It's hard to believe that we've been in Prescott, Arizona for almost a year now. We moved here mid-July, 2020. We bought Larry's parents house and have been busy repairing and upgrading it. Some of the work was contracted out, and we did some of it ourselves. It's been fun. We're finally finished with all of the big projects we had planned. Here's the major projects we completed:
Between home improvement projects, Connie's been slowly decorating the house. This is probably what she missed most while we lived in the motorhome. She enjoys decorating and making her house a home. We sold some furniture and purchased some replacement furniture. We had a large garage sale, selling about 2/3 of the "stuff" we no longer need. The rest will be donated to charity. We've also been enjoying having a patio garden. However, we quickly learned to protect our veggies from the neighborhood thieves. Javelina are very common here.
We've seen our youngest daughter, Cynthia, several times this past year. She only lives a few hours away. Our eldest daughter, Leslie, and grand-daughters Kaylee and Khloe came down from Seattle, Washington to visit for a week.
Probably the most shocking news in our life is the decision to sell our beloved 40' Tiffin Phaeton motorhome. We bought her new in 2010 and traveled and lived in her for the past 11 years. Since we now have a sticks and bricks house again, we decided we didn't need that large of a motorhome. We emptied her out and couldn't believe how much stuff we had in the RV. We cleaned her up and placed an ad in RV Trader to sell her. She was sold to the 2nd person looking at her, although that sale isn't 100% completed yet. The buyer's loan company should have our payment ready at the end of the week.
In the past 6 months, we've only taken the RV out once. About a month ago, we took a week's trip to Yuma, Arizona. This was partly to just "get away", but was primarily to have some maintenance done on the rig. The main awning was ripped and needed replaced. We also had the front two slide-topper awnings replaced. A complete oil change and servicing, along with a good wash and wax and she was ready to be put up for sale.
While in Yuma, enjoying our 2 week vacation, we met up with some of our RV friends. It had been a long time since we had given hugs to our friends. We also met a new couple that were parked across from us. It was great that we made our happy hour (which started around 3pm) at the RV park's pool and usually lasted several hours. On Cinco de Mayo we invited Bill and Sharon to join us on a trip down to Los Algodones, MX. They had never been there, so we were happy to show them around. We even bought a few metal pieces for our deck. We enjoyed lunch and we crossed back over well before the border closing time of 2pm!
Our new travel plans are actually part of our previous travel plans. We're re-thinking about traveling in Europe again. Since we've been vaccinated for COVID and the international borders are opening again, we've made plans to visit France and Germany this summer for a month. We'll be flying into Paris, France, where we have a motorhome reserved for the month. We'll spend the first week touring Paris and visiting EuroCampingCars. This is a business that helps non European citizens license a motorhome in France. We'll then spend a week to slowly travel North to Düsseldorf, Germany, to attend the Caravan Salon (motorhome show). We'll be there for a week looking at various brands and floor-plans of motorhomes. We'll then take another week to return to Paris for our flight back. This trip is to "test the waters". An option we're considering is to purchase a motorhome in Europe and travel 6-months there, and return to the Arizona house for 6-months.
That pretty much catches us up for now. With Europe travel plans back in full swing, I'll be sharing what we're up to more frequently.
Happy and Safe Travels!