Well, it’s official…..Guy and Katelyn are married! Wow! It’s almost impossible to believe how good life can be sometimes. Katelyn is warm, kind, caring, beautiful and Guy is head over heals in love with her. They are a perfect match. The wedding was a beautiful event, small and intimate, with about 38 guests. They wanted a small wedding from the beginning, the idea of a big event with lots of people was overwhelming to them. So they planned a beautiful, very personal, ceremony and dinner celebration. It could not have been better.
We moved the RV to a new (to us) RV park – Lebanon Hills Regional Park – a county park, in a suburb on the southern side of the Twin Cities. We really enjoyed it, lots of grass, trails to walk Gerry and campfires allowed. And it was much closer to all the wedding activities than Crystal Springs. We’ll be back to this park again for sure, assuming we can get reservations. They go fast. I got lucky this spring and happened upon the website on the “opening day” of reservations. They were full within a couple of hours for the entire season!
Samantha flew in from Denver and stayed with us in the new RV and Gerry was delighted! Stephanie and Matt opted for a hotel for their get-away-with-no-children visit and Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Laura and Brooke also flew in and stayed at a hotel. Was great having family visit and to share some of our favorite spots around the Twin Cities with them. We rarely get to have all the kids together anymore, with all three of them living in different cities all over the country – what a joy it was to all be together again!
I find myself at a loss of words (I know! Who would think….?!!) about all the feelings and emotions watching Guy and Katelyn be married. Happy. Amazed at how perfect they are together. Tears of joy (there were lots!). Proud. Can’t wait to watch them grow together. Our hearts are full!
We left a couple of days after the wedding to begin our journey west. We stopped in Sioux Falls, SD to tend to a few residency matters. Yes! I forgot to mention in my last post – we are now residents of South Dakota! We are not in Ohio long enough to be required to claim it as our residence, and South Dakota makes it easy to become a resident. And, taxes are much better – so we changed our residency this spring! Until we decide where to live if/when we decide we’re done with the RV life, this works. I had read about many full time RVers making South Dakota their state of residency and did some research, and it turns out it was right for us too.
I’m writing this post in a very nice RV park in Spearfish, South Dakota – Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort. In the Black Hills region. We arrived yesterday, and plan to get our hiking legs under us with a couple of hikes, lots of naps (we are tired!) and generally relax. And soak in the wonder of life – which is very good, indeed.
The photographer provided a few “sneak peak” photos – we can’t wait to see them all!
It is so good to be sitting at my RV dining table writing another blog post! Seems like it has been a very long time since last doing this. We are at one of our favorite spots, Crystal Springs RV Resort in southern Minnesota. It’s a small RV park, on 40 acres with a beautiful lake and lots of walking paths. A perfect spot to relax and regroup after a very busy few weeks. Gerry is snoozing on the bed and Steve is off at the gym working out. Everyone is in their happy place!
So much to share, so let’s get started!
First things first – Guy and Katelyn are getting married (!!) in 6 days! It will be a small wedding in the Twin Cities area. We are so happy! I’ll give you a nice wedding update after, and I’m sure there will be a picture or two to share as well!
We bought a new RV! And a new Truck! We purchased the same brand, DRV Mobile Suites, but a different floor plan. Our new floor plan is called 41RKDB. The big difference is that it’s 2 feet longer (a big deal in RVs) and the kitchen is in the rear, instead of in the middle. We still have the full bath with 2 sinks (a must have in my opinion) and also a half bath. The living area is larger and it’s all done in a more modern style. We love it. Of course we’ve had a few issues with it and have spent the last few weeks dealing with that and we took it back to the dealership in Elkhart, IN a couple of weeks before we left Ohio and they completed our list of repairs. Mostly it’s a bunch of small things. The big thing was the paint and body work that needed to be done. Of course, there’s a story to that!
My New Kitchen!
We picked up our shiny new RV the end of April in Elkhart, IN, at the dealer. We spent the night there, trying to use everything and identify our “punch list” of things needing to be tended to. We came up with a list of minor things. Then, we drove back to our storage unit in Ohio, to store it until we were ready to head out in early June. Well, Steve backed it into the storage unit like a pro, no problem! We stood there and looked at the 16 foot overhead garage door and said – “hmmm, is that going to clear? Looks like it might not clear – ” we double checked to be sure we were backed up all the way in the storage unit – yup, we were. We knew our previous RV was a tight fit, with little spare room. I had asked during the purchase/ordering process back in November, what the length of this new RV would be. It was a brand new floor plan, and I was told – “TBD, but should be same as your current model”. So….we close the overhead door and guess what? Our new RV is 22″ longer than our old one, we now know! And the overhead door scraped all the way down and then all the way back up again. So paint and bodywork got added to the “fix it” list!
All Ready For Relaxing in Minnesota!Our Living RoomDining AreaMaster Bath
Then there’s the new truck – and it’s a beautiful one I must say. But, we had not planned to purchase a new truck this year. The dealership we purchased the RV from called one day, making arrangements for our pick up date and closing of the purchase, and said they required documentation showing the towing capacity of our truck. No problem we say. We have a big truck – a RAM 3500 dually diesel with a super duty Cummins diesel engine. It took some figuring out, but we found out how to get your “official” towing capacity – you use your VIN at the RAM website. Ours was 18,400. WHAT? That cannot be right. We have been towing 24,000 pounds. It was right. We have been towing, with our very first truck and this second one, way under capacity of what we should have been. We Had No Idea. Towing capacity is not listed on the window sticker. It is not in your users manual. The only way to get it is with the VIN on the RAM website. Turns out there are a million things that effect your towing capacity – ratios, axles, tires, a bunch of stuff I’m not going to remember. So, for the first 2 trucks we had purchased, even though we sat with the sales guys and told them what we used it for and what towing capacity we needed, and were assured “this truck can tow anything”, and the RAM brochures list the MAX towing capacity that MAY be possible if everything was built just exactly to those specs, we now know we have been driving around for the last 4 years in 2 different trucks, way under sized.
