Author: Contessa Jewall

We left Alamo, Nevada at 7:25AM ( yes Ken I kept to the plan ). The winds started up as as we neared Las Vegas. Coming down HWY 93 just before Love’s we were blown out of our lane a few times. Fortunately being a Sunday there was much less traffic but we both held our breathe as we negotiated the narrow single land curving overpass from I15 to I515. As we turned onto I15 we saw a semi with its nose in the sandy ditch. How did that happen, photo another day.

Checked in at 9:15AM. We were told at the gatehouse that if our site was still ( check out 11AM ) occupied we would have to leave and come back. Our site was empty, yeah for us. Parked and set up a bit, the girls got three walks today, on the last one Colin said he was worried they would blow away. The winds have becomes stronger since it got dark.

To be honest we are both exhausted. We only got the RV home about 7PM Monday and not stopped since. My body is so sore that I can hardly move. We have both been pushing ourselves. Naps were had by all four of us this afternoon. I kept feeling the RV rock a bit.

I am so very sorry but I might need a day or two to get back to normal. I simply cannot push myself to create a blog post. Tonight I am going to sit with a lovely wine and enjoy a shrimp penne with Alfredo sauce.

The blog might be back tomorrow but the next day at the latest. Thanks for hanging in.

 

PS

We are very concerned about this next hurricane which is now a Cat 4. Supposed to make landfall between a Cat 2 – 4 and near San Blas. Again like the last one a few weeks ago, Mazatlan is on the northern edge regarding rain and wind.

It is much more that tropical storm being a Cat 4 ( the photo was not updated ), Puerto Vallarta is in its path.

Let the adventure begin. You know how we always have drama in our lives.

Today we did not stop in Ely, Nevada for the night where we had a reservation. Someone made an error and gave away our reservation ( that I made 10 days ago ) to another RVer. All the pull through sites were booked. So even if we wanted to, we could not stay. We took that as a sign of Divine intervention. Ely is expecting their first big snow storm of the season tomorrow.

Just before we pulled into Ely this afternoon I received an alert re a severe windstorm in the Las Vegas area 🙁 As in such high winds that trees will be uprooted and it is not advised to travel in the area, especially in a high profile vehicle.  Of course it all depends on the direction and strength of the winds.

We looked up how much wind it would take to flip a Class A and it is anywhere from 40 -50 mph. Of course it all depends on the direction of the wind, etc. The warning is pretty specific,

So we pushed ourselves and drove another 2.5 hours late this afternoon. We arrived in the dark at the RV park in Alamo. I called and was able to book the last pull through site but talk about pushing ourselves. Not counting any bathroom or fuel breaks we drive a solid 8.5 hours today. I think that explains why we are all so tired.

The plan is to leave at 7:30AM at the latest and drive the two hours to Las Vegas and wait out the storm in the RV Park that we paid for last August. We really need to be settled in one place for several days.

Of course should the windstorm alert worsen or the start time changes we will spend another night here in Alamo. No way do we want to be driving in that kind of wind.

And then there is the possibility of another hurricane heading towards Mazatlan.

So this is a quick blog post. Photos and details of today will be forth coming. Thank you all for checking in.

 

We started in Washington state, drove through Oregon and are now at the Walmart in Mountain Home, Idaho. Tomorrow we will enter Nevada. This morning it was only 37F when we woke up,the forecast low for tonight is only 42F. It does feel warmer. Last night we had a very tasty Subway for dinner and tonight we are having lox and creme cheese on a croissant.

We drove for a few hours this morning before stopping for coffee and to feed the girls. Colin went across the street to Denny’s and picked me up a cup of fresh decaf. When I opened the lid I was shocked that the coffee was cooler than tepid. I took a sip and it had no taste and looked more like brown water. That coffee cost us $3.90 USD/ 5.60CAD 😡 SO much for my special treat today. We topped up the diesel today @ 5.599 per US gallon today. My coffee cost as much as a gallon of fuel.

