Rainbow on Christmas Eve - Eve right outside our trailer park.
Looking at lights at Widmer World in Pleasanton, CA
Meet Luci, the newest member of our family. A Christmas present for Natalie, he fits right in.
The ride home from the adoption center. #adoptdontshop
Severus is unsure about this turn of events. Skittish for the first few days, Luci is finally coming out of hiding to visit. Severus basking in the glow of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.
Natalie still baking for Christmas. One day to Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning.
An afternoon of games and companionship.
Christmas night was spent with friends at a winery in the countryside of northern California. A room sized fireplace, wine flowing freely and laughter with friends.
It has been seven weeks of full time RV life. SEVEN WEEKS! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. How little we have learned and how much we know, at the same time.
The beast already has her dings and nicks and scratches. I mean, we have already put between two and three years worth of 'campin' time onto her little frame.
We managed to melt, literally melt, the tiny propane grill that came with the RV. Along with a bit of the heavy plastic rear lining of ol' Reba-- Our trusty 2015 Chevy Colorado.
A twelve inch sharp metal lion, very pointy mane, crashed through the front of our television while moving to a new camp site. Well, really the moving part was fine. It was the husband forgetting to remove the bungee cords off of the bookshelf before attempting to push out the side that caused the real problem.
Everything on the bookshelf crashed forward, including said lion. Right into the TV that was holding all of the contents secure. The lion's mane roared right through the TV screen. Sadness all around.
We have also managed to do a lot of touristing. Sightseeing all the things we are usually to busy being busy to 'see'.
We have made it into Pier 39 on Fisherman's Wharf. Sea lions, salt water taffy and fish & chips. I love finding the great little hidden local ships no one else knows about. I also love the shoulder to shoulder crowds of tourists in places like the Wharf.
Spent lots and lots and lots of time just enjoying the camping life.
But we have also had adventures beyond the big city and small trailer.
Picked pumpkins, puddled in the waves at Half Moon Bay and just had a grand autumn weekend.
Perhaps some delicious seafood was had, as well. Nom, nom, nom.
We drove back up through the Saddleridge wildfire at the closed down the 5 and 210 freeways for a few hours. Once back we were welcomed by two 4.5+ earthquakes. And, of course, all the aftershocks.
Ah California living.
I don't know why I thought I would magically have more time to write once we moved into this thing. I have many, many pictures and videos. If things ever, ever slow down, I will post them all up. The good, the bad and the melty.
In the mean time, we will just keep rolling along in our home sweet rolling home.
Pressing into our second week, there was no way to avoid the Nope Job any longer. The sewer tanks had to emptied. Now, this is a disgusting job on the best day. This was never going to be the best day. Being very, very low on cash resources for the first few days, we had to wait to purchase a few of the necessities of RV life.
Camco RhinoFLEX 20ft RV Sewer Hose Kit, Includes Swivel Fitting and Translucent Elbow with 4-In-1 Dump Station Fitting, Storage Caps Included (39741) Sewer hoses, connections, etc fell onto the list of these things can wait a couple of days. RV toilet paper and a couple of septic tanks drop ins came with the trailer start up kit. Yay! The lack of sewer hoses early on set up a very smelly problem. Not a guaranteed to occur problem, but one that happened anyway. Along about the middle of Week One, while checking out the outside of the trailer, husband looks at the sewer valve and states, "That valve is open!" The sewer cap was on, but the valve that keeps all the ooey gooey yuck up in the tube so you can attach the sewer hose to empty the tanks was wide open. Wide open on all three tanks. This beast has two gray tanks and a blank tank. Now, the gray tanks are not really a problem, since they are pretty much filled with soapy dish water, shower water and hand soap. Not the worse things in the world. The black tank, however, is filled with all the rotten nasty things you flush away, and never want to see, smell or think about. EVER AGAIN! It is always about the money. We had to wait until we had enough money to buy sewer this and that and everything. We simply did not have the ability to hook up to campground system when we first arrived. And, yes, we probably should have trekked to the other side of the campground to use their facilities. At 3am, at 3pm, at 10:15 in the whenever. It just was not going to happen. This is our home. We are going to go when we have to go. IN OUR HOME. We just were not expecting the stupid to hit us quite so early and quite so hard. So smelly and so disgusting!
We made a video, because why wouldn't we. Ha! Be prepared that it is very gross. No lollipops and gummy bears. Just gross and gagginess. I can just sense the disappointment. I promise prettier posts in the future. The Nope Job--a newbie story RV newbies all the way. Along about the middle of Week One, while checking out the outside of our brand new trailer, husband looks at the sewer valve and states, "That valve is open!" The sewer cap was on, but the valve that keeps all the ooey gooey yuck up in the tube, so you can attach the sewer hose to empty the tanks, was wide open. There is clueless, and then there is us. This is our story.
