watched a movie once where a cat was trained to use the toilet. I might need to research that. They do not sleep all night. I am a light sleeper and I can hear them playing and wrestling at the wee hours. The other night they both learned to climb up onto our bed. This made for a tough night of sleep for me, as they had trouble with “personal space”.

They also thought I was a jungle gym at 3 am. Marc assures me that as they get a little older all these things will get better. Here’s hoping, because this lady needs some good sleep. Read about their first time in the trailer here. {link to Pala Casino post)
For those of you who like kittens, I have good news. You will be seeing more of them in photos and videos. They love to play and Rebecka loves to record them. For those of you who don’t, I apologize, they will be posted anyway.

We left the kittens with my coworker on our Disney trip. That ended up being a great decision as our Disney trip had some unexpected events. (More on that in my next post. Link here)
In the meantime, here are more photos and videos of Hunter and Pearl. Enjoy!

Finished up at the dealership and couldn’t wait to test it out. Marc is a “push every button and lever” kind of guy. He wants to know how everything works first hand, not because someone told him how it should work. Knowing this about him, I booked a campground in advance for this first night.

I choose Lake O’Neil. This location was a good halfway point, it is on a military base which offers cheaper rates and it wasn’t expected to be very crowded. We know there is a store and gas station nearby.

I reserved a “Dry” camping spot for $10. Dry camping means that the space where you are parked does not have access to power, water or sewage. The campground does offer all of those things under “full hookups”, but we needed to test everything out. We needed to see how much fuel the generator would use. How much fresh water we used. How quickly the grey and black tanks would fill. (grey water is the waste from the sinks, and black water is the waste from the toilet.)

After we detached the trailer from the truck and settled in a bit we made our way to a grocery store. Picked up some perishable items that we hadn’t brought with us. I wasn’t ready to test out the kitchen yet, so we picked up a late lunch and brought it back.

The evening was very relaxing. We went on a family walk around the campground, the goal was to explore. (We never do that at home, nothing new to see) There was a whole section filled with Boy Scouts tent camping for the night. Brought back some memories for Marc. I think Rebecka enjoys hearing her dads stories. There was a playground, that made Rebecka happy. The lake had been drained a little during our visit, but we were told that fishing was still allowed. Next trip we might bring the fishing gear.

After the walk we went back to the trailer. We played cards and listened to music……… It was peaceful and perfect (in my humble opinion).

Confession…… I didn’t sleep well at all! I am considered a light sleeper and hearing the generator all night made it hard to relax. I’m sure sleeping in a new bed didn’t help either. Rebecka also complained about the generator and woke up with a stuffed nose. Fingers crossed the next time we get more sleep.

On Sunday I made breakfast. Pancakes! It was an adjustment cooking in a small kitchen with no counter space to speak of, but I managed. We brought the Keurig coffee pot from home. After a super terrible cup of coffee, i realized we need to make coffee with bottled water while we are in the trailer.

After breakfast, Marc and Rebecka played with the remote controlled cars we brought. They had fun racing around until the batteries died. We went for another walk. The Boy Scouts were in clean up mode and doing a great job. Then we played mini golf. That’s right, the campground had a mini golf course on the other side of the lake.

The plan was to pack up and head home by lunch time. However, family vote came into play and we all wanted to stay longer. Marc had run back out to the store to get creamer for the coffee earlier and he picked up a few other odds and ends we had on a short list of things the trailer needed. (trash can, broom, ect.) He also picked up a DVD. I made lunch and we relaxed to a movie.

Finally, we all came to the realization that we had to pack up and head home. I can honestly say that the first night/weekend in the trailer was a two thumbs up success.

Be sure to read Marc’s post about the first night.

 

 

The day has come to pick up our Toy-hauler. We have affectionately named it “Toby”. (Fun, right? lol) The pick up location is about 2 hours north of our house. We left early so we had plenty of time.

I made a reservation for that night at a campground on a military base halfway between our home and the pick up location. Of course we have to try it out the first night. More on that later.

We arrived with enough time to walk around the dealership before our appointment. Boy there are some dreamy RV’s out there. Fireplaces, 2 floors, granite kitchens. These truly are houses on wheels.

This dealership gave us an hour long walk through of our new purchase. Showing us how everything worked. Front to back, top to bottom. We took video of the whole thing. Now we can refer back to it when I forget how to light the oven. We will work on uploading these to you tube and post the link. They are long videos so it might be a bit before we upload them, but we will.

We also let Rebecka take the camera and do a tour of her own. we tried not to interfere. When you watch it, keep in mind she is 8 and just having fun.

After our hour walk through, a bunch of money spent at the dealerships supply store, and a pile of paperwork to sign with the finance department.
TOBY is ours!!!

 

Funny thing about “plans”… they can always change.

Our original plan: use our new Toy-hauler to help move our belongings halfway across the country when Marc retires. Use it between then and now to take Rebecka out on adventures. Hope that she enjoys it as much as we do.

The two weeks between choosing our toy hauler and picking it up were filled with ideas of all the adventures we could have. It was apparent we were all excited about what was to come. We had more idea for trips then we could possibly do.

I had a light bulb idea. At first I kept it to myself, but with every day the passion for my idea grew and i needed to share it with Marc. I needed to get his opinion. Was it a pipe dream? Was it something he’d even be interested in?