Once we crossed into Idaho the time switched to MST but we stayed with our PST. No sense changing our timing cycle because tomorrow we will go back to PST. So when we were in rush hour traffic driving though Boise we suddenly realized that we were an hour behind the local time.

We have had a few RV issues since we left but I will share those another day. It is already 10:30PM and I really need to get to bed. Tomorrow will be a bit busier for us.

A very long day indeed but we have ended up in Moses Lake, Washington, our destination. Today was the latest departure we have ever done. We left the park at 11:45AM and arrived at the local Walmart at 6:30PM. The plumber who blew out the lines in the house for the winter was almost two hours late.  But honestly his delayed arrival did not affect us. It takes us three full days to load the RV and we did it in two. Obviously there were many last minute things to attend to this morning. We each had a list that we went over and over and each did a walk through the house. Finally we locked the house up and off we went.

First stop was to fill the RV propane tank as it was surprisingly low. Next stop was the Canada US international border where we hit a major delay. The regular car/RV crossing was closed off and there as quite the line to go through the truck crossing. It was close to thirty minutes before it was our turn. The usual questions including about how much wine we had on board. We told him the truth. He asked it we were going to select in the US. Ah no, personal consumption. He did not ask us to pay the 21 cents duty per bottle.I asked and was told that they had staff shortages right now hence the delays. We did have another thirty minute wait for the agricultural officer to do her check. There were two RV’s ahead of us.

She was very young and asked us to all leave the RV while she did her inspection. Never had that happen before, at the end I asked her why. Mostly because she just wanted her own space to look around. I could hear drawers being opened as well as the fridge and freezer and even the overhead cabinets in the living room area, She came running to the door asking if we had a rifle 😯 It was one of Colin’s travel guitars ( sitting on the bed ) that folds in half. Before she began her private search she asked what I had to declare re veggies, fruits, meats, tomatoes, eggs and perhaps a few other things, Once I told her about the 3 very ripe bananas and the one cucumber that was sealed in cellophane she asked it there was anything else that I wanted to declare before she searched. We had nothing to hide, I did mention to her that we did not eat meat but the she would find things in the freezer that were like veggie ground round, etc. Two minutes into her search she came to the door saying that I had lied and we had pepperoni in the freezer. I asked her to look at the label again, veggie pepperoni for our pizzas. The good thing about the length of the stop was that Colin was able to walk the dogs on the lovely grass area next to the RV.

So we drove and drove and drove. You know the expression “let sleeping dogs lie” and so we did. They had a late breakfast and slept through lunch so we kept going until almost an hour before we stopped for the night. They got a later but larger lunch and we got cheese and crackers to nibble on. I also enjoyed some wine with mine.

It has been an extremely long day, I did 13 hours with a few breaks. Colin went nonstop for at least 15-16 hours. About noon I did not think that we would get it done. So we made a plan to do what needed to be done before dark and what could easily be accomplished when it was dark. So here I sit at 10:30PM having a lovely hot meal ( thanks to the  microwave ). However I am sitting with my heating pad at my back and it feels so wonderful.

We woke up to 0C/32F, yet the high today was 18C/64F. We had a heater on as well as the furnace and fireplace. Colin decided last night that the girls could sleep with us. They will be with us again tonight as their crate is now in the RV. They were much much happier today. It seems that they have figured out that the RV loading means that we are going somewhere. They actually spent most of the day in the RV so that they could supervise everything. First in many days that I have seen their tails wagging so much.

I forgot to mention that yesterday I could not find our passports. Finally found them slid under other things. Then Colin remembered that the Jeep insurance expired on November 12th. Thank goodness he did and it is now on the to do master list to get it done before we leave.

Today I made my annual fall huge Amazon.com purchase and even that did not ( for the first time ever ) go well, however by mid afternoon all had been ordered.

Oh, the shop that did the RV repair has not called with the invoice yet. We will call them in the next day or so.

I would guess that we are 98% done. Today we had a plumber booked to blow out the lines in the house. Of course we are still here and yesterday he agreed to come tomorrow morning. He contacted us this afternoon and said it would have to at 7:15AM. At least he is still coming.