This is part one of our battle: cleaning out the black tank. The black tank cleaning has its very own version of disgusting. Just not as bad as splish splash bucket sewage. So there's that. Battling the Black Tank, a newbie story. The video:
There is a first time for everything. As first time, full time RV newbies, learning how to battle the bowels of the beast is a tough and terrifying quest. This is part two of our battle: cleaning out the black tank. Not as bad as emptying out the ooo and goo, but still pretty nasty business.
Below is the official video from the Catalina Legacy page on how to use the Black Tank flush. Let's just pretend we were just as professional as this guy.
A couple photos of the roses from our campground to freshen up this gross and disgusting post. Ironically, these beautiful flowers are planted in front of the restrooms.
As I am writing this, we have been in our new home exactly one week. All in all, the settling in part has not been as bad as I expected it to be. After days and weeks and months of frustration and setbacks, the moving in part has been relatively uneventful.
We have a couple of major hiccups hovering on the horizon. Because, it wouldn't be our life if we didn't. The first is we need a truck...YESTERDAY!
We could not register for a spot in this delightful cement parking lot of a trailer park until after we had purchased our trailer. We had discovered that we have to move the beast every THREE weeks just a couple of week before we bought it. We figured that we could rent a truck to move it until we could afford to buy an old used one ourselves.
Well, yip deedee, It turns out that after you pay for a spot in this place, it states in there rules that you must OWN a vehicle capable of moving said trailer in order for trailer to be in RV park!!! What are we supposed to do now. The trailer has been paid for, and there is NO PLACE ELSE to park it.
Trust me, I have been searching for months. A cement parking lot with no amenities at all, with a premium price tag is not my idea of where I want to be. But this is the East Bay and it is all there is.
So, unless husband does an hour and a half commute, this is it!
And, because we had the choice of homeless or money-less, we spent every last cent we had to buy trailer ahead of schedule. We have been living on fumes the past ten days. We could have left this thing park for twenty one days if we could have rented twenty one days at one time. This beast has to be moved for the first time in two days.
This trailer full of newbies has no idea how to do that. The missing truck is an issue, but so is the 36 foot behemoth. Seriously, why isn't there a test or something that they make you pass before they just take your money and say, "Here, have a trailer. You're on your own now. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
And, just to prove how much we really truly should not be trusted in the would of RVers! Four days in, yes four days! The husband was looking at the sewer valve and stated, "That valve is open!" We had to wait until we had enough money to buy sewer everything, so we did not hook up to campground system when we first arrived.
The only thing holding everything in is the sewer cap!
All three sewer valves were open! Both gray tanks and the BLACK tank! So much for the training at the PDI session. Seriously, why isn't there a test? There is no way were would have passed. If there is a level before newbie, we are the level before that.
I will definitely be videoing that sweet adventure.
Here is a short video of our first morning. We didn't get moved in until late the night before, so there are boxes and stuff everywhere.
Way back in August of 2016, I learned I am allergic to wheat, milk, sesame and soy. Other foods like egg whites, peanuts, shrimp, walnuts were also on the foods to avoid list. Since then, it has been a journey of learning a whole new way to look at food and cooking.
My youngest daughter, Natalie has helped me create recipes that are, at times gluten-free, sometimes just wheat-free, and yes, there is a difference.
While this blog began as a food/recipe only blog, our life has changed 180 degrees in the past couple of years.
In September of 2019, we became a 100% RV living family of three. After just over a year and a half of both fulltime RVing and worldwide pandemic, we turned in our keys and put the trailer into storage.
This sunshiny blog records the craziness of our lives and is now the perfect place to document another momentous life change. As I write this, I am still surrounded by boxes, so many boxes. And so little furniture.
We spent 15 months being hotel nomads. 21 tucked inside an RV. What the future holds from here, it is hard to say. Today, I am watching a couple of house finches build a nest in my begonia plant hanging out on our new patio. Life is good.
As we lay our RV dreams to rest, I will continue to document the triumphs and challenges of downsizing from house to apartment to hotel to our successful goal of full time RV living and now back into an apartment.
There are plenty of trails to hike and oceans vistas to gaze upon.
As always, we will new recipes using our IP (instant pot) once I find the electric cord, missing from the move. And, for the first time in over three years, we have a real oven…macarons, corn bread, MEAT LOAF! Oh, so many possibilities. Recipes to come!
These first few days, we are enjoying just having space to breathe. Hope you enjoy this journey as much as we do. Time to get this show off the ROAD, setup and ready for new adventures.
By the way, I write as I roll, please excuse any misspellings. I will come back and fix them at some point. Life is busy, busy, busy.