Instead of in a year, when Marc retires from the Navy, move to Texas and start our lives there. Maybe we could push that off? Maybe when we leave San Diego, we could use a year to travel around the United States? We could home school Rebecka for her 4th grade year. Take her to actually see first hand the things she is learning about. Take her to Mount Rushmore and teach her about some great presidents. Take her to Yellowstone to experience the beauty of that land first hand. Take her to Four Corners, where 4 states boarder each other (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet) to teach her some geography.

I remember growing up with our mother (a teacher) taking us on educational summer vacations. These are memories that stay with you. Colonial Williamsburg VA, exploring underground caves and touring a natural bridge, these are just a few of the wonderful trips my mother took my siblings and I on when we were children. I want to do this with my daughter.

Being a military family, planning a vacation was a difficult task. The timing had to be just right for Marc’s command. They never wanted to approve leave too far out in advance. Plane fairs and hotel prices increase in cost the closer to travel time. We ended up skipping big vacations all together. Always talked about how we would do it after he retired.

My idea to take a year to travel in our new RV across the country for a year while home schooling Rebecka took a few days for Marc to process. Then he was fully on-board. After discussing the idea with Rebecka and seeing her excitement as well, my idea became:

“OUR NEW PLAN”.

Now I am on count down mode. How many more days until Marc retires from the military?

{insert count down plug in}

We won’t start our cross country adventure at that moment, but we will no longer have an obligation to stay where the military tells us.

In the mean time we take our toy-hauler out at least once a month. Visiting different types of local campgrounds. Getting our feet wet and learning what to expect.

Please stay tuned to hear about our adventures.

 

We went to an RV Dealership to actually “look” at and walk around different options. This way we could make a more informed decision.
…….We spent about 2 hours walking in and out of different RV’s.

We kept returning to a specific toy-hauler again and again. It fit the weight limit we needed to stay under. It had an on board generator, which not all units do. It had chairs! I know, chairs?… really?  However, most designs have two couches that sit across from each other. The “chairs” seemed to feel right. It had the ability to sleep 7 people. So if we decide to have other family members join us for an adventure there is room for them. It has a big enough cargo area to fit both our motorcycles in and possibly a third depending on size. Everything just felt right.

Time to make an informed decision. We really had no idea what kind of financing was available. We have good credit so we were not worried there. But what would the monthly payments be? Only way to know is to have them run the numbers. So that’s what we did.

While we waited we went back to Toby and hung out. We started talking about all the different adventures we could have. All the places we could visit. It was so exciting. All three of us couldn’t wait.

The numbers…. Honestly, the numbers were reasonable. This is a home on wheels. Who knew RV financing is stretched over 15 years! We most likely won’t drag it out that long as we are very fond of little to no overhead debt.  Marc and I talked about it and decided this was the toy-hauler we wanted.

Let the adventure begin!……. well not yet….. need to wait until the dealership does final clean up and inspection… need to make an appointment to pick it up. Our appointment was two weeks away.

“This Family’s Adventure” is brought to you by Marc, Nicole and Rebecka.
At the time of writing this post Marc and I have recently celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary.

Rebecka is 8, two months until 9. We live in San Diego, CA. I work at a car dealership in the AP/AR (Accounts Payable/ Accounts Receivable) department. Marc is full time as active duty in the Navy.

We are an anomaly in the military family world, as we have been lucky enough to stay in one city for 14 years. Marc’s retirement is less then a year away. We had a plan. Retire, leave San Diego, move to Texas, buy an affordable home. The cost of living in Texas is more manageable then San Diego, CA. Marc is from Texas, so it’s “home” to him. It’s a plan, yes. Honestly though, we both were feeling a little uneasy about different parts of what the future held.

In our 14 years in San Diego we have acquired a lot of belongings. We knew moving all these belongings would be a daunting task. The military will help us move, however after a certain weight limit we pay the remainder of the fees. In preparation for this we started to research cargo trailers with a ramp. Something we could fill with some of the heavier items, like motorcycles, tool boxes, the table saw, stuff like that. Something we could tow behind our truck and drive to Texas ourselves.

Used Cargo trailers in San Diego are hard to find. Then we looked into new cargo trailers. New cargo trailers can cost about the same as a used toy-hauler. (a Toy-hauler is a travel trailer with a ramp door. A Travel Trailer is a camper you pull/tow behind your truck.) A Toy-hauler became the new idea of what we wanted. How cool to be able to have something that we could use to help move us as well as something we can take out on trips. Marc and I had a cargo trailer as well as a toy-hauler prior to the birth of our daughter. We used to go out on weekend trips camping and riding 4 wheelers.

 

We ended up selling all of that when we realized going out and riding on the weekends wasn’t practical with a newborn. (Photos with old Toy-hauler lost in a computer crash) Rebecka is at the age now where she can enjoy adventures like Marc and I used to have. The decision to get a toy-hauler was made.

After searching locally at available used toy-haulers we were feeling frustrated with the options. When shopping around for something like this it is important to consider the weight of the vehicle. It is important to know how much weight your truck can pull safely and the weight of what you are pulling both empty and full. These are things we didn’t really pay much attention to in the past. (we burned through a transmission or two in the old truck in the past). We were NOT going to make that mistake again.

Then we started looking at our options for buying new. Wow there were so many options. We were entranced with all the possibilities. We spent weeks looking at all the different brands, styles and designs. We decided to make more of an informed decision we needed to go see some in person. One weekend we decided to drive north of San Diego and visit a large RV dealer.
…….. We only went to look…… but then……
(Next post: Our Toy-hauler Purchase)