I’ll get a better picture for future posts!
I guess there’s 2 ways to look at it: maybe towing capacity is not that important, we pulled our RV through the mountains, for lots of miles, and didn’t have any problem or – OMG we are so lucky we didn’t blow out our transmission and haven’t been stranded on the side of some lonely mountain road or worse, blew the engine, lost control and killed ourselves and everyone around us. We were in the latter camp!
The dealership we bought the new RV from required documentation of sufficient towing capacity or else they would not sell you the RV. Can not drive off their lot with out proof of towing capacity. Makes sense to us. Makes us wonder why that conversation never happened when we purchased our first RV at a different dealership. We were thankful to learn this lesson this way, and not any of the the other possible, terrible ways it could be learned. And, we bought a new truck! And, we found out it is not easy to find one with the higher towing capacity. They don’t make that many of them. And, many of the truck sales people we talked to didn’t know how to find the actual towing capacity of the trucks they were selling. And, it was much more expensive. We thought our other 2 trucks were expensive. We didn’t know we were buying the “cheap” low towing capacity version. Now we do.
When I think about all the things we’ve learned these past 4 years about trucks, RVs, wheels, electrical systems, water systems, etc (if you have ready very many of these blog posts you know some of these stories!) it really is pretty amazing. And we keep on learning!
Driving around Chicago – not what you picture when dreaming of RVing!
Since we had to have the repairs done to the RV before we left Ohio for our season of travel, we took the RV back to the dealership in Elkhart, IN 2 weeks before we were leaving Ohio. Then, we had movers come and put all our apartment stuff into storage, and we rented a U Haul to put all the RV stuff into and we drove our truck and the U Haul to Elkhart to get the RV when the repairs were done. So then, we had to move all our stuff from the U Haul into the new RV while at the dealership. And it was 93 and 1000% humidity that day. And then we hit the road! Except we hit rush hour traffic around Chicago – that was not fun. But alas, we made it to our spot at Crystal Springs RV Resort as planned.
Gerry is always comfortable!Moving into the new RV
So that’s my update for now, and the launch to a new season of RV travel and adventures. I’m happy we get to make it up as we go along! Steve is moving more and more into retirement and has made some big decisions related to work recently. And, he will be turning 70 in a few weeks (oh my!). I’m sure I’ll have lots to share about that as well.
Transitions, new beginnings, new chapters, new adventures. Life is Good.
Hello there and howdy! We are back in Columbus, I am sitting in the RV writing this post amidst the unpacking, move-out-of-the-RV mess. There’s just no way around it – living in the RV for half the year means moving everything in and then back out again…I’m not complaining! In fact, I am moving at a snail’s pace, managing to spread this task out over several days. I think it’s my way to extend the time I get to spend in the RV…. 😊
We are always happy to be back in Columbus to visit and catch up with everyone. And Steve has work to do. But, we are sorely missing our mountains and hiking! Since my last post, we spent time in Angel Fire, NM. A favorite spot, this was our third year there. And then it was on to the Denver area, for a visit with Samantha. Wonderful visit and love that our RV life allows us to go visit the kids so easily.
We had quite a bit of snow in Angel Fire. The campground is at 8,400 feet, and after a few days of beautiful fall weather, we had 2 days of snow. We think we got around 8 – 10″. We got out and hiked in the beautiful snowy landscape and loved it. And, we got lucky and woke up one morning to a herd of Elk in the meadow right outside our back window. Each year we’ve been to Angel Fire (this was 3rd year), we’ve had these Elk show up in the meadow. This year, one cold morning after the snow fall, there was a fog sitting over the meadow. As the fog lifted with the sunshine, there were 200-300 Elk in the meadow! They stayed until the next day, then they moved on. We never tired of watching them out the window. Here’s a couple of pictures out the window. They do not do it justice, as always:
We visited Taos several times, it is only about 30 minutes away, and it’s a beautiful drive through a canyon to get there. We love the quirky, earthy, unique vibe of Taos. As much as we love exploring new places, we also love going back to these favorites each year. It’s familiar and comforting going back to places we love like Taos.
A favorite – Chokola – a great chocolate cafe!
Then it was on to Denver to visit Samantha! We had a great visit and love seeing her so happy with her life in Colorado. We had great weather there, very warm for late October-early November. We got in a couple hikes, but mostly hung out with Samantha and enjoyed time together. Gerry was so happy to have “sister” with us again! He knows the word “sister” and I had to be careful not to say it too soon. He immediately begins looking for Samantha and has run away before looking for her when I’ve made the mistake of saying it too soon!
Then it was time to head east to begin our drive back to Ohio. But, just to keep things interesting – after our first night on “the road back to Ohio”, when getting ready to leave our campsite somewhere in Kansas – Steve noticed our one tire on the RV looking extremely worn again. You’ll remember we have had ongoing problems with this wheel/tire on the RV. We had all new tires put on in May, before leaving Ohio, and, we had this one tire replaced during our trip already this summer. And now here it was again, excessively worn and we weren’t comfortable continuing to drive on it. So, I get on my phone and discover we are only a couple of miles from a big truck tire place, call them up and the nice guy says “come right over, we have what you need in stock we’ll do it right away”. So off we go to the tire place in the middle of Kansas. Super nice people, they have us on our way in about an hour.
Looking forward to catching up with family and friends this winter. Then it will be back on the road again in the spring!
