Good morning everyone! Today’s blog is dedicated to my RV LIFE. I thought it would be a good idea to share all of my experiences with the various rigs I’ve owned since 2018 when I first began this journey. It all began with:
This was a picture of Olivi@ with all of her “BLING”. I found her with Bette & Suzan back in 2018. Here is a picture of her on the day I purchased her:
I could pull her (this was the first time I ever pulled anything) with my Jeep Grand Cherokee that I bought “on line” from Yellowstone when I was visiting Bill and Cathy! I joined RVW in Florida and did a few trips with them while I still lived in Florida. Here are a couple of other pictures of my Sweet Olivi@ and Otis:
This was at the college down the street from me in Naples, where we practiced backing up and parking. I remember when I bought her, the salesman said he would teach me how to tow her. Well, we took it down the street from the dealership and I drove it around the circle and that was IT. No more help. So I towed her home from Ft. Myers with Suzan in my passenger seat trying to talk me through it. Although she had never towed anything – Bette did all of the driving – but it worked and this is what we did:
I eventually moved her to the other side of the garage and was able to do this:
The whole purpose of buying her in the first place was so I could park her in my garage.
Domino meets Olivi@ with Metaxa and Wylie
After a while, I decided I wanted an RV with a bathroom. Olivi@ did not have one. So I went on FB and found:
I found DAISEE in Punta Gorda and bought her from Ken Hill. He had only had her for about a year and a half. They went on an 11K trip and decided it was too small for both of them. He bought her in Arizona and drove her back to Florida so she has NO RUST underneath! So here I am driving Ms. DAISEE for the first time:
Here is Wylie meeting MS. DAISEE for the first time:
So I sold OLIVI@ to a guy from Atlanta and had MS. DAISEE to meet up with Bill and Cathy to follow them to Arizona from Florida in November of 2019. It was an amazing trip. I’d never done anything like that before and it was a great trip. The first of 3 cross country crossings in Daisy from Florida to Arizona.
My first stop was at a Harvest Host (it was actually my one and only HH stop in the 5 years I’ve been doing this) and it was great:
This is a video of Daisy in Florida before coming to Arizona:
I got to CTRV in November of 2019. I lived in Daisy with Metaxa and Wylie for 4 months. It was great. I moved from CTRV to SKP Saguaro RV Park up the road – it was a little cheaper than CTRV:
I enjoyed it there, but eventually I found a house right behind Bill and Cathy and bought it.
All Decked Out for CHRISTMAS!
After 3 cross country drives in Daisy, I decided that I wanted something else out west that I could drive into the “back country” and find more remote places to camp. SO, I bought a Chevy Silverado and a Winnebago Hike. It was a trailer that was 16 feet long but seemed much bigger. It was really cute. I sold my Born Free to a woman from Wyoming. I had trouble towing the Hike and parking it by my place in Benson.
I had a LOT of problems hooking up and unhooking this camper from my truck. Sometimes it would fall off of the wooden blocks I had set up for the trailer to rest on. The sway bars were heavy and difficult to attach. I kept thinking it would get better with experience and time, but it didn’t. So out of the blue, the woman (Judy Archie) called me and wanted to sell Daisy so she could purchase some land in Wyoming. It was PERFECT! I really wanted Daisy back so I bought her back. Here is a picture of my issues at my home in Benson:
But before that, here she was in all of her glory:
She was really comfortable inside:
The sink/kitchen/stove and refrigerator were in a slide out that allowed the rig to be much bigger.
Now back to the “issue” with parking her by the carport:
Here is a picture of Judy Archie when she came by and ultimately bought Daisy:
So next, I had Daisy back and I was very happy that I did. Here she is delivered from Wyoming on November 3, 2021 – 9 months to the day that I bought the HIKE (Mama Bear). And that very day, I sold my HIKE to Kevin and Linda!
Jack and I got together and we moved out of Benson to Tucson. We had a great place there and I found a place to store Daisy just 5 minutes away. Of course as much as we loved our place in Tucson, it was a bit problematic bringing Daisy to the house when I wanted to go camping:
Our HOA did not like RV’s at the house and Jack was on the Board so he felt uncomfortable each time we brought DAISY home to chill down to go camping. So he came up with an idea to move to MESA. We drove down to MESA from Tucson so I could get a look at the area. I enjoyed the fact that the streets were so clean and well maintained – not like Tucson. He has a bunch of “car guys” up here so it was a good move. But our trade off was losing this:
Our view of the Catalinas from our livingroom. But in MESA we could do this:
We can fit DAISEE2 in the side yard and Trvaler in the driveway, along with Jack’s two toys (the ’40 and the ’05 Corvette) in the garage. Our Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit is across the street in a neighbor’s garage. That could never happen in Tucson.
So now I have DAISEE2 at my house and I’ve gone camping with her many times. First starting in Tucson and then here in Mesa. Most recently I was at Canyon Point Campground where we dry camped for 3 nights and 4 days.
It was great. In the 80’s while Mesa was in triple digits. I’d love to be up there (Near Payson) for June and July. Maybe next year!
So that is about it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane!
