Shifting Focus…AGAIN!

It feels like whenever I stop dreaming and believing that we will someday have the things we desire that I get into a slump.

We do not ask for much, what we want is our Bigfoot 29G motorhome and a bank balance that does not consistently reach zero.  Otherwise our lives are perfect.

When I constantly dwell on the things we do not have instead of all the good things we do have I find myself feeling less of who I am, then there is always that big BUT…

But, Maggie is falling apart and each time we take a ride, we fear the worst.  Yes, she is a tough gal but even us tough ones have breaking points and we just hope she holds on a bit longer until we get this all figured out and I hope I hang in there too.

I have not been able to find any online work that is paying so that leaves me with loads of time to think…Being left alone with my thoughts is not always a good thing, plus this is the time of the year of anniversaries, not just the good ones of our wedding but the deaths and birthdays of loved ones we have lost which makes me sad and I do not like being sad.

There was a time many years ago that I was a very negative and sad person all the time but now I love being positive, upbeat, happy and very grateful to be alive every moment of every day.

Our new plan is to settle in somewhere for a few months with us both working so that we can think about our next step which has to be a new rig.  We do not want to carry a note but we also do not have $50,000 to purchase our next rig.  So, that being said we will have to go to Plan B…settle for something else since the Bigfoot 29G motorhomes are far and few between and they do not make them any longer. 

Dreams do not always come true and there are times that reality is so far from your dreams that it makes you wonder if dreaming is a good thing or a curse after all…see too much time on my hands to be thinking all the time.

The problem is…I am a dreamer…always have been and always need and want to be.  Without my dreams my life is just not worth living.  Not everyone always gets what they go after, even if they believe and work hard for it.  Others get it handed to them, then others work hard and get nothing.  Unfortunately the latter is me and always has been.

This blog should be titled whining since I am doing a lot of it, but I need to express myself or it will continue to fester inside and wreak havoc on my health. 

We have confirmation on work once this one ends…we will be staying out west in the Bryce Canyon area.  Yes, we spent the first year of this lifestyle in that area but our computer crashed at the end and we lost most if not all of our photos.  And, since it is such a picturesque area we decided to spend a summer at Ruby’s Inn working in the General Store as cashiers, both of us working 40+ hours.  We will be there from May until October and hopefully the weekly side trips to the marvelous surrounding areas will ease my hitch itch, if not I will just have to suck it up.

Our ideal way to live this lifestyle is to be on the move consistently but enough jobs are not coming to us to make it work financially for us so we have to go to the next plan.  Since we love this area, need photos, great work reviews and our interview with them went so well we decided that the Universe was telling us to take it, and we did.

Finally…after a 2 week delay we received our package from FedEx.  Now they are claiming that there was the first attempt where the driver claimed the address could not be located and SOMEONE changed the city to Ramona, which is 80 miles from our location.  Anyway they will be looking into who and why the change was made and apologized.  But what matters is we finally got our package and lesson learned we will not be sending our snail mail or any other package to us while we are still located here in the middle of the desert.

Indian Wells Carefree RV

Indian Wells Carefree RV

47340 Jefferson Street

Indio, CA  92201

760-775-1147

1/26/2015

We paid $35.03 using our 50% off Passport America membership for a water, electric and sewer site on an asphalt slab that was not level and very close to our neighbor.  Included was cable and WiFi at no additional charge. 

Later when we went to the Passport America site we realized she made an error since the discount was not available in January at this resort so we got lucky.

This resort is more for the permanent or long term residents, not for overnight stays.  The sites are not very wide and it felt crammed on one another that would made it difficult to maneuver into the sites.  We did not have an issue but we are short and do not have a toad with us.

The staff was exceptional.  They made us feel as if we were super stars but the crammed feeling would not allow me to recommend it to others even for a longer stay and we would not stay here again if we were in the area.

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.

Today I Whine and, Not the Good Wine

We are in the middle of nowhere and it is hard enough with limited, very limited cell phone coverage.  Enough so that we do not make or receive any calls because they all drop sometime during the call.  So we have reverted to emails and/or texts for all of our contacts.

Well, yesterday we were expecting a package from FedEx and I am a follower of my packages.  Ever since they began offering tracking on packages I have been a stalker of my package.  For some reason I love watching them travel, the roundabout way they go just to get to us, it always amazes me the path they take and this route was no exception.

On Friday, January 16, 2015 - It was picked up from Pensacola, Florida and sent to FedEx location in Crestview, Florida (53 miles).

