The Sandcastle

We are buying the RV I mentioned before as being in Bakersfield, California. It is not perfect but nothing in life is, really, and it comes so close.

It is a 2010 Winnebago Journey Express 34Y and it looks like this:

It is a 34 foot DP. Translated that means it is almost 35 feet long and it has a diesel engine at the back end. It has only one door which you can see on the passenger side front. You climb several steps to get into it because there is storage on the lower level–known amazingly enough as the basement. The extended walls you see in this picture are called slides. The front one is in the living room and the back one is in the bedroom. On the other side is one that runs nearly the entire length of the RV which makes for lots of room inside. See:

In the living room here’s Linda’s chair:

And Dave’s chair:

And the view they face:

That’s the dining/computing area. It includes a buffet with a surprise. See the funny looking top of the buffet?

It hides this:

I suspect we’ll start watching movies again with such a comfortable place to do so. We even have a surround sound system so we can catch all the nuances of movie soundtracks once again.

This is the kitchen:

Most RVers call this a galley but I don’t come from a boating background so I bounce back and forth between the two terms. We now have a double sink and a four, count them four, door refrigerator! And a microwave/convection oven I can reach and a corner into which to tuck my bar stool so I can prepare food without having to stand too long. I’ve already started digging out some of my favorite healthful recipes.

Speaking of healthful, see this long aisle facing another big TV?

That’s where I plan to put a new Wii so I can go bowling or play tennis or golf or whatever else will help me get up out of my comfy chair and moving around some. Those cab chairs under the TV swivel to face the living room so our visitors can be comfy, too. The passenger one is a recliner with a built in foot rest as well.

I have no plans at all for this:

That’s the bedroom TV. Are you counting? That’s three so far for a couple of people who have watched no TV for the last year and a half. We would never have ordered this many TVs but the RV already had all of them in it and they wouldn’t give us a discount to take them out so, as far as I am concerned, the only value of this one is resale value some day when we are done with the RV.

But wait! There’s more!

This is the outside TV. Yup, TV number four. The one where we can have the neighbors over to sit under our awning and watch the big game. Or play in the big game if we put a Wii out there. Or watch what I do if I decide to start presenting seminars on RVing like I used to do on model railroading. Or something. Surely we can find some justification for having four TVs in a house that’s only 34 feet long! After all, the dealer who ordered the RV with all these TV must have justified it somehow.

Anyway, that’s our new home. At least it will be if the dealer ever gets all the glitches fixed and upgrades installed. The latest word is it should all be done ready for delivery to us next Tuesday. In the meantime, we now have keys to it so we can start moving our stuff from the 24 foot View to the 34 foot Journey. I think our stuff is going to get lost in there.

TTYL,

Linda

ps. Oh yeah, there’s a bed and a bathroom, too, for those of you who were wondering about that.

After a couple days sitting still doing nothing we needed a do everything day. We dumped and filled our tanks, traded my paperback books, bought groceries, did laundry, bought a new mouse for my computer, returned that mouse, bought a different one at a different store, and ate lunch at the Heart Attack Grill.

The Heart Attack Grill sells the experience more than the food.

Here’s the menu:

Each of those hamburger patties is 1/2 pound of meat. They also sell “Flatliner Fries” which are cooked in lard. The fries are serve yourself and the quantity is unlimited. Your choice of beverages are: Full-sugar Coke, Pabst, Coors, or water all of which are served in the bottle with no glass. There’s nothing “Lite” or “Diet” served at the Heart Attack Grill.

The experience begins as soon as you pick which counter to sit at. The “nurse” serving your section comes around with a hospital gown for you to wear (Fortunately, you get to wear them over your clothes here.) and ends with the “nurse” presenting you with a list of the “procedures” you had and the bill for them.

It cost us $25 plus tip for two Single Bypasses and two of those tall bottles of Coke. We were also tagged with hospital type wrist tags that said we each had a bypass at the Heart Attack Grill. If you have a quadruple bypass you get to ride to your car in a wheelchair. If you weigh over 350 pounds you get to eat free.

It was one of those once in a lifetime is enough experiences but I highly recommend anyone do it once.

TTYL,

Linda

As much as we have enjoyed traveling in our View the last year and a half it has not been good for my health. The galley cannot be modified to let me do my own cooking and Dave does not enjoy doing the cooking I need. Plus, I cannot do my exercises in the limited space we have. Now that I have been diagnosed with diabetes, those thing are of increasing importance. So, as many of you have already guessed, we are shopping for a bigger RV.

Yes, that’s why we are thinking of buying a CR-V. A bigger RV wouldn’t let us go the places we go now so we’ll need a runabout.

Yes, that’s also why we spent so much time in Houston. We picked out a Winnebago Vectra that appeared to be designed specifically for the way we live and spent much time negotiating factors relating to it. Unfortunately, the one we couldn’t negotiate was a potential engine recall that would have left us homeless if the incorrectly machined part failed. With a nearly 1 in 20 chance of that happening, I just couldn’t persuade myself to take that risk.

So, next week we are going to California to look at a different RV we think might work for us. Keep your fingers crossed.

TTYL,

Linda

We’ve been at La Posa South LTV near Quartzsite, Arizona for a week and a half. We met members of the View/Navion Owners Group. We reunited with Escapee Class of ’08 members. We made new friends with Escapee Class of ’09 members. We ate at local restaurants with groups of 17-19 people. We experienced a storm that broke a record held for 104 years. We sat around many campfires and told many stories–most of them mostly true. But now it is over for another year and we are the last of our group to move on.  All good things come to an end. I wonder which of our many friends we’ll see next and where we’ll be then?

TTYL,

Linda

I need a January thaw. When we lived in Minnesota and were weary of the short days and lousy weather the January thaw would come along and perk us all up for a few days.

Instead of a January thaw we got the desert storm which pinned us all in our RVs for a few days. I want to go OUT!

So today we are going to Parker, Arizona, to shop at Walmart and to buy propane. Wheee! Maybe we’ll go look at bigger RVs so the next time we get pinned inside we’ll at least have room to invite friends over to play games or something.

TTYL,

Linda