One other thing that happened today was that we were told that because our RV is twenty years old we can no longer get collision insurance for our travels in Mexico. So I have reached out to a few people, hoping that we can get some suggestions.

Despite all the set backs, we will be leaving in the morning, just one day late. I called the RV Park in Las Vegas to let them know that we would be one day late in arriving due to a mechanical issue. Even though we had prepaid for our entire stay I was happily surprised to see a refund for the one night.

You may have noticed that I had the header photo changed, again this will not be the final. You will see changes here and there over the next few weeks. One thing that has changed is that when you make a comment you have the choice to get my reply sent back to you or not. Obviously at the moment I have had little to no time to make replies. Let me know what you think about this option.

At this point I have not had anytime to figure out how to change the photo size and likely will not for a week. If the photos look normal you can thank my Fairy Godmother 😀

11:30PM and I need to get to bed.

Yes we got the RV back today. The part never got to the shop until noon and more than one mechanic worked on the installation. It is a sensor for the engine and it is in an almost impossible place to get into.

Thank you for your comments and welcome back. Please remember that this new blog is still under construction. I wish I could reply to you all but time is running out. It is almost midnight and I must get to bed so that I can put in a 12 hour day tomorrow if we want to leave Wednesday. That way we will only be a day behind. Both of our heads are spinning. We spent the evening each in our own area making lists for those caring for our home, doing a bit of this and a lot of that. Dinner was wine accompanied by a grilled cheese sandwich. I had a wonderful plan for dinner but there was no time.

Colin never left the shop until 6PM even thought they closed at 5PM. It was that close to installing the part time wise. We still don’t have a bill as they were too busy. Not to worry, I am certain the we will be getting one.

However it was dark ( 7PM ) when Colin returned and despite my suggestion to wait until the morning to park the RV he wanted to try. We did it in about 20 minutes despite the lack of light.

Looks like I still can’t size my photos, don’t know where to look. I give up.  Have to get to bed. If I am very lucky a fairy godmother might drop by 😎

I was doing a post for LATE Monday night – yes we have the RV. However I lost everything I posted so bear with me.

More or less. Probably less. This new blog site is most definitely under construction however it is functional. And in less than a week since it went down 😀  Truly a miracle thanks to a very very special person in my life. There was so much behind the scenes work and back and forth that my head is still spinning.

The photo at the top of the blog is temporary. We will find something within a few weeks.

We still have no RV part and are really hoping for tomorrow. We did find out that the part was put on a two day courier from Edmonton to Kelowna 😡  Who does that? We would have driven to pick it up to get installed this past Friday. So the plan is for tomorrow but the install is about four hours and there is no guarantee as to the delivery time of the part or even if is the correct part 🙄

Yesterday, Saturday the 15th of October we loaded everything that had been pulled out to load. Everything was placed into totes and bins and carried out to the Jeep. Fortunately Colin was able to fit everything into his vehicle so we could all travel together. Good thing. I was so tired after putting it all away that my eyes were closing. You guessed it, pizza for dinner.

I actually worked a straight 6 hours putting it all away. So that meant that even if we only get the RV by end of day Monday ( tomorrow ) we will still be one day behind schedule giving us Tuesday ( our original D day ) to load up. However the delay meant that we have had to have the internet restored, cancel the parks water shut off and reschedule the plumber who is to blow our the house. I still have not reshuffled our RV park reservations. Figured I would wait until tomorrow.

So listen up everyone, during the transfer those of you who had signed up for transfer of each new post sent directly to their inbox was deleted. Considering how much was done this was just a small blip. This means that you have to start over and fill out the request as follows.

You will receive an email from Follow It asking you to confirm your request. Only if you do so then you will again start to receive my blogs into your inbox.

Thanks to Mary-Ann the comment section of this new blog is functioning. She also writes a blog, click here for that.

Please send me an email if you have any issues or questions@ contessa549@gmail.com

So small photos for now, hang in with me. I really have to concentrate on getting ready to head south. The blog is a work in progress. Please be patient.