On Saturday, January 17, 2015 - It arrived and departed FedEx location in Ellenwood, Georgia (340 miles)

On Sunday, January 18, 2015 – It was in transit to Las Cruces, New Mexico (1500 miles) and then to Desert Center, California (650 miles) by that evening.

Then it sat for 3 days in Desert Center, California just 103 miles north of our location.

Finally on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 it arrived and departed to Bloomington, California a 125 mile drive west past us and then made its way to the San Diego FedEx location, another 104 miles south before then getting on a delivery truck to us 100 miles east.  But then…

I usually watch to see it change to the “Delivered” status then look for a signature and then go retrieve our package.  Exciting life…right?  When you only receive mail about once every 4 or 5 months it is a big event.

Yesterday afternoon we had still not received our package by 3pm so we poured a glass of wine and sat out on our patio to watch for the truck.  We can see the road for miles, as I said we are in the middle of the desert.  We watched all vehicles and had a few possibilities but none were a FedEx truck or van.  Around 4:20pm I once again checked our status and it said “Delivery Exception” for incorrect address, zip/postal code.  It was a bit confusing to me since there is only one Blu-In Café/RV Park on Highway 78 in Ocotillo Wells, California BUT then I noticed it also is listed on some of the paperwork as Borrego Springs as the city with the same zip code...NOT GOOD! 

I attempted to call several times and the calls all dropped so I emailed them with the new city of Borrego Springs to use hoping this will get it to us today.  The tracking today does say that it is once again out for delivery but will our package ever get here?  The representative I spoke to said the address was corrected and it was on the truck for delivery today but the call was dropped before it could all be confirmed.  Only time will tell. 

It traveled over 2900 miles, not counting the back and forth yesterday which would add another 200+ miles if it makes it here today.  If you travel straight from our location to Pensacola it is just about 2000 miles…Wow what an adventure those packages go through.

This is just another inconvenience of staying in the middle of nowhere but it will just be a little while longer before we head out and if nothing else our next location will be amongst the civilization and not so desolated.  We have a few offers but at this time we are still waiting for confirmations to see where we end up next, we have our favorites picked out but we will wait and see before we announce anything.

Here’s hoping that all your calls get through and your packages get delivered in a timely manner, as for ours, well keep your fingers crossed.

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.

Me And You

Our wedding song…something we do every year on our anniversary is we play our song and feel that love well up inside each other and every year we shed some tears.  Mostly tears of love that we have for one another that continues to grow stronger each and every year.  There are some tears of sadness for some of the choices we made that did not turn out exactly how we had planned but at the same time we know without those tough decisions we would not be who we are today.  Then we cuddle into the moment and share a special bond that nobody else has ever shared with either one of us, and deep down we understand no one else will ever replace in our hearts. 

This love is what gets us through the rough times in our lives, this love gets us through the lean times in our lives and this love we share gets us through each and every heartache and pain we encounter.  And, for that we are both so very appreciative and fortunate.  It is at those times that we understand we may not be those chosen ones to have richness in money, but we have something no amount of money could ever buy.  We have the love of each other that many others can only dream about, but both of our dreams came true 18 years ago when we both married our best friends.  Life is the best it could ever be when you have someone that wonderful to share it with, loneliness is a feeling that either one of us ever want to feel again and our hope is that each and every person on this earth has that opportunity to have their hearts so filled that it feels as if it will burst at any moment.  That each person can feel what it is like to love someone just the way they are and not ever need to change them, not need to make them into something they are not, and to only want what is best for the other.  To know what it feels like to accept them with all their short comings and love them even more because of their imperfections.  To laugh their way through times of trouble and to never make the other feel inadequate for any reason.  And, most importantly to be so grateful for that someone to love you for exactly who you are, flaws and all.

We are so grateful every day for finding one another and being able to share our own dreams with one another and we are so thankful that those dreams are parallel with one another.  We are without a doubt the most luckiest people in the world.

"Me And You"

Ordinary, no
Really don't think so
Not a love this true
Common destiny
We were meant to be
Me and you

Like a perfect scene
From a movie screen
We're a dream come true
Suited perfectly
For eternity
Me and you

Everyday, I need you even more
And the nighttime too
There's no way I could ever let you go
Even if I wanted to

Everyday I live
Try my best to give
All I have to you
Thank the stars above
That we share this love
Me and you

Everyday, I need you even more
And the nighttime too
There's no way I could ever let you go
Even if I wanted to

Ordinary, no
Really don't think so
Just a precious few
Ever make it last
Get as lucky as
Me and you
Me and you

We wish we still had our wedding video...we danced to this song and you could see the strong bond that we had back then that has only grown.  We see it in our minds all the time but wish we could share it with you all!

Jack of All Trades

Jerry is working in the Café.  And me?  Well I am just filling in wherever I am needed.  The first week I started off cleaning the restrooms at the RV Park which is not my favorite thing to do, as a matter of fact it is the worst case scenario I could have imagined.  It’s very physical and just a thankless job, plus I enjoy being around people and socializing which does not happen in the restrooms, or at least I hope it doesn’t.

The second long week I worked in the Café assisting Jerry in the kitchen.  Hard work but it was fun, I was able to socialize and spend time with Jerry so it was a win, win situation.

The third week, my latest adventure was selling T-Shirts at the Blu-In Café…now we are talking!  Hopefully this stays my job for the rest of the season, or at least not send me back to the cleaning of the restrooms.

This is right at the top of the list of some of my favorite things to do and I have fun doing it but I just got the word that I will be back in the kitchen this weekend since it is a holiday weekend.  I am good with that, just as long as it’s not back to the restroom duties.

We have a few feelers out there for work once we are done here and we so hope to find work that we can travel with and have fun doing it.  We love working with Scootaround but the work on the west coast did not go through so we are looking for other work along those lines.  We will work a golf event the first of February for Scootaround at the Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego but so far not too much more from them.

We thought we found something that would have been interesting, it would be selling cheese at shows, fairs and other venues which is something we love to do but it is only in Texas and we really do not feel like spending the summer there so we continue to look.  We are looking into the Yellowstone area, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada and Northern California just to name a few ideally located areas.  We would prefer not to commit for the summer but in some of those areas it might be nice to explore so we are keeping our minds open for all possibilities.

As for our current location, even though it has its disadvantages, we have not had such a connection in such a long time and we feel at home.  We are in the middle of the desert and we get a lot of sand blowing which we have to dust the home all the time.  We are a little over 50 miles away from what we consider civilization that we took full advantage of this past week on our days off.  But all in all it is a good fit for us at this time in our lives.

We left Monday and got a hotel room in Indio at the FantasySprings Resort Casino for our 18^th year anniversary celebration.  Then we had to do our big shopping at Walmart, but also shopped for the first time at a WinCo Foods and was very happy at some great meat deals but we will probably stick with Walmart since they have it all there.  We shopped so much that we decided not to make the drive back on Tuesday and instead stayed at the Indian Waters RV Resort located in Indio.  Both those reviews can be found in separate blogs we posted.

The sunsets and sunrises here are spectacular...

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.

Red Earth Casino

Red Earth Casino Website

3089 Norm Niver Road

Thermal, CA  92274

760-395-1200

We followed the signs for RV Parking Route which took us through the dirt that was a bit bumpy, not sure why we could not have just headed on the asphalt to get to the back area where there are designated parking spaces for your RV to boondock. Boondocking is welcomed at no charge in a well-lit parking lot with security driving around. 

The casino is very small but everyone seems friendly and not sure how busy it would get in the evenings and weekends since we were there early in the morning on a Monday.  We passed it by on the way back on a Wednesday afternoon and still did not seem busy at all.

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.

Do Not Blink in Borrego Springs

After working 10 long days straight we didn’t want to drive too far so we decided to take a 23 mile short ride and hang out in Borrego Springs.  

We spent the night at Palm Canyon Hotel & RV Resort (check out the full review on our blog).

We had lunch at Carmelita’s Mexican Grill & Cantina (check out our separate review on our blog).

We rode our bikes into town to check out the Mall and the other neat shops around the neighborhood, but in just a few hours we had seen it all.  As cute and quaint as we found the town to be, we were both a bit disappointed.  Not exactly sure what we expected but it was not as we had imagined it.

We notice how life works that way for us at times, the things we look forward to, just end up fizzling out and not at all as we expected.  Could it be that we expect too much?  Or is it just that the planning is more exciting than the actual event?  Not sure but it’s something we will think about…maybe we think too much!  That has occurred to us several times in the past few months…we always think and talk and then think some more and then talk some more about things before we decide if we will do it or not.  I like it better when we fly by the seat of our pants, throw caution to the wind, adventure out of our comfort zones and just do it.

Once again something is missing in our lives and even though we are doing what we love, we have both lost our passion and our adventurous ways of living our lives.  We play it safe a lot more often than we ever had before and it just feels wrong.  Life is too frigging short to play it safe!

After 2014 being such a total drain on us, we had such high hopes and prospects for 2015 and they have all been squished and we are only a little over a week into the New Year.  We were finally going to hook up with a company that pays well and allows us to travel all the time.  My writing and photography was taking off with several companies and I would find other work to do online from our RV as we travel.  One by one all of these opportunities are dissipating and now none of them are even a small flicker of flame in my vision.  How does that always seem to happen?  Do I dream too quickly and expect good things to come our way?  I know I work hard at it, maybe I push too hard and not allow it to just flow to us.  I am not sure why life always has a different outcome to our dreams but it is getting so tiring that I may just give up dreaming all together.  But then what do I have?  Without hopes and dreams the future is bleak and life is just not worth living. 

I need more…but how and where do we go from here?  As I said, there are times when we just think too much…

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.

So Glad That’s All Over…

We are not talking about the holidays or 2014, even though we are so happy to see them both over too, but what we are happiest about is that the long 10 day work is over.  Had some really busy days serving hundreds of burgers but Jerry and I “NAILED IT”.  We really do work well together and this place has restored our faith in human kindness once again.  They are such nice people who say what they mean and mean what they say and really make us feel needed and wanted.  It really doesn’t take much but these guys “get it”. 

One incident we have to share with you all is so funny.  It was close to the beginning of this 10 day stretch and we realized we miscalculated our wine purchase and seen that we would run out prior to it being over.  We had heard that the owner was going to make a final run into town so we asked if they could pick us up a box of wine.  We had learned from traveling that many places do not carry the box wine in the Sangria flavor and it just so happened the area he went to was just that type of place.  No Sangria to be found at the many different stores he stopped at so when he came back he was so apologetic and we were thankful that he tried but knew we would survive without it.  We put that out of our minds and moved forward, then a few days later we had a special delivery from one of the employees who found a box on her travels and then two more boxes later that day from other employee family members who were coming into the area and brought them to us.  All of this because the owners put the word out and wanted to keep the cook happy…OMG…Really!  They also let us know just how great of a job we are doing and happy we are here.

We, on the other hand are happy to be working for them since we were getting discouraged about how people began treating us but now we know there are great folks out there but some real jerks in other places.  We have already been asked to return and if we are in the area we would, but we are not making any plans that far in advance.

The weather throughout the holidays had been dreadful but improving by the day as we speak.  It was freezing in the desert for over a week while we had to be to work by 7am…brrrrrr!  Made for a very cold bike ride, I caught the crud and then gave it to Jerry but we made it through and now we just have 3 ½ work days with 3 ½ days to explore.

Hope you all had a great holiday season and we will be catching up on your adventures in the next few days and we will update you all on ours too since we plan to do loads of exploring in this area of the desert.  I had never been here but Jerry came here with his dad to race their bikes many years ago and I love seeing the reminiscing in his eyes.

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.

Palm Canyon Hotel & RV Resort

221 Palm Canyon Drive

Borrego Springs, CA  92004

760-767-5341

1/6/2015

We paid $43.74 using our Good Sam 10% discount for a 30 amp electric, sewer, water back in site on gravel that was fairly level.  The sites were close to one another and why since it was during the week and only a hand full of occupied sites that they huddle us all together right next to one another, I will never know why but they did.

From the moment you enter the property you can see that it is well maintained and the staff is so congenial and go out of their way to assure we were taken care of, it was great service all around.  They allowed us to check in when we arrived at 10am without an extra charge.

The hotel is set within an old Western style building that just gives a nice feel for the place, and then the vintage trailer rentals are so unique and looks like a great place to hang out for a weekend or longer.

They have all the amenities that you would need onsite, the Restaurant and Saloon have limited days and hours so you will need to check on that before you decide to eat there.

The Gift Shop & Market has a few of the essentials that you may have forgotten and has a wide selection of memorabilia such as shirts, wine, and other items to purchase.

They have a laundry area that is small but would do the trick if we needed to use them.

The restrooms and shower area was a bit on the rougher side but they were clean.

They have two different pools, not sure if we were allowed to use either since we were in the RV part of the property but they both had a good size pool and a Jacuzzi so either one would work if we chose to use them.

There is an area with fire pits, picnic tables, and an amphitheater for group and special events that has ample space to enjoy some entertainment and fun.

There are several RV Parks in the area but this is the one that we would highly recommend and if we are ever in the area again, we would choose to stay here over any of the other resorts.

For more photos, check out our Google + Web Albums.